He was engaged to marry two women, sleeping with three and dating four, all at the same time.

He is among the millions of men who have fallen into the trap of pornography, and he has overcome his addiction.

More than 600 people packed the Great Hall Tuesday evening as Fred Stoeker, author of “Every Man’s Battle,” shared insight about the dangers of pornography and how to win the battle.

“I used to be so stuck in porn,” Stoeker said. “It was destroying me down to my toes, and I want to break the code of silence around here.”

Stoeker’s first exposure to pornography was a Playboy magazine he found under his father’s bed in their Cedar Rapids home. His addiction grew as he picked up magazines from the local drugstore; however, today people no longer have to wait for the store to open with the creation of the Internet.

He said the Internet has made pornography more tempting and available to young men, causing 70 percent of 15 to 17-year-olds to struggle with pornography.

Stacy Grove, junior in agricultural engineering, said he was surprised to discover so many men struggle with these problems. Grove said Stoeker’s presentation provided valuable insight into how men react to porn.

“It challenged me to think about porn, its availability, and what it does to men and women and our relationships,” Grove said.

Stoeker said pornography affects women as well as men.

“The more porn we get, the more it’s hurting us,” he said. “It is decreasing our ability to relate to real women.”

Stoeker said the porn industry has turned society into the “Age of Masturbation.”

“Men, this is what we’re doing to women — we’re lowering their sense of sexual value,” Stoeker said.

Porn is addictive because men experience sexual gratification through their eyes, he said.

Stoeker said the level of dopamine present a person looking at porn is “30 percent more addictive than cocaine.” It’s an addiction that is misleading and leads men to look for more graphic pornography as their addiction grows, he said.

“Pornography gives a false sense of intimacy, and it makes you start to look for intensity,” Stoeker said.

Kathryn Lueck, junior in pre-business, said she gained valuable insight about how men think and what they struggle with.

“I had never thought of pornography as an addiction before,” Lueck said.

Lueck is a member of Campus Crusade for Christ, one of three groups who brought Stoeker to campus.

“The issue is not just a Christian issue, but a societal issue,” Lueck said.

However, Stoeker said he is a Christian.

“I’m a Christian, and I make no apologies about that,” Stoeker said.

He turned from his ways of looking at women as objects, having sex with women of different races for the pleasure of something new and not caring about his partner’s pleasure in bed, he said.

Even after he stopped purchasing porn, the images continued to flood his mind, but has been successful in stopping his habit of masturbation and dreaming of other women, Stoeker said.

Stoeker left the audience with a challenge.

“Cut off sewage coming into your eyes,” he said.

“And starve your mind of those things.”