I've discovered a cycle of sin, how do I break it?

I've discovered that, for sexual sins at least, I fall at least every Monday morning, how do I go about breaking this cycle?

 

I suggest to join St Thomas Aquinas' Militia Angelica and to do what is required therein.
I recommend to turn to St. Joseph. I sing his praises... There is a litany, a daily consecration and a novena. I can send this.
I like to turn to St. Maria Goretti. Feast day was just a few days ago. Virgin martyrs are powerful with God. Same goes for St. Philomena.
I admire and turn to Matt Talbot. Recommended by Padraig. You could take the "Pledge", although not about alcohol. Irish tradition.
St Michael, he's an Archangel. Devotion to him is essentially part of Militia Angelica. So is devotion to St Thomas Aquinas.
I flee to our Lady. Really try to pray the Rosary daily.
I suggest to also take practical steps. To get an old-fashioned alarm clock, to keep electronics out of the room, etc.
One could keep a calendar and tick off victory days with a green highlighter.
I try to slowly get back into my running. I run in the evenings but you could exercise at least every Monday morning. I must admit that right now I'd be happy if I would run every week but I don't always make it.
Other Catholics here said we should try fasting. This strengthens willpower and subdues flesh under the spirit, also helps our prayers as it means basically to put money where mouth is, so to speak. There was a discussion on this topic here on this forum a few weeks ago with some extremely helpful comments by others here, perhaps I can dig up a link later.
If you're married, there is St Elisabeth of Portugal and St Thomas Moore.
You are not alone.

 

The only way to defeat sexual sins is to quit them cold turkey, understanding that they are not only a mortal threat to your soul but also very, very dangerous to one’s physical and mental health. Pornography and self abuse are actually a form of drug addiction, actually the most dangerous of all drug addictions because the feel-good chemicals released during sexual activity are produced in one’s own body, therefore the supply of these drugs is limitless. I suggest the following article by a noted neurologist to bring home just how destructive sexual sins can be if they are not stopped as soon as they surface:

Slave Master

How Pornography Drugs & Changes Your Brain

by Donald L. Hilton, Jr.

While some have avoided using the term “addiction” in the context of natural compulsions such as uncontrolled sexuality, overeating, or gambling, let us consider current scientific evidence regarding the brain and addiction.

This article will seek to answer two questions: (1) Biologically, is the brain affected by pornography and other sexual addictions? (2) If so, and if such addictions are widespread, can they have a societal effect as well?

The Story of the Gypsy Moth

Let’s begin with a seeming digression. In 1869 the gypsy moth was brought to America to attempt to jumpstart a silk industry. Rarely have good intentions gone so wrong, as the unforeseen appetite of the moth for deciduous trees such as oaks, maples, and elms has devastated forests for 150 years. Numerous attempts were made to destroy this pest, but a major breakthrough came in the 1960s, when scientists noted that the male gypsy moth finds a female to mate with by following her scent. This scent is called a pheromone, and is extremely attractive to the male.

In 1971 a paper was published in the journal Nature that described how pheromones were used to prevent the moths from mating. The scientists mass-produced the pheromone and permeated the moths’ environment with it. This unnaturally strong scent overpowered the females’ normal ability to attract the male, and the confused males were unable to find females. A follow-up paper described how population control of the moths was achieved by “preventing male gypsy moths from finding mates.”

The gypsy moth was the first insect to be controlled by the use of pheromones, which work by two methods. One is called the confusion method. An airplane scatters an environmentally insignificant number of very small plastic pellets imbedded with the scent of the pheromone. Then, as science journalist Anna Salleh describes it, “The male either becomes confused and doesn’t know which direction to turn for the female, or he becomes desensitized to the lower levels of pheromones naturally given out by the female and has no incentive to mate with her.”

The other method is called the trapping method: Pheromone-infused traps are set, from which moths cannot escape; a male moth enters looking for a female, only to find a fatal substitute.

