Notes from a conversation I had last night

I had a Christian brother from Anaheim, California staying in my house over the weekend, and we had an interesting conversation which I thought I would share. He's had a lot of experiences in his life, and he also helps lead the sexual recovery program for those who struggle with sexual addiction. The following are some of his quotes which I found to be informative or enlightening in some way.

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There's an amazing social stigma around sexual sin and sexual addiction. You say "I'm recovering from alcoholism" and people will say "that's great!", or "I'm recovering from drugs" and they say "that's awesome bro, keep the faith". But you say "I'm recovering from sexual addiction" and people say "get away from me, you filthy pervert".
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One of the biggest misconceptions is that struggling with sexual sin gets easier once you get married. In my opinion, it gets harder. For a single person, you can just say "enough; I'm quitting [sex, pornography, etc.] entirely", but you just can't do that in a marriage. If you talk to any recovering alcoholics, they'll tell you that "I'll just limit myself to two drinks a week" is the worst way to kick alcoholism, but that's the reality for the married sex addict.
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The first time I was immoral with my girlfriend, we had a church event that same night. I was standing there, hugging the shoulders of the brothers beside me, thinking "God is going to strike me with a lightning bolt right here where I stand". I looked over and saw my girlfriend with the sisters, smiling and singing. I thought, "maybe God missed it, or maybe he was on vacation". That's how messed up my thinking was.
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I think it's important to acknowledge that this sort of thing goes on and to talk about it frankly. That's the only way we're going to get anywhere.