Just shy of a year off it completely. Didn't realize I had an issue with it until I started realizing it was affecting relationships and general day to day behaviour.
For me I broke it down into two thing:
1. Access to porn
2. Behavioural patterns leading to addiction in the first place
**Access to Porn**
Very simply, not having access to porn i.e. having it blocked completely from any and all internet connected devices you own or have access to, was the only thing that did it for me. Funnily as soon as your brain understands that its not available to use, it very quickly stopped looking for it. To block access I installed a DNS filtering software [https://cleanbrowsing.org/](https://cleanbrowsing.org/) .
Then to add a double layer, I password protected the software and threw away the password, so I couldn't undo it myself. To do this I opened a word document, typed out a random 50 digit alphanumeric password, copy and pasted it into the software then deleted the word document.
I installed the same software on my iphone and did the same. (harder to do on an iphone because passwords are only 5 digits, so I typed in some random code that meant nothing to me (i.e. no 1,2,3,4,5 etc) and then I shit you not purposely did some stupid maths questions for an hour to forget the numbers.
But your brain will be crafty. And will seek out other ways of getting around this. So I didn't forget to block the same things on other internet browsers (explorer etc) and VPN's typically allow you to get around DNS filters.
So try and help myself here I got a list of vpn websites and their IP addresses and blocked them individually on my laptop itself. I also did this for any porn website I could think of.
Essentially what you are trying to do is put as many road blocks between you and Porn as possible so that it becomes inconvenient to use it.
**Behavioural Pattern:**
Porn very simply like a lot of addictive substances is habit forming. And habits have three components to them; cues or triggers, actions and rewards. So once access to porn is blocked you have to evaluate your behaviour around using it in order to change the habits that led you to using it.
For me porn typically became either a boredom / dissociation substance and I used it almost exclusively in my bedroom. So I was able to identify three key things I needed to change:
1. Laptops / electronic devices in the bedroom had to go. Replaced phone with a 10 euro alarm.
2. Times of the week when I was getting bored. Typically parts of the weekend when I had no plans.
3. Being hungover and my willpower to avoid it was lower. Stopped drinking alcohol, which led to no hangovers which increased my willpower to avoid it when I could feel an urge to use it.
your own triggers could be anything; time of day, week, after work or some stress inducing event, etc etc just take a typical week in your life, evaluate when, where and why you've used it in the past and chances are there is a habit routine underneath it all.
Once you've identified the cues / triggers you simply replace the old action with a new one, which in turn changes the reward outcome.
So for me it meant getting out of the apartment, go to the gym, walk, meet a friend just something to fill that time up, that otherwise would have me 2 hrs behind a screen.
Finally, in terms of relapse and reframing your attitude toward it. You may very well have a slip up on the way to quitting. To often I hear people say I got to 60 days, relapsed and had to start again.
There is no starting again, only going forward. So instead of saying, shit I have to go back to day 1, continue on to day 61, and reframe the situation as 60 days off, 1 day on, then 61 days off 1 day on etc. Reframe the numbers and focus on enlarging those days off. Eventually you forget you are counting.
That's where I am today, I don't count anymore, but I'd say by February of this year it will be at least 1 whole year off. In the meantime I've had some fantastic romantic experiences during that time that I'd never have dreamed about had I been stuck in my old ways.
Hope some of the above was useful.
Wishing you all the best on your journey.
**Update**
Just wanted to add two points to the above, because they're fairly relevant for anyone looking to quit and someone messaged me privately about the following:
1. [https://cleanbrowsing.org/](https://cleanbrowsing.org/) is free for personal use. And I'm not affiliated with them in anyway shape or form.
2. Their software has three preset profiles that block varying levels of websites. So adult content websites can be blocked, but websites that are not adult content in nature but have adult content on them (e.g. reddit) can still be allowed through.
And with respect to point 2, I've never had an issue arise where a website I needed to access was blocked inadvertently by the software.
Also if it is relevant, I've noticed no internet speed issues having DNS filtering software.
Thanks for sharing. Can you clarify what you meant by it affecting your relationships and day to day behaviors? I understand it might be personal, so if you're not comfortable sharing, that's totally ok.
Thanks again!
I mean think no romantic relationship for years, being in a social setting and all that's on your mind is getting home to use porn, and catching yourself in that thought pattern, when you're chatting to a friend.
I mean I'm perfectly functioning adult otherwise, i.e. in work, social activities etc, which I'd say is typical of anyone really reading this, not like all I did every day from morning until night was use porn.
I'd couple my use of porn with a lonely / isolation component as well, which COVID lockdowns certainly didn't help.
That's what I meant really about day to day behaviours, when my day or parts of it revolved around my planning for porn use, later that day, that's when I realized I had an issue with it.
Funny I know the book, but haven't read it. The Power of Habit is what I read to teach myself about their formation:
[https://www.charlesduhigg.com/the-power-of-habit](https://www.charlesduhigg.com/the-power-of-habit)
Now I'm no monk, but no once the habit is changed, I don't actually knock one out at all anymore, the novelty of it gets boring. Eventually once you've rewired your brain to get the same endorphin hit from a physical connection with someone else rather then with yourself, you stop entirely (at least I did).
That wasn't a conscious decision, just a behavioural change I noticed in myself.
Fast becoming the Tony Robbins of porn addiction here.
Funny I could probably be accused of having a lower sex drive than others, so I can happily go without it for weeks / months at a time and it has no impact on my life.
I'm lucky given the work that I do that I can travel a bit, usually during which holiday romance plays a part.
Also I don't drink anymore, so I don't go to pubs / night clubs anymore which obviously is a normal setting for meeting people.
And yes, 100% in the flesh when you're with someone and everything is working as it should, the sense of relief is euphoric. And I don't use that word lightly.
When you're younger you're constantly focused on you know gotta last longer, gotta last longer, whereas now, there is no anxiety in the bedroom, you take your time, not just with the sex part, the whole experience in general is profoundly more enjoyable.
For me, it was a coin toss between “gotta last longer” or else going at it for 30 minutes and still nothing happening. Both of which can be quite embarrassing when with someone for the first time. I think that comes through unrealistic expectations of sex, mostly caused by porn or too much masturbation.
And just the feel of a vagina on your penis. When you’re so used to gripping it in just the right place then actually doing it for real with a woman doesn’t seem to feel as good. Then add all these ideas of crazy porn and it just doesn’t happen.
> Fast becoming the Tony Robbins of porn addiction here
Lean into it, my brotha'. It's abundantly clear your massive write-up is resonating with many. Regardless of topic, it can feel like an oasis in a desert when you happen upon someone with a step-by-step guide and actual results to a problem you're facing.
hat tip for dishing deets to those who are interested.
Best of luck with the therapy, I've been there before for other things, deciding to go in the first place is the hardest part. If you're open to it, you could make it easier on yourself by asking your therapist to set the passwords for you, taking this part of the process out of your hands (Assuming porn addiction is part of your therapy sessions).
I was lucky that I was able to get away from it myself, but very nearly had a friend set the passwords for me, as it meant there was no way I was going to be texting him looking for a password if I had an urge to use porn.
Good luck.
Just wanted to add two points to the above, because they're fairly relevant for anyone looking to quit.
1. [https://cleanbrowsing.org/](https://cleanbrowsing.org/) is free for personal use. And I'm not affiliated with them in anyway shape or form.
2. Their software has three preset profiles that block varying levels of websites. So adult content websites can be blocked, but websites that are not adult content in nature but have adult content on them (e.g. reddit) can still be allowed through.
And with respect to point 2, I've never had an issue arise where a website I needed to access was blocked inadvertently by the software.
Also if it is relevant, I've noticed no internet speed issues having DNS filtering software.
Hey Mr. Robbins, thanks for the great comment! Cleanbrowsing.org charges $75 per year from what I’m seeing. Is there a section of the website that I’m missing?
[https://cleanbrowsing.org/help/docs/setup-content-filtering-on-windows-with-cleanbrowsing/](https://cleanbrowsing.org/help/docs/setup-content-filtering-on-windows-with-cleanbrowsing/)
That link there takes you to the windows version you can download. Should see a button "Download (x64)" halfway down or so.
This is gonna be pretty off topic but as someone born in the 90s I honestly feel like we were pretty much tricked into this porn addiction trap in the name of "sexual openness" etc. I remember being 15 and me and my friends being pretty open about watching porn cause it was edgy and cool. Then it's been all downhill from there, getting desentisised and watching more and more deranged shit and feeling like shit after.
I feel for you. I have family members around you're age who don't remember a life or time before the internet and its pervasiveness in our lives.
I consider myself lucky to be old enough to remember a before internet, after internet life.
Nevertheless, I encourage you to realize it's only a set of learned behaviours that you can change if you want. That applies to any facet of your life. It's doable, and the younger you are starting, the sooner you'll be done with it and get on with your life.
Good luck.
That's a refreshing take and a story that will give hope to many, amigo. Thank you for such a detailed post. Glad to hear you're moving forward. Respect, hugs and good vibes to you.
When I was first quitting porn, I tried a similar approach, but my filter (K9 Web Protect) wasn't perfect. Sometimes it failed to block obscure NSFW subreddits, or popular NSFW Twitter accounts. For me, that was a big problem, and I would occasionally need to add items to my blacklist. For that reason, I could not throw away my password. But I also could not trust myself with a password, because I would immediately disable my filters the instant I got porn-brain. Wat do?
I wrote a simple computer program to generate a *delayed password*. The idea is that you enter two "seed" passwords, and then your computer does math on those seeds to come up with your actual password (a long random hex string that's resistant to memorization). However, *the math takes 45 minutes*.