Two Fallacies

What does this have to do with pornography? Pornography is a visual pheromone, a powerful, $100 billion per year brain drug that is changing human sexuality by “inhibiting orientation” and “disrupting pre-mating communication between the sexes by permeating the atmosphere,” especially through the internet. I believe we are currently struggling in the war against pornography because many continue to believe two key fallacies:

Fallacy No. 1: Pornography is not a drug.

Fallacy No. 2: Pornography is therefore not a real addiction.

As an illustration of Fallacy No. 1, consider the following statement by a Wall Street executive whose mainstream company discreetly profits from pornography: “I’m not a weirdo or a pervert, it’s not my deal. I’ve got kids and a family. But if I can see as an underwriter going out and making bucks on people being weird, hey, dollars are dollars. I’m not selling drugs. It’s Wall Street.”

Now consider both fallacies as elucidated in the following statement by an executive in the pornography industry:

[T]he fact [is] that “drugs, booze and cigarettes” are all physical, chemical agents that are ingested and can indeed have measurable, harmful, addictive effects. The mere viewing of any type of subject matter hardly falls into this category and, in fact, belittles the very real battles that addicts face over drugs, booze and cigarettes—all of which can be lethal. No one ever died from looking at porn. While some compulsive types can be “addicted” to anything, such as watching a favorite television show, eating ice cream or going to the gym, nobody suggests that ice cream is akin to crack cocaine [remember that statement] and should be regulated to protect . . . people from themselves—instead, these compulsive actions are rightfully viewed by society as personality defects in the individual. . . .

Here I will review some of the science he refers to, and also discuss whether pornography is a “physical, chemical” agent, i.e., “a drug,” and also consider the latest research on natural brain rewards in deciding whether it is a true brain addiction.

Adrenaline Grass

First, I would like to share an experience our family had a few years ago on a safari in Africa. While on a game drive along the Zambezi River, our ranger commented on the adrenaline grass growing along the banks. I asked him why he used the word “adrenaline,” and he began to drive slowly through the grass. Abruptly, he stopped the vehicle and said, “There! Do you see it?”

“See what?” I asked. He drove closer, and this also changed the angle of the light.

Then I understood. A lion was hiding in the grass watching the river, just waiting for some “fast food” to come and get a drink.

We were sitting in an open-air Land Rover with no doors and no windows. I then understood why it was called adrenaline grass, as I felt my heart pound. My cerebral cortex saw and defined the danger, which registered in the autonomic, or automatic, part of my nervous system. The brain, which is a very efficient pharmaceutical lab, produced the chemical adrenaline, causing my heart to pound and race in preparation for survival. I was ready to run if needed (not that it would have done any good with the lion).

We were told that if we stayed in our seats and remained still, the lion would look at the Land Rover as a whole and not see us as individuals. Fortunately this was the case for us.

A Drug Is a Drug

Interestingly, adrenaline, also called epinephrine, is a drug we physicians use in surgery and in emergencies to start a patient’s heart again when it beats too slow, or even stops. So here is the question: Is epinephrine not a drug if the brain makes it (causing the heart to pound and race), yet is a drug if the same epinephrine is given by a physician?

Or consider dopamine. This chemical is a close cousin to epinephrine, both of which are excitatory neurotransmitters that tell the brain to Go! Dopamine is important in the parts of our brain that allow us to move, and when the dopamine-producing parts of the brain are damaged, Parkinson’s disease results. To treat Parkinson’s, physicians prescribe dopamine as a drug, and it helps the patient move again. So is dopamine a drug only if the pharmaceutical lab makes it, and not if the brain makes the same chemical for the same purpose?

Of course, both are drugs in every sense of the word, regardless of where they are produced. Pertinent to our subject, it happens that both of these brain drugs are very important in human sexuality—and in pornography and sexual addiction. Dopamine, in addition to its role in movement, is an integral neurotransmitter, or brain drug, in the pleasure/reward system in the brain.

Disruption of Dopamine

Let’s review some of the important components of the reward system of the brain. On the outside is the cerebral cortex, a layer of nerve cells that carry conscious, volitional thought. In the front, over the eyes, are the frontal lobes.These areas are important in judgment, and, if the brain were a car, the frontal lobes would be the brakes. These lobes have important connections to the pleasure pathways, so pleasure can be controlled.

