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Get educated, get tools, and learn to love withdrawals

Discussion in 'Porn Addiction' started by William, Dec 16, 2013.

  1. 1ANDDONE

    1ANDDONE Fapstronaut

    @Summer Son

    Hi Summer, I will attempt to explain. In this place, it is easy to lose sight of the tree for the forest, so to speak. Many people think of porn as an extension of their sexuality, and, therefore, conceive of what type of porn they are watching as a reflection of their sexuality.

    Porn, actually, has little or nothing to do with one's actual sexuality. We may need to develop a better, more accurate, vocabulary when discussing these things. It is both helpful, and entirely accurate, to conceived as porn as a "tool". We did not invent High Speed Internet Porn as a vehicle to efficiently achieve a dopamine high, but when we figured out we could use it that way, we did. At the beginning of the widespread use of HSIP the neuroscience had not sufficiently developed to call the addiction what it really is, and, frankly, literally calling the addiction what it really is would required a neurologist, which I am not, but the addiction is, literally, and addiction to a neurological reward that comes from thinking about sex, having sex, watching porn (because porn makes us think about sex), and orgasm, either through sex or PMO.

    My point it that regardless of the category you prefer (i.e., the category you choose to obtain your dopamine high from), the category itself is irrelevant to understanding the addiction. The addiction actually highjacks a preexisting neurological brain reward event that encourages sexuality and reproduction, but the reward starts with THINKING of sex. Sexual thoughts alone are sufficient to generate a dopamine rush, and, draw that out with a PMO session, and that high can become addictive.

    Porn categories exist as a result of a few things, but sensitization, desensitization, and escalation are key concepts. If just one porn picture, one porn vid, one porn category consistently produced the dopamine high we get the first few times, we would develop no other categories than those, but, they do not. Over time we desensitize to whatever category we initially started with, which feels a bit like becoming bored with it, and we have to on to other categories to achieve the same thrill. That happens in nature, even without porn, which is why sex the first time, if it is very good, becomes, with the same partner, over time, less thrilling.

    I don't believe that once an addict, always an addict, for this, particular addiction, which is not recognized as an addiction by the mainline psyc community. This addiction begins first with conditioning the brain to produce a dopamine high to a specific stimulation. The stimulation is not actually porn, but, rather, sexual thoughts. That is not the brain malfunctioning, but, rather, sort of like putting jet fuel in your walking mower. It still will work, not as designed, but, but it will work. The cure is simply conditioning your brain not to miss the dopamine high you can use porn to achieve. That takes time, but, owing to brain plasticity, it can be done. It is Pavlovian, as simple as teaching a dog a new trick, but, just because it is simple does not mean it is easy, especially when it is you conditioning yourself.

    There is a turning point in quitting, and that is when you quit wanting. For me, by 5 months, I had quit wanting. That made it easy. That was when it became doable, then easy.

    Hopes this helps.

    W.
     
    choloteco, i89rt5 and Summer Son like this.
  2. 1ANDDONE

    1ANDDONE Fapstronaut

    Question: on a scale of 1-10, how pleasurable is a dopamine high?

    Answer: give or take, about 40.


    There is a group of people on the planet that think sex is the most pleasurable experience that can be had.

    Neurologically we could say that sex is a great way to achieve the neurological reward that is dopamine, oxytocin, endogenous opioids, etc. For some people, maybe the best, most efficient, way. For others, porn and PMO does the trick.

    Whether you like it or not, sex, thinking about sex, fantasizing about sex, PMO, result in a neurological dopamine reward. More complicated than that, actually, but for one with the problem, the problem is a dopamine reward problem. It is possible that, for a small percentage of the population, the dopamine reward problem can become what we call addictive. I don't like the word. We need a better word, a more accurate, more descriptive term, reflecting advances in the ability to "see" the brain, and the way it works, but, until someone a lot smarter than me comes up with it, we will go with addiction.

    I see a lot of guys reporting long streaks, but complaining they are not getting over it. That, probably, has something to do with the member thinking they are quitting watching porn, as opposed to the dopamine high that is the real problem. This problem can look and sound a lot like porn and PMO, and those are components, but the real problem is the neurological brain reward they lead to. THAT is the thing you are addicted to, if you are addicted. When I see guys on long runs not using porn, but still reporting they struggle, I wonder if they are using porn substitutes, or things other than porn to spike their dopamine levels. In order to quit and eventually quit wanting it, you have to quit spiking a dopamine reward, and that reward has existed to reward things other than porn, a long time before the invention of High Speed Internet Porn. One of the keys to quitting successfully is recognizing you are using to get that dopamine spike, and understanding that to wean off, you have to quit feeding that dopamine high, which can be spiked by a lot other than just porn and PMO. If you are quitting, be self aware, that the problem you have had, while involving P and PMO, certainly, is more specific than that, and involves using that artificial sexual stimulation to produce a dopamine high. It is the DOPAMINE HIGH that is the problem you have to solve, and to solve it, you have to seriously cut back on getting it, retrain your brain not to get it, that way. A huge part of solving the problem is accepting you will live without getting high. This is not so bad, we love dopamine highs, but to quit the problem, you have to quit the highs, as much as possible, especially in the quitting phase, and then, get them after only via natural events, like sex, great food, and skydiving, Russian roulette...Ok, not that, but you get the idea. Thrills that are not addictive.

