Surpassing the streak, and more.

I wanted to start a new chapter in my NoFap journey, and this forum is the best place to do that, so here is my story so far:

I discovered NoFap on November 20th and my first streak lasted 111 days, however this was not a good streak because I did not use this time to improve myself. My reasons for starting were all wrong, I barely did anything differently, didn't fully commit to No PMO, and struggled with urges, it was bad. After I relapsed fully I went into a downwards spiral for a month, reverting to my old ways, sometimes worse. I snapped out of that and managed 43 days, before relapsing again, and entering another downwards spiral.

I knew I was in a bad place when I started having trouble with my skin, caused by stress, so I made sure to reset my counter and do it right this time. Here is how I went from a bad streak to a good one:

1) No PMO: This may seem obvious but during my first long streak I didn't fully commit(In hindsight it wasn't a proper streak), this time I definitely have committed to No PMO and there have been no issues there aside from wet dreams on days 26, 39, 55, 84, 90 and 110. Obviously WDs aren't ideal, but there's little I can do about them.

2) Self Improvement: When I first started the only thing I did differently was try (and fail) to abstain from PMO, I would plan to do other things but would half-arsed everything from diet and exercise to reading and writing to cold showers and journaling. Now I can honestly say I've started doing all of those and it definitely works.

3) Doing it for the right reasons: I started NoFap because I foolishly thought it would help me win over my crush. Long story short that didn't happen and this time around I'm doing it for myself, although I may have used a crush as motivation for my current streak, I'm still doing it for me. Meeting my own goals comes first at this point.

Moving forward I don't see myself going back to porn, I think those days are gone. Surpassing my streak was important, it'll be interesting to see what happens next.

 

It is 1 year ago TODAY that I discovered NoFap. Over the course of that year everything that happened in my original post happened but since then my mood went down. For the entire month of October (and into November) I've started getting very worked up about lots of little things. Trembling, crying, not knowing why. I've questioned my mental health, my job, my family, everything... Including NoFap. So why is this post here ?

Because despite all that I've stuck to my guns and remained PMO free for 170 days. Even at my worst I haven't relapsed. If that's not a success story I don't know what is.

 

I don't know the policy on bumping your own thread, so if I'm breaking some rule let me know.

Today marks 1 year since I reset my counter and started my current streak. This time last year I was motivated by another intense crush, and a year later the scales have fallen from my eyes. I now do this for myself only as the crush I mentioned took me expressing feelings for her and turned it into something that drove me into a long downward spiral. I am still slowly coming out of the other side of the depression that situation caused, but there has been a massive shift in how I am now compared to a year ago. I'm not back at full self just yet, but making 1 year is a big boost.