sex addiction is such a powerful drug it completely blinds you to other people's feelings
that's what james franco said about the sex addiction that he's been battling since 2016.
i'm dr trish leigh let's break it down and let's pick up some of the crumbs from james franco's
story of course the whole point is for you to have some takeaways so that you can understand
how damaging pornography consumption is and sex addiction hypersexuality in and of itself
and what to do to back yourself out of it and we're gonna use his example
uh as a very powerful story of loss based on sex addiction so let's start at not the very beginning
but the beginning of the story that i'm going to tell you about james franco so he just came out
in an interview on siriusxm which i've actually shared on this channel so you can look for it in
the shared links and he talked about how he has been struggling with a sex addiction since 2016
and that he actually um not developed it but kind of um you know leaned on it after he recovered
from alcohol addiction so he said he was sober from alcohol for 20 years an alcohol addiction he
developed in his younger years and then he was 39 in 2016 and he found himself in a sex addiction
recovery because for those 20 years of alcohol recovery he leaned on sex and in the interview he
says not that interview but in another interview that was written he says that actually one of
his sponsors from his alcohol recovery program basically endorsed sex between two consensual
people and said if it's you know consensual between two people and it feels good go for it
so any alcohol reduct recovery alcohol addiction recovery specialist who knows about the addictive
nature of sex would not offer that advice because even though it may be consensual you will see
that it leads to a whole world of hurt for james franco that he is now putting the pieces back
together thank goodness because i like him um so what he talks about is you know in alcohol
recovery he started to go towards sex for the dopamine release in his brain and he doesn't know
this but that's what he says it's such a powerful drug so sex internalizes the dopamine release that
alcohol also can give on top of the alcohol but so anyways he just swapped out one addiction
for another okay so in 2016 he says he began sex addiction recovery and he may have but
this is an important thing that i want you to realize in 2016 he started working on
a an hbo series called the deuce which is about the pornography industry and how it came to
rise up after legalization in the 1970s and he's quoted as saying that for that show he consumed
pornography a lot doing his research and he said he watched pornography back in the day but that he
did research for this show the deuce so basically in 2016 if he's in sex addiction recovery and if
he's working with any good sex addiction recovery coach that person would have told him there's no
researching and being in a show that has to do with sex addiction or porn because obviously
that's a slippery slope and we talk about the slippery slope here on the channel all the time
that you can't watch porn all the time if you are in a sex addiction recovery program that's
not a thing you can't act out scenes that you've seen in porn if you're in recovery not a thing
and he says he was in recovery starting in 2016 he filmed that show 2016 2017 and then this is
when the hammer dropped in 2018 he started a film school and one of his master classes was called
sex scenes and so he is allegedly and there's allegations from many women that he would have
them reenact or would act out sex scenes with him in front of a camera for the benefit of filmmaking
and so he there was a class action lawsuit and he actually had paid heavy damages to the tune
of 2.2 million dollars to some of the women for sexual exploitation and in the interview uh james
cagle asks him like how were you not aware of the power dynamic instructor you know not only just
instructor in a school educational program but james franco who's obviously a very popular
you know has an element of power to over the student and so of course students did things
that they wouldn't have done if it wasn't james franco and it wasn't their instructor
and so two of the women earned um were were given money for the pain and suffering and another thing
that was brought out about that 2018 lawsuit is that seemingly he didn't see the pain that he
was causing the women or that he had caused them and he says in his quote that it made him not be
able to see that other people have feelings and in the interview he talks about you know i thought it
was consensual and so consensual was okay with me but and when he was asked how could you not
see this his answer was i wasn't clear-headed at that point in my life and the non-clear-headedness
is the narcissistic bubble of going back for more pleasure seeking neurotransmitter dopamine
it pulls you back in and so some people get pulled back into the screen when people find what's in
the screen in the world when they can have people do it they're pulled back towards that so if he
started his sex addiction recovery in 2016 he wasn't with the right people to be able to give
him the right advice to keep him out of situations that would lead him towards a world of hurt
so what's the takeaway in this video because i want an action step and a takeaway for you i want
you to realize that porn informed his perspective and his world view of how he had the dynamic to be
able to treat women and so he was accused of setting up that whole film school which is
now defunct for the exploitation of women and the reality is he says he didn't do it and he
definitely or hopefully definitely didn't do it consciously but this perspective informs his
actions and he may have done that subconsciously you know naming one of his premier classes as sex
scenes and then having women act out sex scenes with him in multiple women you know that is
a distorted reality informed by pornography consumption so the action step is if you're in
the screen it's informing your reality and making it a distorted unreality come out of the screen if
you think about acting out anything you've seen in porn with other people even if it's consensual and
you are using them as objects for your pleasure not connected relational sex that feels good
and is enjoyed by both people and both people are there for it in a whole person way
then it's time to pause and move in the opposite direction and to get into a program with the right
people now thankfully i've created a program and this isn't a sale somebody wrote to me you know
i get comments on youtube sometimes you're just here making videos to sell your program
the reality is i didn't even have a program when i started making the videos i made the
program to serve the people who need the programs because people were being receptive to my videos
thank goodness because the world needs it but the programs that i offer are built on what is proven
in science to work every piece you can go to my website dr trish lee.com you look at our method
you can see the method that i use if if james franco was my client i would have told him hell
to the know about the deuce yes you're gonna lose some money but guess what in the end you're gonna
save 2.2 million dollars you're going to save your reputation you're going to save your integrity
that's what i would have told them spitting straight facts so here's what i'm about to tell
you the loss was big for james franco and it might not be to the tune of 2.2 million dollars for you
but the loss is big for you too if you're wrapped up in any of this even just what might seem like
a harmless pornography habit that you don't think is hurting anybody it's changing the way you see
the world which is changing your actions which is leading to a slippery slope of loss and the
loss is your partner or the partner you'll never find because you're in the screen your family your
job your friends your dignity your integrity your mental health your physical health
and physical health is erectile dysfunction we know that so many people are struggling with
it because of porn so the loss is real for you just as big as it was for james franco
thankfully he's quoted as saying you know what i pride myself on fixing things when i break it
and i'm gonna fix this and he's working on himself so if anybody knows james franco
tell him to call me because hopefully he's not working with the person he was working with in
2016. he needs the right help give him my number give them my website okay i'm here for you please
listen because spitting straight facts here all right if you want help on this journey reach out
to me drtrishleigh.com i have programs small medium big bigger bigger bigger to help you
if you need help at the right level okay until next time control your brain or it'll control you