Self-help program

5.4 Summary of section 5

In the previous tasks you have thought about your life at the moment and the triggers that lead you to use CSAM. You have thought about the underlying motives of your CSAM use, as well as the ways that you justify your use of CSAM.

Through the tasks you have formed a path that helps you visualize your way to CSAM use. This visualization helps you find alternative behaviors to replace the ones that currently lead you towards using CSAM.

This task is a summary of the previous tasks. Look at the figure below and think back to the path that leads you to use CSAM. If you have written the past tasks on paper, you can visualize them easier by placing them on a table accordingly to the figure below. Go through all of the contributing factors that bring you toward CSAM use, and all of the new thinking and behavioral methods that take you away from CSAM use that you have learned through the tasks.

Identifying my pathway to use CSAM: Summary

My life at the time of using CSAM

How is your use of CSAM related to who you are?
In what ways does your lifestyle allow for and uphold your use of CSAM?
What kind of a lifestyle would keep you away from CSAM use?
What can you do to reinforce your wellbeing and meaningful life?
What do you want to change in your life?

What makes me want to use CSAM?

What kinds of psychological needs (e.g., loneliness, sexual needs) does using CSAM fulfil?
What do you gain from using CSAM?
In what ways could you meet those needs without using CSAM?
What kinds of situations, thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations work as triggers for CSAM use?
What kinds of situations are especially risky?
What new ways could you come up with to respond to the triggers?
What risk-management plans have you made?

How do I justify my use of CSAM?

In which ways do you justify (cognitive distortions) CSAM use before, during, and after using CSAM?
How could you think differently?

How does the use of CSAM take place?

What concrete actions do you do to make CSAM use possible?
How could you act differently in the future?

Look at the path and all its phases

What does your path look like from the beginning, all the way to CSAM use? Imagine yourself walking on the path, one step at a time. What could you tell yourself that would take you away from CSAM use on your path? E.g. “I feel lonely and using CSAM would make me feel better. Even though CSAM use would make me feel better, I want to practice other ways to deal with this. This feels difficult, but I know I can do it."

Remember that you can stop at any stage of the path and take your time to figure out new ways to react.