    A lot of people here struggle and complain about the pain of quitting. True dat. But, also keep in mind why you use in the first place: It feels fucking great. Once you have rebooted, you won't feel "bad". You just won't be getting high all the time. This is the truth. Take time to understand it.

    Much love.

    1ANDDONE



     
  3. 1ANDDONE

    1ANDDONE Fapstronaut

    One of the biggest tools in rebalancing your brain is...wait for it...YOUR BRAIN. Read, study, learn. Here is a good explanation of how addictions work. Porn is not mentioned because porn is not, generally, considered or categorized as an addiction, and neither is sex addiction. Our reality is that the human brain is hardwired to reward certain things, naturally, such as sex and eating. Being clever monkeys humans have figured out ways to create, and use, superstimulations to achieve those rewards. That becomes problematic when the superstimulations make achieving the rewards far more efficient, and the rewards from superstimulations are far bigger than naturally occurring.

    Read on.

    https://www.monografias.com/trabajo...in-to-food-to-booze-or-to-anything-else.shtml
     
    Fenix Rising likes this.
  4. D R

    D R Fapstronaut

    Glad to see you are still posting. I made it fully thru page 16 and just couldnt help but skip to end at that point to see if you are indeed, still here and still posting. Makes me happy you are. Good stuff here. Glad I found the link. Feel free to check out my journal sometime. I too find helping others helps me immensely in my recovery.
    Cheers!
     
    Vairagya likes this.
  5. 1ANDDONE

    1ANDDONE Fapstronaut

    @D R

    Hi D R, thanks for the kind words. I used to say "Thanks for the kind words, reading posts, and posting, helps me in my recovery," but I don't say that anymore, because, while I still like reading and posting, I don't feel I am in recovery anymore. I feel totally recovered. In the beginning I felt like many here do, a slave to porn; no longer and not for some years.

    There is some debate about whether porn is addictive, and there are a lot of confused people grappling with their use of porn, or porn consumption. I have said, sarcastically, people ought to have to test in to this site. By that I mean, before trying to fix the problem, it would be very helpful if people understood what the problem is, and what it is not. A basic understanding of the neurological concepts underlying the problem are not understood by too many here. I see, and for years have seen, people desperate over their seeming inability to quit watching porn, show up here, fling wildly, and begging for help, while they try to "quit porn", when it is not porn they have to quit. No one ever has been addicted to X, Y, or Z, whatever those are. What is addictive is a neurological brain event, some say a reward event, some say a motivational response event, but for all "addictions" a brain event that results in what we perceive as pleasure or "liking". The event, which, for porn users, I call a dopamine high, is an event that naturally occurs in all humans, and mammals. It is nature's carrot, to encourage reproduction. Over the last few hundred million years, nature could have found a lot of events to "reward", but, especially for humans, nature figured out if it developed and built a brain that rewarded "thinking about sex", people would have sex, and sex leads to one of the most successful survival traits for all species; reproduction. The part of the brain that produces the reward event, by the way, works perfectly. A lot of people, as I did early on, think their brain is defective, that they are defective, because they like watching porn. They are not; they are normal; but porn is not a normal stimulation that existed when that part of the brain that rewards sexual thoughts evolved to its current state. Let me qualify that; porn existed, but High Speed Internet Porn did not, and HSIP is very efficient at producing a dopamine high. Even before homo sapiens evolved to our current model, the brain rewarded sexual thoughts because it worked: It led to reproduction. And, we liked porn, from the time we could write on a cave wall, because it produced a sexual thought, which in turn produced a brain reward event.

    One of the problems with the word "addiction" is that is dated, antiquated. Almost all psychology is antiquated if it developed a theory of human behavior prior to the development of neuroscience, and neuroscience itself is just in its infancy. Well, maybe a bit beyond that, but still young. What we know about the human brain now may look like witchcraft in one thousand years. Don't get me wrong, the thought "I am addicted" was very helpful to me when quitting, but I also came quickly to understand that what I was addicted to was not "porn", but using porn to achieve a neurological event. Yep, all in the brain.

    When it comes to "porn addiction", the concept predates the neuroscience explaining the problem, which, linguistically, means we used poorly defined phrases to name newly understood psychological realities. It is also helpful, in studying this problem, to understand that this problem has a history. Odd to think of addictions having histories, but all do, and the problem people come here to solve, also has a history. There is not a day when High Speed Internet Porn came into existence. It was invented, developed, marketed, disseminated, and became widely available over a few years. I like to think of 2007 as the year when it became the thing. Porn had existed before the invention of HSIP, and the species could, and did, use it to boost a dopamine high prior to the invention of HSIP. But, HSIP made using porn to achieve a dopamine high far more efficient than previous types of porn. I know it is odd to think of porn in terms of efficiency, but, the reality is that HSIP is, for a small percentage of the population, one of the most efficient means of achieving that brain reward event, and maybe the most efficient. All of us, as we have evolved to this current model, can obtain a dopamine high without porn, but for some, HSIP makes obtaining it so easy and effortless, that obtaining it via that means can form a habit, as in addiction. For almost everyone with this problem, the problem is not identified by the use of HSIP, but, rather, when they decide to quit it, and find that changing the behavior is very, very, difficult. I know of no active user who considers porn addictive, but, rather, identification of porn consumption as "addictive" usually only occurs to the user when they try and cut off that dopamine spout, and find that their brains have come to expect it, and that obtaining it, a daily dopamine high, is their brain's normal. So, while porn existed prior to HSIP, the concept of "porn addiction" did not; it is only after the invention of HSIP that certain people began to have the uncomfortable thought: Gee, I think I am addicted to porn. They were not, of course, but the neuroscience that established they might be addicted to a brain reward event had not yet been applied to individuals with problematic, compulsive, porn use.

