Breaking the Chain: Pornography Addiction and How to Heal

Ever wondered how something that seems harmless could rewire your entire view of people? Zion opens the door to a rarely discussed topic that affects countless lives: pornography addiction and the objectification of women.

With remarkable vulnerability, Zion shares his personal battle with pornography addiction that spanned more than a decade, starting in fifth grade. He walks us through how what began as curiosity transformed into a coping mechanism for stress, boredom, and overwhelming emotions. This isn't just a confession – it's a roadmap for understanding how digital content consumption shapes our perception of others and ourselves.

Drawing from Eagles wide receiver AJ Brown's powerful statements, Zion examines how pornography "desensitizes your brain" until you're seeing objects instead of human beings. He explores concerning cultural trends like referring to women as "ball" and challenges listeners to recognize how language reflects deeper attitudes about humanity and worth.

What makes this conversation especially valuable is Zion's focus on recovery and alternatives. From his partnership with the Brightn journaling app to finding comfort in physical exercise, reading, and authentic relationships, he offers practical pathways forward. The broadcast channel community he's built further demonstrates his commitment to vulnerability and mutual support.

Whether you're struggling with similar issues, supporting someone who is, or simply want to understand these dynamics better, this episode provides compassionate insight without judgment. Remember Zion's powerful reminder: "You're not navigating this life alone" – and reaching out for help is a sign of strength, not weakness.

We are so appreciative of you listening we want you to be part of the Up To It movement!

https://uptoit.club/

Download the Brightn Wellness App

FUTURE podcaster!! here is our link to get started hosting your own online show! https://streamyard.com/pal/c/5554652120350720

Transcript

Welcome & Broadcast Channel Updates

Z 0:00

Yo , what is up ? Everybody , man , it is good to be back in my corner of the internet . I like to believe that I have a corner of the internet . Maybe it's not even a corner , maybe it's like a centimeter by centimeter corner , even that , maybe a pixel of a corner of the internet . But yo , man , we're here chopping it it up .

Z 0:24

A lot of things on my mind . Um , first of all , before we even continue , uh , with this , I don't know what I'm gonna call this , but shout out to everybody that's in the broadcast channel . Man , I wanted , I want to shout out the broadcast channel folks , bro . I mean , yo , we hit a hundred members in . I want to say like two , three weeks . I want to say I'm gonna say three weeks to be more on the conservative side . I don't want to be like , oh , I'm being Willie , I'm popping . Nah , nothing like that .

Z 0:50

Man , we actually had to grind for that . We actually had to give away some things . We gave away a $150 gift card , we gave away some headphones , and the next thing that we're about to give away is some mentorship by yours truly , one-on-one coaching . We'll have three winners for that , so you can join and and be a part of that . And I'm just , I'm just thankful for everybody that's in there . You know , everybody that's in there , that was the first . The first a hundred members got a free gift for me . You know , and I'm excited to rule that out for them . And you know , that could have been you , that could have been you , that could have been you . But you slept . You were like I don't know this guy , I don't know he came to my school , whatever , whatever , and you messed up . You know you're like , oh , he's cool , but I don't know if he's that cool , but man , uh , I think I'm pretty .

Z 1:38

you know we had you know I let the hundred members speak for themselves anyways , man , um . So again , shout out to everybody that's in the up to it mornings we appreciate you . And for those of you that are wondering , like what goes on in the channel , not only do we do giveaways in the channel , but the main purpose why I started that channel was because , um , I started using this ai app , this journaling app , this mental wellness app called brighton , and brighton in full transparency . Man am now a full , we are now a full partner with Brian . So clap it up for that . Y'all . We're full partners with Brian , and Brian is a mental wellness app that , before I became a partner , I loved the app .

Z 2:15

I got to meet the CEO . His name is Jeffrey Johnston . Jeff is such an amazing person . He has a story of his own and if you can look back into our previous podcast , you can find his podcast episode . And , man , he has a story and he changed his . He turned his pain into passion . That's one of the things I admire about him . And then his right hand , his two right hands , or his right and his left hand . Emily and Carson are just awesome , down to earth people that we just collect with and that we connected with . So we are partners . We were affiliates and now we're partners with Brian . But that's not the reason why I use the app . Not because I make a little bit of money off if you guys do choose to use the app or buy the subscription . But the reason why I like the app and I'm promoting it and became a partner of the app is because I truly use the app every day and I'm a big journaler .

