So here's my situation. I'm a (29M) and she's (30M) and we've been together for around 7 years. What we have is wonderful. We get along well, we have a house together, for the most part it's great.

Personally, I struggle with porn addiction. About a month ago I admitted it to my partner after struggling with it for a while, and it was difficult, but it felt like it took a huge burden off my shoulders, and I was able to go steady up until recently.

I believe the reason I relapsed doesn't have to do with the addiction itself per-say (I have been able to go nearly an entire year without doing it), but my inability to express myself and ask for help when I'm vulnerable. It's like, I just don't know what to do in that situation.

I feel like being in a vulnerable state, isn't something to ask for help about, because it's not yet a "problem". Of course, until it is, which it inevitably always is. It's only then once I actually break down, do I realise in retrospect that if I'd just spoken to her, it would have been different. I think what happens is that these thoughts and emotions build up, and then it creates guilt and stress and anxiety, and then that pushes me over the edge.

And it's not that I don't want to communicate with her, because it's something I'm going to tell her ASAP because I 100% want to get better, it's more that I struggle with the whole "asking for help" thing, especially when nothing has technically happened. I guess it's something I just didn't grow up doing, I was always taught to kind of hold it in.

Does anyone have any advice on this? I'm thinking it might help to maybe spend a few minutes every night, telling her how I felt for that day. Maybe that's a good starting point, I'm not sure.