I’ve been taking part in the Prevent It program since stumbling on it on this forum. I’ve begun a series of modules. What’re y’all’s opinion on this? I know that many folks around here have negative feelings towards Prevent It (most notably @LoliShadow’s thread here: Cancel Prevent It
We want to thank you for being here. It can be difficult to reach out for help. You should feel proud of yourself!
You have registered for this treatment because you are concerned about your sexual urges involving children and want to develop healthier ways of living with your sexuality. Congratulations for making the first important step on this journey to taking more control over your urges and living a life aligned with your values.
One common reflection people who start treatment have is that they have felt guilt or shame about their attraction for a long time, but have not been able to talk with anyone about their difficulties and struggles. It can be difficult to reach out for help for such stigmatized attractions and behaviors, so you should be proud of yourself for taking the first step by joining a program specifically developed for persons who have concerns about their sexual urges, thoughts or behaviors involving children. It is brave to recognize that you have a problem, want to change it, and then take active steps toward this goal.
This treatment targets urges and behaviors which can be different for different participants depending on if you have current ongoing problematic behavior, if you have had them in the past, or if you have never acted on your urges but are worried about doing so in the future.
This treatment program is based on cognitive behavioral therapy - CBT. A CBT treatment is goal-oriented, to help you change something that is not optimal in your life. We do this by helping you to explore your behaviors, thoughts, feelings, and bodily reactions. Your thoughts, feelings and behaviors are interconnected, and while you might not be able to control your thoughts, you can focus on what you can control: your actions. This can help you to influence your thoughts and feelings over time. Our goal is to assist you in finding effective strategies in gaining more control over your sexual urges involving children.
We want to put an emphasis on increasing activities and behaviors that are in line with your values and goals, and not on taking away something. Try to focus on how you want to be and how you want to live, rather than just what you want to stop doing. Have you thought about your values and goals before? By signing up for this program you have made a step toward feeling in control over your sexual behaviors and more confident about handling your urges in a way that reflects your values and goals for yourself.
Prevent It
This program is self guided with therapist support. This means that you will go through the modules by yourself whenever and wherever you want. We suggest a pace of one module per week, but you can do them a little faster or slower depending on the module. Each module is broken down into sections so you can watch the video, read through the text, work on any exercises, and then fill in the worksheets. These worksheets will help you to engage with the module’s content, reflect on your situation, and write about your experiences with the exercises. After you have submitted the worksheets your assigned therapist will read through your work and send feedback, possibly asking a few follow up questions. If you ever have any questions or concerns regarding a module you can always contact your therapist using the “Messenger” function on your homepage.
The first step is to chart out your risk situations, which are the situations where you are most likely to act on your urges. For example, for some individuals a risk situation would be going on forums where child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is shared, while for others it could be approaching contact, online or offline, with children. Identifying the specific thoughts, and feelings in these risk situations will help you to better understand what function the behavior would serve for you.
The next step is to find alternative ways to handle these situations based on the functions you identified, and figure out what is most effective for you. This also includes going through some different exercises such as mindfulness meditations that you can test for yourself.
Lastly we will work on strengthening your “protective factors,” or factors that make it easier for you to act in a way that is in line with your values. We will create a maintenance plan together to help you with your continued work after this program has ended.
Sexuality
We often get questions about sexuality at the start of this program, and because of this we want to start out with some information on this topic.
Human sexuality involves many different feelings, thoughts and behaviors to experience and express one’s sexuality. Sexuality is both diverse and flexible, and can be something that brings a lot of excitement and satisfaction, or something that can cause problems.
Our previous experience from patients in this treatment program have shown that for some, their sexual attraction to children is a pattern that they noticed early in life, while others notice that their attraction no longer ages with them after a certain point, or that they notice this later in life. The reasons people start seeking out child sexual abuse material can vary. Some individuals write that they did not reflect on how the material was illegal, for example by originally wanting to look at same-age peers when they themselves were children. However, others describe a pattern of seeking out more and more extreme material until they start using CSAM. The reasons people continue to use CSAM also vary. This can be seen as an interest in different power dynamics (in taking either role), due to feeling that this is the only way to satisfy their sexuality, or even as a substitute for adult relationships.
A question we often receive is “Why have I developed a sexual attraction to children?” This is a difficult question because everyone’s situation and experiences are unique, and based on current research there is no one answer that is correct. We encourage you to not focus as much on the “why” and instead focus on charting your behaviors, thoughts, and feelings connected with your current problems. This is something we will get into more in another module, but you can already begin thinking about this now. An important thing to keep in mind is that while you can’t control your thoughts and attractions, you can control your behavior and how you react to sexual urges.
Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder (CSBD)
This treatment is aimed at people with sexual attraction to children, however one common problem people who reach out to us have is a preoccupation with sexual thoughts and behaviors. This preoccupation can be, in the latest version of the WHO (World Health Organization) classification system for different diagnoses (ICD-11), diagnosed as Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder (CSBD).
CSBD, sometimes called hyper sexuality or sexual addiction, is the preoccupation of sexual thoughts, fantasies, urges, behaviors, or feelings. This preoccupation can cause feelings of a loss of control, distress, and/or negatively affect your day-to-day life.
It is important to notice the balance in your behavior. Many sexual behaviors can be healthy, but if you engage in them compulsively or way too often they can become a problem. This could include watching pornography, masturbating, engaging in online chats about sex, having sex with new partners, etc. These are activities that can be part of a healthy legal sexuality, but if done too much, in a compulsive or obsessive way, they can start to cause distress due to loss of control or other problems.
Another common problem people tend to reflect on is having difficulty being present in everyday life due to spending too much time on their sexual thoughts, planning around sexual activities, watching pornography or fantasizing. The free time that was previously spent on hobbies, social activities, or family may instead be used to think about or to engage in sex.
This leads to a deficit in non-sexual related behaviors, which can cause other problems such as a decrease in meaningful relationships. In Module 3 we will discuss behaviors and thoughts done in excess or not enough, so if this is something that you can relate to we can start working on a way to help you find more balance.
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