Z 3:04

If anybody that has come to my presentations and has heard me present , you know that I talk about journaling being one of my coping skills and one of my biggest fears came true one day . Man , I think I was out of town . I don't know what city or state I was in , but I was out of town . I was in my hotel room . I took my physical journal with me to journal after my speaking engagement or whatever the case may be . I ended up leaving that journal in the hotel room . Oh man , I left that journal in the hotel room . Now somebody out there knows my deepest , darkest secrets from way , way , way , way , way , way , way back . Hopefully , not Hopefully , they just threw it away .

Z 3:47

But you know , ever since then , I was always hesitant to journal again . I was like , oh man , if I , if I lose this book , if I lose this journal , and it got to the point where I started journaling again and I got a new journal , journaling book or notebook and it never took it with me anywhere . So when I traveled and I travel a lot for work when I traveled I just stopped journaling when I traveled . Um , but then I heard about Brian uh , through LinkedIn and I was like yo , you know what , let me try this . And it was .

Z 4:14

It wasn't , um , it wasn't marketed as a journaling app or it was marketed as a mental wellness app . I loved it and I love the journaling feature of it . I thought it was amazing , I thought it was genius . Like holy crap , like I can write down my thoughts , I can write down all the feelings and emotions that are going through my head into this app and not have to be concerned if I'm going to leave it because I always have my phone on me . If you know what I'm saying . Like , maybe it doesn't work for everybody , but I'm somebody that doesn't lose their phone , like and I'm knocking on wood for that Cause , man , I don't , I don't lose my phone often , I don't . And if I do , I'm able to find it fairly quickly .

Z 4:57

Uh , so , with that being said , I created the broadcast channel to show other people , and this is the cool part about the app . Man , I'm getting ahead of myself . But the reason why I love this app so much is because it summarizes your journal entries and it's validating you , or you ask it as an app so you're able to ask it certain prompts , or ask it for suggestions , or ask it for its thoughts on the certain scenario or thing that you may be going through , and after you submit , you have like , it's like , it looks like a text thread , literally looks like a text thread and after you submit it , it hits you with a summary of like hey , this is what we talked about . Here are some of the highlights . Here are some of the lowlights of the conversation . Here's some insights . Here is an affirmation for you All that man , awesome stuff . I was like , oh my gosh , that's so dope . It summarizes all my entries .

Z 5:51

So you don't when you , you can , and this is why I created a broadcast channel , right ? So I created a broadcast channel to show people the summaries of my reflection , because sometimes , summaries of my reflection Because sometimes , when I'm in it with the AI , the Brighton app , and we're going through the text threading . There's some details that I don't like for it to show other people's , but the cool thing about the app it kind of does a good job filtering out some things that are like you know what ? You probably wouldn't want that being shown , or whatever . You know what you probably wouldn't want that being shown , or whatever . But for that purpose , right , for my purpose , if I have a broadcast channel , I don't want everybody to know all the little details about every journal entry , and that's the reason why I created it , though . So you can , I can show you and I can help you understand how vulnerability Isn't a bad thing , right , and what I wanted to do is I wanted to show people that , yeah , even though I'm a mental health speaker , I go out and talk to youth and families and organizations about how to make mental health real , relatable and actionable for their teams that I still struggle , and there's some days where I I'm not feeling good , there's days where , um , I don't want to work , there's days where and it's it's it's things that you probably wouldn't even think about , because all you see is me holding a mic on stage , but there's so much other things that go on and go into building this business that has , and go into building this business that has .

Z 7:27

That I'm blessed to say that it's been successful in year two , right ? So I wanted to show people that yo , just like you , I still struggle . I still struggle . So every morning I say , okay , maybe I should . I try to every morning , I try to every morning journal in the morning and screenshot my summary of my reflection or my journal entry and I put it in the channel and what I hope people get from that is that not that hey , look at me , I can do it , so you can do it too . No , it's to show you that on my Instagram you see all these grandiose things , you see all these amazing things that I'm out doing . I'm out in Oklahoma , I'm out in Arkansas , I'm out in Hawaii , I'm out in California , miami , new York , vermont , like . You see all these things on Instagram that I'm out there .

