NoFap journals are dying...

I see the journals as a tool for the individual. We talk about what we feel like talking about. If people respond, great. If not, that's fine too. There's no real specific format in my mind. In my case I just haven't had much desire to post in mine. That may change at any time.

 

For myself, personally, since I came back here, I haven't made a journal at all. I just don't feel like they are helpful for me at this juncture. I feel like sometimes putting a lot of focus on a problem is beneficial, and sometimes when you put too much focus on the problem, it just makes you unable to think about anything but that problem.

My "strategy" these days has been to better myself and my life outside of PMO and let the natural cause and effect drown out the urge to waste time on that garbage. To be honest, it hasn't always been very successful, but neither was spending every day checking in on the forums and talking about PMO constantly and resetting a counter every time I failed. But I feel better on this path, I think. Just living my life and trying not to worry too much about being 100% perfect.

 

I did have a journal when I first came here, though, a few years ago, and it was helpful sometimes. Mostly to get to know people better and to learn more about other people's experiences with PMO and how they relate to mine. At this point, though, I feel like I've already learned what I need to learn, and I don't need that anymore. It became really repetitive for me, and sometimes it's good to hear a reminder that you already knew, but sometimes it's just tiring to talk about the same stuff all the time.

 

I suppose another reason why I'm not posting much in my journal at this moment is I only have so much time in the day to dig into myself and express my thoughts. Currently I'm doing that outside of NoFap. Along with this, PMO just doesn't seem to be as big a deal for me at the moment. Regardless, it is great having a place like this to come to when needed.

 

I can say that during my first 90 days of NoFap, it was recommend to me that addicts in general need that big initial period in their rehab to be accountable every day. So I journaled my first 90 days in its entirety. And I believe it was a huge help. But I felt that the progress I had made could only be furthered by moving on; by taking part in other discussions and focusing on the new interests in my “new” lifestyle.

I still keep my journal updated from time to time, as well as when I’m having a really tough time and need to just write about my feelings. So people go through different phases when it comes to writing. I really don’t see a shortage of journaling in the 40+ section where I am, but perhaps the shifts you see in journaling reflect where various people are in their journeys.

 

In my experience, I tried keeping a journal but as a tool, it actually didn't work for me since I relapsed way too often and the fact I had to report that not only frustrated me but also made me want to relapse again and/or lie about it on the journal. Besides, as a person who gets easily distracted, writing on the journal only made me think about how many days I had spent without porn and how long it is taking for me to recover.

Its a personal tool, as everyone is recovering from PMO for his/her own health. I tried it, it didn't work so I moved on. For the ones this tool work, well go for it.

 

A journal serves to allow a person to keep track of their progress and hold themselves accountable. Support is always good but the journal serves its function with or without it. If youre keeping a journal, the journal doesnt die until you stop the entries. As long as people hold themselves accountable and stick to their plans theyre going to be sucessfull.

 

I've been reviewing my own journal and how it's been effecting me and I believe the unofficial format of counting days and then talking about PMO addiction isnt very helpful. I believe it's doing nothing more than instilling in us a sense of perfectionism, which is part of the reason I have an addiction issue in the first place. I think this perfectionism is why we are seeing people with long streaks but then big relapses later and then a return back to old ways of coping with the reality that theyre not perfect. Now just think what if they learned to cope with that reality by not viewing a relapse as a failure?! Wouldn't they be in a much better place? Wouldn't our journals then have more entries where we talk about our joys in life instead of our failures or fear of failure simply because we've extended ourselves the grace to be imperfect? And when I say extending ourselves grace I don't mean we should make excuses for unhealthy behavior. I believe we should acknowledge it and move forward but move forward without the idea that life can be lived in a perfect streak mentality where we're afraid to fail.

 

I think accountability partners might be taking over

 

I started a couple journals here and I ended up deleting them for a couple reasons...

1) Nobody reads or cares about anything I say there.
2) When I do get a reply, it’s usually something sarcastic or rude. Or just some generic message of support that I seen them copy & paste into several other threads.
3) I find it redundant to report my progress daily when I can just look at my counter stats.

 

I have never made a journal here on this page or anywhere else even though I think I should start doing it. The only thing going on for me is the counter and I'm doing pretty well. I read and engage with users on here almost daily on topics that have already been discussed lots of times because I think it's important to be reminded of certain things.

 

Journal as a tool - exactly.
Helps me to focus on what I really want: true happiness, free of addiction. And sometimes an encouraging or inspiring comment is coming in.

 

I don't think it's overly helpful to journal everything. It strikes me as over obsessing about what your giving it. IdeAlly you need to get away from the internet. Immerse yourself in the real world

 

I think the journal is excellent when you start out on the Nofap enterprise. But once you get to a certain stage, you don't want to overly focus on yourself for this can be counter-productive. Engaging more randomly in miscellaneous threads is useful in so far as it distracts you from the whole issue of PMO - instead of being dead center, it is in the periphery. And at some point, you would just want to fade away from here... always have to be moving on. Sa la vie.

 

I'm new to nofap and I really like the idea of keeping a journal. It's a very individual thing in my opinion and I do it mostly for myself. Sometimes I post daily, sometimes once in 3 days. Honestly I don't think I've ever visited any other person's journal after I started mine, which doesn't mean I don't keep my fingers crossed for all the others fapstronauts of course. So yeah, to wrap it up, I really don't think it's a big deal that people don't get 10 likes and responses after every new journal entry. Maybe my view will change after I relapse or something lol. But for now it's a great tool to reflect on the past day/days and remind myself of the amazing journey. Cheers