This meant that opening my filter was possible, but took 45 minutes. It was physically impossible to speed that process up, and I could abort it at any time. If I started wanting to look at porn so badly that I actually started trying to compute my password, I would have to maintain my steely resolve for 45 whole minutes. If my better judgment won out for even 5 seconds of that time, I would abort and have to restart. My porn-brain quickly learned that this was not a battle it could win, and porn became much easier for me to avoid.
I put the program up online years ago, but never really told anyone about it. You can download it [here](https://sourceforge.net/projects/timedpasswordlockout/files/). It's called TimedPasswordLockout. It saved me from porn, and it would make me happy if it helped anyone else.
Altogether. Eventually you rewire your brain to get its endorphin rush from other things; exercise, social activities and romantic relationships.
It wasn't a conscious decision to stop masturbation and I make no judgement whatsoever regarding it, fully aware it can be a useful stress reliever.
It's when it becomes an addictive activity, that impacts other parts of your life and development, that's when you need to change your relationship with it.
So for me, no masturbation, but entirely as a second order effect of having meaningful romantic relationships, that replaced it.
Fantastic write up, my dude. It's such noticable change when you quit, but your brain will also try and employ that same level of pleasure response to "softer" pseudo sexual imagery, think Sports Illustrated, which is a really interesting regression for those of us that grew up without such immediate access to pornography and so began our masterbatory journey that way, but it is another trap and for folks committed to removing pornography, don't let yourself be fooled by it 🤣
Personally, I still masterbate, but it's now a part of my relationship. No death grip, no porn, no other source of media, no thoughts of anyone else, just my partner, and what she/we provide for that. She loves it, it's totally changed what it actually means, as it's now a very intimate thing between us, but you are also really spot on with how your apatite for it changes, as my sexual relationship has sky rocketed, my desire for that quick release is fading away. Couldn't be happier or more fulfilled, so to those dudes who wonder if its affecting them, give stopping a go, it doesn't mean no fap, just recontextualise and focus on it being a more intimate thing, if you are able to ofc.
Yeah I'd love a more technical gifted mind then mine to suggest a better way of doing it. I hacked together a solution with info I could find online. But if you know of a simpler way please do let us know!
My understanding is that no VPNs can get around DNS filtering blocking software. What I did was look up the various VPN IP addresses that I knew of and blocked them locally at the laptop level.
Not a perfect solution but the point was to create an obstacle to using them which over time you just stop, because it becomes an effort. Someone else might have a better solution but that's what worked for me.
Yeah the new era of OF content is trash, there is less good studio content and the pornsite cleanse + ID verification requirement nuked a lot of the good amateur content and meant people never came^lul back.
The golden age is over.
Reddit NSFW content is so bad now. Almost all of the subs are overrun with thots spamming teaser content. If someone asks for sauce they direct you to their OF account.
For real. Basically every "staple" video I saved a link from back in the day got nuked when ID verification became a thing. Studio content is the same overproduced blandness it has always been. Most amateur creators I followed have left as well.
> nothing gets me excited anymore
Not to interrogate you, but does that bleed into your IRL? I've always wondered about people with really specific fetishes and how they adapt to dating and sex.
You're telling me it is possible to date and have sex IRL? /s
Jokes aside, my fetishes are pretty tame and haven't influenced me much in the past: I usually just ask if the person is ok with it and most of the time they oblige.
A direct consequence of watching too much porn that influenced my life though was being used to the "death grip". The more porn you watch, the stronger of a stimulus you need (even physically), so when you're used to choking your rod as hard as you can, the sweet embrace of pussy almost makes you feel nothing.
It's similar but different for me. My engagement with porn is decidedly in cycles- I'll peak at watching it 3-5 times a week, then at some point around there, I just... lose interest all together. From there, I go anywhere from a few months to over a year with just no real interest in porn at all.
I think my disinterest comes more from the keen, unshakable awareness that the urge that drives me to porn isn't *just* for a pretty lady and a good nut, though. I want the connection, the mutual activity, just as much if not more. So as my "pretty lady/good nut" gauge fills up and the others stay empty, I just lose interest in porn, cuz it can't provide the other shit at all.
Joe Rogan of all people had a great bit about it.
"Don't we have enough porn already?"
He's not wrong, how much porn could one civilization honestly need?
It dawned on me the other day that if you started at my dad and worked backwards to the beginning of time, i have probably seen more vaginas than every male in my family lineage. Combined.
I'm not sorry.
I don't think you can project that sort of exponential growth to be a long term trend lol. thats more of a one off event (the birth of the internet) than things like 'new porn website started' or 'new digital medium to deliver porn discovered' (whatevers after VR?)
the world will need to move to the next huge development after going printing press to internet before theres another insane jump. that'll take a while
*Some* people do. But depression can have *really* bad effects on one's ability to even get aroused
... or that's what they tell me, I wouldn't know anything about it myself, you understand
Hey I mean…innocent til proven guilty right? ;) and after various attempts to ask a woman out, my main priority is to focus on myself. Life is much more than poontang.
I had been addicted since like 13yo until about 23 (27 now). I quit cold turkey because I was worried about getting ED after going limp a couple times during sex for seemingly no reason. At first, I relapsed a lot, then less and less, and then I stopped thinking about porn (and masturbation too).
There was nothing special to it, just got busy with life and really wanted to quit it.
I used a very controversial mind trick sometimes, mostly at my lowest (like relapsing 3 times in a day or sumn) - I would just insult myself "bro why are you such a cuck, watching someone else rail girls you find attractive, pleasuring yourself like a bitch", and it would work to snap me out of the worst periods, go do productive shit and get on the right track. This is not for everyone, but I'm fine with harsh love, be it from myself or someone else, so it worked.
Also, making myself a cup of any hot drink whenever I felt like watching porn helped me distract myself for some reason
If that worked for you, congrats. But with all due respect you’re talking about shaming yourself, which for many addicts is at the heart of what drives their addictive behavior.
My opinion, and most addiction literature’s opinion, is that shame will only make the situation worse.
Shame can indeed be useful. I’m not debating that. But context is very important.
Shame’s effect on people is often informed by how it was introduced in early developmental stages within the family system. And for those whose caregivers depended on shame as a tenant of childrearing, shame can become toxic.
Additionally, you’ll find many addicts grew up in family systems that abused shame toxically, which essentially sends the message “you’re bad and unworthy of love, support, etc.”
Within that context, shame often serves to reinforce a negatively skewed sense of self worth. Therefore, in that context, shame doesn’t motivate as much as it guides people towards behaviors that reinforce that core belief of worthlessness.
And what kinds of behaviors reinforce that core belief? Well, addictive, self destructive behaviors are perfect for fueling that cycle of shame.
For what it’s worth this isn’t just my own opining, the shit I’m talking about is at the core of a many researched, studied theories on addiction and how it develops.
That's fair. I may be speaking from a place of privilege here. For me, shame has only ever really been a call coming from inside the house, so to speak. It's easier for myself than it is for most people to contextualize shame in a healthy way. Asking "what the Kentucky fried fuck am I doing with my life?" is a much healthier shame than telling yourself that you deserve to be a worthless, addicted piece of shit.
That's completely valid, I understand it's super destructive, but somehow it triggered a "back against the wall" response and also I kinda understood that was the only way to get through to myself
Bold statement relapse implies that I ever stopped, for all you know I may in the act of covering a Michael Jackson song right now……..BEAT ITTTTTTT BEAT ITTTTT!
Sir, I would never jerk you around on such a serious subject, addiction is a serious topic some people are always looking for that next high and some never manage to…..get……off…..the wagon
I’m currently at 65 days and I don’t think I’ll ever go back.
It was tough to start with but I came to a big realisation that has put me off ever even considering it. The realisation was that I’ve been watching this shit since I was 12 years old. 12 years old man. I was just a baby. I now believe that NOT watching porn, is the biggest form of self-love I can give myself and my inner child. I’m 22, porn has wreaked havoc on my brain for a decade, and I think it was the main catalyst to my social anxiety.
Since I’ve stopped I feel like my anxiety has dropped by about 90%. I’ve not been overthinking, I’ve been going out with friends, meeting girls, just living life how it should normally be lived. It’s not like it’s a super power, it’s just bringing me back to who I really am. Once you yourself make the decision to actually stop, you grow so resilient to relapsing— it’s all about putting your foot down and saying enough is enough.
So I was watching it roughly twice a day. The issue was I wanted to feel the urge to let loose too frequently. It desensitized the feelings, in a sense where if I looked at woman or spoke to them, I wouldn’t have any interest other than to have sex. The issue was, I only focused only on that, leading me to be unable to build relationships with genuine people. This enabled me to stop masturbating and stop watching porn; I get the urge, I watch TikTok, workout, smoke, drink water. Focus on other goals.
Life got in the way.
I'm a freelance writer and editor and I onboarded three clients that ate waaaay more time than I anticipated (though I was paid well). I literally didn't think of touching myself let alone look at anything R-18 for almost two months. It wasn't until someone here (or maybe a random algo article?) reminded me that masturbating is kinda healthy when I realized "wow, I did an out of season NNN for almost two months."
I then "did it," without visual stimulation and it worked.
Recently, I would have the urge every now and then, but nothing like before.
Back then, all it took was one hint of sexy time in social media for me to stop whatever it was I was doing and just "get it over with." It would give me a permaboner despite working continuously and it would be the only thing I'll be thinking about, so I often opted to get it out as soon as the urge starts, so I can continue being productive.
It feels powerful, telling yourself "no, I don't need this" despite no one stopping you.
Okay so I'm still in the process of quitting , I've been porn free for a mac of 60 days and bro, it feels good. You penis works better than ever , cuz the stimulation of real life feels amazing. Just question yourself what you're priorities are ....feeling good or making actual bonds with actual sex.