    This problem can, and often does, seem epic to people, but, in reality, it is quite a small problem. The solution, which is fucking difficult, is, still, fairly small. One has to train the brain not to constantly crave the dopamine high, and to live without it, at least via P. We live in a work where there will always be artificial sexual stimulation because ASS produces a dopamine high. OMG, that was a double entendre. Artificial sexual stimulation is not the enemy, it is our reality, it is just that, of all artificial sexual stimulation, HSIP is the most efficient in producing the brain reward event we interpret as pleasurable, aka, a dopamine high.

    Unfortunately, many people who arrive at this place are focused on the porn they are watching, rather than the brain reward event it produces. That is why a lot of guys here are fixated on HOCD, femdom, rough sex, or, the category I found most troubling,[trigger warning] fucking my mother's coffee maker--once addicted to that category, it's hard to go back to vanilla porn.

    Anyway D R, thanks for posting, and I like responding. 81 days. Excellent. If you go far enough back in time on this post you can find me at, around, 81 days. Back then rebooting, or the hard 90, was not a thing it has become since. I posted the months, and I went 12 of them. I was hardcore in quitting, and I recommend that for anyone with the problem, but I am not so hardcore now. Back then I closed my eyes when a G rated sex scene came on television; I did not want the dopamine high from anything artificial. Now that I have taken steps to desensitize my brain to artificial sexual stimulation, a bit here and there does not bother me. This is good, because I like movies, and I watch all the R rated movies I want to these days. That, for anyone rebooting, has to be avoided in the reboot. The fix really just has a lot to do with understanding how we can use artificial sexual stimulation, P, to obtain a brain reward event. One the user figures out that is what is going on, fixing the problem becomes much more doable. Simple problem, simple solution; don't mix in other problems. If you are applying mommy and daddy issues to your consumptive obsession with hay maker porn, you're missing the point. OK, no, hay maker porn is something I just made up. But I do love hay. Smiley face emodicon.

    Much love--always a shout out to Gabe Deem,

    William 1ANDDONE
     
    Summer Son, Free-man and D R like this.
  6. D R

    D R Fapstronaut

    You're very welcome, thanks for responding! Yes, I'm not doing any "Hard 90" or anything like that.. I am quitting pmo for good. I have no use for masturbation in my life. I've come to realize it is simply a behavior we picked up in adolescence (rightly so) and one that far too many of us have carried with us into adulthood. I dont need it. I dont want it. I feel pathetic doing it, and so I am stopping. The porn part of it, or the "any sexual stimuli" that you refer to as porn, has been, at least for me, just an enhancement to my masturbation habit. I've always been into "normal" stuff. Never got into anything weird or super-fetishy. No, no, simple pics of hot chicks in bikini's will still do it for me. Masturbation was my real habit. Getting that dopamine fix via orgasm. Sure, sexual stimuli spikes that dopamine too, but not nearly as much for me as long as I'm not wacking one off to it.

    I, like you I think, just want to live normal. I dont want to have turn my head in R rated movies, or sexy music videos, or at the beach. I just simply want to notice things for what they are. Like, "oh hey, there's a sexy scene, or there's a sexy broad walking by, or, Wow, look at that model in that lingerie, bet my wife would look great in that! I'm glad I got to see that." But thats it. Thats where it ends. I dont want to obsess over it. I dont want it to cause me to want to masturbate, or fantasize, or search out anything, or any of that crap. I just want to live normal....and for me, that is not focusing on lust, and not masturbating.

    Appreciate your thoughts and your words. Thanks for being here. Stop by my journal some time if you feel so inclined!

    Cheers!
     
    MercaMerca likes this.
  7. Summer Son

    Summer Son Fapstronaut

    Hi William! If you read this and still here I just would like to thank you again. Actually I was searching about some secular but educational posts for years, I have read some of them which I write about, and consumed them but your threads both Rebootnation and here are golden. Really. In the same time I am an agnostic-atheist and I really wanted to know science behind pornography addiction. There are some posts and article series of users on forums but there are some of them about more religion but science or about lack of explanation. I wish I discovered your posts earlier but I glad I found them. You have been a great teacher for me. So thanks for all.
     
  8. 1ANDDONE

    1ANDDONE Fapstronaut

    Hi Summer, U R Welcome!
     
