You go from not caring about porn at all to wanting it more than ever?

This has been my problem in the past with porn, I either abstain from it all together for some time, or start looking at it and woah does it really take off in a bad way. I'm either hot or cold and it's been such a major problem in my life, now however through sheer determination, and some sense of a spiritual life I'm gonna overcome this porn addiction. I've learned to just focus on me when I masturbate. That way I don't fantasize about others leading me to more and more corruption. Sit back relax, and focus your attention on yourself and you may just curb your porn addiction

 

I read a poster here, that compared addiction like starving little monsters.
The less you feed them, the more they scream at you that they want to be fed.
That is the addiction, leaving your body.

I am just quoting others, I haven't experienced this myself yet. I am in the exact same boat as you. It frightens me, the way that it can excite me. But I try to see the urges as a deadly siren, it's all cool and magical and awesome, but it's a lure, with a sharp metal hook inside of it that will cut through your psyche. Then you always come back to the point where realize why you decided to NoFap. I'm hoping I can avoid that loop, as I see it coming from a mile away.

The way is preparation. Read all the journals (they really help). Read all the posts that align with what you are trying to achieve. Try to think of all the ways you can be urged to relapse, then try to think of how you will act and what you'll do to prevent it from happening. (E.g. cold showers, go outside for a walk, stand on the balcony or the porch for 10 minutes to get some air, go to another room, vacuum the floors, etc..etc..).

Then eventually, it's not that the urges necessarily get less. It's just that you get much better in coping with them. That's something I think that can be trained.

 

Good luck to you man. I know exactly how hard it really is to overcome such a thing

 

I consumed so much pornography that if I went back to barely if I was watching her, but even so after a relapse binge eating is very common after the first orgasm I no longer feel any sense of pleasure just guilt.

 

Same here. First week is like - damn.. I don't want that shit no mo, second week is like crazy urge to watch porn. Never went through second week so I don't know what it would be like, but hang on, it does go away and get better.

Most drugs don't cause their most severe symptoms at the beginning of withdrawal. Alcohol withdrawal is easy until day 5 and becomes a nightmare after. Benzo withdrawal doesn't even seem like a withdrawal on week 1, but then you could literally die from withdrawing. For some reason, that's how drug withdrawal works and porn is no different.

One thing is for sure though.

NOBODY ever said - I shouldn't have went sober. Nobody. Hang in there, and beat that terrible addiction that is porn, and become the man you deserve to be. Those chicks you are watching on screen, you deserve to be banging them. But you won't even be close to that as long as you have that addiction. Good luck to all of us

 

It has to do with a two fold process
1. Your testosterone levels begin to fully recover around day 7(generally) and then reach a peak at around day 12-14. It's no coincidence that's when most people relapse back into porn
2. Your addiction to porn is based on cycles, and when you don't consume porn that is in line with your regular cycle your brain starts screaming for it's pleasure fix.

I wrote a post about the dangers of what i termed The Long Cycle. And it's a product of repeated attempts to kick an addiction but failing to do so- leading to stronger and more reinforced connections in your brain!
This is why edging mixed with Abstinence-Binging is actually WAY WORSE for you than if you were to regularly consume porn.
"How's that?" It's similar to a drug addict or alcoholic abstaining from their addiction only to get a HUGE rush when they relapse back into it in two weeks time. They lose some tolerance and then the rush they get is immense.
That trains the brain to strengthen those connections because it knows "Oh this guy is not going to feed me porn for 2 weeks(scarcity). I'm going to reinforce this connection to pleasure so strongly so i can survive this starvation."

It's truly detrimental and i saw it take ahold of me earlier this year and i see the exact same cycle grabbed alot of people here on NoFAP. It's something that needs to be addressed and understood! People who join NoFAP and keep doing half-recoveries are actually strengthening their porn addictions unknowingly.

 

This is really interesting, and one of my great concerns. I already have difficulty with just lasting a couple of days, so I shouldn't look forward and admit that I am at step one. But a little voice in the back of my mind keeps saying: "Careful with this shit. Do it wisely or it could be really dangerous for you.". And I want to push that away, because I think it's my addiction talking. But it does warrant contemplation. 'Ye who enter, be warned! There be monsters here!'. The monsters being the addiction, tricking you back into relapse, but also what can happen if you enter that stop/not stop cycle. I've went through it with smoking for years and I stopped 'quitting' because of that, knowing that the next time I want to quit smoking. I need to quit forever.

But first.. my PMO challenge.

 

You have to wait it out. If you don't want to watch pornography, then you have to not watch it. Bide the time is what I say. Treat each urge as an individual urge, even if it lasts for hours, or if it leaves and then comes back after thirty minutes. Treat each urge individually, and take down each one individually. You can't watch porn again. Your desire to watch it will decrease and eventually go away completely, but be prepared for that to take months, or even years. It's worth it in the end; I'm sure that you believe this yourself.

 

This is how an addiction works. Once you give in, for a while, it's satisfied until you go long enough with out giving in to it. Then you begin to starve it and like the stomach does when you deprive it of food long enough, your mind will begin to crave porn once more and it throws numerous effects and urges at you in an attempt to get you to give in once again. Yes, there's supposed to be a point where you no longer care about porn and numerous members have achieved that here. But you have to suffer first before you reach any kind of bliss.

It's tough. It's a pain. It's exhausting. But if it were easy, everybody would be doing it. You need to learn how to curb that excitement you feel or you will never be free from porn.

 

Great post. Ive been in this cycle lately. Needed to read that. Thank You.

 

Yo I’m so glad I read something similar to this when I did. Helped me snap out of that “relapse is part of the process” way of thinking that led to many of my relapses. I definitely just got through some of the worst urges I’ve had so far and I’m on day 14 so this totally makes sense.

 

Yeah I've felt the same way, I'll be able to stay away from it for awhile but then I'll relapse and binge on it. It can take awhile for me to get out of the binge cycle too. What makes it worse is that your favorite porn scenes can end up ingrained in your mind, so a lot of times one of your favorite scenes will just randomly cross your mind and you'll start thinking about that porn scene regardless of where you're at or what you're doing and then you will start to crave PMO'ing to that video as soon as you get a chance to.

 

This is one of the reasons that I have not set myself a target, ie. 30 days, 90 days etc. because I know that if I did I would be looking forward to the day I could watch porn again.

I miss it, I still think about it a lot, however at the same time I'm beginning to realise that I don't need it.

At this time however I know that if I went back and looked at porn I would consume it, as if catching up on all the things I've missed.