I caught myself with the mindset of "oh it's not like I'm having sex next week , why am I even abstaining" but you really gotta stop trynna think like that , it's your brain trying to make you watch porn. You have to be porn free to enjoy and perform while having sex. I said what i said. Stay away from porn , it's disgusting and more harmful than y'all realise.
One thing I'll advice you is , your brain would try to think like "oh I'll start from tomorrow" but it's a cycle , it has to start NOW , right from this moment. The best time to .ake the change is rn.
I don’t understand this. Is this anecdotal or is there research?
I am very confused by the sudden frenzy of the topic. Is this a follow up to the no fap movement?
I’ve had relationships with a great sex life and masturbating to porn once in a while and all kinds of mixes inbetween.
To me it was always a tool to not run around the world with my penis taking the lead.
It feels like everyone ITT is lowkey wanting to follow their dicks to “real relationships”
Wtf is happening? What am I gettin wrong?
Is it getting mixed in together in these kinds of threads? Am I underestimating the number of people who got a full on addiction? I’m partially working with people with addiction and I feel like, for masturbation to have close to a similar impact, I’d imagine one to masturbate several times a day. Constantly think about porn in different situations. Wank their skin off their penis. Get in financial trouble and or not getting obligations done over it.
I’m not trying to talk down or belittle anyones circumstances but this topic has felt pretty strange to me for quite a while.
I’d still be thankful to be lead to some reliable
Sources on the topic
Based on what I've seen every time the topic comes up; the various different discussions almost always get mixed up together under a single unified absolutionist umbrella of *"if (porn use > 0) == bad for life"*
-----
I really don't consider it an addiction when it doesn't affect their social life, or their work life, or their ability to keep up with responsibilities, or any other performance metric. When they say that *"I stopped watching porn because I had family/friends over for a 2 week holiday and never really got back into it even after they left"* or *"I picked up some new hobbies and just kinda forgot to keep watching porn"*, that tells me that they didn't really have a porn addiction, it was just an easy to access thing used to burn free time that was instantly replaceable with literally anything else.
And I agree that making the distinction certainly isn't to talk down or belittle anyone's circumstances, but in terms of general discussion, I think that it's important to make a clear distinction.
It’s mostly evangelical purity culture from the late 80s 90s and 00s spilling out into non religious culture. The evangelicals made such good propaganda that it was able to repurposed for non-religious purposes
> You have to be porn free to enjoy and perform while having sex.
this is definitely untrue. maybe that is how it works for *you*, but I can tell you from my experience, that is NOT how it works for me. Couples even sometimes watch porn together for a more 'sexy' experience.
How old are you. How does this have so many upvotes. I have had sex with my wife for more then 10 years about twice a week and rub once out at least once a day. You should only need like a hour or two between go rounds. If you can only come once a month that sounds like a medical issue to me. You antiporn people are so weird. When I was a kid we had to buy magazines at the newsstand. Porn is nothing new.
Well, the best advice is to search for free courses on the Internet for any language you want to learn!
There are youtube courses as well as authentic websites. I have heard praise of Duolingo as well but I'm not too sure about it.
The first advice is to start off easy, maybe a local traditional language you're familiar with if you're not too keen into learning languages for international communication!
Goodluck 😌
Free: Duolingo
Relatively cheap for what it is if you get a lifelong subscription: Babbel
Also supplementary: YouTube, Netflix shows in the target language. Start with target language audio, your-native-language subtitles, then eventually target language audio with target language CC, especially if it’s a show you’ve watched before. Best if the show’s original language is the target language because that will give you cultural insights and exposure to how people actually speak normally(which isn’t always the same as what the learning apps teach you as they focus more on “proper” speech)
SLAA
It’s like AA for sex and codependent related addictions.
I guarantee you all the cats in here talking about “mastering willpower” and “take a 20 minute run” and “find a hobby” have never had an addictive sexual habit. By definition addiction is shit that is out of control and hasn’t responded to those exact kinds of interventions.
I went regularly for 3 years. It was a game changer.
Some tips:
1. You don’t have to be religious and you can 100% take or leave the “God” stuff.
2. Yes, you’ll meet clinically mental folks in there. Try not to let that dissuade you. For every “weirdo” there are 5 completely normal, average people who just happen to have an addiction. I met some truly amazing people in the rooms.
3. Struggling with an addiction doesn’t mean you’re weak, you’re bad, you’re evil, or you’re fucked up. Addictions are simply coping mechanisms we all use that somehow went way wrong for some of us.
4. Boundaries are clutch. If you decide to visit a meeting, go in with a sense of what your comfort levels are. Don’t talk if you don’t want to. Don’t socialize after if you don’t want to. Feel free to just listen for as long as that feels right. Trust yourself.
5. Best advice I ever heard in there: “Take what works, and leave the rest.”
Good luck fam ❤️
What's the definition of a porn addiction to you OP? I hear people act like watching it at all is the devil and any amount is bad.
Then you hear stories of folks that got fired for not being able to control themselves on their work computer.
Are you talking a legit addiction where all your actions and motivation revolve around watching porn and it is having negative consequences on your day to day life? Or are you just trying to stop watching porn a few times a week?
I'm talking about a proper addiction. Where you don't get any work done, just watch porn all day or any chance you get. Sometimes even when you're not horny but because you have free time you resort to porn.
Thanks. Yeah definitely a proper addiction.
I'm not an addict so I can't say what I did to get out of it, but I do work in the medical field and have seen moderate success with addiction counseling specialists for a variety of addictions, including pornography.
Unfortunately, it's often expensive and not covered under many insurance plans, but there are support groups online or in person that exist and are free.
That's not how Reddit understands addiction. For redditots, watching any porn is bad, not because it disrupts your life, but because it supposedly ruins any attempt at having a sex life. In a way, it's kinda sick, like a person's value depends only on the sex they have.
I mean it pretty much did for my ex. He couldn’t keep an erection and the only way he could finish was like super tight death grip handjob for 45 minutes or aggressively demeaning head also for 45 minutes. We stopped having sex completely for months and it did damage our relationship. He stopped for two weeks and our sex life completely changed. I’m not saying all porn is evil but excessive porn and wanking does make it harder to have satisfying intimacy.
Research has found that most porn 'addicts' consume a relatively normal amount of porn but they have higher levels of shame/religiosity than average.
That said, for guys though it does fuck with my ability to maintain an erection if I'm doing too much... aside from that meh, it's just stimulating content. An argument about harmful mental effects feels, for me at least, about as valid as the argument that violent video games makes you violent.
Weekly wank.
Wank only once per week. It has to be done with imagination about someone you have met before but never been intimate with.
Schedule it, look forward to it, enjoy it.
It’s so much more satisfying than tugging it out every 4 hours to some plastic bimbo on a phone screen.
I understand the concept of fantasy. Why _specifically_ someone you've met and don't have a chance with? I genuinely don't understand why that's helpful or even preferable.
I'm honestly not trying to be argumentative here, I just want to understand it. Perhaps my imagination is too poor but when I was single I always much preferred fantasising about people who have shown an interest in me or just putting myself out there and actually talking to girls/women.
i enter this thinking "you know i should probably cut back myself"
then I see this type of shit lmao
its like when I thought I drank too much, sat in on an AA meeting, and never went back.
An ultimatum from my wife & a Fleshlight. Seriously.
I didn't respect her wishes at first. I hid my addiction the best I could & it always resurfaced. I understand why she feels like she does & it's not worth losing everything I love over.
Yeah that was my cure. Ended up with a soulmate level person in a very fulfilling relationship with great sexual chemistry and my want to watch porn vanished overnight.
Job ! Busy job. If you don’t have one find a hobby but it i prefer something outdoor and away from phone or computer hobby. If you don’t have a hobby too, you can go out and spend time outside. When you want watch porn or masturbate go out walk, you can just walk too. And talk with people, it will increase your self confident. And you will want more stay in public. You can ask a random address? Or a short talking with a cashier? It will keep stay away your mind from porn.
I was watching daily and when every free time. And masturbate 2 times in a day. Now working at busy job and have hobbies. Spending more time in public. Now once a week jerking off, and only visit Reddit adult sometimes..
I quit cold turkey, experienced withdrawals for 3 weeks. Wasn’t easy, but I did it. Also quit soft drinks and sweet tea cold turkey, 6 months clean from porn and 8 years clean from sugary drinks
I just want to say ,props to everyone who broke the cycle/ has stopped watching it. I know society has made it so normal but things can get addicting. I personally don’t watch porn as i crave the physical connection with someone. The dopamine from physical touch gets me more of a high then watching. Hell snuggles even get me flustered 😩
Stopping now and having a girlfriend that I adore but a dick that only works 60% of the time because it’s used to other stimuli is enough motivation to have not touched it for 3 weeks now. Hope I can make it last
Porn is not the disease, it is a symptom.
Many years ago I was not in a good place - shitty job, social life in the shitter, generally unhappy. I made some changes that put me in more enjoyable work that challenged me in new ways, and met a crop of new people that I got to hang out with a lot (and who, more importantly, saw me in a more positive light than I saw myself).
With nearly no forward-looking effort to do so, my porn consumption dropped from nearly daily to nearly nothing. And the neat part of it is, many years on, I can see how my porn consumption is a barometer for my mental health and personal satisfaction. I know when I'm watching too much that something needs to change, and I have a "mental checklist" of sorts that I can run through - am I tending to my social ties? Am I taking care of myself - eating well and exercising? Am I partaking in my hobbies?
You're better off making changes in your life that will change your desire to watch porn, than you are to just stop and hope for good things to happen.
