looking for some advise

Tribulum

Member
To start, I apologize for what may become a long post.

Porn has been in my life a very long time. In the early stages, I thought I was ok and comfortable with may "pastime".

I've known for quite some time that porn is very destructive, yet I can't seem to break out my cycle of use.
I've been to counselling, on and off over the last 3 years. I've joined an SA group, but attend only infrequently.
My marriage has been gravely affected. I don't really understand why my wife is still with me. Our relationship revolves around this issue, and we toxic to one another.

I want to stop, and heal, but the draw is at times overwhelming. I don't understand the reason for being unable to attain what should be an easy goal.

I've always been uncomfortable having real, intimate sex. Yet, in my mind I have every desire to be successful, which keeps me going back to the fantasy.

I need to break the cycle and move forward.

If you've every been in a similar state, and have managed to somehow moved forward, some advise would be most welcome.
 

Poker

Active Member
Welcome....  and good luck.  I have a request of you.  Regardless of how you are doing, please keep checking in with us.  We will help support you, and even if you stumble, we don't don't shoot our wounded here.

I would encourage you to read or watch the video links on yourbrainonporn.com if you haven't already.

I myself just lost my wife due to the ongoing issues in our marriage.  I get it.  For myself, it was dealing with my childhood, my depression, my addictions to porn and violent sexual images.....  There really was a lot going on,  I'm 2 weeks into my reboot, and see light at the end of the tunnel.

Good luck my friend.  You can do thisl    It is beatable. 

Cheers,

p.
 

reboot2262

New Member
Sounds familiar.

I just joined this website not 5 minutes ago, and was lurking about 2 days.  Your story is very similar.  my marriage to my high school sweetheart has certainly had it's ups and downs for over 26 years... and i can honestly say that its all related to the porn.  I've kept it a secret for all that time, with a few times bringing it to her attention, but mostly just quietly viewing almost every day...

I've tried over the years to go a week, and the most has been 3 months, and in many of those cases, i see a drastic change in my mood.  My wife sees it as well, not realizing what's changed. 

I"ve been living a lie for about 3 years now.  Multiple affairs, that have resulted in me finally saying no to what i'm doing to the people i love, or think i love.

I believe my life has become a manifestation of the porn I have been watching over the years.  My wife went through a major depression about 8 years ago, and may have also had an affair, but she's come out of it and is working hard on our marriage.  But i think i was a big contributor to that depression, as i checked out sexually a long time before that.

Just in one week, i've come clean to the person i was having an affair with that i was also having another affair alongside that one... and now, i'm committed for the first time to changing, and recognizing how bad a person i had become.

The first thing is stopping the porn.  I am confident that it will change my life for the best, and i will do everything in my power to not turn to that.  I have a beautiful wife, that any man would want, and there is no reason for me to use porn.  It's gotten to the point where my wife doesn't excite me enough to get an erection, so i am not able to perform for her.  I don't have this problem with the other person, as it's exciting and new, and she's much younger... in her 30's...

But i am well respected in my job, and have a loving extended family, and am an outstanding person in the eyes of others, but i'm living a secret life and it's only going to come crashing down any minute if i don't change.

So i'm on day 4 or no porn... and am committed to this website to help me see the progress of others to help motivate me. I am out of the affair, with some lingering work to do.

So your not alone, and i know that if i can go 4 days now, then, i can go 5 tomorrow, and maybe this could be a new life for me...

I will report back, but look forward to hearing your progress, and many others, and maybe help others succeed.

thanks for listening.

C
 

olafthewise

Active Member
I gotta hand it to some of you, my struggle is not as big, but the time I killed doing porn really hurt my life and marriage. I could have used all that lost time for so much more in life!
My wife often puts the need for sex in my corner often blaming me for not being "loving" enough. I just simply gave up and went to porn. It was easy, she went to bed, I pretended to "surf the net" and she never suspected anything--still doesn't. I look back on the damage and the loss of "life" while I was sitting in front of my computer for hours, searching for the ultimate picture (soft porn mostly) and I just feel terrible! 
If you are new, my advise; Get rid of all forms of sexuality in pictures, magazines, videos, etc. Avoid any reference to sexuality and anybody or place that supplies it, including a computer. If you have a family, treat yourself like one of the kids and only use the computer in full view of others and during regular hours. Unless I'm doing homework, I usually do not use the computer after 9PM. I have disciplined myself to stop, again and I will succeed. If you are not disciplined, find out what works, don't lie to yourself, figure out what works.
 