Z 8:23

And it looks cool and it looks cool and it looks fun . But most of my journal entries when I'm on the road is about how much I miss my fiance , my dog , the small family I have that I'm creating my friends . Because being on the road man I thought being on the road was like , oh man , can't wait to go on the road . Man , I thought being on the road was like , oh man , can't wait to go on the road , can't wait to travel . But it gets lonely sometimes , like , don't get it wrong , man , it's a blast when you're out on stage and you're making connections with youth and families and organizations and leaders and people and human beings that just crave connection . That is the fun part about it . That's the part I look forward to the most . But then , when it's all said and done , you got to go back home , or , sorry , you got to go back to your hotel room , to an empty bed . That's it right . And I'm gone for days on end . You know , the longest I've been out has been about almost two weeks . About 10 days is when I've been gone , as long as I've ever been gone . And it gets lonely and sometimes your thoughts catch up to you like , is this worth it ? Should I just go home ? Should I just pack it ? Should I call it quits ? So the reason why I have that broadcast channel out there is because , yes , it is fun . The work that I do is fun . The work that I get to do is a privilege and an honor to do it , but it's not always what it seems . And for people that are on the broadcast channel , they get to see the raw documentation of that . They get to see the raw documentation of that . They get to see the raw documentation of that . And I hope that , through me showing and being vulnerable to you , that you too feel empowered

Partnership with Brighton Journaling App

Z 10:16

to feel vulnerable and talk to somebody when you're struggling , or to reach out to somebody who you think may be struggling , and reach out and be a shoulder to cry on , be an ear to listen , like that's all I want . And also , we do fun things . I mean , I have fun exclusive stuff in that channel , whatever , whatever , and I just went on about the channel for 10 minutes , but I really want to get y'all to understand the purpose of it and , of course , to highlight Brian , because I think everybody should have the app downloaded and that's just honest . I mean , man , you know what I'm saying , and I'm not , I'm not going to hard sell it , I'm not , that's not what this podcast and this , this , this , uh , this is about . But I don't want to hard sell it . All right , but y'all should have Brian . So go to your app store right now , if you're interested . Go to your app store , type in b-r-i-g-h-t-n . Brian right , go check out brian , go do it . Go do it . You'll thank me later , I promise you'll thank me later to have it . Um , if you're adult , if you're a youth , I think everybody should have this app . At least try to , at least try the free trial . You know , I'm saying and then , if you like it , enough , pay for the premium . I think it's worth it , man , it's definitely worth it . Um , so yeah , anyways , that is not why we're here talking about and and and and and .

Z 11:33

If you're listening and you are not following me , you can follow my personal at zion . Underscore , underscore , givens . That's z-i-o-n . Two underscores G-I-V-E-N-S . Man , go ahead , follow your boy and then , when you're at it , man , join the broadcast channel . Why not just join the broadcast channel , man ? I love giving away free stuff , bro , like I've been seeing all these memes about Hood and Mr Beast . Bro , hey , man , I'm Blacksicke and Mr Beast . What's up ? What's up Z gives .

AJ Brown 12:05

Oh .

Z 12:08

Z gives For real . Bro , z really does give . I love , bro , listen to this man . I've been blessed . I've been blessed to have the platform that I have and I've been blessed to be able to monetize certain things and have monetary success . That's a blessing , bro , and I don't get religious on here . Some of y'all don't even know this , but your boy is Christian and whatever that means in context . Redact that . I'm a man of faith , I'm a man of God , I'm a God-fearing man . No titles , no Christianity on top of that . I'm just a God-fearing man and I'm just grateful that God has given me the opportunity to have such a small like man . Bro , this is a small platform , bro . I only have like . If you combine all the followers that I have up to with AZ and on my personal , I'm probably 2.7K , 2.7k , 2.7k and I say it like that . But what I really mean is I got 2.7Ks of ride or die . You know what I'm saying Like 2.7K , ride or dies on there .

AJ Brown 13:18

You know what I ?

Z 13:19

mean , like bro , that's a blessing man and the least I could do is give back to the community that supports me .

