In respect to the subjective gravity of the sin of masturbation the Catechism of the Catholic Church reads,
To form an equitable judgment about the subjects’ moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety or other psychological or social factors that lessen, if not even reduce to a minimum, moral culpability (2352).
In this article I am going to speak of both the conditions of anxiety and the affective immaturity that can drive habitual and compulsive masturbation. Now, I have no doubt that ultimately it is active lusting that leads to masturbation and/or back to porn.
However, we need to look at what the reward of active lusting is to better understand what we are seeking and why.
When we lust after another person, an image, a fantasy, or something else it starts a process in us that is incomplete until climax is achieved. The climax produces the orgasm. The orgasm is an intensely pleasurable process while it lasts. It wipes away stress and anxiety, at least momentarily.
But for compulsive masturbators that pleasurable experience becomes shorter and shorter lived and diminished in ways where the entire experience can lead to a deep feeling of emptiness and frustration.
I would like to make two recommendations to people trying to overcome compulsive masturbation:
- Understand how stress and anxiety is triggering the lusting process that may or may not lead to climax but wants to. Recognize how important stress and anxiety reduction is. This doesn’t mean avoiding responsibility but rather the intentional cultivation of interior peace.
- Begin to understand compulsive masturbation (with or without porn) as something like a Body Focused Repetitive Behavior disorder like hair pulling, nail biting, skin picking, etc.. In the present DSM these disorders are presently listed under OCD and related disorders. My belief is that compulsive masturbation is often fueled by stress and anxiety and one essential component of healing and recovery from it is the development and maintenance of interior peace through meditation, prayer, praise, singing hymns and other acts that develop and maintain peace.
Note: there are natural and supernatural acts that help us to grow in peace. We need to use both.
Think about compulsive masturbation as something like a BFRB. Learn what people with these disorders do to overcome them. Similar things will help with obsessive and compulsive sexual acting out.
For the purposes of this article pornography use, fornication, and other forms of sexual acting out fit under the rubric of masturbation because they are types of sex with self, insofar as they tend to be acts focused on the gratification of the personal self.
Also, consider how affective immaturity, e.g. the lack of interiorized wisdom and peace can contribute to this disorder.