Two former Amish men have spoken openly about their porn addiction after breaking away from the ultra-restrictive community, which denied them sex education and education about their own reproductive organs.
On Sunday’s upcoming episode of TLC’s Forbidden Love, Elmer, 23, opens up about how he’s become obsessed with watching X-rated content since abandoning his family’s extreme values and lifestyle.
However, Elmer’s porn addiction has understandably caused problems in his marriage to his wife Lindsey, 32, for whom he fled his Amish life.
In an exclusive preview shared with DailyMail.com, he and his wife speak candidly with ex-Amish friend Eli and his partner Nikki about how the community’s harsh attitude towards sex led them down the path of porn addiction.
“Many former Amish, including myself, have struggled with pornography after leaving the community. [the Amish community] “Because it can be addictive,” Eli said.
Elmer, 23, reveals he’s become obsessed with watching X-rated content since abandoning his Amish community on TLC’s Forbidden Love
His former Amish friend Eli reveals he never had sex education and didn’t know what a wet dream was
‘Since I married her [Nikki]The technology was the biggest stumbling block. I really struggled, especially from a sheltered lifestyle, because there is zero sex education.’
Elmer agreed and said, “Your testosterone levels are high here. And you know, you walk around with a hard-on all day and you don’t know what’s going on.”
Eli then revealed that his own mother did not openly discuss the basics of human anatomy and sex education.
He shared: ‘The first time I asked my mom, I said, ‘Why am I waking up with a wet dream? Why does it look like that?’
“And she was like, ‘You’ll understand when you get older.’ Well, how am I supposed to figure this out for myself? Give me some answers here, but there were no answers.”
Elmer, who recently left his Amish community to marry Lindsey, said the first thing he did after fleeing his Amish family was watch porn.
He shared: ‘I bought a smartphone [and] One of the first things I did that night was watch porn.
“It was almost like an endless fall. It just kept getting deeper and deeper, you know?”
Elmer revealed that the first thing he did after fleeing his Amish community was buy a phone and watch porn
Eli said his parents refused to teach him anatomy when he hit puberty
Elmer revealed in his confessional that as a child he was completely protected from the female anatomy.
‘[I had] “I’ve never seen a nude picture of a woman, or a porn magazine or anything like that,” he said.
‘And when I got my first phone, I had porn in front of me.
‘And once I started watching porn, it triggered something like that adrenaline rush. It’s that dopamine rush that you get every time you, you just keep wanting more and more and more.
“And I think that’s the problem.”
Elmer struggles to adjust to the ‘English’ world after leaving the Amish, and struggles with being rejected by his family.
Elmer admitted that he gets an adrenaline rush when he watches porn and wants ‘more and more’
Lindsey, who is 11 years older than him, had many preconceived notions about what Elmer would be like as a husband.
She thought he would be a good person and never check on her, but she soon finds out that being with someone who was raised Amish is more complicated than she expected.
The stakes are high with a baby on the way, but despite all the drama in their relationship, their chemistry and sense of humor keep them going.
The TLC reality series Forbidden Love follows four couples in love who must overcome a major obstacle in their relationship: religion.
“In each couple, one partner comes from a different faith, but one of them is in the process of converting or has decided to renounce his or her family and culture,” the official synopsis reads.
‘Can their relationships survive the trials of conversion, given the vast traditional differences? Or will their love buckle under the strain?’