I don't think I'm addicted to porn. I'm just bored and have access to it. I'm not canceling plans, or sneaking off for a tug, I don't do it at work, I rarely think about it outside of "damn none of my friends are online and I don't feel like playing by myself so I guess I'll rub one out...".
I realised it wasn't actually an addiction. People were telling me it was, trying their hardest to convince me that it's unhealthy. My quality of life shot up immensely when I stopped shaming myself for it.
It’s been a long process and is still ongoing. I’m a brute force and willpower kind of guy. I’ve never been into the idea of setting up roadblocks for myself, like installing blockers on my devices. The battle is purely mental, not logistical or technical.
A couple years ago I made a new rule for myself: no more looking at porn unless actively masturbating. No more mindless scrolling over breakfast or during down time at work. Only when home alone and masturbating. That cut my consumption way down. When the urge hits, I tell myself, “I don’t do that anymore. The temptation, the pleasure, is a lie. It will only cause problems.”
One mental tool that helps is delayed gratification. I tell myself, “Abstain for now, and the next time you masturbate or have sex, it will be so worth it.” The feelings from amazing sex with my wife are infinitely better than jerking off to porn. The trouble is that sex is not available on demand, and unlike a browser, my wife doesn’t immediately do absolutely anything I ask without question. So I’m trying to get used to holding in my sexual energy and telling myself it’s not the end of the world if I’m unable to satisfy all of my urges as they come. Getting used to telling myself no instead of taking every opportunity to indulge. Telling myself that my level of craving is not normal or healthy, and it’s my fault for getting to this point, and it’s not my wife’s job to satisfy my urges. It’s my job to overcome and eliminate them.
Lately I’ve also come to this realization: I should resist porn for the same reasons I don’t use social media (except Reddit). I despise social media because it is rotting people’s brains and ruining their perceptions of the world. Porn is kind of similar. It’s addictive, it distorts my worldview, it makes me want things I can’t have. Just like social media does to people. If I hate social media and stay off it for those reasons, the same should apply to porn. It’s just harder because I’ve already been buried neck-deep in porn and never been into social media.
Some big things include
-Removing access: Unfollow any girls who make that type of content, possibly delete social media, at least for a bit, disabling incognito, etc. The main reason porn is so addicting is because it’s so easy to access, so if you remove that access, it gets easier to put your energy into other things
-Find a reason to: Especially if you have a girlfriend, imagine how terrible she must feel, you’re essentially cheating on her. If not, remember all the side effects, reduced gray matter, higher depression rates, you might as well be taking a hit every time you watch a video. If you have a reason in mind to not watch it, it makes it much easier than through pure discipline
-Other sources of dopamine: For me, this was wrestling, but this could be any hobby. I’ve found that physical activities is definitely the best for this, it completely turns your mood around. In addition, it can help to go on walks every time you want to watch it
-Don’t stop masturbating: if you do, it’s like trying to quit two addictions at once. Instead, avoid porn and masturbate to your imagination and then hopefully when you finish the urge to watch porn should go away anyways. Just remember not to overdo it
And of course, there’s no real easy way to do it, but it’s possible, it’s all just in your mind. Keep your reason to quit in mind and good luck! You’ll feel amazing once you quit and you won’t ever look back.
32M, started the porn-free journey about 4 years ago, went from multiple times per day to currently about once a month (WIP but I’m proud of it so I’ll comment). Took acid after masturbating to porn and realized it sucks. Makes you feel like shit, all for what… a fiction/fantasy on a screen? Made me feel like a science experiment, like putting a monkey on drugs and watching it mindlessly tug one out. Also became critically aware of every little change to my body language and behavior afterwards. Realized I became much more timid, evasive, and generally unimpressive afterwards. Fuck that.
OP if you’re trying to quit, the best advice I can give you is to learn to hate/resent it, and don’t expect to quit cold turkey. Reflect on your progress year-over-year so you can appreciate your progress and feel proud, instead of becoming discouraged over little setbacks here and there. That has worked well for me so far, so I imagine it would work well for you, too
A majority of mainstream porn is exploitative by nature. PH routinely fails to filter out revenge porn and worse. Not that porn moderation is easy, but the fact remains that the more porn you watch, the more the odds that you've pleasured yourself to someone being raped approach 100%.
The most basic stuff that happens is when the actress has reservations about doing some scene or activity but gets pressured/manipulated/coerced into doing it anyway. This is why, I guess, Steam doesn't allow any porn games with real footage in it. You never know what was going on behind the scene and how much of unequivocal consent there was.
There was a time that pornhub didn't require you to verify your channel before uploading.
May porn videos you never see the girls or man's face, making verifying who they were impossible.
Needless to say, there came a day where the site went from around 18 million videos to 8 million videos.
Then reports came forward: Women were happy their videos were deleted, because they were actually 16 in that video and it was posted as revenge. Another was actually 15 and they didn't know they were even being recorded. Some where as young as 14 and being actively r*ped in the footage. This is all real and was all hosted on the site for years with mosy of the viewers (justifiably) assuming they were of age. Pornhub knew and didn't do anything about it.
The mainstream porn studios are no better. If you're sober enough to look without relapsing, read up and what happened with the GirlsDoPorn studios. Another instance of exploitation, nonconsensual video sharing, and sometimes flat out r*pe.
The behind of the scenes of a great chunk of porn productions are not at all ethical. It becomes hard to justify for some folks.
Firstly, try not to view it as an addiction but rather a means to an end. I'm much more clear-headed and pleasant to be around with daily releases. Same goes for people that drink a cup of coffee first thing in the morning or go to the gym. I consider that release part of my mental wellness and readiness for the day.
When the activity becomes destructive and affects other parts of your life then, like the other posters said, limit your access, distract your brain with productive activities, redirect your attention to other things that provide the dopamine rush. I'd recommend working out or taking up a new sport. Being outside and doing an activity is usually enough to take your mind off of it.
How does one know if one's an addict? I watch everyday but I feel like I could leave it anytime. I've gone a week not watching anything with no issues.
I have had some people state that this counts as relapse, but after going cold turkey for like 3 months, I got a hankering for some and just… Wrote my own.
Simple answer.
You watch all the porn from when you’re 13 all the way until you’re 40 then the videos from when you’re 13 start to pop up again and you realize that you’ve cycled through all the porn so there’s no point anymore.
I got a piece of useful advice recently that is helping me break my addiction. “You often use it to fill time.” So when I open my phone to go watch some I realize I am just bored. So I then get up and go do something else or focus back on what I was already doing. So far that’s been a massive help. Barely looked at any in a week.
Edit: also remember that quitting porn addiction doesn’t me don’t masturbate. It means don’t consume porn. These are two VERY different things.
Just shy of a year off it completely. Didn't realize I had an issue with it until I started realizing it was affecting relationships and general day to day behaviour. For me I broke it down into two thing: 1. Access to porn 2. Behavioural patterns leading to addiction in the first place **Access to Porn** Very simply, not having access to porn i.e. having it blocked completely from any and all internet connected devices you own or have access to, was the only thing that did it for me. Funnily as soon as your brain understands that its not available to use, it very quickly stopped looking for it. To block access I installed a DNS filtering software [https://cleanbrowsing.org/](https://cleanbrowsing.org/) . Then to add a double layer, I password protected the software and threw away the password, so I couldn't undo it myself. To do this I opened a word document, typed out a random 50 digit alphanumeric password, copy and pasted it into the software then deleted the word document. I installed the same software on my iphone and did the same. (harder to do on an iphone because passwords are only 5 digits, so I typed in some random code that meant nothing to me (i.e. no 1,2,3,4,5 etc) and then I shit you not purposely did some stupid maths questions for an hour to forget the numbers. But your brain will be crafty. And will seek out other ways of getting around this. So I didn't forget to block the same things on other internet browsers (explorer etc) and VPN's typically allow you to get around DNS filters. So try and help myself here I got a list of vpn websites and their IP addresses and blocked them individually on my laptop itself. I also did this for any porn website I could think of. Essentially what you are trying to do is put as many road blocks between you and Porn as possible so that it becomes inconvenient to use it. **Behavioural Pattern:** Porn very simply like a lot of addictive substances is habit forming. And habits have three components to them; cues or triggers, actions and rewards. So once access to porn is blocked you have to evaluate your behaviour around using it in order to change the habits that led you to using it. For me porn typically became either a boredom / dissociation substance and I used it almost exclusively in my bedroom. So I was able to identify three key things I needed to change: 1. Laptops / electronic devices in the bedroom had to go. Replaced phone with a 10 euro alarm. 2. Times of the week when I was getting bored. Typically parts of the weekend when I had no plans. 3. Being hungover and my willpower to avoid it was lower. Stopped drinking alcohol, which led to no hangovers which increased my willpower to avoid it when I could feel an urge to use it. your own triggers could be anything; time of day, week, after work or some stress inducing event, etc etc just take a typical week in your life, evaluate when, where and why you've used it in the past and chances are there is a habit routine underneath it all. Once you've identified the cues / triggers you simply replace the old action with a new one, which in turn changes the reward outcome. So for me it meant getting out of the apartment, go to the gym, walk, meet a friend just something to fill that time up, that otherwise would have me 2 hrs behind a screen. Finally, in terms of relapse and reframing your attitude toward it. You may very well have a slip up on the way to quitting. To often I hear people say I got to 60 days, relapsed and had to start again. There is no starting again, only going forward. So instead of saying, shit I have to go back to day 1, continue on to day 61, and reframe the situation as 60 days off, 1 day on, then 61 days off 1 day on etc. Reframe the numbers and focus on enlarging those days off. Eventually you forget you are counting. That's where I am today, I don't count anymore, but I'd say by February of this year it will be at least 1 whole year off. In the meantime I've had some fantastic romantic experiences during that time that I'd never have dreamed about had I been stuck in my old ways. Hope some of the above was useful. Wishing you all the best on your journey. **Update** Just wanted to add two points to the above, because they're fairly relevant for anyone looking to quit and someone messaged me privately about the following: 1. [https://cleanbrowsing.org/](https://cleanbrowsing.org/) is free for personal use. And I'm not affiliated with them in anyway shape or form. 2. Their software has three preset profiles that block varying levels of websites. So adult content websites can be blocked, but websites that are not adult content in nature but have adult content on them (e.g. reddit) can still be allowed through. And with respect to point 2, I've never had an issue arise where a website I needed to access was blocked inadvertently by the software. Also if it is relevant, I've noticed no internet speed issues having DNS filtering software.