Z 13:27

That's the bare minimum . Like bro , I just want to be honest with you . I'm giving away mentorship because somebody in my broadcast channel not somebody , a lot of somebodies , a lot of people in the broadcast channel was like I said yo , what do you , what do you want me to raffle off ? I put a poll . I said you know $150 . I said , uh , ps five . I said headphones and I said you know , I left an option blank for somebody else to fill in . Like , you can fill in your own or other suggestions . Is what the other , what the other option was ? And several people hit me back and said they said it's funny because they said the same thing Uh , can we do a one-on-one counseling session ? Can we do a one-on-one therapy session ? Can we do a one-on-one , bro ? I'm flattered man . That flattered me for real . And the reason why that flattered me for real is because I'm not a licensed therapist . All right , shout out to all my licensed therapists out there , man . Shout out to my licensed therapists out there . I'm not a psychiatrist , I'm not a social worker , I'm not . I'm none of those . I'm not credentialed , right to be doing that kind of interaction with people . I'm just not . But I was flattered that people were like , oh yeah , I could get this . It'd be dope . I'm flattered by that man , I'm flattered by that . But my head started going right . I'm like dang all right . See , people want like some one-on-one counseling . Then I was like you know what ? What about coaching ? I was like you know what ? No , no , it's not even coaching . But like , what about mentorship , was it ? I hit them back . I was like you know what ? No , I can't do those things , I'm not credentialed . But what about mentorship ? How about a month of mentorship ? How would you feel about that ? Turned up , they were turned up in the chat man . They were like yeah , yeah , let's do that , let's do that . Yeah , mentorship Offer that Boom , boom , right . Like that's one of the dopest things that you get from having such a strong community is that you get to bring their ideas to life . You get to have interactions like this . That's why I love my community and that's why I want to give back to y'all . Z give . You know what I'm saying . Z does really give . And again , man , it goes back to the idea of that . Y'all supported me up to this point . The least , the least I can do , the bare minimum that I could and should be doing , is giving back to y'all . So that's the uh something . I went on 16 minutes I'm a damn near 20 minutes on that rant about , but , man , I got to show love to y'all . Man , I got to show love . So , anyways , that's not why we're here to talk . Anyways , I got some things on my mind . They've been on my mind , they've been festering and I'm like I need to get this off my chest . I need to get this off my chest and I need to get this out to the world because I think it's an important conversation to have and I think it's time for me to be honest with myself and to be honest with you . I talk about vulnerability , I talk about how vulnerability is key and , to be honest with y'all , man , I have not been as honest as I should be . I haven't . And to set the tone for what I'm going to dive into , I want to keep it clear and transparent . We're going to be talking about pornography . We're going to be talking about the objectification of women , or objectifying women and how harmful that is . But if you have something that you don't want to hear . This is your time to turn off this episode , to back on to my Instagram , whatever and live there . But if you're interested in what I got to say and a little bit about my story , about these two things , I would love for you to stick around . I think it's an important conversation that we can have . So I found this TikTok of AJ Brown . Anybody that's familiar with AJ Brown knows that he is the Eagles wide receiver . They're number one wide receiver , right , and I stumbled upon this TikTok and I'm just going to play it . I'm just going to play it so y'all can hear it and y'all give me your take . Here we go .

AJ Brown 17:51

Whatever , whatever , whatever advice you have , you got a winning problem right now . Get $100 million and see that problem . That problem is going to show up loud and clear . You see what I'm saying these people getting in trouble right now , bro , and we may laugh at , but we only see the signs the whole time . The whole time , though , but that's a problem . That's a problem .

AJ Brown 18:10

All right , I'm gonna give you an example . I ain't gonna give it , I ain't gonna give you another name , but it's , it's guys . It's guys that it's guys that's in the league getting in trouble with women . They got fetish with women , they doing little stuff . Because when you got that all that type of money dog , like bro , that stuff shows up because now it's at your leisure , now you can get any woman you want , you can pick and choose .

AJ Brown 18:29

You see what I'm saying . So it ain't all pieces and cream , because , like , as men , I truly feel like we need to sit down and we need to talk more about , like on some real time porn , right , and it's going to a whole other level because of what porn does to your brain . It desensitizes your brain , and so you may think like oh man , she look good , or whatever . No , you're looking at it as an object , not as a human being . You see what I'm saying , but I see that shit all the time from my teammates , no-transcript telling nobody about get some bread , get some money , get whatever you , get whatever you desire . I promise you that shit gonna um . All right , we're not going to start I don't know I didn't .

