Opening the magazine was a simple act of curiosity for Crystal Renaud. “I was sheltered, I didn’t even know what sex was. But after I saw those pictures, I had entered a new realm of life,” says Crystal, now 24 and on staff at Westside Family Church in Lenexa, Kansas.

Crystal was ten years old, and her brother’s pornographic magazine collection had been found. What followed was a seven-year addiction. “I started looking at the magazines, and then watched videos, then Internet porn, and TV. Eventually it led to masturbation.”

Even though Crystal’s porn addiction wasn’t real sex, it was close to it, and it filled an emotional need. “I was lonely. Porn kept me company,” Crystal says.

There was an intimacy that porn brought into her life that wasn’t being met through any other relationships. Her dad traveled throughout the week. When he was home on the weekends, he isolated himself by doing yardwork or sleeping. “When we have a need, we will do whatever it takes to meet it,” Crystal says. For Crystal, porn met that need.

“Because of my sexual addiction, I was confused. I wasn’t just watching men, I was also watching women, so I was confused about my sexual orientation,” Crystal says.

This habit was kept secret until Crystal was 17 and a friend confided to her about her own porn addiction. “Overcoming the sexual addiction came down to discovering I’m not alone,” Crystal says.

Though porn is an issue that is addressed with men, millions of women deal with their addiction every day. One in three visitors to porn sites are women. Seventeen percent of women admit to struggling with a pornography addiction. There are 9.4 million women who access porn sites each month.

“The difference between men and women’s porn addiction is that women are emotional beings. They seek to comfort themselves through all sorts of things. Some women comfort themselves with porn, eating, or cutting. They use these things to fill a void,” Crystal says.

When her friend confided in her, Crystal felt comfortable sharing about her struggle with porn. After telling her friend about her addiction, that friend became her accountability partner. “We would get together casually. 'Hey, how are you? Are you looking at it? Why? Why not?'” Crystal says. That same friend remains her accountability partner to this day.

Changing her habit also meant changing her routine. She could no longer go straight home from work or school. She would go to a friend’s house or go on a walk. She and her accountability partner put accountability software on their computers. The software tracks the websites you go to. If you go to a questionable site, the software sends an email to your accountability partner.

And Crystal relied on God and the people God brought into her life. “I had to die to myself daily and say, 'Ok God, porn and masturbation are not of you. I need people in my life who can keep me accountable,’” Crystal says.

After a year of accountability, Crystal began to see victory in her life and has since been sober for seven years. "Temptations still haunt me from time to time, but with the tools and accountability I have in place, I am able to overcome those times," Crystal says. "I am finding that if I am not right in my relationship with God and am not 'prayed up,' the temptations are more prevalent."

After gaining victory over her addiction, Crystal started a life group at her church for women struggling with porn addictions. Throughout the past year, Crystal has counseled many women through their addiction.

Now Crystal is going public with her experience–knowing that women need to know they are not alone. In February, she launched thenewpornaddicts.com, a website where women can share their stories about porn addiction. On the site, Crystal collects surveys of women who are struggling, have struggled, or are a friend of someone struggling with a porn addiction.

The surveys show many similarities to Crystal's story. About 90 percent mentioned having shallow to non-existent relationships with their dad. “I think the correlation between that and porn addiction–or addiction of any kind–is huge," Crystal says. "It goes back to our emotional needs as women. We are meant to receive healthy and safe intimacy with our dads. But when that isn't filled by him or either of our parents, we will fill it with any means necessary.”

As Crystal collects the surveys, she is using the information and her experience to write a book for women dealing with a porn addiction. “There aren’t really any books for women that deal with porn,” says Crystal, who wants women use the book to evaluate where they are within their addiction. “The first thing you have to do is get honest about it. Most women lie to themselves about how severe their addiction is. Get honest before God about the things you don’t want to do.”

Crystal says that when you know how deep you are into your addiction, you can honestly confess your issue to someone you trust. “Confession to people is huge because you aren’t lying to everyone anymore.”

But even though this process is hard, “The refining process in our lives is for us to reflect Christ," Crystal says. "God allows us to go through the really crappy times so that we can reflect him.”

Visit thenewpornaddicts.com for more information about Crystal and her forthcoming book. Crystal also blogs on pinkhairedgirl.net.