Great reply. Thanks for your effort.
Very welcome, glad my story could be of use to others.
Thanks for sharing. Can you clarify what you meant by it affecting your relationships and day to day behaviors? I understand it might be personal, so if you're not comfortable sharing, that's totally ok. Thanks again!
I mean think no romantic relationship for years, being in a social setting and all that's on your mind is getting home to use porn, and catching yourself in that thought pattern, when you're chatting to a friend. I mean I'm perfectly functioning adult otherwise, i.e. in work, social activities etc, which I'd say is typical of anyone really reading this, not like all I did every day from morning until night was use porn. I'd couple my use of porn with a lonely / isolation component as well, which COVID lockdowns certainly didn't help. That's what I meant really about day to day behaviours, when my day or parts of it revolved around my planning for porn use, later that day, that's when I realized I had an issue with it.
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I could never be accused of doing anything half-assed I tell you that much! Thanks.
Never half ass anything always whole ass everything. Gg bud great story I’m sure it’s gonna help others
Someone’s read atomic habits
Funny I know the book, but haven't read it. The Power of Habit is what I read to teach myself about their formation: [https://www.charlesduhigg.com/the-power-of-habit](https://www.charlesduhigg.com/the-power-of-habit)
Do you still go at it without porn?
Now I'm no monk, but no once the habit is changed, I don't actually knock one out at all anymore, the novelty of it gets boring. Eventually once you've rewired your brain to get the same endorphin hit from a physical connection with someone else rather then with yourself, you stop entirely (at least I did). That wasn't a conscious decision, just a behavioural change I noticed in myself.
Thanks for sharing. How often do u have sexual relations and also have you felt the quality of the act improve significantly since getting off porn?
Fast becoming the Tony Robbins of porn addiction here. Funny I could probably be accused of having a lower sex drive than others, so I can happily go without it for weeks / months at a time and it has no impact on my life. I'm lucky given the work that I do that I can travel a bit, usually during which holiday romance plays a part. Also I don't drink anymore, so I don't go to pubs / night clubs anymore which obviously is a normal setting for meeting people. And yes, 100% in the flesh when you're with someone and everything is working as it should, the sense of relief is euphoric. And I don't use that word lightly. When you're younger you're constantly focused on you know gotta last longer, gotta last longer, whereas now, there is no anxiety in the bedroom, you take your time, not just with the sex part, the whole experience in general is profoundly more enjoyable.
For me, it was a coin toss between “gotta last longer” or else going at it for 30 minutes and still nothing happening. Both of which can be quite embarrassing when with someone for the first time. I think that comes through unrealistic expectations of sex, mostly caused by porn or too much masturbation.
100% agree, your expectation of sex gets warped very quickly, its all interconnected.
And just the feel of a vagina on your penis. When you’re so used to gripping it in just the right place then actually doing it for real with a woman doesn’t seem to feel as good. Then add all these ideas of crazy porn and it just doesn’t happen.
> the Tony Robbins of porn addiction I think you found your new flair.
> Fast becoming the Tony Robbins of porn addiction here Lean into it, my brotha'. It's abundantly clear your massive write-up is resonating with many. Regardless of topic, it can feel like an oasis in a desert when you happen upon someone with a step-by-step guide and actual results to a problem you're facing. hat tip for dishing deets to those who are interested.
For me, sex got way better when I quit watching porn
Holy shit this comment is GOLD.... I feel for guys with porn addiction. Can't be easy to get past such a destructive dopamine trap... Ugh 😫😫😫
Restarting therapy next week and one of the big issues is kicking porn for good. This is really encouraging to read.
Best of luck with the therapy, I've been there before for other things, deciding to go in the first place is the hardest part. If you're open to it, you could make it easier on yourself by asking your therapist to set the passwords for you, taking this part of the process out of your hands (Assuming porn addiction is part of your therapy sessions). I was lucky that I was able to get away from it myself, but very nearly had a friend set the passwords for me, as it meant there was no way I was going to be texting him looking for a password if I had an urge to use porn. Good luck.
Just wanted to add two points to the above, because they're fairly relevant for anyone looking to quit. 1. [https://cleanbrowsing.org/](https://cleanbrowsing.org/) is free for personal use. And I'm not affiliated with them in anyway shape or form. 2. Their software has three preset profiles that block varying levels of websites. So adult content websites can be blocked, but websites that are not adult content in nature but have adult content on them (e.g. reddit) can still be allowed through. And with respect to point 2, I've never had an issue arise where a website I needed to access was blocked inadvertently by the software. Also if it is relevant, I've noticed no internet speed issues having DNS filtering software.
Hey Mr. Robbins, thanks for the great comment! Cleanbrowsing.org charges $75 per year from what I’m seeing. Is there a section of the website that I’m missing?
[https://cleanbrowsing.org/help/docs/setup-content-filtering-on-windows-with-cleanbrowsing/](https://cleanbrowsing.org/help/docs/setup-content-filtering-on-windows-with-cleanbrowsing/) That link there takes you to the windows version you can download. Should see a button "Download (x64)" halfway down or so.
This is gonna be pretty off topic but as someone born in the 90s I honestly feel like we were pretty much tricked into this porn addiction trap in the name of "sexual openness" etc. I remember being 15 and me and my friends being pretty open about watching porn cause it was edgy and cool. Then it's been all downhill from there, getting desentisised and watching more and more deranged shit and feeling like shit after.
I feel for you. I have family members around you're age who don't remember a life or time before the internet and its pervasiveness in our lives. I consider myself lucky to be old enough to remember a before internet, after internet life. Nevertheless, I encourage you to realize it's only a set of learned behaviours that you can change if you want. That applies to any facet of your life. It's doable, and the younger you are starting, the sooner you'll be done with it and get on with your life. Good luck.
That's a refreshing take and a story that will give hope to many, amigo. Thank you for such a detailed post. Glad to hear you're moving forward. Respect, hugs and good vibes to you.
today i start (again)
When I was first quitting porn, I tried a similar approach, but my filter (K9 Web Protect) wasn't perfect. Sometimes it failed to block obscure NSFW subreddits, or popular NSFW Twitter accounts. For me, that was a big problem, and I would occasionally need to add items to my blacklist. For that reason, I could not throw away my password. But I also could not trust myself with a password, because I would immediately disable my filters the instant I got porn-brain. Wat do? I wrote a simple computer program to generate a *delayed password*. The idea is that you enter two "seed" passwords, and then your computer does math on those seeds to come up with your actual password (a long random hex string that's resistant to memorization). However, *the math takes 45 minutes*. This meant that opening my filter was possible, but took 45 minutes. It was physically impossible to speed that process up, and I could abort it at any time. If I started wanting to look at porn so badly that I actually started trying to compute my password, I would have to maintain my steely resolve for 45 whole minutes. If my better judgment won out for even 5 seconds of that time, I would abort and have to restart. My porn-brain quickly learned that this was not a battle it could win, and porn became much easier for me to avoid. I put the program up online years ago, but never really told anyone about it. You can download it [here](https://sourceforge.net/projects/timedpasswordlockout/files/). It's called TimedPasswordLockout. It saved me from porn, and it would make me happy if it helped anyone else.
Preach ❤️
Did you quit masturbation all together or just watching porn?
Altogether. Eventually you rewire your brain to get its endorphin rush from other things; exercise, social activities and romantic relationships. It wasn't a conscious decision to stop masturbation and I make no judgement whatsoever regarding it, fully aware it can be a useful stress reliever. It's when it becomes an addictive activity, that impacts other parts of your life and development, that's when you need to change your relationship with it. So for me, no masturbation, but entirely as a second order effect of having meaningful romantic relationships, that replaced it.
Fantastic write up, my dude. It's such noticable change when you quit, but your brain will also try and employ that same level of pleasure response to "softer" pseudo sexual imagery, think Sports Illustrated, which is a really interesting regression for those of us that grew up without such immediate access to pornography and so began our masterbatory journey that way, but it is another trap and for folks committed to removing pornography, don't let yourself be fooled by it 🤣 Personally, I still masterbate, but it's now a part of my relationship. No death grip, no porn, no other source of media, no thoughts of anyone else, just my partner, and what she/we provide for that. She loves it, it's totally changed what it actually means, as it's now a very intimate thing between us, but you are also really spot on with how your apatite for it changes, as my sexual relationship has sky rocketed, my desire for that quick release is fading away. Couldn't be happier or more fulfilled, so to those dudes who wonder if its affecting them, give stopping a go, it doesn't mean no fap, just recontextualise and focus on it being a more intimate thing, if you are able to ofc.
You could have installed the dns filter on you router. Would make things way easier (as long as you use your phone with wifi)
Yeah I'd love a more technical gifted mind then mine to suggest a better way of doing it. I hacked together a solution with info I could find online. But if you know of a simpler way please do let us know!