Z 19:37

I didn't think'd get this far . I didn't think I would make it this far , but here we are . So AJ brings up a great point about pornography and how it desensitizes our brain . And not only that . There's other implications that it does have on our brain when it comes to creativity , when it comes to imagery and imagination , when it comes to work ethic . There's all this science that's involved in that when it comes to pornography . But what I want to focus on right now is the objectifying women portion and how it desensitizes our brains to look at women as objects and not as , like he said , human beings . And I want to backpedal here , and you're probably thinking well , z , what experience do you have in this realm around pornography ? Like , what do you know about this , bro ? Like there's no way . You're a goody two-shoes . All your life you never had any problems at school . You never smoked , you never drank . Like , bro man , you ain't , you ain't know nothing about this . For some people that's known me a long time , this might come as a shock to you , maybe not . Um , I hope it does . Maybe come as a shock to you , but anyways , um , yo , um , I've .

Z 21:00

My addiction for the longest time was always pornography . I was addicted to pornography . Whoo , that's weird to say out loud and say a camera . I was addicted to pornography and started in fifth grade and didn't end until I , until I got into my 20s , bro . That's

Vulnerability and Giving Back

Z 21:24

almost more than a decade-long addiction . It was consuming me , bro , like it was bad , bad , bad , bad .

Z 21:35

I got introduced to pornography by an older friend who told me about the hub . Right , like I guess that's where things start , typically in my generation was the hub Got introduced , learned how to pleasure and release myself , so to speak , and got hooked to that feeling Bad . It got to the point where every day after school , that was something that I looked forward to Throughout school day . That was something I looked forward to was getting home and doing that , which is ironic because I wasn't somebody that was home often . I was somebody that was still involved in sports . I was somebody that still had friends . I was somebody that still had all these things right .

Z 22:29

That made me look like a normal kid , even while I was in a relationship . Even while I was in a relationship , that was something I did , something I tried to normalize to my partner , and it was embarrassing . I didn't get laughed at . It was just hard to admit that I didn't admit it . I mean , I admitted it to an extent , but I was like , oh , it's a normal thing that guys just do , that's what we do . That's what we do . We talk about all these P-stars and OnlyFans girls . That's just what we do , bro . It got so bad .

Z 23:20

It became a coping skill for me . Every time I was stressed , let me run to my phone . Every time I was overwhelmed , let me just . Every time I was bored , every time I was bored , ah , let me just . Every time I was bored , ah , let me just .

Z 23:51

Bro , looking back at it , I never called it an addiction because I thought it was just what was normal , because I'm not going to call nobody out , but other people within community would talk about it like it was so normal . You're exchanging these names . Oh , did you see it ? They just dropped . What Boy ? We're talking about it . Like they're hit songs on the charts . Like what People were out there talking about this type of material ? Like they were songs that just dropped . And then man , and then just the access to it . It was so easy to access this type of material . All you had to do was go on your safari , go into incognito mode , do what you got to do . Get in , get out , bro . It was so bad man Again , to the point where it became a coping skill that I developed into my early 20s .

Z 24:56

That's what I considered a coping skill up until my later my early twenties . Like are you not understanding how crazy that is ? And then it progresses . People don't understand that . Like AJ Brown was saying in that video , it progresses . Sure , it starts off as like , okay , cool , like this is something that we , something that I watch and get pleasure from , into something that is more vile , I should say , or a better one , is unrealistic . And then you dive in deeper and you're going down these rabbit holes of certain types of pornography . Like it gets scary . But thank God , man , I had great parents and I had friends in my corner talking to me about how , like this is harmful , this is harmful and it sets unrealistic expectations for what sex is right . It does , it really does , and most of it , bro . And then people don't .

Z 26:11

This is what people have to understand , especially young men have to understand is all of it is fake , majority of it's fake , it'sity of it is fake . It's like WWE . You think they're doing all these crazy . I mean , wwe is doing all these crazy stunts . These guys and girls and these people are actually doing the deed . But to the wind-up , to the ending , to the looks , to the imagery , to the positions , to the lighting , to the camera , it , the imagery , to the positions , to the lighting , to the camera , it's all fake , it's all made up . I'm glad AJ is bringing this to light . And then , I don't know , this clip seems a little bit older .

