George Collins Books

A powerful urge is not always the same as a healthy desire. One of Collins's most important distinctions is that sexual compulsion is not driven primarily by pleasure, intimacy, or connection. It is driven by tension, anxiety, emptiness, and the need for relief. Healthy sexuality leaves a person mor...

From Breaking the Cycle

Addictions rarely begin in the present moment; they are often rooted in old emotional learning. Collins argues that compulsive sexual behavior commonly grows out of unmet needs, early wounds, and distorted lessons about comfort, masculinity, or worthiness. Many men learned, directly or indirectly, t...

From Breaking the Cycle

Many people assume shame will force change, but Collins shows that shame often strengthens the very behavior a person wants to stop. Shame says, "I am broken," not merely, "I made a harmful choice." That identity-level judgment creates despair, secrecy, and hopelessness. Once a man sees himself as d...

From Breaking the Cycle

Relapse often looks sudden, but Collins reminds readers that it is usually a process, not an event. Long before the behavior happens, there are triggers, cues, moods, and thought patterns that prepare the ground. If a man only focuses on stopping at the last possible moment, he is fighting the probl...

From Breaking the Cycle

Recovery does not happen because cravings disappear; it happens because new responses are practiced often enough to become stronger than old ones. Collins describes addiction as a cycle of discomfort, ritual, acting out, and regret. To break that cycle, a man must intervene at multiple points, espec...

From Breaking the Cycle

One of the deepest insights in Breaking the Cycle is that many compulsive behaviors grow in emotional illiteracy. When a person cannot identify, express, or tolerate feelings, he is more likely to convert those feelings into urges. Sexual acting out becomes a shortcut around emotion. Collins therefo...

From Breaking the Cycle