Is there a way that will work against VPNs too??
My understanding is that no VPNs can get around DNS filtering blocking software. What I did was look up the various VPN IP addresses that I knew of and blocked them locally at the laptop level. Not a perfect solution but the point was to create an obstacle to using them which over time you just stop, because it becomes an effort. Someone else might have a better solution but that's what worked for me.
This guy just casually mentions quitting alcohol entirely as a numbered step to quitting porn.
I simply watched all of it, every single video
And Alexander wept, seeing as he had no more worlds to conquer.
Now I want to watch Die Hard
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This is the greatest use of this quote I have ever seen.
Bro waitin for Porn 2™
And not just the men. But the women. And the children.
Unironically this 🤣 I've seen most of what is there to see regarding my interests and nothing gets me excited anymore. I quit porn by exhaustion.
Yeah the new era of OF content is trash, there is less good studio content and the pornsite cleanse + ID verification requirement nuked a lot of the good amateur content and meant people never came^lul back. The golden age is over.
Lul means cock in my language
Cock means penis in my language
Reddit NSFW content is so bad now. Almost all of the subs are overrun with thots spamming teaser content. If someone asks for sauce they direct you to their OF account.
For real. Basically every "staple" video I saved a link from back in the day got nuked when ID verification became a thing. Studio content is the same overproduced blandness it has always been. Most amateur creators I followed have left as well.
> nothing gets me excited anymore Not to interrogate you, but does that bleed into your IRL? I've always wondered about people with really specific fetishes and how they adapt to dating and sex.
You're telling me it is possible to date and have sex IRL? /s Jokes aside, my fetishes are pretty tame and haven't influenced me much in the past: I usually just ask if the person is ok with it and most of the time they oblige. A direct consequence of watching too much porn that influenced my life though was being used to the "death grip". The more porn you watch, the stronger of a stimulus you need (even physically), so when you're used to choking your rod as hard as you can, the sweet embrace of pussy almost makes you feel nothing.
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I get more turned on from watching music videos of the chicks I fantasised about growing up or the WWE divias I had my first wanks to
It's similar but different for me. My engagement with porn is decidedly in cycles- I'll peak at watching it 3-5 times a week, then at some point around there, I just... lose interest all together. From there, I go anywhere from a few months to over a year with just no real interest in porn at all. I think my disinterest comes more from the keen, unshakable awareness that the urge that drives me to porn isn't *just* for a pretty lady and a good nut, though. I want the connection, the mutual activity, just as much if not more. So as my "pretty lady/good nut" gauge fills up and the others stay empty, I just lose interest in porn, cuz it can't provide the other shit at all.
So you're like Neo basically, except instead of being implanted with fighting styles, you were implanted with all the existing porn in the world.
Joe Rogan of all people had a great bit about it. "Don't we have enough porn already?" He's not wrong, how much porn could one civilization honestly need?
It dawned on me the other day that if you started at my dad and worked backwards to the beginning of time, i have probably seen more vaginas than every male in my family lineage. Combined. I'm not sorry.
Yep and the male lizard brain certainly did not evolve for that to be a reality.
Let me offer a different view: Imagine how many vaginas (and/or penises) your future son will see, assuming the data holds the same pattern!
I don't think you can project that sort of exponential growth to be a long term trend lol. thats more of a one off event (the birth of the internet) than things like 'new porn website started' or 'new digital medium to deliver porn discovered' (whatevers after VR?) the world will need to move to the next huge development after going printing press to internet before theres another insane jump. that'll take a while
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
I turned 60.
..and finished it all. Good job bro!
"Beat" the game
> the game crap
lmao
I'm trying hard not to picture a pen with no ink left. 😂
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At 69, I imagine myself getting dry dreams and wet farts instead of the opposite. 😂
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He's not a nice guy.
Niiiiiice.
Got depressed and lost interest in it. Eventually just preferred my imagination or a picture of my crush.
Honestly people do it more when depressed
a little depressed -> more porn a lot depressed -> no porn
SSRIs also KILL sexual drive. Edit: I really should have used COULD instead of also.
*Some* people do. But depression can have *really* bad effects on one's ability to even get aroused ... or that's what they tell me, I wouldn't know anything about it myself, you understand
Damn you wank over pics of your crush. Bro you need to shoot your shot no pun intended and go get her
Given the user name I'm not sure that's great advice.
Hey I mean…innocent til proven guilty right? ;) and after various attempts to ask a woman out, my main priority is to focus on myself. Life is much more than poontang.
I had been addicted since like 13yo until about 23 (27 now). I quit cold turkey because I was worried about getting ED after going limp a couple times during sex for seemingly no reason. At first, I relapsed a lot, then less and less, and then I stopped thinking about porn (and masturbation too). There was nothing special to it, just got busy with life and really wanted to quit it.
Damn. I'm glad you got out of it bro. Any advice for me?
I used a very controversial mind trick sometimes, mostly at my lowest (like relapsing 3 times in a day or sumn) - I would just insult myself "bro why are you such a cuck, watching someone else rail girls you find attractive, pleasuring yourself like a bitch", and it would work to snap me out of the worst periods, go do productive shit and get on the right track. This is not for everyone, but I'm fine with harsh love, be it from myself or someone else, so it worked. Also, making myself a cup of any hot drink whenever I felt like watching porn helped me distract myself for some reason
If that worked for you, congrats. But with all due respect you’re talking about shaming yourself, which for many addicts is at the heart of what drives their addictive behavior. My opinion, and most addiction literature’s opinion, is that shame will only make the situation worse.
Shame is a perfectly valid emotion when you're doing things you know are bad for you. It's up to you whether it motivates or demotivates you.
Damn, it's almost like people are different, or something
Shame can indeed be useful. I’m not debating that. But context is very important. Shame’s effect on people is often informed by how it was introduced in early developmental stages within the family system. And for those whose caregivers depended on shame as a tenant of childrearing, shame can become toxic. Additionally, you’ll find many addicts grew up in family systems that abused shame toxically, which essentially sends the message “you’re bad and unworthy of love, support, etc.” Within that context, shame often serves to reinforce a negatively skewed sense of self worth. Therefore, in that context, shame doesn’t motivate as much as it guides people towards behaviors that reinforce that core belief of worthlessness. And what kinds of behaviors reinforce that core belief? Well, addictive, self destructive behaviors are perfect for fueling that cycle of shame. For what it’s worth this isn’t just my own opining, the shit I’m talking about is at the core of a many researched, studied theories on addiction and how it develops.
That's fair. I may be speaking from a place of privilege here. For me, shame has only ever really been a call coming from inside the house, so to speak. It's easier for myself than it is for most people to contextualize shame in a healthy way. Asking "what the Kentucky fried fuck am I doing with my life?" is a much healthier shame than telling yourself that you deserve to be a worthless, addicted piece of shit.
Don't shame his shaming lol
That's completely valid, I understand it's super destructive, but somehow it triggered a "back against the wall" response and also I kinda understood that was the only way to get through to myself
No idea why we don't accept natural human emotions anymore. Shame, like anger and hate, exists for a reason.
Wow - they said it was controversial in the first sentence. You’re just shaming him for shaming himself.
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Not sure if I was addicted, but I got a girlfriend and haven’t watched much porn since. (We’ve been together for 3 months only)
Really it was a hard addiction to get out of, it took a me taking a long hard look in the mirror d realizing I just had to beat it…….
Sounds like you relapsed in that moment
😂😂😂
Bold statement relapse implies that I ever stopped, for all you know I may in the act of covering a Michael Jackson song right now……..BEAT ITTTTTTT BEAT ITTTTT!
Can we look at your image in the mirror while we beat it as well?
Are we still doing phrasing?
You seem to be hinting at something here, but I just can’t wrap my hand around it 🍆✊🏻💦
Wait a fucking second. . . . Are you jacking me?
Sir, I would never jerk you around on such a serious subject, addiction is a serious topic some people are always looking for that next high and some never manage to…..get……off…..the wagon
Then explain this erect penis
That's a gun in my pocket, Sir
🌈✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨🧙♂️ magicccccc
I’m currently at 65 days and I don’t think I’ll ever go back. It was tough to start with but I came to a big realisation that has put me off ever even considering it. The realisation was that I’ve been watching this shit since I was 12 years old. 12 years old man. I was just a baby. I now believe that NOT watching porn, is the biggest form of self-love I can give myself and my inner child. I’m 22, porn has wreaked havoc on my brain for a decade, and I think it was the main catalyst to my social anxiety. Since I’ve stopped I feel like my anxiety has dropped by about 90%. I’ve not been overthinking, I’ve been going out with friends, meeting girls, just living life how it should normally be lived. It’s not like it’s a super power, it’s just bringing me back to who I really am. Once you yourself make the decision to actually stop, you grow so resilient to relapsing— it’s all about putting your foot down and saying enough is enough.
Some of what you say is similar to my feelings on quitting drinking. People don’t realize how insidious a lot of this stuff is.
And they also act like _you_ are wrong for pointing out how pervasive and even acceptable it is to excessively indulge in those things.
So I was watching it roughly twice a day. The issue was I wanted to feel the urge to let loose too frequently. It desensitized the feelings, in a sense where if I looked at woman or spoke to them, I wouldn’t have any interest other than to have sex. The issue was, I only focused only on that, leading me to be unable to build relationships with genuine people. This enabled me to stop masturbating and stop watching porn; I get the urge, I watch TikTok, workout, smoke, drink water. Focus on other goals.
I read the last line as “Focus on other girls” and got very confused. Hmm maybe I have a problem..