Z 26:50

But again , this is a real conversation we need to be having , because a lot of you that follow me are young folks Middle school , high schoolers and you know just how easy it is to get consumed by this kind of content and how easily accessible this content is , even more so than back in my day . Right , you can be on TikTok and you're scrolling and you're seeing this stuff and somebody has an OnlyFans and you go down the rabbit hole of oh , she got an OnlyFans . Let me check Twitter to see if I can sneak a peek , or let me check Reddit so I can see it . Bro , bro , bro , you got to check in with yourself , like yo , that's out of pocket . It's kind of crazy , and I can't pass judgment onto you because I was the same way , but I'm just telling you right now , looking back at it now as an adult , somebody that's in recovery from that bro , that isn't a way to . We can find other productive ways to spend our time . I promise you we can . So I told you that that's my relationship to this .

Z 28:11

This is what I'm telling young people that are a lot of young people are chronically online . I just want to tell you , man , there's a lot more productive things that you could be doing than wasting your time on that and wasting your dollars , spending money on this type of stuff . It's kind of crazy . I'm not here to judge you , but I'm just here to show you the reality and to be a mirror for you to understand that , man , you don't again , there's other productive things out there that you could be doing . That's pornography . Talk about objectifying women , right , let's talk about objectifying women and how pornography does

AJ Brown on Pornography's Impact

Z 28:52

that to our brain . Again , I told you that is unrealistic Camera angles to lighting , to features , to it all made up . It's all fake . But now , since you've been consumed by this uh , uh medium , this vice , you're gonna look , start looking at women in unhealthy ways . That's what's going to happen . Ah , she don't got it big enough . Nah , ah , she don't got it big enough . Ah , nah , ah , you know , her lips are a little bit too thick .

AJ Brown 29:35

Ah , she don't got the eye Ah her hair isn't long .

Z 29:37

Her hair isn't long , our hair isn't short . Again , like AJ Brown said , now you're just objectifying and forgetting that these are people you're talking about . These aren't just figures on a screen , this isn't just your imagination anymore . These are real people . Take it a step further and we're going to keep it real , because that's what I tell people when they come on and talk to me that I'm going to keep it real .

Z 30:09

Reality is , some of them get into the moment . Things are getting hot and heavy and you do things you've seen in pornography videos without consent . Without consent , sure , you get consent to start getting hot and heavy , but the smacking , the hitting you start thinking that that's what every girl wants or every person wants to experience . That's not everybody's experience , but because of what you're watching , you believe that everybody wants this . Then you get caught up . Then you get embarrassed . Then you think , oh , this girl hates me , or this woman or this person hates me because they're not letting me do what I want to do , or it wasn't that . It wasn't that , it was that they didn't consent to that , and two and two . That isn't realistic . The things you're watching aren't realistic . Things you're watching sometimes aren't what people want , unless you have an adult conversation , a mature conversation about what they do expect and what they do want . But that comes with communication , and pornography does something weird to our brain and I'll talk about this . Here's a new . I'm up to date with everything New lingo coming around Calling women your ball , calling women your ball Streamers are making it popular .

Z 31:54

Ddg man , I've seen him talk about it , I've seen other uh streamers talk about it . I don't know if Kai said it , but calling women your ball , you might think it's just a joke . Right ? You know , bro , you're going in too deep , you're thinking about it too much , bro . Nah , it ain't even like that , it's just fun , it's a meme , it's just whatever . Nah , bro , because when you start labeling people as objects , that tells me that you're perceiving them as objects . So it is that deep . It is that deep If I have a human being , if I have a human being , that we should be valuing , that , we should be showing love to that .

Z 32:47

We should be . And I bump them all the way down to a ball , to a , a wilson leather evolution basketball , bro , what are we doing ? What are we doing , bro ? I get it is lingo , it it's , it's changed , it's , bro . I get it , man , but shoot . The better lingo I like to hear is like oh , that's my queen . Oh , you know what ? Yo , yeah , you know that that's my boo thing , an undertone of uplifting of something that truly is valuable . Maybe boo-thing wasn't a good example . You know what I'm saying .

Z 33:46

To call somebody your ball is crazy . It really leads into

Personal Addiction Story

Z 33:53

objectifying somebody , into an object , not a human , and I want you to be mindful , and this is what men get mad about . I remember I listened to the Grits and Eggs podcast by Dante Dante Kyle man , to the Grits and Eggs podcast by Dante Dante Kyle man . We have to hold each other accountable as men and I love his take on it . Man , accountability doesn't mean you're a bad guy . Taking accountability does not mean you're bad or that you're in trouble . Taking accountability means owning it and being like ah , you know what ? Yo , thanks , bro , thanks for letting me . Yo , thanks for telling me to tie it up . I appreciate that Taking it on the chin , apologizing when you're wrong , acknowledging when you're wrong and keep it pushing .