    MercaMerca likes this.
  9. MercaMerca

    MercaMerca Fapstronaut

    I have to say thank you, too. I have read main parts of this thread (skipped some parts, but going to read them later). But i guess, I got your main point(s): Our Addiction to the P-Induced Dopamine Rush. As I have seen that your first posts are from 2013, thanks for coming back always again through the years and sharing you knowledge.
    As you have recovered from the addiction, what would be the 3 best strategical tips you would give someone to be successful with recovering (Successful, not easy, because fighting an addiction is never easy) ?
     
  10. 1ANDDONE

    1ANDDONE Fapstronaut

    @MercaMerca

    The first thing is understanding the neuroscience. Too many people, especially early on, get wrapped in a very flawed, and unhelpful, concept, which is they have a problem with porn, or even worse, some category of porn. We call it porn addiction, but that phrase is a leftover phrase from a time shortly after High Speed Internet Porn became widespread, and a number of people realized that when they thought "I am quitting" that quitting suddenly seemed very fucking difficult to do. The history of this particular problem is traceable, and relatively new, meaning there is a group of people who had this thought for the first time in history: "Fuck, I cannot quit, I cannot quit, I am addicted." If this problem is an "addiction," and again, it may be that the neuroscience has surpassed our semantics/syntax, and we need new words and concepts to describe it, the addiction is to the brain reward event. Without that brain reward event, which, naturally, is a reward for thinking about and engaging in sex or sexual behavior, we would find porn about as interesting as boiling an egg. Go boil an egg, you will get the idea. So, understanding how you use porn to create hypersexual thoughts to get to what you really crave (dopamine brain reward event) is very helpful. If you are here, for instance, convinced you are addicted to femdom, you have totally missed the point. This is not about what is on the screen in front of you; this is not about what is between your legs: This problem is 100% a brain event problem, 100% between the ears.

    Again, as for the word "addiction", I found it very helpful to use the word when I first made the decision to quit. Gary Wilson used it, and I don't know if I could have quit without seeing his video, The Great Porn Experiment, which, suddenly, made me understand that the difficulty in quitting I had experience was not a character flaw, but the result of having trained my brain to expect unnaturally repeated brain reward events. I think, no doubt, from a brain studies perspective, it shares a lot of characteristics as classic substance addictions do. But, at the same time, there are differences. No on ever overdosed on using porn to get a dopamine high; substance abusers can. No one ever died from withdrawing from porn consumption; substance abusers can. Also, the classical definition of addiction may not, and in fact does not, cleanly fit this. AA may be responsible for the concept that once addicted, addicted for life. They paint a picture--and by the way I know a lot of great people in AA who swear by the program--that once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic, and one can never drink again for life. In a sense that commitment to lifetime abstinence is almost religious, and in some ways is. I have no religion, I simply have accepted the science that I can use this tool--and it is helpful to think of it as a tool, as a means to an end--to achieve a dopamine rush. That tool, by the way, has been available for millions of years prior to porn, prior to modern porn, prior to AV porn, prior to internet porn, prior to HSIP. It is a naturally occurring brain reward event, triggered by sexual thoughts, sexual behaviors, sex itself, the purpose of which is to encourage us to have babies. Since the sexual revolution of the 60s I sometimes think we have forgotten the purpose of sex is not to use it like an amusement park ride, though it can be fantastic, but to make babies. As for a lifetime sentence, I don't believe so. Quitting, being self aware, knowing that, naturally, with or without porn, I can use sexual thoughts to trigger a dopamine high, naturally, means I am not giving up that high. That is part of the quitter's conundrum, which they have to be aware: If addicted to a brain reward event, it is a naturally occurring brain reward event, that, even once they are no longer addicted to it, they will, naturally, via non-artifical means, but also some unavoidable artificial means, experience. I don't know when I had the thought "I am not addicted," or "I am no longer addicted", but I do know that many times, since that moment I have experienced dopamine highs, because that is hard wired in the human brain. I have curtailed yy use of artificial sexual stimulation, of all types, but in this society, unless you become a monk in a cave, you WILL be exposed to artificial sexual stimulation. Knowing it, understanding it, is a big part of fixing the problem. So, to answer your question, not sure I believe there is an addiction to recover from, but to the extent using P to generate sexual thoughts and a dopamine high, yes, fixed.

    Gabe Deem says read everything you can about this phenomena. He is absolutely right, and we can call the phenomena "porn addiction", which is inapt, until someone comes up with a better phrase for a person using P, to generate sexual thoughts, to trigger an artificially prolonged and profound dopamine high, to the point the brain considers that "normal", expects it, and punishes the user with withdrawals when quitting. Using P is easy, and for some, creates no problems, or few; they have relationships, they work, they go to school. It is easy to forget in a place like this that the vast majority of people consuming porn report few if any problems. But a consumer of porn understands it is a problem when they try to quit, and get slammed with all sorts of unpleasant withdrawals.

