28 And Done With Porn

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Lero

Guest
BlueHeronFan said:
Non-Dual Adventurer said:
It was a weird one, because it felt like just going through the motions. The urges weren't really that strong at the beginning.

Yeah, I know this feeling, too. It's just like it takes over and I'm watching myself relapse, screaming in my head to stop but also not stopping. There isn't much pleasure, much desire, just a relapse.

Hopefully this storm has blown over now and you can get back to business without porn stealing your body from you again. This next Day 1 is going to be the best Day 1 you've had yet!

In my case, it's like edging is what my brain wants the most. Not really the O. I get hard urges and when I start edging it's intense but then the O is nothing that great. I sit there and tell myself: "That's it? I wasted a week for a few seconds?" I didn't use to notice the edging before, I only looked at the O. But then I realized that I was actually more into edging.
 

Non-Dual Adventurer

Active Member
Exactly @BlueHeron and @Lero, that's what it's like. I'm really glad you guys can relate.

Day 2

Today, I will not watch porn.

Woke up feeling like shit, but then again I always do in the morning. It usually takes me a good hour-and-a-half to two hours to fully wake up and get motivated to start my day. Is this just me or does this happen to other people too?

I have much to prepare for. The wife and I have a promotional concert tomorrow to advertise out music school and I have a lot of music to learn. I'm a perfectionist, so often the stress of getting everything perfect is enough to make me feel triggered and want to escape to PMO. That will not happen today, in fact, I'm not even going to look at my computer until I'm done practising. What I get done is what I get done at the end of the day. I want to be as focused as possible.

- Adventurer

 

achilles heel

Well-Known Member
Non-Dual Adventurer said:
Woke up feeling like shit, but then again I always do in the morning. It usually takes me a good hour-and-a-half to two hours to fully wake up and get motivated to start my day. Is this just me or does this happen to other people too?

It used to happen and was a question of discipline to go directly to the bathroom and into the shower, that helps and I feel ready after leaving water. Do you lay around in bed a long time after waking up?

Non-Dual Adventurer said:
Today, I will not watch porn.

That's the right attitude, day by day, step by step. Don't think about that last setback too much, but look forward!
 

Non-Dual Adventurer

Active Member
I tend to sit on the couch for hours and go on this forum, or watch YouTube. Still haven't really started my day!  :eek:

Yep, I'm trying to treat every day like Day 1 :).
 

achilles heel

Well-Known Member
Non-Dual Adventurer said:
I tend to sit on the couch for hours and go on this forum, or watch YouTube. Still haven't really started my day!  :eek:

Yep, I'm trying to treat every day like Day 1 :).

Maybe try to avoid screens (phone and computer) in the morning and instead focus on preparing a healthy breakfast and take a shower immediately. It might take some time to adpot to the change and in my case I had to force myself, but soon it feels so much better. Looking back at the day I often felt regret about not making good use of my time. Once you get used to start earlier, you will be more active, but it's a process.

My advice would also be to avoid YouTube for a while, it was your last trigger to relapsing and your brain remembers that pathway. The clickbait pics of randomly appearing "related" videos with half-naked girls are too much danger during the first weeks, at least in my opinion.
 
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Lero

Guest
achilles heel said:
Maybe try to avoid screens (phone and computer) in the morning and instead focus on preparing a healthy breakfast and take a shower immediately. It might take some time to adpot to the change and in my case I had to force myself, but soon it feels so much better. Looking back at the day I often felt regret about not making good use of my time. Once you get used to start earlier, you will be more active, but it's a process.

My advice would also be to avoid YouTube for a while, it was your last trigger to relapsing and your brain remembers that pathway. The clickbait pics of randomly appearing "related" videos with half-naked girls are too much danger during the first weeks, at least in my opinion.

I am definitely in for healthy behavior. The last 2 days I had to leave the bed early to avoid fantasizing and edging. I went outside for a run, took a shower and cooked something for breakfast. And it was very early in the morning haha. I mean, I'm not saying this is how you should do it but I had to. I tried to sleep until the time I had to wake up but I was bothered by fucking edging craving. Quitting P is no. 1 priority for me right now so I would do everything, even waking up at fucking 4 in the morning. Just like William said in his first post: Make quitting P your number 1 priority. If it's number 5 in the list, you're not doing it right.
 

BlueHeronFan

Respected Member
Congrats on another day!

I never used to have trouble getting out of bed until the last year or so. It used to be really easy to wake up and get going. For a long time lately, it was taking me like an hour to actually get up (screens and Youtube got me). In the last couple months, I've managed to keep the screen time down (I should just eliminate it, but I feel like reading the news is good), but it's still hard to get my body moving. Still takes about a half hour or so before I can find the strength in myself to get up. I don't really have a good reason for any of it, but I hear you! it can be tough, and it's definitely something I'm working on getting good at again.

