I'm now 21 and have been single for 3 years now. I've never actually had sex before but I have been struggling with porn addiction for a long time (probably around 7 years now). I started masturbating a year ago and ever since I've been falling into the trap of masturbating over and over. At first I would reach orgasm just by watching porn videos but now I can't reach it without masturbating to porn videos. I joined nofap last year around the same time trying to change my life as a new years resolution of some sort and I guess I just fell off. I'm a university student so when school starts I get distracted by work but whenever I don't have work at night I would PMO. This has been going on the whole of 2019. I don't think this has affected my social skills as I am able to socialize with people especially women just fine but I think it has damaged my self image badly as I sometimes don't feel good enough to date someone. I want to stop this addiction as there are so many things that I could be doing that would really improve my life but pornagraphy has gotten in the way of them.
I’m sorry to hear of your struggle. It’s a very hard addiction to break. But you are very lucky because you recognize that you have a problem and you want to make a change. And you are still really young. Feeling that you are not good enough to date someone sounds like the shame talking. And if there is one thing I know about shame is that it’s a liar. So tell your shame to fuck off, stop the porn, and start dating.
You failed to establish self image and self respect and you suffer the consequences, I would say your realistic best option is to make some friends in same age group and hand out with them as much as you can, go to parties, go out, do what you are afraid to do. You will get some abuse because of your lacking experience but that is normal and in the end people will help you get comfortable and find your self worth. In reality you deserve as much as any of us but only if you are willing to go earn it and take it. You are afraid to go earn it and you are afraid to take it, so if you do not get yourself in to position where others will give you support and help you, then you will never take what you want even if you earned it. If you think going out and social stuff is beneath you - it is not. And fyi - you d not have porn addiction. You have massive emotional problems, that result in depression which you deal with by doing the things you think are the cause.
