mybestself
Active Member
Hey Akainu, thanks for stopping by!
To answer your question, currently I don't masterbate because I'm horny, nor do I masterbate for the dopamine effect. I only masterbate when I feel at serious risk of seeking out pornography - it's sort of a way of disarming myself ; )
What I've found is that just after a relapse I might need to masterbate on average once per week. As my recovery improves, I am less likely to desire pornography and as a result I masterbate less and less (to the point where I basically don't masterbate). This technique might not work for everyone but I feel it works for me and probably it only works because for the last 10 years I have practically never masterbated without the aid of pornography, I've been so hooked on porn I didn't even consider MO without the P.
I've also been trying to kick P, M and O for the last 6-8 years or so (including going to help groups which are focused on this topic for 2+ years) so I'm no stranger to trying to go hard mode. I am finding easier however to kick out pornography (which I strongly want out of my life for good) if I am able to use controlled masterbation when I'm most at risk of relapsing.
Also I commend you on setting up some web filters as these can be a big help, I've done the same for my computer though there is always a way to seek explicit content if you really want to so it's not quite the end all. They are great however for taking specific, known triggers out of sight completely which I"m very grateful for.
To answer your question, currently I don't masterbate because I'm horny, nor do I masterbate for the dopamine effect. I only masterbate when I feel at serious risk of seeking out pornography - it's sort of a way of disarming myself ; )
What I've found is that just after a relapse I might need to masterbate on average once per week. As my recovery improves, I am less likely to desire pornography and as a result I masterbate less and less (to the point where I basically don't masterbate). This technique might not work for everyone but I feel it works for me and probably it only works because for the last 10 years I have practically never masterbated without the aid of pornography, I've been so hooked on porn I didn't even consider MO without the P.
I've also been trying to kick P, M and O for the last 6-8 years or so (including going to help groups which are focused on this topic for 2+ years) so I'm no stranger to trying to go hard mode. I am finding easier however to kick out pornography (which I strongly want out of my life for good) if I am able to use controlled masterbation when I'm most at risk of relapsing.
Also I commend you on setting up some web filters as these can be a big help, I've done the same for my computer though there is always a way to seek explicit content if you really want to so it's not quite the end all. They are great however for taking specific, known triggers out of sight completely which I"m very grateful for.