KANSAS CITY, MO — In June of 2020, 41 Action News Anchor Taylor Hemness spoke to Crystal Renaud Day, a Kansas woman who specializes in counseling women with sex and pornography addictions.
At the time, Day said that her client list had grown in the three months since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, almost a year later, that trend hasn't changed.
"The time we last spoke, I had, maybe, I think it was one virtual recovery group at that time, and now I have five, and also had to bring on a second clinician to my practice helping with some of that client load that was coming on," Day said. "And I'm actually in the process of hiring a third clinician because we just continue to get consultation requests and women coming to us asking for help, and we want to be able to serve them when they come."
Day compared sex and pornography addictions to other addictions people face, both in terms of how the brain reacts, and the cost of maintaining the addiction.
"Porn is an easy choice because it's available and it feeds that same pleasure center of the brain that alcohol and drugs do," Day said. "And so, if you're talking about what you can afford, especially during a pandemic, but you don't have maybe the income you once did, pornography is available and it's there for you all the time, for free."
Now as the more people are vaccinated, and begin to re-enter the pre-pandemic way of life, Day is warning her clients not to fall into the same patterns they established while staying at home.
"Don't allow yourself to become isolated again," Day said. "Even if it's a virtual group or something that you're able to talk to people regularly. Isolation is addiction's breeding ground, and so, if you're by yourself, you're not talking to someone, you're not expressing your emotional and relational needs, wants, and desires with someone, then that's where addiction thrives. It thrives in that quietness and that darkness. And so I always say that as much as you can, relate to someone today."
Day founded Living on Purpose counseling, and also just launched a new podcast called "SheRecovery." Click the link if you'd like to listen.