In the center of the brain is the nucleus accumbens. This almond-sized area is a key pleasure reward center, and when activated by dopamine and other neurotransmitters, it causes us to value and desire pleasure rewards. Dopamine is essential for humans to desire and value appropriate pleasure in life. Without it, we would not be as incentivized to eat, procreate, or even to try to win a game.

It’s the overuse of the dopamine reward system that causes addiction. When the pathways are used compulsively, a downgrading occurs that actually decreases the amount of dopamine in the pleasure areas available for use, and the dopamine cells themselves start to atrophy, or shrink. The reward cells in the nucleus accumbens are now starved for dopamine and exist in a state of dopamine craving, as a downgrading of dopamine receptors on the pleasure cells occurs as well. This resetting of the “pleasure thermostat” produces a “new normal.” In this addictive state, the person must act out in addiction to boost the dopamine to levels sufficient just to feel normal.

As the desensitization of the reward circuits continues, stronger and stronger stimuli are required to boost the dopamine. In the case of narcotic addiction, the addicted person must increase the amount of the drug to get the same high. In pornography addiction, progressively more shocking images are required to stimulate the person....

 

...(cont.)

Frontal Lobe Damage

As a feedback of sorts, the frontal lobes also atrophy, or shrink. Think of it as a “wearing out of the brake pads.” This physical and functional decline in the judgment center of the brain causes the person to become impaired in his ability to process the consequences of acting out in addiction. Addiction scientists have called this condition hypofrontality, and have noted a similarity in the behavior of addicted persons to the behavior of patients with frontal brain damage.

Neurosurgeons frequently treat people with frontal lobe damage. In a car crash, for instance, the driver’s brain will often decelerate into the back of his forehead inside his skull, bruising the frontal lobes. Patients with frontal lobe damage exhibit a constellation of behaviors we call frontal lobe syndrome. First, these patients are impulsive, in that they thoughtlessly engage in activities with little regard to the consequences. Second, they are compulsive; they become fixated or focused on certain objects or behaviors, and have to have them, no matter what. Third, they become emotionally labile, and have sudden and unpredictable mood swings. Fourth, they exhibit impaired judgment.

So cortical hypofrontality, or shrinkage of the frontal lobes, causes these four behaviors, and they can result from a car wreck or from addiction.

A study on cocaine addiction published in 2002 shows volume loss, or shrinkage, in several areas of the brain, particularly the frontal control areas. A study from 2004 shows very similar results for methamphetamine. But we expect drugs to damage the brain, so these studies don’t really surprise us.

Consider, though, a natural addiction, such as overeating leading to obesity. You might be surprised to learn that a study published in 2006 showed shrinkage in the frontal lobes in obesity very similar to that found in the cocaine and methamphetamine studies. And a study published in 2007 of persons exhibiting severe sexual addiction produced almost identical results to the cocaine, methamphetamine, and obesity studies. (Encouragingly, two studies, one on drug addiction [methamphetamine] and one on natural addiction [obesity] also show a return to more normal frontal lobe volumes with time in recovery.)

So we have four studies, two drug and two natural addiction studies, all done in different academic institutions by different research teams, and published over a five-year period in four different peer-reviewed scientific journals. And all four studies show that addictions physically affect the frontal lobes of the brain.

Addiction Is Addiction

I mentioned that the dopamine systems don’t work well in addiction, that they become damaged. This damage, as well as frontal lobe damage, can be shown with brain scans, such as functional MRI, PET, and SPECT scans. Recent brain scan studies have not only shown abnormalities in cases of cocaine addiction, but also in cases of pathologic gambling and overeating leading to obesity.

So non-biased science is telling us that addiction is present when there is continued destructive behavior in spite of adverse consequences. As stated in the journal Science, “as far as the brain is concerned, a reward’s a reward, regardless of whether it comes from a chemical or an experience.”

