No More Porn For Me

I agree with you on the substances. For all its drawbacks, a momentary relapse into porn viewing doesn’t restart the physical addiction and withdrawal cycle that accompanies substance abuse/smoking. There are far worse addictions to have.

From personal experience and from studies which I can not remember the name of so will not reference them any further….so, just from personal experience for now, relapse into porn does restart the physical addiction. Porn is as much a chemical addiction as any other chemical addiction. The difference being that the chemical ingested is actually created in the body. My opinion is that a porn addiction can be equally as damaging as any of the other addictions we deem as very serious/dangerous/damaging.

On rewiring the brain: my understanding is that a common time frame is 3 to 6 months and can even take up to a year for some.

16 days clean right now. I have had times of a few years clean. This last relapse was short and shallow, but still it starts the difficulty of abstinence all over again. I have physical withdrawn symptoms when making the effort to not view and I doubt that I am the only one: headaches, body ache, agitation, achy/clammy hands, difficulty in being motivated to do anything. These are some of the physical symptoms I experience.
There is power in the amount of time that I abstain, so, once I have to start over it takes time again for it to become easier for me to be stronger than the desire. And, even during the times where I have abstained for a few years, the desire never fully left. It has just been weaker and in the background of my brain. So, then when I have foolishly let myself view, I then get sucked back in.

What ever the addiction is, they are not something to take lightly if you truly desire to control and change them.

Well I was going to start a thread about this but than spotted this one. I just deleted about 8 years of porn off my computer at least 60 gigs of porn. I didn’t consider myself a porn addict(maybe years ago) in fact I mostly watched when doing PE, edging and clamping. And every once in a while just to watch porn. But lately I have been become more spiritual and watching porn just seemed wrong when your trying to become a better person. I didn’t think I was a bad person for watching porn it just wasn’t who I want to be.

I can’t say I’m really religious and I’m not a fan of most organized religion but I do believe in God and I’m trying to recover my lost faith and I plan to get myself back to church. The world has left me hollow inside of late and I want to fill that void with good things. Maybe do some volunteer work, do my part to make the world better.

I haven’t come to terms with PE in general yet, is it wrong to think about your own dick size so much. I like to think I help people overcome insecurities and that PE is no different than weight lifting or other self improvement hobby. But I think of all the time I have invested in PE I could have finished my college education, maybe even a masters. Or I could have threw myself into a business venture or did community service. Spent more time with my kids!

Well just some thoughts, it’s been a real tough last 5 months for me causing me to reflect on my life and try to fix things I don’t like about myself.

:up:

I block avatars on thunders for that reason. I don’t want that to trigger a relapse. That and my browser loads the pages a lot faster. :-P

I’m 7 weeks in now. I don’t feel the need to look at porn any more but my libido is still not where I want it to be. It does vary from person to person, but reading reuniting.info, where a lot of people have recorded their experiences, 2 months seems to be talked as the average time. There’s always talk of 90 days, 100 days and more. In my opinion, it depends on a number of factors:

- how long you were watching porn/masturbating (hours a day and over the longer term).
- how “wrong” you perceive porn to be in your own mind (the more “wrong”, the more dopamine is released, which compounds the problem).
- how exclusive your porn/masturbating was compared to other activities (e.g. sex with real partners).
- how much your porn viewing was escalating in terms of more hardcore and gonzo content.
- use of other aids to enhance feeling of orgasm (e.g. toys, practices like auto-erotic asphyxiation etc.).
- other things that affect dopamine levels (exercise, diet, supplements, depression, drugs etc.).

I really need to stop looking at porn, I went for about a week a little bit ago then failed again. It doesn’t help that I’m not getting any sex either. Not sure how to stop actually. It seems I can go for a week but then I binge for a couple days straight. Maybe I am addicted?

What about tapering off of porn? Such as once every 5 days then once every 6 then 7, etc? Could that work?

Paulski82,

In your opinion based upon the factors you mentioned how long should it take to recover for someone like me? On average I look at porn about 4 days a week for about and hour, masturbate then and pretty much everyday, I think it’s fairly wrong and feel guilty sometimes, I’ve never had intercourse, mostly the porn I view is tame and not extreme but on occasion I dabble, I use lube every time sometimes a fleshlight, I’m very fit and workout about 4 days a week, eat well and don’t do any drugs but alcohol (not much).

Any advice?

Very good point Paulski.

Porn makes real life less interesting. I’ve had the same experience myself. Realised that not long ago, and when I read your thread I decided to stop watching it. Has been a couple of weeks now, and hope it will lead to increased libido soon.

Raybbaby, I have a question for you. Do all/most of the guys in porn use PE?

I’m into this also. The first problems I can see on the horizon are being un-able to get wood at the times I can do PE. Usually I would run for a quick porn fix. And when that didn’t get the desired results I would roll out to some freakier stuff, and sometimes consequently forget all about PE for the day.

After reading through some threads I decided that this ‘porn free life’ is going to be the one for me. I have had troubles with ED in the past only with partners. I chalked it up to ‘stage fright’ but now I think that is only half of the situation, if that, how can vanilla sex compete with the freaky porn I like?

