Well, the first half of my first year without porn is done with reaching 180 days / 6 months today. It is also the second time I have reached the magical 90 days, only in a row.... LOL
Looking back, I would say progress during these second 90 days has been mostly about stabilizing the progress I had in the first 90 days.
Erections are rarely a problem these days. I am no porn star, I still need ED drugs (or rather I use them), but I didn't have a failure in months now and I am able to have a nice sex life without the constant worries like before. This is quite reassuring and boosts confidence. Actually being able to focus on the intimacy and not the "performance" is nice for a change.
Libido is OK. I don't feel like a teenager (which is good), but touching my gf is enough to make me want her most of the time. It feels right and "normal".
Sensitivity is getting better as well. Sex feels good, bj's started to work about a month ago, only handjobs remain without effect or rather don't stimulate me enough. Not that I am really missing anything here. The improved sensitivity goes in hand with a visible change in the texture of my penis' skin, which is currently ongoing. I am both amazed by my body's ability to heal and the amount of damage about 30 years of dry PMO caused.
Quitting porn itself didn't have many other effects on my life though. The changes I made since starting my reboot came down to me getting off my lazy ass and not procrastinate for once. I do not give credit to that to porn or the power it might had or have over me, just my own willpower.
I also never felt guilty about using porn, especially since religious concerns like that don't really have influence on my life. PMO always felt like an empty and downright pathetic activity, but it didn't cause me to feel guilty about it. So not doing it anymore doesn't give me this sense of overcoming something "evil" and a hightened state of my mind because of it. It feels more like fighting and maybe beating a very unhealthy habit.
In the past, I tried stopping PMO just to see if I could do without, but I don't remember ever going longer than maybe a week without at least MO since my puberty. But after learning about YBOP and porn most likely being the main reason for my ED, stopping PMO was actually easy. Then at some point after my first 90 days, I added no-MO to the no-PMO approach. Which also felt quite easy at this point. I MOed once in the last 110 days and it didn't even feel good any more, at least not compared to real sex.
What helped me the most in overcoming this, at least in the past 180 days, was the fact that I found a girlfriend who loves me just as much as I love her. I guess I replaced my porn use with caring about her and trying to make us work. We are in a long distance relationship, which does require a lot of effort and energy to make it work. I don't think I would have been able to avoid a relapse, if it wasn't for that.
The second thing that really helped me was posting on forums like YBR or RN. It raised my awareness about the issue and it kept me on alert. There was a time when I spent too much time on the forums - YBR has a counter for the hours you spend there, and it was quite frightening to see how much time i spent there. This has been reduced a lot by now and I think it was time well invested.
My reboot was and it rather unconventional. I use ED drugs to "force" erections. I currently don't exercice (actually stopped shortly before starting reboot for reasons not related to it), i don't meditate, didn't change my eating habits. Tried supplements for a while, but it didn't feel like they changed anything. In the end, no-porn, rewiring, boosting my confidence (with ED drugs) and giving it all the time it needs did the trick for me. I think if one could just forget about porn and live life for a year without thinking about it as a reboot, that would give the same results than being obsessive about it every day like many guys seem to do. Which is understandable, I was and am the same.
So i can gladly say, that I currently neither miss porn nor masturbation. How long this will last, I cannot say. I keep waiting for some bad relapse to happen, some irresistable urge to PMO, but so far it never came.
What will the next 180 days bring? I wonder. My body kept surprising me with progress i did not expect, so I'll just take what I can get. I am already very grateful for all the recovery I received, everything on top of that will just be a lovely bonus.