Z 34:47

It doesn't have to be this whole deal . Ah , nah , nah , wah , they took it the wrong way . They don't even know . But , bro , it don't got to be that . It don't have to be that . It could be . Yo , brother , thanks for telling me to tighten up . I got it , man . That was my fault . Yo , are you okay ? I did not mean to offend you in any way whatsoever . I apologize . They accept it ? Cool , they don't . You keep it pushing . You keep it pushing .

Z 35:18

So I want to spend my time here , 35 minutes , to open it up about that and letting young men know , or young ladies or young folk know , that there's so much more productive things that you can do and spend your time doing than pornography , than dabbling in this man . It doesn't lead to anything good . I promise you it doesn't . It doesn't . And some of your friends might think you're weird for not wanting to dabble in that . But , bro , be weird , bro be weird . I wish , I wish my parents knew how easily it was to access pornography . Maybe they had an idea , but I don't think they had a clear idea of how easy it was for me to get access to this stuff . It was literally insane . And now , man , I don't do that anymore , I don't seek that out anymore .

Z 36:23

Like I said , man , I found comfort in journaling . I found comfort in the gym of working out . I found comfort in harnessing my relationship , more in-depth relationship , with my fiance . I find comfort in reading a book . Sounds silly , but , man , I love to read . I love to listen . I find comfort in listening to positive , productive people that are influenced . Maybe that are influencers , but I wish I never stumbled upon that path . I challenge you , man , I challenge you . If you're listening to this you're like , hey , man , like he's kind of spinning these facts at me . I challenge you to find some healthy alternatives . Challenge you Whether , maybe , maybe you go , maybe you stream , I don't know .

Z 37:17

Streaming . Universities seem lit , that's good , that's dope . Maybe you , uh , start drawing . Maybe you pick up a pencil again , start drawing . Maybe you become a writer , you start typing some things . Maybe become a poet , start writing again , man , I don't . Maybe go outside and find comfort in the gym . Maybe you start walking your dog , you start typing some things . Maybe you become a poet , start writing Again , man , I don't . Maybe you go outside and find comfort in the gym . Maybe you start walking your dog . Maybe you start going to the gym Like , again , the only thing that's limiting yourself is your own creativity and I promise you , I promise you that you want to have that intact for the rest of your life is creativity , because that's what pornography diminishes is your creativity and your imagination .

Z 37:59

So find something to be creative . If you're bored , man , write about it , draw about it , do some chores around the house , do that thing that you've been procrastinating on doing . Do it , but don't dabble in this man or substances , bro . Again , I feel like pornography and substance misuse can go hand in hand together , because they attach to the same receptors in our brain . They release the same chemical in our brain dopamine . So I want you to keep that in mind . That's really what I want to talk to you all today , and I wanted to be vulnerable enough to share a little bit about my story , and you know just my experience and how I kind of got out of it . I mean , I didn't tell you in depth , but that's something that you want to hear more about . I'm more than happy to share that with you . But for now , man , I appreciate y'all taking the time to listen .

Z 38:53

If you haven't followed us or subscribed to us on YouTube , go ahead and subscribe to us on YouTube at UpToItParenting . Follow us on Instagram at UpToItAZ . You can follow my personal again at Zion underscore underscore Givens . If you haven't , if you follow my personal . Make sure to join the broadcast channel so you can get your chance to maybe win some mentorship , a free mentorship , free month of mentorship for me .

Z 39:18

But , bro , I'm always here , always down to talk . You're not navigating this life alone , you're not . I don't want you to believe that you're alone in your journey and your struggle . I don't want you to believe that , because I'm here and there's people around you in your community that care and that want to help you . But we can't help you if you don't know what's going on . So , man , I empower you to be vulnerable with somebody to ask for help when needed . Man , remember that you are enough , that you are , that you are enough , that you are worthy and that you're capable . All right , and we're going to get out of here , man , I hope you have a great rest of your evening and your day and we're going to talk to y'all . We're going to holler back at y'all real soon , all right , peace .