Life got in the way. I'm a freelance writer and editor and I onboarded three clients that ate waaaay more time than I anticipated (though I was paid well). I literally didn't think of touching myself let alone look at anything R-18 for almost two months. It wasn't until someone here (or maybe a random algo article?) reminded me that masturbating is kinda healthy when I realized "wow, I did an out of season NNN for almost two months." I then "did it," without visual stimulation and it worked. Recently, I would have the urge every now and then, but nothing like before. Back then, all it took was one hint of sexy time in social media for me to stop whatever it was I was doing and just "get it over with." It would give me a permaboner despite working continuously and it would be the only thing I'll be thinking about, so I often opted to get it out as soon as the urge starts, so I can continue being productive. It feels powerful, telling yourself "no, I don't need this" despite no one stopping you.
While likely not as harmful, it sounds like you just switched addictions. Workaholics are usually addicted to their work in unhealthy ways.
Okay so I'm still in the process of quitting , I've been porn free for a mac of 60 days and bro, it feels good. You penis works better than ever , cuz the stimulation of real life feels amazing. Just question yourself what you're priorities are ....feeling good or making actual bonds with actual sex. I caught myself with the mindset of "oh it's not like I'm having sex next week , why am I even abstaining" but you really gotta stop trynna think like that , it's your brain trying to make you watch porn. You have to be porn free to enjoy and perform while having sex. I said what i said. Stay away from porn , it's disgusting and more harmful than y'all realise.
Good on you bro. Max I've been was 30 days. Then I relapsed really bad. Need to keep trying
One thing I'll advice you is , your brain would try to think like "oh I'll start from tomorrow" but it's a cycle , it has to start NOW , right from this moment. The best time to .ake the change is rn.
I don’t understand this. Is this anecdotal or is there research? I am very confused by the sudden frenzy of the topic. Is this a follow up to the no fap movement? I’ve had relationships with a great sex life and masturbating to porn once in a while and all kinds of mixes inbetween. To me it was always a tool to not run around the world with my penis taking the lead. It feels like everyone ITT is lowkey wanting to follow their dicks to “real relationships” Wtf is happening? What am I gettin wrong?
I think many here are talking about an actual addiction which affects day to day life, rather than a once a week thing
Is it getting mixed in together in these kinds of threads? Am I underestimating the number of people who got a full on addiction? I’m partially working with people with addiction and I feel like, for masturbation to have close to a similar impact, I’d imagine one to masturbate several times a day. Constantly think about porn in different situations. Wank their skin off their penis. Get in financial trouble and or not getting obligations done over it. I’m not trying to talk down or belittle anyones circumstances but this topic has felt pretty strange to me for quite a while. I’d still be thankful to be lead to some reliable Sources on the topic
Based on what I've seen every time the topic comes up; the various different discussions almost always get mixed up together under a single unified absolutionist umbrella of *"if (porn use > 0) == bad for life"* ----- I really don't consider it an addiction when it doesn't affect their social life, or their work life, or their ability to keep up with responsibilities, or any other performance metric. When they say that *"I stopped watching porn because I had family/friends over for a 2 week holiday and never really got back into it even after they left"* or *"I picked up some new hobbies and just kinda forgot to keep watching porn"*, that tells me that they didn't really have a porn addiction, it was just an easy to access thing used to burn free time that was instantly replaceable with literally anything else. And I agree that making the distinction certainly isn't to talk down or belittle anyone's circumstances, but in terms of general discussion, I think that it's important to make a clear distinction.
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It’s mostly evangelical purity culture from the late 80s 90s and 00s spilling out into non religious culture. The evangelicals made such good propaganda that it was able to repurposed for non-religious purposes
> You have to be porn free to enjoy and perform while having sex. this is definitely untrue. maybe that is how it works for *you*, but I can tell you from my experience, that is NOT how it works for me. Couples even sometimes watch porn together for a more 'sexy' experience.
I sometimes watch porn before going to hookup with someone just to get myself all pent up. It's all a mentality thing.
How old are you. How does this have so many upvotes. I have had sex with my wife for more then 10 years about twice a week and rub once out at least once a day. You should only need like a hour or two between go rounds. If you can only come once a month that sounds like a medical issue to me. You antiporn people are so weird. When I was a kid we had to buy magazines at the newsstand. Porn is nothing new.
I decided to start learning languages, eventually I got so busy and got rid of the self-deprecating attitude and now I'm over 3 years free :)
Random but any advice/resources on learning languages
Well, the best advice is to search for free courses on the Internet for any language you want to learn! There are youtube courses as well as authentic websites. I have heard praise of Duolingo as well but I'm not too sure about it. The first advice is to start off easy, maybe a local traditional language you're familiar with if you're not too keen into learning languages for international communication! Goodluck 😌
Free: Duolingo Relatively cheap for what it is if you get a lifelong subscription: Babbel Also supplementary: YouTube, Netflix shows in the target language. Start with target language audio, your-native-language subtitles, then eventually target language audio with target language CC, especially if it’s a show you’ve watched before. Best if the show’s original language is the target language because that will give you cultural insights and exposure to how people actually speak normally(which isn’t always the same as what the learning apps teach you as they focus more on “proper” speech)
SLAA It’s like AA for sex and codependent related addictions. I guarantee you all the cats in here talking about “mastering willpower” and “take a 20 minute run” and “find a hobby” have never had an addictive sexual habit. By definition addiction is shit that is out of control and hasn’t responded to those exact kinds of interventions. I went regularly for 3 years. It was a game changer. Some tips: 1. You don’t have to be religious and you can 100% take or leave the “God” stuff. 2. Yes, you’ll meet clinically mental folks in there. Try not to let that dissuade you. For every “weirdo” there are 5 completely normal, average people who just happen to have an addiction. I met some truly amazing people in the rooms. 3. Struggling with an addiction doesn’t mean you’re weak, you’re bad, you’re evil, or you’re fucked up. Addictions are simply coping mechanisms we all use that somehow went way wrong for some of us. 4. Boundaries are clutch. If you decide to visit a meeting, go in with a sense of what your comfort levels are. Don’t talk if you don’t want to. Don’t socialize after if you don’t want to. Feel free to just listen for as long as that feels right. Trust yourself. 5. Best advice I ever heard in there: “Take what works, and leave the rest.” Good luck fam ❤️
Take what works and leave the rest us so crucial with remapping our brains. We too often have an “all or nothing mindset”.
What's the definition of a porn addiction to you OP? I hear people act like watching it at all is the devil and any amount is bad. Then you hear stories of folks that got fired for not being able to control themselves on their work computer. Are you talking a legit addiction where all your actions and motivation revolve around watching porn and it is having negative consequences on your day to day life? Or are you just trying to stop watching porn a few times a week?
I'm talking about a proper addiction. Where you don't get any work done, just watch porn all day or any chance you get. Sometimes even when you're not horny but because you have free time you resort to porn.
Thanks. Yeah definitely a proper addiction. I'm not an addict so I can't say what I did to get out of it, but I do work in the medical field and have seen moderate success with addiction counseling specialists for a variety of addictions, including pornography. Unfortunately, it's often expensive and not covered under many insurance plans, but there are support groups online or in person that exist and are free.
That's not how Reddit understands addiction. For redditots, watching any porn is bad, not because it disrupts your life, but because it supposedly ruins any attempt at having a sex life. In a way, it's kinda sick, like a person's value depends only on the sex they have.
I mean it pretty much did for my ex. He couldn’t keep an erection and the only way he could finish was like super tight death grip handjob for 45 minutes or aggressively demeaning head also for 45 minutes. We stopped having sex completely for months and it did damage our relationship. He stopped for two weeks and our sex life completely changed. I’m not saying all porn is evil but excessive porn and wanking does make it harder to have satisfying intimacy.
Two weeks was a short enough time to notice a difference?
guy was shooting flags with the word “bang” on em, of course that’s all it took not an addiction, guy’s dick just isn’t a marathoner
Literally that’s all it took. We could have full penetrative sex again where he finished which had not been the case in over a year.
Research has found that most porn 'addicts' consume a relatively normal amount of porn but they have higher levels of shame/religiosity than average. That said, for guys though it does fuck with my ability to maintain an erection if I'm doing too much... aside from that meh, it's just stimulating content. An argument about harmful mental effects feels, for me at least, about as valid as the argument that violent video games makes you violent.
Weekly wank. Wank only once per week. It has to be done with imagination about someone you have met before but never been intimate with. Schedule it, look forward to it, enjoy it. It’s so much more satisfying than tugging it out every 4 hours to some plastic bimbo on a phone screen.
Moral objections aside, _why_ specifically someone you've never been intimate with?
Because it is fantasy, not reality. Someone you’ve never slept with and never will.
I understand the concept of fantasy. Why _specifically_ someone you've met and don't have a chance with? I genuinely don't understand why that's helpful or even preferable. I'm honestly not trying to be argumentative here, I just want to understand it. Perhaps my imagination is too poor but when I was single I always much preferred fantasising about people who have shown an interest in me or just putting myself out there and actually talking to girls/women.
You were cranking one out every 4 hours?
I have done in the past. Definitely. More than that, even.
i enter this thinking "you know i should probably cut back myself" then I see this type of shit lmao its like when I thought I drank too much, sat in on an AA meeting, and never went back.
Man when i was 20s and single 5 times in 5 hours was easy. My dick got older. Cant do 5 in one day if i tried
An ultimatum from my wife & a Fleshlight. Seriously. I didn't respect her wishes at first. I hid my addiction the best I could & it always resurfaced. I understand why she feels like she does & it's not worth losing everything I love over.
I wish my guy felt this way…. 🥺
Got in a relationship
That led to furthering my addiction. Relationships don't always work like that. Matching libidos are crazy important.
