I quit tobacco and now I can quit porn

I started at a young age watching pornography and doing drugs like marijuana and tobacco.
10 years later I am 26 years old.
Now as an adult in a professional line of work I have been able to quit the drugs but I am realizing that porn is also a drug and one that I struggle to quit.

I know it is inhibiting me from many facets of my life and I can usually go a few days until I regrettably fail in all my struggle.

This website can be my substitute and amulet, much in the way that I used vaporizers to replace my cigarette habit.

I look forward to talking about this kind of addiction with you all and reading the conversations of past experiences.

Can anyone else speak on the similarity/differences between tobacco and porn addiction?

I think they both can be overcome and I salute all of you Fapstronauts who attempt the seemingly impossible.

 

@dontwasteadrop
I am in 100% for the no PMO and have been for quite some time but I think it is more difficult than cigarettes for that reason which you mentioned.

Quitting cigarettes has social elements where it is inappropriate to smoke and actually I received a lot of support from my family about quitting smoking (for many years, which I again am working to make permanent). Talking to your friends and family about PMO addiction can be more difficult than revealing a heavy drug addiction.

@Neckbeard
I agree that it "doesn't 'seem' as harmful" is most likely the biggest misconception that has made this issue such a growing problem.

I remember one of Eric Schlosser's best books called Reefer Madness has a great chapter called "An Empire of the Obscene" which chronicles the history of porn, next time I start feeling the weakness I am going to read that chapter again.

Today was 4 weeks without any tobacco for me and before that I quit for 3 months from the end of December through March inevitably crumbling to the idea of "yeah, I can have 1 and it will be ok". Big mistake! So it goes.....

 

I agree cigarettes are a much more physically addicting substance where as PMO is much more of a mental addiction (where both have elements of each other).

A well known psychologist named Philip Zimbardo also argues that young boy especially are being digitally rewired which is having detrimental consequences on performance in school (much less life and the real world!).

Still, I know people who have tried to quit smoking for decades and never quit, eventually dying of lung related illnesses. PMO may not end your physical life but it can definitely create trouble for your mental and spiritual life for sure.

 

I have always thought of marijuana as harmless (if not a useful medicine) and have smoked for years (even still) but I am starting to quit that as well because I think it will help in my quitting PMO.

Everything can be used positively in moderation if you have the will power to do so (well most things). I cannot say whether you will have a positive experience from using cannabis after abstaining from it for a while but I can say in my opinion that if you are trying to quit PMO it may intensify your urges to relapse. I think that is what is happening to me.

Drugs are shortcuts to things you would already feel. I used to think cannabis made me more creative but I realize now it just helps jump start the creative process (similar to how I can study without ADHD medication, but the medication is a shortcut). The shortcuts eventually affect other parts of your life negatively. I want to learn the warm up stretches so that eventually I won't want to take a shortcut.

Much props to quitting tobacco I hope to join your 9 month marker (been a tobacco smoker for about 10 years) and I wish you the best in quitting PMO.