Thinking about fapping once a week

Just read your post. I can absolutely understand your thoughts. I did a PM streak of 240 days starting June last year until several weeks ago. I could see benefits, but they were not really remarkable. During the 240 PM streak I had two or three 40 days PMO streaks as well. But especially after one of them I felt weaker and less myself than before. Flatline in several ways.

Right now I’m doing a counter break. I think of starting a new challenge – 100 days P. M would be allowed, once a week or so. I can imagine that this would be a better way for me. Everybody is different, so one can only do experiments by oneself I think.

However, wish you all the best for your journey!

 

May i asked what you do to recover? Just only not pmo? I was a BIG BIG pmo addict. I think i came out flatline after 40 days.
I use meditation every day, no sugar, no caffeine, a lot cardio and intermittent fasting.. It all helped a lot in the recovery...

 

Well, i am pmo addicted since the age of 9. I was bullied a lot so after i found out the pmo was such a relieve, i started practicing pmo on a daily base. Around my thirteenth, i got a big big big youth trauma, so from there on i pmo'd for like 3 time a day every day. When i became 18 i got dexamfetamine due to problems regarding to focus, concentration etc. From the moment i noticed the effect of amphetamine and pmo i was so damn hooked, i still pmo'd sober every day, but i guess once a twice week i did full night amphetamine and pmo. It was absolutely the best feeling in the world. When i moved to my own apartment in a big student city to study it started to escalate. Long story short, i became more and more addictive and at the age of 26 i started to masturbate on amphetamine almost every week. I binged fapped for about 3 a 4 days in a row without sleeping. Just only masturbate and searching for extreme EXTREME violent porn. At one point - 17 may 2015- i got in a severe psychosis. I already had 3 before, but this one was so damn heavy that i called my parents and told them literally everything about my addiction. I told them i was addicted, i was searching for extreme porn etc etc. From that moment my recovery started. First, i went to rehab. The first time i got out after only 1 day. Full of denial i immediately got back to my old life. After almost 3 months of substance abuse, i got psychotic again and i went straight to rehab again.


Even though i had a good time there, i never had that real "AHA- this is what it is" moment. So, i got clean from booze and drugs and remained sober for like 2 months. When everything was cool again in my head I forgot all the agreements that I had made with myself, and started using booze again. (sidenote: i never quit pmo during this process because i did not know it was so bad)


So i started using booze again and it fucked me up again. Again, i got a heavy psychosis. This time it was so heavy that i heard voices outside screaming that they would kill me and i thought my parents were at the base of a conspiracy to cut down my throat.(because of the violent porn i have watched i thought people wanted to kill me) So they needed to take me in the mental hospital. I stayed there for 1,5 months, fully drugged by all sorts of medication. So, when i came back from hospital i was exhausted and i have been laying on the couch for a straight 8 month period. Still i pmo'd on a daily base.

After been sick for like 4 months i recovered a bit and i started doing some charity work. Another 4 months later i started studying again. But this time on a much lower level than i used to study because i had fucked up my brain BADLY>


So, it went ok and I started to get my life on track. Till I again forgot the agreements I made with myself and fucked it up again. Relapse after relapse. Drugs, booze, pmo everything haha. The psychosis came back and so did all the medicine.

So I decided to finally give up booze and drugs for good. I needed to fix my live.

I stayed sober for a year. I had work as an experience counselor in the mental hospital and I helped people with the problems. But, I stayed pmo’ing. And I became heavily addicted to instagram and facebook. I was always addicted to instagram, but not it became
obsessively. I write poems and it did so well on instagram that I kept posting. Al of a sudden –within 2 months- my live was only about facebook and instagram (and pmo) I also i increasingly became addicted to sugar and caffeine.

I also started to find ways to feel better than normal by searching for nootropics. I'm a big fan of natural supplements, but at one point i needed to have moooore happines. At one forum a guy wrote the best nootropic he has ever used was going on nofap after being addicted. I found it interesting and started to read about nofap... And there was the fucking AHA MOMENT! I've never felt more connected with people I've never met before than with all the boys who write about nofap and porn addiction.

So i decided to give it a try. My first streak was 4 days and i felt good. After 4 days i relapsed and i thought " bleh, this is not for me." Classical for me- as for all addicts- is denial.
So after a week of fapping again i wanted to try it again. I stayed clean from fapping for about 7 days and i felt great! But, after a week i got relapse in drugs and bing fapping again. I felt terrible. 1-year sobriety down the drain.