What about pornography and sexual addiction? Dr. Eric Nestler, head of neuroscience research at Mount Cedar Sinai in New York and one of the most respected addiction scientists in the world, published a paper in the journal Nature Neuroscience in 2005 titled “Is there a common pathway for addiction?” In this paper he said that the dopamine reward systems mediate not only drug addiction, but also “natural addictions (that is, compulsive consumption of natural rewards) such as pathological overeating, pathological gambling, and sexual addictions.”

The prestigious Royal Society of London, founded in the 1660s, publishes the longest-running scientific journal in the world, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. A recent issue devoted 17 articles to the current understanding of addiction. Interestingly, two of the articles were specifically concerned with natural addiction, pathologic gambling and overeating....

 

...(cont.)

Frantic Learning

Drs. Robert Malenka and Julie Kauer, in a landmark paper in Nature in 2007 on mechanisms of the physical and chemical changes that occur in the brain cells of addicted individuals, said, “Addiction represents a pathological, yet powerful form of learning and memory.” We now call these changes in brain cells “long term potentiation” and “long term depression,” and speak of the brain as being plastic, or subject to change and re-wiring.

Dr. Norman Doidge, a neurologist at Columbia, in his book The Brain That Changes Itself, describes how pornography causes re-wiring of the neural circuits. He notes that in a study of men viewing internet pornography, the men looked “uncannily” like rats pushing the lever to receive cocaine in the experimental Skinner boxes. Like the addicted rats, the men were desperately seeking the next fix, clicking the mouse just as the rats pushed the lever.

Pornography addiction is frantic learning, and perhaps this is why many who have struggled with multiple addictions report that it was the hardest for them to overcome. Drug addictions, while powerful, are more passive in a “thinking” kind of way, whereas pornography viewing, especially on the internet, is a much more active process neurologically. The constant searching for and evaluating of each image or video clip for its potency and effect is an exercise in neuronal learning, limited only by the progressively rewired brain. Curiosities are thus fused into compulsions, and the need for a larger dopamine fix can drive the person from soft-core to hard-core to child pornography—and worse. A paper published in the Journal of Family Violence in 2009 revealed that 85 percent of men arrested for child pornography had also physically abused children.

Dehumanized Sexuality

In addition to cortical hypofrontality and downgrading of the mesolimbic dopaminergic systems, a third element appears to be important in pornography and sexual addiction. Oxytocin and vasopressin are important hormones in the brain with regard to physically performing sexually. Studies show that oxytocin is also important in increasing trust in humans, in emotional bonding between sexual mates, and in parental bonding. We are wired to bond to the object of our sexuality.

It is a good thing when this bonding occurs in a committed marriage relationship, but there is a dark side. When sexual gratification occurs in the context of pornography use, it can result in the formation of a virtual mistress of sorts. Dr. Victor Cline, in his essay, “Pornography’s Effects on Adult and Child,” describes this process as follows:

In my experience as a sexual therapist, any individual who regularly masturbates to pornography is at risk of becoming, in time, a sexual addict, as well as conditioning himself into having a sexual deviancy and/or disturbing a bonded relationship with a spouse or girlfriend.

A frequent side effect is that it also dramatically reduces their capacity to love (e.g., it results in a marked dissociation of sex from friendship, affection, caring, and other normal healthy emotions and traits which help marital relationships). Their sexual side becomes in a sense dehumanized. Many of them develop an “alien ego state” (or dark side), whose core is antisocial lust devoid of most values.

In time, the “high” obtained from masturbating to pornography becomes more important than real life relationships. . . .

The process of masturbatory conditioning is inexorable and does not spontaneously remiss. The course of this illness may be slow and is nearly always hidden from view. It is usually a secret part of the man’s life, and like a cancer, it keeps growing and spreading. It rarely ever reverses itself, and it is also very difficult to treat and heal. Denial on the part of the male addict and refusal to confront the problem are typical and predictable, and this almost always leads to marital or couple disharmony, sometimes divorce and sometimes the breaking up of other intimate relationships.