As for perfectionism: I had a music teacher when I was a kid who always said "close enough." Part of me thinks she was just old and didn't really care, but I also think there's some wisdom in it. Is you audience coming to hear technical perfection? Probably not: they probably want to have a good time listening to music that moves them in some way. Maybe the imperfections are just your humanity showing through (and that humanity is what's going to get them excited about your stuff)! Or maybe I'm making things up, take your pick.

Keep on keeping on! Every day is an exercise in closing the gap between what we know we should do and what we're actually doing.
 

Non-Dual Adventurer

Active Member
Day 1

Relapsed Saturday evening, had sex Sunday morning, relapsed Sunday evening. It's because my wife's aunt brought me some weed and I've been smoking. I know from many on here that smoking weed and porn addiction don't go well together, but I wonder if anyone's ever been able to recover whilst only smoking occasionally? I just really enjoy it, and it helps my creativity and song-writing as long as I don't take too much. But I really shouldn't be anywhere near a screen whilst on it, unless I'm sitting next to my wife.

Thank you for your suggestions Lero and BlueHeron. I'm going to try and get off screens right now and come back at a time when I've made headway in my day and am more available to comment on other journals.

On this Day 1 I will not watch porn.
 

BlueHeronFan

Respected Member
Rough day, man.

Just don't let it go to waste: be deliberate about retracing how you got here and make some plans not to repeat those mistakes. I think your observations already are good, but keep pushing for deeper insight. Why the rash of relapses now? What can you do to dig yourself out and keep it from happening for the same reason again?

You'll get it just as long as you keep trying!
 

No regrets

Member
You are your number one priority, so do whatever you need to take care of yourself. You know what's best for you!
You are doing a great job, I know things are tough!!
Thing's will get better. We got you. You're stronger than you give yourself credit for

 
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Lero

Guest
Non-Dual Adventurer said:
Thanks for the support guys. I relapsed twice today. Thought I could pull myself out of this rut but I guess I just didn't have the strength this time.

Tough times could make you feel like there is no way out this time. But I believe all of us have the ability to rise again. I have a 10 days streak now and some time ago I edged and binged like crazy, feeling so sure I was done for. I just wanted to let this stupid addiction rip me apart. I wanted to just "block" my emotions and forget about the reboot because it was hard. But now all that is a distant memory, even though it's been only 10 days, but enough to make me feel like things are moving. If I could do it, you could do it. And keep in mind that I'm not the best when it comes to this recovery process. I'm the type who has a very hard time making progress.
 

Non-Dual Adventurer

Active Member
Thanks Lero, I can't say how much I appreciate the words of support, man.

Day 1

So, after my weed/P binge these past few days I've had a few insights.

1) I love smoking weed. If there was a way I could just smoke weed without wanting to watch P, I would. Unfortunately, I don't know if this is possible for me, at least at this stage of the recovery process. I'm going to have to stay off the weed. Has anyone else had problems with the infamous weed/P cocktail and has anyone been able to occasionally smoke ganja without relapsing into P?

2) I'm going to have to limit my screen time during this period of the reboot. This idle YouTube time is harder to cut out of my life than I expected. Usually for me, the urge to look at a screen is far stronger than the urge to watch P. It's only once I'm looking at a screen and whatever I'm doing starts to get boring, that the urge for P comes.

I read some stuff during my last reboot 5 years ago that in the same way an alcoholic shouldn't hang out in a bar, because of the opportunity it present for relapse, a P addict shouldn't just hang out on the computer. P addiction is a form of internet addiction anyway, it just highjacks our sexuality in the process in order to achieve a stronger dopamine hit.

So, for the next 10 days, I'm going to attempt to severely limit my time on the computer to when I'm sitting next to my wife and we're working on something. I'm also going to stop smoking weed and try and eat healthier.

This means I probably won't be able to hang out on here as much as I have been, for the time being, but I'm still so grateful for all you guys' support. You never let me forget that I'm here to recover, not to give up.

- Adventurer

 

Non-Dual Adventurer

Active Member
So, after posting my last post I realised I hadn't asked for all the advice I need, if I'm to limit screen time.

How do you guys do it? I do often need to work from my computer, but since I'm building my business and pretty much get to run on my own schedule, it often makes it much easier to just relapse and goof off. That's what's been happening recently, so I'm weary of being on the computer generally.

I have started reading again. That was one of the things that really helped me last time I had a massive streak. I'd always have a few books on the go and would just get into them until any urges just passed by themselves.
 
