Morning Everyone. Checking in. 2 Days sober today. I went way too close last night. Today I am going to flee (get as far away from/run as fast away away from) anything I know is sexual content on tv, internet or anywhere. May God help me really do this today!
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I have porn addiction when I get high as well
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Thank you. Iāve been sober from porn/masturbation for a month and a half now and I was just about to hit that reset button, but then I found this thread and it saved me. No reset for me. Thank you.
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When was your sober date? Iām at 50 days today.
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Iām at day 57, coming up to 60. Congrats on 50!
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Dang a whole week ahead of me! I hope I never catch up, but I promise Iāll fall no further behind 
thereās a good number of us on here working on changing our brain chemistry. Itās a good place to come back to.
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Sounds like a good deal! How are you all trying to achieve a different brain chemistry?
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I think weāre all going about it in slightly different ways because our addictions latched on in different ways. That said, for porn addicts, it seems the consensus is that cutting out hard and softcore (insta, twitch, etc.) and masturbation entirely for a stretch of time is a great way to shock your reward system into relearning genuine intimacy, not perceived intimacy through a screen.
Porn is a great trick to āfeel good/betterā casually, but before you know it it can hijack your reward chemistry in your brain and numb you to less hyper-sex interactions with potential partners. On top of everything, I think another common reason some of us ended up on here on this recovery path is PIED.
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Hey yāall long-timers on here, I have a question for you: when did you find the mental flashes of porn-like images/memories fading? When did they not come back as potently? For a while I was in a more focused mind state, and recently, past few days or so, Iāve found more images crossing my mind ā especially when Iām falling asleep.
My meditation practice would tell me to not scrutinize and allow them to pass unscrutinized, but when Iām spending so much attention on being careful of what imagery I see, even irregularly, I feel as though the mental flashes betray that effort.
I feel like most of us on this thread at least must have had this issue during recovery. Thoughts?
wow thatās awesome
It doesnt happen as much to me anymore. When it did, it was most certainly due to binging. But, if I dont consume, Iāve found that the images donāt pop into my mind. I still am tempted to fantasize, but less of the hard core, detailed images now.
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A huge part for me is keeping busy throughout the day and consuming other things like TV or Youtube before falling asleep. Then my brain doesnāt have the opportunity to go there.
The most difficult part is honestly being single and having no outlet.
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Iām married and have seen in my own situation that regardless of an outlet, the cravings will continue to come. It is an addiction just like any other. Drinking NA Beer wonāt stop cravings, because itās the chemical release that the addict craves. Near beer or regular intimacy wonāt cut it, because it will not produce the amount of dopamine your brain has been wired to expect.
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Prayers for you
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Here i am!back againā¦thought, i have overcome the porn addictionā¦butā¦in few days,i relapsed repeatedlyā¦okā¦i am now staring from the beginningā¦Day 1ā¦
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Keep coming back, it works if you work it.
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Hey @montasir. Welcome back! Glad to see you here again. No one here likes resetting. I donāt, thatās for sure. To be honest, I donāt have this addiction licked. I can always act out again. Pretty humbling for me. So I really have to take it one day at a time. With every reset was a major lesson to be learned. Hoping that my stubborn self can continue learning without another reset.
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Welcome back. Weāre all better with you here.
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