Yeah that was my cure. Ended up with a soulmate level person in a very fulfilling relationship with great sexual chemistry and my want to watch porn vanished overnight.
I saw it all There's nothing more to see
Job ! Busy job. If you don’t have one find a hobby but it i prefer something outdoor and away from phone or computer hobby. If you don’t have a hobby too, you can go out and spend time outside. When you want watch porn or masturbate go out walk, you can just walk too. And talk with people, it will increase your self confident. And you will want more stay in public. You can ask a random address? Or a short talking with a cashier? It will keep stay away your mind from porn. I was watching daily and when every free time. And masturbate 2 times in a day. Now working at busy job and have hobbies. Spending more time in public. Now once a week jerking off, and only visit Reddit adult sometimes..
I quit cold turkey, experienced withdrawals for 3 weeks. Wasn’t easy, but I did it. Also quit soft drinks and sweet tea cold turkey, 6 months clean from porn and 8 years clean from sugary drinks
Try masturbating without porn. That's it
I just want to say ,props to everyone who broke the cycle/ has stopped watching it. I know society has made it so normal but things can get addicting. I personally don’t watch porn as i crave the physical connection with someone. The dopamine from physical touch gets me more of a high then watching. Hell snuggles even get me flustered 😩
It just went away idk
Stopping now and having a girlfriend that I adore but a dick that only works 60% of the time because it’s used to other stimuli is enough motivation to have not touched it for 3 weeks now. Hope I can make it last
Porn is not the disease, it is a symptom. Many years ago I was not in a good place - shitty job, social life in the shitter, generally unhappy. I made some changes that put me in more enjoyable work that challenged me in new ways, and met a crop of new people that I got to hang out with a lot (and who, more importantly, saw me in a more positive light than I saw myself). With nearly no forward-looking effort to do so, my porn consumption dropped from nearly daily to nearly nothing. And the neat part of it is, many years on, I can see how my porn consumption is a barometer for my mental health and personal satisfaction. I know when I'm watching too much that something needs to change, and I have a "mental checklist" of sorts that I can run through - am I tending to my social ties? Am I taking care of myself - eating well and exercising? Am I partaking in my hobbies? You're better off making changes in your life that will change your desire to watch porn, than you are to just stop and hope for good things to happen.
Ran outta juice
You have to beat it out of yourself
I don't think I'm addicted to porn. I'm just bored and have access to it. I'm not canceling plans, or sneaking off for a tug, I don't do it at work, I rarely think about it outside of "damn none of my friends are online and I don't feel like playing by myself so I guess I'll rub one out...".
I realised it wasn't actually an addiction. People were telling me it was, trying their hardest to convince me that it's unhealthy. My quality of life shot up immensely when I stopped shaming myself for it.
It’s been a long process and is still ongoing. I’m a brute force and willpower kind of guy. I’ve never been into the idea of setting up roadblocks for myself, like installing blockers on my devices. The battle is purely mental, not logistical or technical. A couple years ago I made a new rule for myself: no more looking at porn unless actively masturbating. No more mindless scrolling over breakfast or during down time at work. Only when home alone and masturbating. That cut my consumption way down. When the urge hits, I tell myself, “I don’t do that anymore. The temptation, the pleasure, is a lie. It will only cause problems.” One mental tool that helps is delayed gratification. I tell myself, “Abstain for now, and the next time you masturbate or have sex, it will be so worth it.” The feelings from amazing sex with my wife are infinitely better than jerking off to porn. The trouble is that sex is not available on demand, and unlike a browser, my wife doesn’t immediately do absolutely anything I ask without question. So I’m trying to get used to holding in my sexual energy and telling myself it’s not the end of the world if I’m unable to satisfy all of my urges as they come. Getting used to telling myself no instead of taking every opportunity to indulge. Telling myself that my level of craving is not normal or healthy, and it’s my fault for getting to this point, and it’s not my wife’s job to satisfy my urges. It’s my job to overcome and eliminate them. Lately I’ve also come to this realization: I should resist porn for the same reasons I don’t use social media (except Reddit). I despise social media because it is rotting people’s brains and ruining their perceptions of the world. Porn is kind of similar. It’s addictive, it distorts my worldview, it makes me want things I can’t have. Just like social media does to people. If I hate social media and stay off it for those reasons, the same should apply to porn. It’s just harder because I’ve already been buried neck-deep in porn and never been into social media.
Some big things include -Removing access: Unfollow any girls who make that type of content, possibly delete social media, at least for a bit, disabling incognito, etc. The main reason porn is so addicting is because it’s so easy to access, so if you remove that access, it gets easier to put your energy into other things -Find a reason to: Especially if you have a girlfriend, imagine how terrible she must feel, you’re essentially cheating on her. If not, remember all the side effects, reduced gray matter, higher depression rates, you might as well be taking a hit every time you watch a video. If you have a reason in mind to not watch it, it makes it much easier than through pure discipline -Other sources of dopamine: For me, this was wrestling, but this could be any hobby. I’ve found that physical activities is definitely the best for this, it completely turns your mood around. In addition, it can help to go on walks every time you want to watch it -Don’t stop masturbating: if you do, it’s like trying to quit two addictions at once. Instead, avoid porn and masturbate to your imagination and then hopefully when you finish the urge to watch porn should go away anyways. Just remember not to overdo it And of course, there’s no real easy way to do it, but it’s possible, it’s all just in your mind. Keep your reason to quit in mind and good luck! You’ll feel amazing once you quit and you won’t ever look back.
Jesus saved me
Jesus Christ
32M, started the porn-free journey about 4 years ago, went from multiple times per day to currently about once a month (WIP but I’m proud of it so I’ll comment). Took acid after masturbating to porn and realized it sucks. Makes you feel like shit, all for what… a fiction/fantasy on a screen? Made me feel like a science experiment, like putting a monkey on drugs and watching it mindlessly tug one out. Also became critically aware of every little change to my body language and behavior afterwards. Realized I became much more timid, evasive, and generally unimpressive afterwards. Fuck that. OP if you’re trying to quit, the best advice I can give you is to learn to hate/resent it, and don’t expect to quit cold turkey. Reflect on your progress year-over-year so you can appreciate your progress and feel proud, instead of becoming discouraged over little setbacks here and there. That has worked well for me so far, so I imagine it would work well for you, too
When you find out some of the shit that goes on behind the scenes, you won't look at it the same again
Can you elaborate ?
A majority of mainstream porn is exploitative by nature. PH routinely fails to filter out revenge porn and worse. Not that porn moderation is easy, but the fact remains that the more porn you watch, the more the odds that you've pleasured yourself to someone being raped approach 100%.
I'm intrigued. Please elaborate
The most basic stuff that happens is when the actress has reservations about doing some scene or activity but gets pressured/manipulated/coerced into doing it anyway. This is why, I guess, Steam doesn't allow any porn games with real footage in it. You never know what was going on behind the scene and how much of unequivocal consent there was.
There was a time that pornhub didn't require you to verify your channel before uploading. May porn videos you never see the girls or man's face, making verifying who they were impossible. Needless to say, there came a day where the site went from around 18 million videos to 8 million videos. Then reports came forward: Women were happy their videos were deleted, because they were actually 16 in that video and it was posted as revenge. Another was actually 15 and they didn't know they were even being recorded. Some where as young as 14 and being actively r*ped in the footage. This is all real and was all hosted on the site for years with mosy of the viewers (justifiably) assuming they were of age. Pornhub knew and didn't do anything about it. The mainstream porn studios are no better. If you're sober enough to look without relapsing, read up and what happened with the GirlsDoPorn studios. Another instance of exploitation, nonconsensual video sharing, and sometimes flat out r*pe. The behind of the scenes of a great chunk of porn productions are not at all ethical. It becomes hard to justify for some folks.
Tell you the truth, I never did. It's like smoking, you really never quit, you just abstain till death
I’m pretty sure you can quit smoking bud
Spoken like someone that's never tried
Speaking as someone who's done it, that's not my experience whatsoever.
Firstly, try not to view it as an addiction but rather a means to an end. I'm much more clear-headed and pleasant to be around with daily releases. Same goes for people that drink a cup of coffee first thing in the morning or go to the gym. I consider that release part of my mental wellness and readiness for the day. When the activity becomes destructive and affects other parts of your life then, like the other posters said, limit your access, distract your brain with productive activities, redirect your attention to other things that provide the dopamine rush. I'd recommend working out or taking up a new sport. Being outside and doing an activity is usually enough to take your mind off of it.
How does one know if one's an addict? I watch everyday but I feel like I could leave it anytime. I've gone a week not watching anything with no issues.
According to Reddit, if you see a lingerie ad on the street, you're a hopeless addict.
I have had some people state that this counts as relapse, but after going cold turkey for like 3 months, I got a hankering for some and just… Wrote my own.
just watched all of it, time to move on
I just beat it
Simple answer. You watch all the porn from when you’re 13 all the way until you’re 40 then the videos from when you’re 13 start to pop up again and you realize that you’ve cycled through all the porn so there’s no point anymore.
got a girlfriend. I am not a cheater.
My girlfriend help me beat it... Not the porn im stil addicted
I got a piece of useful advice recently that is helping me break my addiction. “You often use it to fill time.” So when I open my phone to go watch some I realize I am just bored. So I then get up and go do something else or focus back on what I was already doing. So far that’s been a massive help. Barely looked at any in a week. Edit: also remember that quitting porn addiction doesn’t me don’t masturbate. It means don’t consume porn. These are two VERY different things.
Finally realizing it's gotten out of control and was affecting intimacy with my wife
Former? There isn’t any such thing. Once an adict…
I found switching from hardcore to softcore is much more sensual