A woman has told how she started watching porn at just 10 years old before battling a secret addiction for a decade.
Courtney, 23, opened up about how she spent years hiding her obsession after stumbling upon X-rated clips online at a young age.
The beauty entrepreneur said porn became an "escapism" during childhood and would help her forget how "depressed" she felt.
Her addiction became so bad that she would have "internal battles" at 1am and would break out in "cold sweats" when she tried to stop herself watching porn.
Courtney, from London, finally managed to overcome her 10-year addiction after it ruined a relationship where she would constantly compare her partner to a porn star.
She revealed all in a confessional YouTube video back in April in order to help others who might be struggling.
Alongside the video, she wrote: "I wanted to be honest about how I can overcame my 10 year addiction and tell you the story of my journey with it.
Courtney began by explaining that as a child she preferred to watch videos and films on the internet instead of on TV.
This meant she was able to view a lot more and there were no parental restrictions.
This is how she first discovered porn after she simply Googled some of her burning questions about the 'forbidden' topic.
She said: "When it came to online pornography, I think there was just a day where I was like what is sex and where do you go to watch anything regarding sex?
"I had a curious mind, I was intrigued by this forbidden topic which they had started to introduce in my year six class which is sex education.
"I went to the internet and I found porn and this is where the whole situation began."
She continued: "I think for me there was an intrigue that nothing was held back from me online.
"I had so many questions about what it was all about and watching pornography was satisfying that for me, because nobody else was giving me the fullness of this thing that the world seemed completely crazed by.
"There was also a sense of escapism, at 10 years old I can definitely, wholeheartedly say now, I was very depressed.
"During that time there was a lot on me, there was a lot that I had experienced and a lot that I had seen and at 10 years old I didn't really know how to process my emotions, but all I knew at that age was that I felt sad pretty much all the time.
"Whilst I was watching this pornography, I was so captivated by what I was watching that I forgot anything, I forgot about hurt and trauma, I forgot about all of it, it was an escape.
"I would spend hours just consuming pornography because it would help me forget.
"It became a medication for me. If I'm feeling stressed or anxious, this is where I go.
"In that moment this felt better than anything else that happened in my day."
Courtney claims her addiction lasted for a decade until she was 20.
She explained how she would often have an "internal battle" at 1am with a little voice in her head encouraging her to go on certain porn websites even when she didn't want to.
"It was to the point I was in cold sweats," she recalled. "It was crazy, I just felt like I was going mad, I was tearing myself apart because I just couldn't tell myself no. I was stuck in this cycle of addiction."
Courtney realised her addiction had spiralled out of control at age 18 when her obsession ruined one of her relationships.
She found herself constantly comparing her partner to a porn star who was unable to provide her satisfaction.
Courtney told The Sun: "The sex didn’t live up to my unrealistic expectations – it was awkward, messy and boring.
"There was no passion, and if he wasn’t going to provide the same satisfaction that porn did, why bother?"
In her video Courntey admitted to having some very honest and difficult conversations with herself and explained how her faith helped her recover.
She said: "I had to acknowledge that this was an addiction, this wasn't something I was doing casually, this wasn't going to go away over night.
"I had to heal the things that drove me there in the first place."
She also had to make big changes to what she was consuming in her daily life - from the music she listened to, to the people she followed on social media.
"The unfortunate thing is sex is everywhere," she said. "There are so many things that will remind you of sex."
She added: "You make one wrong swipe on your Twitter feed and you're watching a whole clip of pornography.
"A song can take you back to a certain place and cause you to remember a feeling."
She added: "I also did the practical things, like putting a child lock on my phone, on certain websites, it gave me a moment more to think 'do I actually want to do this?'"
She's also thrown herself into learning more about the problems with the adult film industry, such as the exploitation of women - and said understanding these things has helped lessen her attraction to pornography.
Courtney's video has since been viewed more than 800,000 times and she said the response has been incredible.
Many people have come forward to share their own similar struggles and the 23-year-old now feels like she has her own sort of support group.
She no longer watches porn and doesn't miss it, instead she's focusing on her career and enjoying time with her family.
You can follow more of Courtney's journey over on Instagram.