Tribulum

Member
Thanks for the replies. It looks like my marriage is over. My wife  has threatened leaving many times in the past. I think she has finally reached her limit. I hope I can change enough to reverse the damage. She is way to special to lose.

Poker, I checked out your blog. Good stuff there. I'll be visiting often. Thanks for sharing

I need some reflection time. I also need to read anything I can find that may be helpful.
Past  efforts may not have been for the right reasons. I need to do this for me, not for my wife, not for my family, not for my marriage. Only then can I heal, and hopefully salvage the relationships important to me
 

Poker

Active Member
I'm very sorry to hear about you and your wife.  My wife is a pretty special person, and I completely fucked it up.....  20 years... 

Still.....  I have to get myself to a better place regardless of the situation.  And it sucks.  but I have too.


Good luck my friend.  Keep posting and checking in....    The both of you are in my prayers.

Cheers,

p.
 

Tribulum

Member
I'm so despondent and utterly depressed right now. It's been 7 days with no urges surfacing, but my wife wants me to move out. We moved a few years ago and left all our connections and friends behind. My porn addiction kept me isolated. I have no one close and no prospects for living arrangements. Looks like I'll be in a hotel for at least a few weeks. I'll be alone for Christmas. I can't function at all. Don't really know how I'm going to get through this. The only thing I do know, is unlike past stressfully situations PMO and MO are NOT an option. I've never felt so lost.
 

toofat

Member
I'm not where you are and have no idea how it feels. But you have a wife, and if she knows about your addiction than  I think I know how she feels. Quitting any addiction is hard, and I've seen struggles in my own home. Perhaps one of the steps you can take is to remove as much possibility of running into porn, or choosing to find it, as possible. Get rid of your smart phone for a while, pair down internet access points to only one device stationed in a public place, and start throwing up blockers. The guys can suggest a few. I also think it may help if you clicked over to the spouse's forum and read for a while. Some of the post are pretty powerful and moving while at the same time detailing the pain and hurt they (myself included) are feeling. Perhaps having this perspective may help to ground you or inspire in you a new will to not let your wife have to go through the same suffering. (The link in my signature leads to my personal blog about being married to a porn addict. It includes a lot of the things I don't post on here because they are so long.)

Also, like any of these guys will say: educate yourself. Get to better understand what you've experienced, and learn about what you will face. I wish you the best of luck in your journey as this may well be the hardest one you ever make. There will be obstacles, without a doubt, but if you do what you can to prepare yourself for the things you will face, I think it will help make your road a little easier. 


EDIT: I was editing my reply and had typed out a long addition after having read the replied you made recently. Unfortunately that edit is all gone because I accidentally clicked off the page and pressed backspace. I will want to kick myself for that.


Anyways, I'm very sorry to hear that your wife has asked you to move out. I had typed up my whole story about how I was in a similar position, but instead of redoing all of that I'm going to try to make this as brief as possible.


When my husband was away on a business trip I had discovered recent activity with porn. I had already spent years begging and pleading with him to stop watching it because even though I didn't know porn addiction was a thing, I did know that his porn use was the root cause to our marital problems. Find the new porn made me so mad and depressed. I needed an ally and I needed validation for feeling like him watching porn was the same as him cheating on me. I found a video from a guy's perspective that, while it validated my feelings also shown a light on the fact that porn addiction was a thing. I looked more into what porn addiction was all about and learned what some of the common signs and symptoms are. This fueled my fire even more because a lot of the s&s had been a constant companion to our marriage. I felt like, "All of these years I'd been asking to give up porn because I thought it would help some of the problems we have and here it is! Proof that porn is indeed the culprit." This prompted me to tell my husband that I had had enough, and that when he got home I wanted him to pack his shit and leave.


