Once an addict always an addict?

Without a doubt you'll be able to find sex/orgasm pleasurable again. Maybe from time to time you'll just think about PMO, or a video which you once enjoyed, but honestly that's not a big deal. The sentence "once an addict always an addict" is correct is some cases, but truth is if you stop for a long time you'll maybe MISS it from time to time but not NEED it anymore.

 

If you turn off the light in your room at night you will not see much for few minutes, during this time your eye will be in the process of adaptation to the dark, it will gradually increase sensitivity of your retina so it needs less light to produce an image. After about 10minutes you will transition in to night vision, and see significantly better.
Our bodies have similar adaptive mechanisms everywhere, these mechanisms compensate various factors in order to give us the ability to function, with abuse we best best compromise our body can deliver.
Once these negative factors are removed compensation mechanisms bring you back in to normal range.
There is usually some degree of learning as well, body reacts more strongly to things it has already encountered and developed a response for.
You feel bored with sex because it does not produce enough dopamine, key here is that it still produces dopamine, but not enough to entice you, and the reason for that is - you flood the brain with dopamine and to cope - it reduces sensitivity, with lower sensitivity - you respond less to things you enjoyed before.

 

First of all welcome to the forum. I'm curious where you heard that, or whether you read it online vs. an in-person sex recovery meeting since it's the kind of thing they might say there.

Let me preface the following by saying I don't think that is always true and also I don't measure recovery by a single score of number of days. That said, traditional recovery, including here uses the 90 day mark as a beginning, and from there you might have old timers that start to measure in years - though that's probably more prevalent in terms of substance programs like AA.

My point here is you just started, no need to look at this thought as a dark cloud that's never going to leave you. If it's true, then there's nothing you can do about it. I don't believe that's the case and the case can be made against using it from multiple perspectives, at the very least it needs to be qualified. Learned helplessness (an actual psychological phenomenon discovered by experiments, you can look it up) is a potential pattern here if one takes it on as a belief rather than a fact. If we view it as a fact, then we have to ask whether people change over time. If people change, you are at least not the same addict, but is there any reason to believe one is always an addict? Some people end up being addicted to different things, and overeating is arguably less toxic than something like heroin. In that case they are still an addict but not the same kind of addict.

Even more to the point: Even if you always have cravings, would we define that as being an addict if you don't act out? With PMO of course we make a distinction between real and artificial sexual stimuli. Even our own thoughts about a person is not that person, even if they may be flattered that we think of them that way - but it'd be my thought about the woman and not the woman. We might call that the media based virtual reality of porn vs. the psychological virtual reality of my own mind. The latter is something that has been with humankind for much longer, though now it's informed by the porn narratives - but I find that does fade over time.

 

No, it's not true. It's not true for any addiction.

The problem is the way people address addiction - with abstinence only. Abstinence doesn't break the cue>behavior link, which is why people are always addicts.

The way to cure an addiction is through exposure therapy.

 

In our SAA group. A member made an analogy that just made so much sense . Sex and porn addiction you have for the rest of your life. That statement when I first heard that made me feel frustrated and had the thought " ahh for fuck sakes I have to live with this for the rest of my life ! I can't do this !".
But the member mentioned it was just like someone finding out they have diabetes.... Once you have diabetes you have it for the rest of your life. And from then on you have to make sure you watch your blood sugar levels , check them often , everyday at times.. and you have to manage it from then on . I know ppl who have diabetes and they seem like they enjoy life and it doesn't stop them from enjoying life. They just have to manage it . That's all we have to do . We have to change our lifestyle just like ppl with diabetes , we have to learn. Different tools to help with that. We have to manage it and check up as often as needed , and we can tell when we aren't managing it as best as we can. It's not as life crippling as it at first sounds.
Anyways that's how I like to look at it. And I find it really does help put it in a better perspective .

 

this is the typical phrase of the people who don't want to change so blame others things for their behavior. You can change and enjoy sex again but you don't have to do this nofap like only a challenge.. Thinking that at day 90 magically you will be a new man.. It's a long and step-by-step journey.. I mean it's useless have a streak of 100 days if every day you are always thinking of porn.. You have to first change your habit then everything will come out easier and easier. About the mind it works like for cigarettes when you quit smoking you know they gave cancer but still your brain still want them.. And the same goes for porn. on yourbrainonporn.com it's explained very well about the chemical that pmo release.. Since you have made your brain used to them it will seek them also if you know it's wrong.. So just start a journal make your goal change your habits.. And the best of luck