I REALLY wanted to do something about my life so i decided to go back on nofap. That was 15-02-2018!!!

After a week of nofap I felt on top of the world.. Extreme positive. But, after a week, i thought.. "aah, i feel so great, everything is done, trauma is gone, i feel so good jeeej jeej jeeee let's fap." I already told my parents about nofap and they strongly suggested not to do it. And then it hit me. My body and brain was lying to my ever since i started using drugs.. I did not feel great. The body and my mind was telling me i feel great in order to get a shot op dopamine. So i decided to no give in and bam.. psychosis number 6!

I'm done with my life as an addict and i finally are willing to fully committed to getting sober. I strongly believe that when you have been addicted so long, working on recovery needs to be as important as oxygen, water, food and sleep.

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Since i fully understand what addiction is and what the mechanisms are behind (my) addiction, it's easier to not give in! So, figure out all the things you need to know about addiction in general and about addiction in relation to you. The Internet is pretty useful for that. So you need to make sure that when you want to fully recover from addiction it has to be at the very top of your list... It has to be the most important thing besides oxygen, water, food and sleep. . So when you fully understand what the mechanisms are behind your addiction, then you make a solid plan.. Just getting in to reboot without a plan is the same as beginning an iron man triathlon with no training at all.

And with a plan i mean a real plan.. So i made a mind map of all the reasons why i don't want to fap. I would suggest you make a written paper with 40 reasons why you don't want to fap anymore. I say 40 because 2 to 5 reasons are to short. 40 reasons is a moderately long list so it takes a little time to read. It might take your mind of the urges.
I guess we addicts are really good at finding reasons why we should do it.. And therefore we are so damn good at convincing us to give in..
So we really need to change that mindset and make us only see the reasons why we don't want to fap anymore..

it helped me a lot, when i really have strong urges, to make a mantra of all the reasons why I don’t want to do it. As a porn related thought or image came up to my mind I count from 1 to 6 and backward and visualizing the numbers. I just count and visualize as long as I need to get rid of the porn images or thoughts. This does two things.. Namely, it get's your mind of the porn and... it helps your brain make need pathways not related to porn (rewiring). I really noticed that after 3 weeks of consistently doing this, the images began to weaken... And afterward, when the images are gone, i do full the mantra 6 times..
And if that not helps, and i'm at home, i jump under the ice cold shower. It's such a shock to the body and mind that in 90 percent of the time i cant even think about porn haha.. And if even that dont help me, i will go run as long as i need. Last time i needed to run i kept on going for 25 kilometer hahaha.

So the other things i do to deal with the urges are..

- Intermittent fasting. I only alow myself to eat from 05:00 to 07:00 in the evening. It makes my willpower grow, i dont have a lot of food cravings anymore. I also fast 4 days a month only on water. So i dont eat, but only drink water for 4 days. It helps me A LOT to have a clear mind and it's fucking good for upregulating the dopamine receptors.
Just read this... https://www.nofap.com/forum/index.php?threads/the-benefits-of-fasting-on-the-reboot.64894/

- i meditate a lot. It helps me SO SO SO SO fucking much in controlling my mind.
Read this
https://www.nofap.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-meditate-for-mindblowing-state.28105/
https://www.reddit.com/r/NoFap/comments/5udawq/meditation_is_extremely_important_to_succeed_with/

- I only take ice cold showers.. It helps me a lot with increasing my willpower. We addicts have the habbit of always choose the most comfortable path.. So if you're able to really go uncomfortable, it makes your will power go though the roof. and it's pretty good for your body..
https://www.nofap.com/forum/index.php?threads/cold-showers-are-the-bomb.33956/

For now i will stop writing..Ow, this article blew my mind..

It's about why we should choose the more uncomfortable options..

https://gettingstronger.org/2010/05/opponent-process-theory/

If you have any questions, just asked...


And sorry for the long message!!

 

DO not masturbate !
Try to get a girlfriend.
i think that flatline period can be decreased by following a good diet. i would advise a paleo diet. you might be allergic/intolerant to some food that you eat daily. it sounds silly but it is the case with alot of people. they find out their food intolerances only after quitting some foods for a few weeks and then adding it back , only to experience severe reactions.
these food intolerances can increase the duration of flatline. thats why i am recommending paleo, as they already eliminate most of the foods people are commonly intolerant to.
good luck !