    People who have never experienced this, by the way, really cannot understand it. People who use porn with no side effects, don't get it. I am the same way with gambling addiction. I hate gambling. I hate losing money. I hate casinos, I hate the way they smell, the way they look. I hate cigarettes, and a lot of casinos allow smoking in or around them, and I hate looking at the leathery old people, sitting on a stool, drinking cheap beer, popping nickles in a slot. I don't get that that behavior could be "addictive", but some say it is. For a person who identifies as a gambling addict, it is probably VERY real, but my brain is not bent that way. My brain was bent in another direction, and this place has helped cope with that.

    So three tips:

    1) Study the problem, de-mystify it, de-romanticize it (it has NOTHING to do with the user's actual sex life or sexual preferences), and be self aware that when you watch porn you are not watching porn, you are using porn, as a tool, to achieve a dopamine high, a brain event that rewards sexual thoughts, and nothing rewards sexual thoughts like porn, (at least for the people who find themselves here).

    2) Embrace you will have to re-wire, and that means, and really only means, you are going to have to totally eradicate porn and all artificial sexual stimulation from your reality for quite a time. A lot of people report 90 days hard mode is effective, to get the brain to where the habit is not standing on your shoulder with a loud speaker yelling "use, use, use." The hard 90 is not something to be casually picked up and attempted; it must be anticipated and it must be planned, and the user has to not only expect very uncomfortable withdrawals, but, most efficiently, embrace them, want them. They suck, but they are actually a sign the user is not using, so, fucking hurts?, good sign. Good news: they do fade, and, eventually, disappear. Again, 90 days is the number of days some have reported going, and a lot who have reported clean go away and are never seen again.

    3) In addition to planning avoiding all P and artificial sexual stimulation, understand that sexual thoughts alone will produce a dopamine high, and since it is the dopamine high you are really trying to avoid, plan on avoiding sexual thoughts during the reboot, as much as possible. Develop a distraction technique that will help you stop a two second sexual thought from becoming a dopamine drenched sexual opera in your head. Also be very aware that once you quit using the P tool as a means to that high, your brain still wants the high, and will trigger on things other than P in order to get it, including a lot of things society does not deem P, but, nonetheless have a sexual or sexually suggestive element such as Victoria's Secret, R rated movies, cheerleaders, or, for me, the worst, electric mixers. No just joking, seeing if you are still reading, though when I was quitting, watching an electric mixer make hot buttered mashed potatos was intoxicating. No, just kidding. But, if anyone here triggers on electric mixers, avoid them during the reboot. I am picturing Homer Simpson say "Eleeectricc Miiixxxers", in a slow, adoring, transfixed, voice.

    Oh 4) Develop a sense of humor. It is absolutely, positively, ridiculous that anyone could get hooked on one of the most ubiquitous media form that exists. It is OK to make fun of the situation a bit. You used a naturally occurring brain event, used P to train it go hyper, and now you are going to have to train it back. Difficult? Yep. I cannot be broken under torture, so, there is that.

    Much love.

    W.
     
  11. MercaMerca

    MercaMerca Fapstronaut

    Thank you for this detailed post. Just a great and motivating analysis of the addiction (won't be calling it Porn Addcition, because as you said, it is just the medium to get those dopamin highs). I am sure, this and your tips as well will help me on my recuring path.
     
  12. Summer Son

    Summer Son Fapstronaut

    Hi William,

    I don't know if this is a silly question or not but I just wonder if you are still reading or learning about pornography addiction. Do we have to learn more about porn addiction/brain science during recovery or after recovery? How can we find balance between getting educated about addiction, using forums like this place, knowing science behind it and living our real life? Is there any time to quit even porn addiction recovery forums or anything related to addiction? Is it necessary? As we addicts, should we learn more and more about it even after quit using? I know these are about more likely personal choices but I am just curious about your thoughts on this. I really spent too much time reading and watching about pornography addiction but I also accept that this addiction is part of my past and I feel like I can't avoid it completely even after my recovering. I mean all of this created today's me. And I want to help others even years later because I had this problem.

    Thank you!
     
  13. 1ANDDONE

    1ANDDONE Fapstronaut

    @Summer Son

    Hi Summer.

    In the beginning, for me, the problem seemed epic, huge, daunting. As with all things we call "addictive", the problem is not a problem until it causes a problem, then, it's a problem.

    Defining the problem is key to solving the problem. For someone with this problem, learning and studying the neuroscience is KEY to solving the problem. Sooo, the problem is, actually, quite a small problem. The problem, for some, is use of porn, and, more specifically, use of porn to create a sexual "thought". That sexual thought, naturally, as a result of evolution, is rewarded with a brain reward event, aka, a dopamine high. It is nature's way of naturally encouraging reproduction. And it works. The brain reward event is what is addictive, if it is addictive; not porn.

    It is the high that is addictive, if we call it that. Not porn itself. Porn is a trigger. That is all. If watching a clock tick away the seconds resulted in that high, we would all be clock watchers. However, getting a neurological reward from sexual thoughts is a successful survival trait. That reward motivates us to the real deal, and the real deal leads to babies, and nature favors species that reproduce.

    Our society went through the "sexual revolution" in the 1950s-60s. At that point we came to look at sex as fun, as a game, as healthy. Maybe it is all of those things, but we have almost divorced the concept of sex from its true, evolved, purpose: A baby making event.