Don’t get me wrong, I seriously enjoy the porn. Its difficult for me to spend a day w/ out pornographic images. I don’t think of it so much as a physical dependency but something more along the lines of people overeating because they are bored. If I’m not eating, or playing video games and at home alone. I was watching porn. Mostly just to pass the time. And admire the female form. I’m going to have to find a new, Go-To for time wasting. So far about 1 day clean, with out even pictures of naked women. For a week or two I was just looking at pictures found on TP, boobie and bootie pics, it wasn’t long before I noticed myself regressing to unwanted tendencies.

In the long run, I hope to develop far, far better ‘dick control.’ A better physical admiration for the natural/average woman. And a stronger imagination. I used to use that thing all the time, now I hardly exercise it.

Umm, how would I know? *chuckle

I don’t profess to be an expert on porn addiction recovery. I have my own personal experience and I’ve done quite a bit of reading into it. The site reuniting.info has loads of good information and personal accounts of porn addiction recovery.

Tapering off porn would probably work in the long term, but my opinion is the process would take much longer than going cold turkey and you’re really just setting yourself up for relapse. I would suggest the following are the methods for recovery listed in order of efficiency of recovery (provided you can stick to the plan).

1. No porn, no masturbation, no orgasm.
2. No porn, masturbation but no orgasm
3. No porn, no masturbation, orgasm by other means (e.g. with a partner)
4. No porn, masturbation to orgasm.
5. Tapering off porn, no masturbation, no orgasm.
6. Tapering off porn, masturbation but no orgasm
7. Tapering off porn, no masturbation, orgasm by other means (e.g. with a partner)
8. Tapering off porn, masturbation to orgasm.

I would say the difference between the first and last methods in terms of average recovery time could be the difference between 2-3 months to 2-3 years (or more). I just think it’s more efficient to use the first approach from a physical and mental perspective. Think about it. When you do goal setting, you may have a long term goal (years), but you break that goal down into shorter term goals (months) and then you break those goals down into shorter term goals again (weeks). This way you can track your progress a lot better. If you take a single approach which is going to potentially take years, I think you’re setting yourself up for failure. Also, from personal experience and what I’ve read, recovery is not linear. You’ll have some good days and some god aweful days. You need a short term light at the of the tunnel to keep you focused during the bad days.

You don’t sound like an extreme case, but it definitely doesn’t sound healthy either. Your porn use is probably not doing you any favours but I’ve been a lot worse and heard of much worse. Sounds like you fell into the same trap as me. I was using porn as a substitute for real sex and that is not a good thing. I reckon in 2 months of total abstinence you’d be the epitome of virility. Before you know it you’ll be balls deep in a hot girl because your body will force you to seek sexual release through natural means.

NOTE: When I say total abstinence I mean: no porn, no erotica, no lads mags, no masturbation, no orgasm. Even try to keep fantasising down to a minimum. In 2 months you’ll be on the bus next to a pretty girl and BOING!!! :-P For me that’s what it’s all about, “getting back to BOING!”. I should trademark that before someone steals it. :-P

To the guys finding their libido wanes while giving up- I’ve been having a lot of success with the following:

Day 1: Damiana & MACA
Day 2: ZMA (Basically zinc, magnesium & b6)
Day 3: 10mg of cialis.

At the moment getting an erection with just my imagination is a piece of cake, happens really quickly too. Libido is great, & only compounds when I stay away from porn. I’d definitely suggest giving it a go. I’m still trying to limit edging & staying away from my dick as much as possible, but just knowing I’ve got this great libido at the moment actually makes it easier to abstain- previously I’d worry my libido was gone & want to “self medicate” with porn to get it back up- don’t have to worry about that at the moment.

I am considering dialing down on it as well though I don’t think I will be able to end with it completely at least for now.
I am not kind of guy girls want to “get with”(shy, not confident, not handsome). I have no sexual experience whatsoever. Whenever I felt need for Y porn was always there for me:)
My biggest concern for now is that I might not be able to enjoy sex as much as I enjoy masturbating.
I need to think some more about it. It’s nice to know that I’m not alone.

Raybbaby who is that chick in your avatar?

I’ve been hitting the ZMA while I’ve been abstaining and haven’t noticed much difference in terms of libido. Still waiting for him to show up. I’ve noticed my dreams are a lot more vivid and I sleep better though. I also tried using Tongkat Ali but it didn’t do anything for me. I was taking 4g of 100:1 in the morning on an empty stomach every day. I did notice an increase slightly in acne though but not libido.

I’m now experimenting with l-tyrosine because it’s meant to increase dopamine levels, which are depleted by long term porn use, but I’ve only taken it for a few days so I’m not ready to make a judgement on it yet. I’m taking 4g in the morning on an empty stomach. I’ve also got some Tribulus put away which I’ll try when I’ve run out of l-tyrosine.

I don’t really want to mess with the harder pills like Viagra and Cialis. I prefer natural supplements.

If you know that you can’t stop, it’s a sign you need to stop.

You’ll find that if you stop with the porn and jerking it for even a couple of weeks, you’ll feel much more confident socially and it will be a lot easier talk to girls.

See this:

http://www.psyc hologytoday.com … bating-too-much

Good luck. :-)