Smith Alley: Teen Mental Health Advocate, Public Speaker, & Recovering Compulsive Porn Consumer

Trigger Warning: This discussion includes frank, explicit, discussions about pornography consumption, and suicide ideation. Listener discretion is advised.

Like most adolescents today, Smith was exposed to porn well before the age of 18. His porn consumption escalated without his parents’ knowledge, and by the time he was 11, he says he was consuming porn five to seven times per day. His porn consumption and the shame that he felt because of it were two factors that led him to want to end his own life. Smith made a suicide plan, but he says he didn’t want to go through with it when he learned about Fight the New Drug. Listen to Smith tell podcast host, Garrett Jonsson, about how porn negatively impacted his life in real ways, what he did to address his unwanted compulsive habit, and why he’s since created a supportive community where mental health is addressed.

Click here to learn more about the guest, and access the resources discussed in this episode.

To learn more about the harms of pornography on consumers, relationships, and its larger societal impacts, visit FTND.org.

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As you go about your day we invite you to increase your self-awareness, look both ways, check your blindspots, and consider before consuming.

Fight the New Drug collaborates with a variety of qualified organizations and individuals with varying personal beliefs, affiliations, and political persuasions. As FTND is a non-religious and non-legislative organization, the personal beliefs, affiliations, and persuasions of any of our team members or of those we collaborate with do not reflect or impact the mission of Fight the New Drug.