    As for the concept of "addicted", while I found that very helpful in quitting, as time goes by, not sure it fits this particular problem. The history of this problem is very important in studying this problem. This problem came into existence with the invention, and widespread use, of High Speed Internet Porn (HSIP). HSIP is very efficient, for some, at achieving the neurological reward that is problematic, and some call addictive. For some, it is more efficient than sex itself--at producing the brain reward event. In evolutionary terms, HSIP was invented about a 10th of a second ago. As a species, we are just learning how to deal with it. But, we are learning.

    This behavior fits a lot of the models we use to define "addiction", but not all. Similar in some ways, different in others. Gary Wilson correctly notes it results in brain scans identical to drug addicts. Turns out that all behaviors we call addictive light up parts of our brains that all of us have, but not all of us use to get unhealthy highs from.

    One of the problems with the concept of "addiction", as it is routinely used, is that it implies both sickness and permanency: Permanent illness that requires a lifetime of "treatment" or counseling. That is the AA model, which was developed decades before neuroscience began analyzing this as a brain issue. Though I identified as addicted, when I first got serious in quitting using porn to achieve a brain reward high, I never sought or received treatment or counseling when I quit. Truth is, at that time, and even now, few bona fide treatment providers actually believe porn is addictive, as the term is used. This translates to few bona fide treatment providers provide treatment for porn addiction, and the ones who do may not be legit, meaning they recognize people believe they have a problem, and are willing to take their money, to "treat" a problem they really do not believe exists.

    In practical terms, this causes problems, in treatment, in two ways: 1) bona fide treatment providers, who do not believe in the concept of "porn addiction" will treat, but will put the problem in a category they do believe in, such as OCD. 2) treatment providers, who do not believe in the concept of "porn addiction", will offer treatment for it anyway, to make money, though they do not believe there is actually a malady to treat.

    There are people who, if you believe you have a problem, and they can take your money to treat it, will. There really is not accepted "treatment" for what we call porn addiction, and the concept that porn can be addictive is not accepted by the widespread medical/psychological community. This means there are a number of porn addiction treatment providers providing treatment for a malady they do not actually believe is an actual malady. So, one problem with defining this problem as porn addiction is: There is no treatment for it. The cure is quitting. Period.

    As for permanency, IMO, this problem, while a real problem, is not permanent, by which I mean, once recognized, and dealt with, you do not have to walk around all day thinking you have the problem. This problem, once fixed, can, simply, be fixed. A lot of users have this question/thought, which can be terrifying: Am I going to be like this forever, will I have to fight this for life? The answer to that question is: You will have the problem until you deal with it, and if you don't deal with it, you will have it for life, it's not just going to go away; but, if you fix it, you won't have the problem.

    This problem is fixable, and what it comes down to is simply learning to live without giving yourself a prolonged, profound, brain reward event, via porn. Once you quit doing that, then, after a while, that becomes your new normal. The new normal, if done right, means not wanting it, not missing it. You will still get it. We still live in a sex soaked society, and, the old fashioned way of getting it, flirtation, observation, sex itself, will always be available.

    We are hard wired to get a brain reward event from sexual thoughts. You can think of that as healthy and normal. HSIP allows us to get that brain reward event so efficiently it can become what some call addictive. That brain reward event is something we interpret as incredibly pleasurable. Pleasure, even artificially produced pleasure, can be addictive.

    As for studying the problem, or remaining active in this forum, I think those are especially helpful, and necessary, when one 1) accepts they have the problem, and 2) determines they are going to fix it. During the quitting process, read everything you can on what we call porn addiction, and using a forum, and writing about it, interacting with others in the same boat, is very helpful. Once the problem is fixed, and it can be fixed, well, I will read a neurological study, or maybe just skim one, four times a year. I have gone years without posting here, without reading here. This place was very helpful for me in getting clean, but, once I got clean, I did not need it to stay clean. I am very aware of my environment, meaning our environment, and I am very aware that artificial sexual stimulation is simply part of my existence in this environment. Sex sells; we, as a species, are interested in sex, stimulation that causes sexual thoughts, because of the reward event that produces, even if the trigger is not what we define as porn. It is OK, no tragedy, but understanding that is very important. Once you fix the problem, if you want to stick around and help others understand it and fix it, that is fantastic. But, this problem is not a lifetime sentence if you fix it. I, personally, know of no one who fixed it, that ever went back to it. I see a lot of people here who talk about "relapsing", but, again, that term probably has an AA origin, and may not fit this problem. When I see a guy show up here day one, declare his absolute committment to quitting, and on day four talks about a four hour "relapse", I see a guy who does not understand his problem. Once one recognizes porn as a tool to get a high, then, having quit it, it is difficult go back to consciously using porn as a tool to get a high. Once the veneer of what using porn is, is stripped down to what it actually is, using that tool is does not really feel good. It is odd to think of deromanticizing porn, but it has to be. Once deromanticized, I have never had the thought: I want to sit in front of a computer and use artificial sexual stimulation to achieve a brain reward event. Once we literally know what we are using it for, it just does not feel that great to use it that way.