Dr. Doidge notes,"Pornographers promise healthy pleasure and a release from sexual tension, but what they often deliver is addiction, and an eventual decrease in pleasure. Paradoxically, the male patients I worked with often craved pornography but didn’t like it." In the book Pornified, Pamela Paul gives numerous examples of this, and describes one person who decided to limit his pornography use, not from a moralist or guilt-based perspective, but out of a desire to again experience pleasure in actual physical relationships with women.

“Porn impotence,” where the man experiences sexuality preferentially with porn instead of a woman, is a real and growing phenomenon. When a man’s sex drive has been diverted away from his spouse in this way, writes Dr. Cline, the wife can “easily sense this, and often [feels] very lonely and rejected.”

An article in the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapydescribed a study showing that many women view the pornographic activities of their partners “as a form of infidelity”:

The theme that runs through their letters is that the man has taken the most intimate aspect of the relationship, sexuality, which is supposed to express the bond of love between the couple and be confined exclusively to the relationship, and shared it with countless fantasy women. The vast majority of women in this study used words such as “betrayal,” “cheating,” and “affair “ to describe the significance that their partner’s involvement in pornography had for them.

A Triple Hook

Let me use a fishing analogy to illustrate some of these concepts. Every August, if possible, I try to be on the Unalakleet River in Alaska fishing for silver salmon. We use a particular lure, a triple hook called the Blue Fox pixie. As fisherman know, it is important to keep the drag loose just after hooking the fish, when it still has a lot of fight. As the fish tires, though, we tighten the drag and increase the resistance. In this way the fish is reeled into the boat and netted.

Similarly, pornography is a triple hook, consisting of cortical hypofrontality, dopaminergic downgrading, and oxytocin/vasopressin bonding. Each of these hooks is powerful, and they are synergistic. Pornography sets its hooks very quickly and deeply, and as the addiction progresses, it progressively tightens the dopamine drag until there is no more play in the line. The person is drawn ever closer to the boat, and the waiting net.http://www.salvomag.com/new/articles/salvo13/13hilton.php

 

An excerpt from St. Alphonsus Liguori's Preparation for Death.

"Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." Matthew 4:7

The sinner who abandons himself to sin without striving to resist temptations, or without at least asking God's help to conquer them, and hopes that the Lord will one day draw him from the precipice, tempts God to work miracles, or rather to show to him an extraordinary mercy not extended to the generality of Christians. God, as the Apostle says, "will have all men to be saved" (1 Tim. ii. 4); but He also wishes us all to labor for our own salvation, at least by adopting the means of overcoming our enemies, and of obeying Him when he calls us to repentance. Sinners hear the calls of God, but they forget them, and continue to offend him. But God does not forget them. He numbers the graces which He dispenses, as well as the sins which we commit. Hence, when the time which He has fixed arrives, God deprives us of His graces, and begins to inflict chastisement.

I intend to show, in this discourse, that, when sins reach a certain number, God pardons no more.

....I saw this posted somewhere here, fairly recently. Hope, in some way, it helps with the willpower thing.

 

Cling to confession like your life depends upon it. (and it does) By confessing this sin over and over it will help to tell your mind that this is WRONG. If you have committed this sin and have not had time to confess, DO NOT RECEIVE COMMUNION, this will also help you realize how bad this sin is. You need lots of prayer, especially the rosary or divine mercy chaplet where you reflect on the sorrowful mysteries of Our Lord, and how much he suffered for our sins. Is it possible for you to attend another mass during the week or go to Eucharistic Adoration?, you need to draw strength from the Eucharist. Lastly, do not despair, this will take much time and effort to conquer. You need to start working on eradicating everything in your life that might be leading you to commit this sin.

This may sound a little harsh but it is your immortal soul we are talking about-stop looking at women-this will be very hard at first, stop idolizing them, if necessary only interact with women in your life that you absolutely have to, at least until this situation gets much better. Read the scarier harsher parts of Scripture like the book of Revelation, read about the crucifixion, the book of Daniel etc. Hope this helps, and don't stop praying.

 

I might be crazy, but sometimes the last few years I wonder if God permits us to fail so that we might succeed.

St Paul says that for those that love God all things work out unto the good, all things, even our sins.

