Good for you, Chris, pushing back in this way!
I'm certainly humbled that you copied much of my approach from my journal's page 1, and that certainly motivates me further in my own efforts.
One benefit of this (or similar) approach is the 'low hanging fruit', that every 8 days we're celebrating a victory. It helps us to keep the next horizon ahead of ourselves. While 120 days sounds like a lot, we get closer and closer every 8 days, which come with their own mini-celebration. You can even give yourself little rewards each time you attain to your mini-goal. It all makes a larger goal a little more doable.
I think that Do or die made a couple of really important points here:
1. Do this first of all for yourself, but do it also for us. This is the power of this forum is that we're in a sense accountable to each other. What I usually see (so far in my own age bracket) is that long time users will stumble and/or fall after a lengthy absinence, but then they kind of 'melt away'- and come back only sporadically (if at all), and give some fuzzy opaque version of whatever their reboot might look like now... This is unfortunate. I have my own moments of weakness, too, and I try to be transparent about those moments- not only for myself, but so that others can see how 'I dealt with it'- or even how I failed to deal with it properly.
But just knowing that others are watching our moves can be a sobering motivator in our own efforts.
2. That we have an addiction because we're alive, I love this! It's so important to understand. The disease model of addiction (12-Steps, etc) teaches us that we have an addiction because we're inherently flawed or diseased in some way, and that we'll basically always be. Now I don't know if this is exactly how Do was thinking, but it keys into the fact that our particular addictions (to sex and/or porn) is because we're healthy and alive. We simply created a bad-habit that took healthy urges and functions, and used them in maladaptive ways to soothe ourselves from life's stresses.
This is hopeful for all of us because we can take this healthiness, and turn it around to benefit ourselves.
I'm certainly humbled that you copied much of my approach from my journal's page 1, and that certainly motivates me further in my own efforts.
One benefit of this (or similar) approach is the 'low hanging fruit', that every 8 days we're celebrating a victory. It helps us to keep the next horizon ahead of ourselves. While 120 days sounds like a lot, we get closer and closer every 8 days, which come with their own mini-celebration. You can even give yourself little rewards each time you attain to your mini-goal. It all makes a larger goal a little more doable.
Try to win not for you but for us. Rise from darkness with light of hope and positivity. There is nothing bigger power in the world except positivity. Just learn that your life matters the most. You have addiction because you are alive. So be careful about how you spend the every second of your life.
I think that Do or die made a couple of really important points here:
1. Do this first of all for yourself, but do it also for us. This is the power of this forum is that we're in a sense accountable to each other. What I usually see (so far in my own age bracket) is that long time users will stumble and/or fall after a lengthy absinence, but then they kind of 'melt away'- and come back only sporadically (if at all), and give some fuzzy opaque version of whatever their reboot might look like now... This is unfortunate. I have my own moments of weakness, too, and I try to be transparent about those moments- not only for myself, but so that others can see how 'I dealt with it'- or even how I failed to deal with it properly.
But just knowing that others are watching our moves can be a sobering motivator in our own efforts.
2. That we have an addiction because we're alive, I love this! It's so important to understand. The disease model of addiction (12-Steps, etc) teaches us that we have an addiction because we're inherently flawed or diseased in some way, and that we'll basically always be. Now I don't know if this is exactly how Do was thinking, but it keys into the fact that our particular addictions (to sex and/or porn) is because we're healthy and alive. We simply created a bad-habit that took healthy urges and functions, and used them in maladaptive ways to soothe ourselves from life's stresses.
This is hopeful for all of us because we can take this healthiness, and turn it around to benefit ourselves.