    As for studying porn addiction, not so much. But, education is key. I think it was Gabe Deem who talked about being exposed to cocaine and porn; porn became a problem because no one told him it could be a problem, coke did not because he was educated it could. No one told me how porn could light up my brain, and I considered it a harmless distraction, more or less on par with video games, until I tried to quit, and discovered my brain did not want to give up that high. I think that in about 30 years we will have invented more language to describe the problem. "Porn addiction", as a term, is a pretty crude, and inapt, and inexact, term. That was the phrase being used shortly after HSIP was recognized as problematic for some, but prior to neuroscience being applied to study it. And, porn does not affect everyone the same. People who watch it get the same brain reward event, but only some report that as problematic. The problem manifests not so much in watching porn, but attempting to quit it, which is quitting the high. THAT is when a lot of people have that "what the fuck is the problem" thought. Educating people that porn can cause that problem is key to helping them avoid the problem in the first place.

    Hope this helps Bro.

    Much love.

    WILL
     
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  14. 1ANDDONE

    1ANDDONE Fapstronaut

    Muchas gracias, @maupadilla. iBuena suerte!
     
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  15. Hokies

    Hokies Fapstronaut

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    William, oneanddone, will.i.am..... you! This dude right here! This thread needs to be stickied and put to the top of every forum about this addiction. You’re an angel my dude. Your advice in this thread is what always set me on the longest streaks. Finally something clicked for me during this current season and what you’ve been trying to hammer home finally connected. No more porn! Sounds quite simple, but I like many others was quickly caught up in all the other little details. You helped to shine a light for me, and now my fight/freedom is strictly focused on zero porn for life. I used to be jealous of your certainty about never going back to porn, but just like you said... every week and month those brain connections weaken and yet my passion and will to never use porn remains Very strong. Truly could not have made it this far without your virtual guidance, so thank you and everyone who has found freedom and continues to throw the lifeline back into these dark cold waters to save others. Peace and love!
     
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  16. 1ANDDONE

    1ANDDONE Fapstronaut

    @Hokies

    Hokies, thanks for the kind words.

    When humanity invented High Speed Internet Porn we invented a very efficient tool for getting high.

    We have always loved getting high, whether from something we conceive of healthy and sustainable, or something we conceive as unhealthy and addictive.

    I like the word "addiction" less and less. That is, maybe, because the oldest addiction model, AA, conceives of addiction as an illness the individual must suffer for life.

    I do not conceive of this problem as an illness, nor do I conceive of it as lasting "for life."

    That said, this problem does have, at least, two similarities with the other so called addictions: 1) the brain scans light up pretty much the same way as the brain scans of persons addicted to substances, both in anticipation of the high, and the high itself. 2) people who have become reliant upon porn for the high it produces, withdraw when they quit using it to get the high.

    One of the big mistakes we all made early on was conceiving the problem as a HUGE problem.

    The problem is a very, very small problem. In every human brain there is a reward center which, perfectly naturally, creates a neurological reward event that encourages us to do things nature thinks is necessary and healthy, aka a dopamine high.

    We get that high from a lot of things, but sex and food are the two big reward events.

    Over many years, thousands of years, at least, even before recorded history, humanity has found ways of triggering that reward event without sex or food. HSIP is a very efficient means of triggering that reward event--for some anyway. Not for everyone. An interesting thing about what we call addictions is that not everyone gets triggered for the same thing in the same way. I believe this place has a forum for gambling and gaming addicts. Truth: I hate gambling, and gaming was only a bit interesting for me, and I have not played a video game for years. Why people form a reliance on those activities is simply alien to me. I don't understand it, anymore than people who do not understand formation of reliance on porn to achieve a neurological brain event. A lot of people can pick porn up, play with it, put it down, no problem.

    For me, it was a problem. I tried to put it down, but could not. Now I know I could have, but I was so conditioned to getting that high that it felt almost mandated that I get it, impossible to stop.

    For anyone reading this you must intellectually embrace the absurdity of the thought "I cannot quit." Of course you can. But just like becoming reliant on the high took time, it will take time and practice to quit, and when I say quit I mean getting to the place where you do not want it or miss it anymore. That is another concept you need to embrace going into the reboot: If done right, you get to the place where you don't want it and don't miss it. Once you get to that place, and it takes a few months of simply not using, then you can go out and figure out how you want to get your highs, via what means.

    Quitting anything we call addiction requires self awareness, being aware of what you are doing and why you are doing it.

    This problem is, actually, a very, very, small problem; you are using porn to spike a dopamine high, just that simple. Some people will tell you this problem has to do with other underlying problems; they are wrong. There is only one reason you access porn: it feels good to do so. That "feels good" feeling is a reward event, a dopamine high. It is not "bad" per se; that feeling is one of the things we all have to feel to love living. Just be self aware that when using porn to spike it, some people are altering their brain's expectations of how to get the feeling, as well as the intensity of the feeling. The moment you have trained your brain to expect that feeling, the moment you have conditioned your brain to the new normal of getting high every day, that is where the problem forms. It is at that point where the user feels compelled to use regularly, AND the user hurts when they attempt to quit. By hurt I mean withdraw, which is physical and mental paid. GOOD NEWS: In the beginning we did not know how long that pain would go on, and some felt it was a lifetime. It is not. If you quit you will feel that pain intensely in the beginning, it will gradually lessen, with a few bad spots along the way, but by 90 days, it will have largely dissipated. What you are doing in that period we call the "reboot" is literally reconfiguring your brain's reward event expectations, as in not to expect getting a reward event via porn use.