This does mean we must be accepting of such sins but maybe if we overcome too much we might get too big for our britches. It keeps our nose to the grindstone and teaches us us humility.

If we win the war we no longer have the gain of the fight.

It is only a thought, but I do wonder.

 

Yesterday's reading at Mass was interesting in this regard -- St Paul's thorn in the flesh

I will boast about such a man, but I will not boast about myself, except in my weaknesses. Even if I wanted to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will credit me with more than he sees in me or hears from me, or with these surpassingly great revelations. So to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Our priest speculated that the thorn could have been sexual temptations but I don't think we will ever know --

The key is to keep fighting against sin -- keep getting up and asking for forgiveness -- keep asking for grace to be transformed in our minds --

I believe many of our failures come from the mind not being transformed by the gospel --

Again St Paul
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.

The question is 'how are our minds renewed and re-wired'?

Our minds need to be converted to the gospel way of thinking through prayer, contemplation, reading of Holy Scriptures, Holy books and lives of saints --

I also sense that in this age that our minds are also the battle - field --

Anyone else feeling this??

 

You know I had exactly this Scripture passage in mine when posting but never mentioned it.

I think many things we encounter in this will remain forever a Mystery too us, simply because it is not for our benefit to know them. It is like looking at a wonderful piece of Embroidery which when we look at from the back look likes a mass of tangled threads but looked at from the front is the most beautiful scene. It is not always in our own personal interest sometimes to know the ins and outs of things, we simply have to trust.

I went to a very,very holy old priest one time in confession one time and he leaned across to me and said with great force and conviction,

'Remember this!! On every occasion of temptation do your very , very best and never keep trying! This way though you fail you will always succeed!'

This has always stayed with me.

There are so many mysteries. One thing I discovered about myself in my life in the last few years concerns my horrible anger. I have suddenly realised it runs in my family down the generations. I found this very consoling; that I am not alone, that this is familial.

 

I had a dream...any pornography puts you on a ICE slide. Once your on it...you can't get off or stop. Flying straight down. Straight to ????

Porn is a great battle...everywhere you look is temptation. All you can do is pray but you also try to remove the person, places or things...that make it easy to slide.

For most of us it will be a battle that last a lifetime. Some might overcome the sin but temptation will always be there.

You are ahead of the game. Your question is proof you are trying to do Gods Will.

Brother al

 

So, RW? A lot of the replies to your predicament seem to hinge on porn at some level. Is this true in your case, or is it something else entirely that you may not wish to reveal here?

 

Thank you Richard for posting this article.
It so very interesting and to me it shows the glory of God in all things; even unto our neurotransmitters thus reaffirming right order!
God has wired us all to Love and Exalt Him because this is where true happiness resides!
When we deviate from this, it is to our own destruction and even our own bodies will turn against us.

 

Something to think about
If you don’t already wear the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mt Carmel
But a few online
Have a priest say the prayers to enroll you and then wear the scapular
Once you are enrolled
It is for a lifetime
When the scapular wears out
No need to get the following ones Blessed
This is Our Lady’s gift

 

Both.

 

Hi HH,

I certainly agree with you.
The brown scapular is one of Our Lady's life lines.
In todays world it is needed more than ever.

My childern were all enrolled when they were young and even though they do not wear them now I trust Our Lady has them all under her mantle; I bind all my children and grandchildren to her Immaculate heart with each rosary.

One day they will wear the scapular again and recieve that added protection. Amen

 

Agreed
Amen!

 

One thing I’ve learned is that each type of sin has another sister sin and also daughter sins so to speak that can be less apparent, and if we’re really struggling with conquering the apparent sin, it’s beneficial to work on the sister sins and daughter sins to combat it. Fr Ripperger has several talks on this, and when combating sins against purity it is always recommended to combat pride (being the sister sin to lust) and working on fasting and mortification (in order to rightly order the body, which lust is opposed to).

