Welcome Chris
I am also in recovery from porn. Like you, I realized it was having significant negative effects on me. Also I was sick of watching myself watch it. Porn is connected to human trafficking and exploitation and a whole bunch of shady and manipulative things and I didn’t want that to be on my media diet.
What has helped me is a combination of things:
- joining a recovery group at a sex addiction recovery clinic in my city (you can search those up near you or look into one of these: Resources for our recovery - #64 by NealRecoveryCA)
- staying active here on Talking Sober
- working on my marriage (porn addiction goes together with intimacy dysfunction, so you have to work on healthy regeneration in your intimate relationship)
- learning about healthy vulnerability and intimacy and fun, with myself and with the people close to me (this is an ongoing process, but the core of it is, I am learning to inject healthy fun and creativity into my life, to defuse the unhealthy “escape” temptation that comes up in low-mood situations) (counselling has helped me with this)
Take care and don’t give up. Keep us posted!