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Lero

Guest
I don't know, man, sometimes we have to do things we don't like. They suck and they feel like a chore but we have to push through it. We have to keep doing them even if they suck until they become routine. Like walking in strong wind. We can't stop. We have to keep walking. If you don't want to waste time in front of the computer, just stay in front of it when you have things to do for the business and then find other activities. I don't know, study chess, read books, play checkers, do martial arts, even sleep. They will probably feel like what I just said in the first sentences but they will become routine done regularly. This time online of yourself has become routine. Now you have to build a different, healthier routine.
 

BlueHeronFan

Respected Member
Hey, man, sorry to hear the tough times have continued. But it's awesome that you're keeping track of contributing triggers and staying committed to kicking porn out of your life.

I don't know that I have a lot of explicitly related thoughts about your questions, but I have a couple tangentially related ones that I'll share anyway:

First, I think everyone, including me, has had or will have a moment when they realize that seemingly harmless or unrelated habits are actually contributing factors to addiction. For me, social media (especially twitter and instagram) were black holes of relapse material for me. I always tried to tell myself that they were useful and that I needed them or that I knew how to be careful, blah blah blah. I finally realized that I just couldn't afford to keep social accounts if I wanted to make progress on my addiction. Even with all the legitimate uses that I had for them (like staying in touch with family, etc.), I could almost always trace my relapses back to some trigger on social media. So I closed all my social accounts and haven't looked back. I haven't really missed them but it was hard to do at the time, and it would have been easy to rationalize why they weren't part of the problem. But, when I was being truly honest with myself, I couldn't deny that they were a big part of the problem. Weed might just be one of those things for you.

As for screen time, it's pretty much unavoidable for me. I'm a grad student and basically everything in my life revolves around working at the computer. And I don't have regular tv or anything, so even all my entertainment comes back to the same screen as well. So, given that screen time is basically unavoidable, I have had to do a couple of different things that work for me. For example, I have my phone set up to block all websites except for a very select few. That means I can only use my phone's browser for very specific things and can't just surf aimlessly or mindlessly and end up in trouble. I can get recipes, go to my school website, and look up definitions on my phone. That's pretty much it.

On my computer, I sort of necessarily have to have more flexibility for research and other things, so the controls aren't as rigorous. But, there is one thing that helps me (but I can't guarantee it will work for everyone). I logged into my browser with my personal email account, mostly because I know that people I know know about my email address, and I always worry in the back of my head that they will somehow accidentally be able to see what I watch on YouTube or search in Google. So, because I have weird paranoia about what my friends and family might see if my data somehow "leaked" and because I'm also super worried about giving the "algorithm" the wrong idea about who I am and what I'm interested in, being logged in has been sort of a natural barrier to doing dumb things online. On some level, I'm worried about being "found out," so that keeps me on my best behavior. Full disclosure that also means that I usually just used a different "anonymous" browser to relapse with, but I did something about that too: I set this forum as the homepage for my relapse browser and then blocked every other site on it. Now, when I open this browser, my first thought is about accountability and recovery, not relapsing.

I think that might be a roundabout way saying that it could be helpful to find ways to turn your screen into an ally instead of a threat. By making this forum the homepage for my relapse-browser of choice, I have changed my default purpose for using this browser. It used to be that every time I opened it was for nefarious purposes, but now I open it every day as part of recovery, and I would have to click past this forum and turn my back on y'all in order to relapse on this browser. And that has been a helpful way to protect myself.

I also, of course, have a lot of content filters (just to set up some extra barriers against accidental exposure), and I have set my passwords to be things related to the future relationship I hope to have someday. That way, every time I think about turning off the filters, I have to reckon with whether turning it off is worth giving up what I want most in the future. Kind of a silly thing, but it has saved me a couple times if I'm honest.

Keep fighting! Every day in the fight is a day closer to winning!

 

No regrets

Member
Just a little message of encouragement for you. Remember even on days when you are feeling weak, you are strong and oh so brave. I know it takes courage to laugh, continue loving, living and find joy when life feels frustrating, confusing and unfair... but i know you have the courage it takes to keep moving forward.  You.  Are.  Amazing.  You are loved and so worth loving. Just remember to be kind to yourself. Most likely if you are tired, hungry and have not exercised in a while the chances of a relapse are significantly higher when you are in front of a screen. What has worked for me is to use the computer that is in the library and buy a phone that has no wifi. It is not a perfect strategy but most of the time a relapse would occur in the morning, i would feel lazy go for my phone and look for the "kick" now that i go around with a nokia that is not possible  :)
I hope that i might have helped you in any way my dear friend
 
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