The next day we talked about it and throughout the whole conversation I was eerily calm. Even though I had a whole day to think: "it's not entirely fair of me to divorce (essentially punish) him for not being able to stop watching porn during his last few attempts, when as he was trying to stop he went in with the concept of 'this is a choice' rather than 'this is an addiction'". During our conversation I never reaffirmed that I wanted the divorce or for him to leave, but I also never said he was getting another chance. When he got home though, we talked and it was made very clear that this was it. He has the chance to go in, knowing fully that he was up against an addiction and that I had zero qualms about choosing divorce over being neglected.


Before all of this went down we were "separated" for a couple of months. We are in the same situation that you are in, in that we too have just recently moved and didn't really have any option for a crash pad. Instead one of us "moved out" into the room on the bottom level of our town house, while the rest of the house was for the person who "stayed". We went as far as to essentially divide our assets, and for the person who was moving out, if it didn't fit into the room or the closet down there, then it went into storage. Also, the rest of the house was off limits unless the other person was gone. This meant planning ahead for meals and showers or eating out and showering at the gym.


The goal of doing this was for each of us to work on ourselves. For me it meant coming to terms with figuring out if I wanted to stay in what I felt was a loveless relationship or finally leave. I began working on being a completely autonomous and self sustaining person figuring out where I could live, how much it would cost me, and how I would get the money. That meant finding employment and working harder than ever to finally finish my degree.


I had hoped that for him this meant working on the things that made me ask for a separation in the first place, but I really don't think that happened. Instead I think he focused more on the s&s's of porn addiction he was experiencing and trying to figure out what was causing them all (no motivation, wasting time/not knowing where all his time went, depression, anxiety...).


We ended up moving back in together after cracking open the porn addiction topic. This was in large part because he was trying to rebuild the intimacy we had lost (reinforcing the good neural pathways), and also because I served as a distraction from the times he would otherwise hole up in his office and surf the web.


I'm didn't include the part about "moving out" because I feel it was a step in his recovery. I included it because I wonder if your home would be conducive to the option rather than spending all that money on a hotel. If you think it would accommodate the arrangement, you can broach the matter with your wife by pointing out that it would save you guys enough money for when/if a real move would have to be made.

Even though there seems to be a lot of similarities in your story the experience in my own home I know they are not the same. For my husband and I, I feel like a lot of the progress we are making stems from our level of communication - which I think is a good as it is because of the classes I've had to take for my degree. Here is a resource I think you would greatly benefit from: Looking In Lookng Out (a book about interpersonal communications and can be bought used for as little as $5)


You said in one of your replies that you want to start this reboot for yourself rather than for your wife, family, or marriage. I think that is the best way to approach things because even if you are not able to save your marriage, hopefully you can make a difference in the person you are and avoid this from ever happening again. I strongly encourage you to get that book, even if you only read the tables and figures and not the core text. Communications skills are something I think every person strives for in life and that book is an out standing resource. Besides, you are probably going to be finding yourself with a lot more time on your hands, so why not make it productive time?


I wish you the best of luck.
 

Tribulum

Member
Sorry Toofat,
You totally missed the point of my last post. Your advise is good but I was looking for different support. Maybe this is not the right forum for my current need, but my situation was brought on by my past porn habits
 

Poker

Active Member
He my friend, hang in there.

I know what you're going through.  Here are 2 pieces of advice I will share.

Events
Thoughts
Feelings
Actions

Events in our lives drive our thoughts....  We can't really control most events.  Things happen.  Thoughts lead to feelings.  Our feelings are natural, and again, not much control.  Our feelings often drive our actions. 

The one thing in that chain you have the most control of is your thoughts.  You can tell yourself anything....  You can allow yourself to go down a very negative road, which will lead to specific feelings, or you can manage your thoughts, and train yourself to identify the negative shit, and replace it with positive..... 

Not easy.  It will not change your situation.  But it will allow you to come out of it in a better place what ever way it goes....  You have to take care of you....  and that means your mental health.

Also....  if you haven't yet, try to talk with her.  Calmly.  Own your problem, and the solution.  Remember, her thoughts drive her feelings and actions too.  Hopefully if she understands the problem, and see's there is a solution, it may help.

Ultimately though.....  keep posting.  Keep us up to date daily.  We appreciate the honesty.

Cheers,

p.
 
Top