Recover from emotional numbness?

I have been there. And still am kinda. That is one of my biggest Goals also. But the positive thing is that it does get better. You are on the way! Also, it must not only relate to porn being emotionally numb even though it’s part of it. It also may have with your own view on yourself. After starting to accept that I’m more then a addict. That I’m not defined by my addiction. That I’m more then That, I started to Feel a lot better. Self-love and self-acceptance is key.

Don’t let your feelings and life go in line with your counter here. Start living today! You are awesome and deserve to Feel things. I believe You can control your mind in That way a lot more then We think, that’s my experience.

Your mind will heal with time, but your mindset could heal quicker if you let it.

keep the good work up my friend!

 

There may be other things going on, I wouldn't rely on the reboot process alone to heal numbness like this. And yeah, definitely also have that experience. So not waiting and just having more days in the streak, it may never heal this or only help a little bit indirectly.

I do think enough socialization is needed, it should be there even when people don't reboot but right now a lot of people in lockdown are not getting it, and they don't necessarily reach out even online. Posting on a forum is just not the same as real live interaction, we should have NO illusions about that. But I bet a lot of people will continue to just post on a forum and not try any kind of meetings, and even meetings vary in quality but when it's volunteer based you can't just expect other people to give you a good experience, we all need to participate to make that happen. We have this whole Loneliness section on the forum but it's like what is anyone doing about it? Maybe people think it's just a matter of romantic relationships or lack of one but I think they are killing themselves with the social anorexia. The attitude of finding a girl as the holy grail, as your savior is mistaken - we need lots of people to have a community, and people that interact beyond just posting messages.

 

+1

 

Don't worry too much. you are doing great don't break your streak and keep it up you will lead a good life
Try to overcome me if you have guts.

 

I can relate man... but that’s still progress. I haven’t cried in a long while, I really want to be able to do that more often. I feel like I’m on my way back to a more normal state, but know that it Will take time. Just trust the process brother. You are doing great!

 

I think that's probably pretty common, especially for men. Porn definitely desensitizes us but the culture in general does too. We have the idea that things are supposed to be extreme so I think on some level that gets applied to emotional expression, and if it's not really socially acceptable to express emotions then we're going to be conditioned to bottle it up. And some emotions are accepted not so much others, just because you're a guy. I think even with recovery meetings where it's understood you CAN express it people kind of don't know how to respond. Not that you have to respond in any particular way, but from what I've seen it tends to be just like okay, we accept there's heavy stuff shared at these meetings but to talk about it in detail is not quite a skill most have. Practically speaking we can just use practice with that, most people are probably even at a loss for words to describe which emotion they are feeling or is more general like happy/sad, instead of actually feeling open enough in a group or even one on one to cry and know you're not going to be judged for it.