I highly recommend the devotion of the 3 Hail Marys. This devotion is recommended by many saints and is separate from the rosary, in case you already pray it every day. It consists of praying 3 Hail Marys every morning and evening, each one followed by the prayer “By thy pure and Immaculate Conception O Mary, make my body pure and my soul holy.” There are many promises attached to this devotion, see links for more info:
https://www.catholicgentleman.net/2013/08/spiritual-weapons-3-hail-marys-for-purity/
http://www.catholictradition.org/Mary/three.htm

Here are some prayers in Deliverance Prayers For Use by the Laity published by Sensus Traditionis Press (Fr Ripperger's book) that you may find helpful:

Prayer Against Temptation:
Lord Jesus Christ, Who wast conducted as a criminal to the house of Annas, grant that I may never suffer myself to be led into sin by the temptations of the evil spirit or the evil suggestions of my fellow creatures, but that I may be securely guided by Thy divine Spirit in the perfect accomplishment of thy holy ordinances. Amen. Come O Holy Spirit, and destroy in me, by Thy sacred fire, every affection which cannot be referred to Thee or please Thee. Grant that I may be all Thine, that I may live and die ever true to Thee, my Love and my All. O Mary, my advocate and Mother, help me by thy prayers. Amen.

Prayer to Be Freed from Evil Habits:
Give me, I beseech thee, O Holy Spirit, Giver of all good gifts, that powerful grace which converts the stony hearts of mortals into burning furnaces of love. By Thy grace, free my captive soul from the thralldom of every evil habit and concupiscence, to restore to it the holy liberty of the children of God. Give me to taste how sweet it is to serve the Lord and crucify the flesh with its vices and concupiscences. Enlarge my heart that I may ever cheerfully run the way of Thy commandments until I reach the goal of my aspirations, the joys and bliss of Thy habitation in heaven. Amen.

Prayer to Overcome Evil Passion and to Become a Saint:
Dear Jesus, in the Sacrament of the Altar, be forever thanked and praised. Love, worthy of all celestial and terrestrial love! Who, out of infinite lvoe for me, ungrateful sinner, didst assume our human nature, didst shed Thy Most Precious Blood in the cruel scourging, and didst expire on a shameful cross for our eternal welfare! Now, illumined with lively faith, with the outpouring of my whole soul and the fervor of my heart, I humbly beseech Thee, through the infinite merits of Thy painful sufferings, to give me strength and courage to destroy every evil passion which sways my heart, to bless Thee in my greatest afflictions, to glorify Thee by the exact fulfillment of my duties, supremely to hate all sin, and thus to become a saint. Amen.

Purification Prayer:
Jesus, pour Thy Precious Blood over me, my body, mind, soul, and spirit; my conscious and sub-conscious; my intellect and will; my feelings, thoughts, emotions and passions; my words and actions; my vocation, my relationships, family, friends and possessions. Protect with Thy Precious Blood all other activities of my life. Lord I dedicate all of these things to Thee, and I acknowledge Thee as Lord and Master of all. Mary Immaculate Conception, pure and holy Virgin, Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ, draw each of us under Thy veil; guard me and shield me against all attacks and temptations that would violate the virtue of chastity. Lord Jesus Christ, I beg Thee for the grace to remain guarded beneath the protective mantle of Mary, surrounded by the holy brier from which was taken the Holy Crown of Thorns, and saturated with Thy Precious Blood in the power of the Holy Spirit, with our Guardian Angels for the greater glory of the Father. Amen.

I also recommend having a priest enroll you in the brown scapular and to wear it faithfully every day, including in the shower. You could also consider wearing the cord of St. Philomena for purity. Link:
http://www.catholictradition.org/Saints/philomena3.htm

I’ve also linked some talks that I’ve found very helpful, and highly recommend taking the time to listen to. You can find many more if you put "Sensus Fidelium chastity" and "Sensus Fidelium lust" in the search bar on youtube:

 

Here is what I would recommend. Google all the local churches. Which has a mass early monday morning? Or which has 24 hour adoration. Either go to mass or wake up one hour early and go to adoration for an hour. The lord will help you

 

You have given such great advice, DivineMercy.
I've never heard of the prayers you mentioned.