Relapse after almost a year without porn.

RAMI

Member
Ok, so I relapsed after being 11 months porn free. I'm trying really hard of not having the "I'm back to square one" mindset and just keep going with my reboot. I have a couple of questions  though, do I have to spect severe withdrawal symptoms just like the ones I had at the beginning of my reboot? It's probable that I'm gonna feel desensitized for a time until my brain it's back to balance again?
 

RAMI

Member
No, I did not binge actually, but I'm afraid I resensitized those porn pathways in my brain.
 

yesyes1234

Active Member
You have, at least to some degree. It's hard to say how bad it is after all that time though. I would imagine it will be a lot less intense to go through, so you will probably notice some cravings and other withdrawal symptoms, but on a more watered down scale.

Keep us updated.
 
I'm sorry to hear about your relapse. I recently relapsed after 9 months. I can only speak from my own experience, but what I found was that after the initial slip, I found it easier and easier to rationalize going back to it and harder and harder to stay away from it. Now, I can't stay away for longer than a day or two. I realize that this isn't perhaps the most encouraging thing I could post, but I'm sharing on the hope that you learn from my experience and don't make the same mistake I did. Where I failed post-relapse: didn't tell anyone about it, isolated, expected that it would be just as easy to stop again as it was to stay stopped in the first place, didn't change my daily routine to accommodate recovery again... I'm just spitballing here. Of course, if I knew precisely what to do to get out of this quandary, I wouldn't still be in it.
 

RAMI

Member
Fortunately, the first thing I did the morning after the relapse was telling my therapist, my family and a couple of close friends. Also I talked it through A LOT during the days after. I honestly feel more stable, sure enough talking about it helped tons. I'm extra vigilant though.
 

jimthejones

Active Member
thanx for sharing holic , its not wrong to share those stories we need the whole truth. @ ram what are the events that u think contributed to the fall... i want to know what to watch for when i get there.
 

JKLIVIN

Member
I've also been there. I was about 17 months porn free, when I found a way around the blockers that I had set on my phone. This lasted on and off for about a month. I hid it from my wife, and my therapist. My wife started to have bad feelings, and that is when I opened up to her about everything. I was over confident in my ability to stay away from porn, and each day I used I thought that that would be the last day. But I kept going back. After everything came out, it was easier not to go back to it. OF course step 1 was blocking that path that I had opened to access porn.

It was an excellent learning experience. I don't feel like you are starting over from step one. Even after relapse I was a far different and far better person than I was 17 months prior, and I'm sure you can say the same thing about yourself. You made the most important and most difficult decision in opening up about it right away. This I've learned is the hardest thing to do but by far the most important. The important part is to be able to open up to the support system that you have built around you.

So keep going strong. You have done the hardest thing there is to do by opening up about it.

 
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