    So, Hokies, while it is difficult for one who has conditioned their brain to expect the high, the solution is quite simple: quit watching porn. At least quit watching porn for long enough that your brain does not miss it. After that, figure out healthy ways to enjoy living.

    Much love.

    Will I AM.
     
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  17. Dave G 123

    Dave G 123 Fapstronaut

    I'm reading The biology of Desire by Marc Lewis right now. He basically makes the argument that addiction isn't a disease, it is a learned behaviour. When you see it like that then it does start to look like a much more manageable thing.
     
  18. 1ANDDONE

    1ANDDONE Fapstronaut

    @Dave G 123

    Lewis is correct. But this gets into the semantics of the word "addiction". Our brains are hardwired to want/seek/search and get certain things that are necessary for survival, both for the individual and the species. In all species the most important survival trait is the ability to reproduce. That is why, I suspect, that the drive to reproduce is the most hardwired, and neurologically rewarded, naturally occurring brain event, not just in humans, but all species. Translation and oversimplification, we love sex, and by "love" I mean it is rewarded with a huge dopamine rush. There are a LOT of other things going on in the brain as well that are part of that reward event, but it is just easier to call it a dopamine high. Some people have learned--and I use the word "learned" purposefully--to get that high using High Speed Internet Porn, or for that matter drugs, alcohol, nicotine, gambling, etc. As a species it is almost sport for us to try and find ways, other than naturally evolved ways, to achieve that high, and to get that high at a much more intense way.

    That this behavior is learned is crucial to understanding the problem. Our brains are not just wired to reward certain activities, but, once we identify an activity that is rewarded, our brains are wired to always remember it, never forget it, as in we CANNOT forget it.

    If you are here, reading this, you need to conceive of using porn as a means of getting high, but you also need to forget everything you think you believe about what it is to get high, and understand that all highs, in the human brain, naturally occur from doing something that, naturally, is a successful survival trait. Seeking sex, having sex, is a successful survival trait because it results (often) in reproduction, and reproduction is the most successful survival trait that nature has invented. More than merely successful, it is absolutely necessary. But being who we are as a species, we love to invent artificial ways to achieve that high, and also ways to achieve it with greater intensity than we can, just by natural means, thus the use of HSIP to achieve it.

    Back to learning. Another successful survival trait is the inability to forget where we have obtained the high. So, if you are a primate on the plains of Africa, and you find a steady source of water or food, and you drink and eat, and by that obtain a neurological reward event, aka dopamine high, you will feel good at that moment, BUT ALSO, owing to DeltaFosB, a molecule that has to do with memory, you will never forget that source of water and food that led you to feeling good at that moment. DeltaFosB gets a bad wrap in addiction studies, as if it is the source or cause of addiction: It is not. If one was only addicted to water and food, and healthy living, we would all say that is the most healthy and happy person in the world. Thus we see that wanting, seeking and getting X is not so much defined in how we want it, seek it, and get it, but in the negative consequences of it, which is how we define addiction. This is one reason why I do not love the word addicted. If we all were perfectly happy and content in drinking water, eating healthy, screwing and making babies we would all be considered healthy, while achieving the same neurological reward event we can achieve via drugs and HSIP. That is where happiness starts to get a bit blurry.

    The use of HSIP is a learned behavior, because once the individual figures out how to use it to get high, the individual never forgets that it is a convenient means to get high. Nature never intended us to just get high, nature intended our brains to reward successful survival traits with a high. We have figured out how to get around that and just go for the high.

    For anyone with the problem it is very important to understand the solution is just not using HSIP to get high. Just as learning to get high is a learned behavior, learning not to is also a learned behavior.

    The "learning not to part" is the reboot, a time in our lives where we give up the high and re-train the brain not only to live without out, but not to miss it, not to want it. That is one of the most difficult concepts for newbies: The concept that, given time, they will not miss it, will not want it, or, alternatively, will get it from a healthy means, like the old fashioned way, sex.

    Thanks Dave for posting.

    Much love.

    Billy the Kid.
     
    Dave G 123 likes this.
  19. Dave G 123

    Dave G 123 Fapstronaut

    William, thanks for another great post.

    What you say above just emphasises what a vulnerable position young people are in - those formative years will leave their mark. Porn is the crack-cocaine of behavioural addiction, or what Marc Lewis might call "extreme learning", and it's coming for your kids. What makes this really tragic is that the people who profit from this know exactly how it works.
     
  20. Summer Son

    Summer Son Fapstronaut

    Hi guys and William! Your posts helps me a lot. That's why I organized your posts on RebootNation, and converted them to a PDF file. It seems like you have already wrote a book with your all posts. Here it is. I hope it might help other guys too. Thanks for posting still here.
     

    Attached Files:

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