Cheer up, we only have one life

[rf1987]

Hello how are you.
Excuse me, my English is not very good.
Currently I am 34 years old I am struggling to give up pornography since I was 15 years old, I do not feel well, it is not pleasant and more to see in the past and see everything I lost due to this addiction, the maximum time that I was without seeing pornography or masturbating It was two and a half years, however the abstinence was there, it did not let me not have a healthy social life despite not consuming porn, my self-esteem was very very very low, and the worst thing is that I did not realize that, Already at the first opportunity of anxiety I fell again, I am struggling again for several years to recover, I have lived in denial for a long time, but I can no longer live like this, I have made marks on my calendar to see my progress and it is nothing Well, so I decided to start from where I am, without denial, I have read and read and searched and got here, so with all the courage and confidence possible to start.

You know, it is nice to know that there are those who understand what you are going through, you feel that you are not alone, for a long time I felt alone, I felt a lot of shame (I am still ashamed of this), if you are reading this cheer up, we only have one life and we can't live it like this.

 

[Fappy]

thats exactly right! we only have one life so lets not waste it to a pathetic addicion to porn (or anything else for that matter...)
no, you definately are not alone in your struggles to overcome porn addiction. youve found a good community in this forum.
keep yourself educated on anything related to porn addiction and stick around this forum, we are here to help!

 

[rf1987]

Thank you very much Fappy, this is my day 2, with hope, today I have many things to do, keeping myself busy seems like a good idea, I will continue telling what happens.

 

[rf1987]

It was not a good day, I did not see porn however I saw girls in lingerie on a social network, one thing led to another and I masturbated, the feeling after all this is still unpleasant, and I do not understand why I continue with this, My new strategy is to do things that I like and things that I did not do before, the idea is to replace habits, I will tell you how it went, today I will start with day 01

 

[Takeoff]

I highly recommend abandoning social media where you can find this type of stuff. If you use Facebook you can deactivate it while leaving Messenger for contacting friends - that's what I did.
Replacing habits is a very good idea too. I recommend sports.

 

[logicprox]

I deleted all social media from my phone. I don't miss it one bit. I check Insta like once a week on my computer just to make sure I am not ghosting DMs from friends and if I feel so inclined will make posts but it's right back off after.

It's helped a lot. I think for a lot of people they use social media the same way they use porn, to avoid feelings of boredom, anxiety, loneliness, inadequacy, etc. Even if I don't look at women on it, it still triggers the same brain pathways as porn for me and has lead to relapses. Better (for me at least) to stay away, at least until I deal with the feelings that drive me there.

 

[Takeoff]

I think for a lot of people they use social media the same way they use porn, to avoid feelings of boredom, anxiety, loneliness, inadequacy, etc.

Definitely! Plus, most people in this world are so used to the comfort the industrial society gives them, that they prefer doing simple things which don't require thinking, knowledge or skills - scrolling down IG/TikTok etc. meets all the requirements. there's plenty of novelty there too. when you tell such people they seem to be addicted to internet/social media they will most likely react aggressively/totally deny it.

it still triggers the same brain pathways as porn for me and has lead to relapses

I know what you mean. Constant use of social media makes me feel really dumb. When I used to catch myself/sometimes still do scrolling through without any purpose I just feel braindead. one more thing, on some platforms you can totally accidentally come across pornography/other explicit content. I've once experienced this when someone I was following on Twitter posted smth like "block these users, they share degenerate content" and tagged them, I was like damn okay, let me check. clicked on a profile and it was loaded with hardcore pornography.

And same as you, I only sometimes get on Instagram to check if there's anything new from my friends as I don't even have anyone else on social media.
I would recommend limiting the use of social media and other useless parts of the Internet to everyone. our brains are not used to getting bombarded with tons of 'information'.