What are Common Pitfalls on this Journey?

Well brother, as of now im on my longest streak ever. The biggest pitfall is the "just one peek" mentality. Sometimes you may be ablo to peek without M and O. But its nearly impossible to do so.
So my tip is to never peek no matter what. Also try to be with people most of the time. If you are at school/uni try to organize groups for studying.
Hope this helps

 

Actually nothing, you lose and you hear millions of rationalizations about it here and what they learn. This post will be filled with those.
Nobody likes to relapse, simply don't ever do it.

 

In each stage of this process, the enemy will use different tactics. At the start, the addiction is stronger than you and will try to subdue you with raw power. During some time, you both will be even. But once you become stronger, addiction will hide in the shadows. He knows that he cannot win in close combat, so he won´t waste his energy trying to defeat you. and making you even stronger in the process. No. He awaits for it´s opportunity to strike.

In this stage, it´s more like a little demon in your ear, trying to hoodwink you with kind words and sweets memories. Just like the snake deceived Adan and Eve. Some of those deceptions i had to face where:

-Thinking that you need it. It appears especially in stressful situations, when you are looking for an inmediate relieve. PMO seems like a good idea now, "Just for this time."-you think. Once you are weak, you´ll always be weak. If you don´t learn how to face a problem because "it´s too difficult" or even "impossible" and choose to escape, you will be escaping forever. There is no better time to face a problem, but the moment it appears.

-Thinking that you are above your addiction. If you check my profile, you will see that i repeat this a lot: "The bigger they are, the harder the fall". You are NEVER free from the possibility of relapsing. You shouldn´t constantly worry about this (as you would become obssesed), but you should never believe that your relapsing was something of the past. Your old addiction will flatter you and your amazing and unrivaled will, to make you let your guard down. And if you don´t trust me, hear my story: I am a medicine student, and I was tempted to relapse and get addicted for some months, in order to escape from it again, and register it in a research project. You may think this is foolish (and it is), but when you think too high of yourself, any lie can drag you down into the pit.

-Small indulgences. You are surfing the internet, and suddenly you watch a trigger. It tickles you, and you stop (as you say) for just a few seconds, maybe to enjoy that old feeling or maybe just for the curiosity that arises in you. "There is nothing wrong."-you say-"It isn´t porn. There is no nudity."
There is something wrong. You may not fall this time, but if you keep doing that, your failure will be a certainty. Slowly and progressively, you will give into your old habits, until the difference between what you are doing and actual PMO is minimal.
This includes you thinking that "one more won´t hurt" or "just a last one for the ride". But this kind of tricks are more common in the initial and middle stages.

-Making you think there is no hope of winning, and so, of figthing. This is technically true as relapse is a possibility as long as you´re alive. You will never achieve an absolute win until you´re dead. And you still have several decades ahead. But have a look about this too: You will never be absolutely defeated, until you exhale your last breath. There is no other way to fight hopelessness, but with more hope (and actions, but you get what i´m trying to say here: actual optimism).

-Forgetting about how it was when you were an addict. I´m 6 months in, and sometimes, i have to make an effort to remember how horrible it was before i freed myself from it. Time passes, and your memories become foggy. You start to forget how much you suffered because of PMO: how you used to unconsciously lust after women, all your sexual thoughts, the fetishes you´ve developed. The anxiety, the hopelessness, the fear, the shyness, the shame, the constant feeling of failure and being a slave to your impulses. The lack of energy and motivation to do anything, the way you walked, the way you looked at life, the way you thought, the way you socialized. The amount of hours wasted watching something that drained you from your life energy. The dependence on PMO to manage your emotions, your feelings, in some cases even your sleep schedules. The pain your addiction caused your relatives, your girlfriend and your friends. Because they do notice. The notice the lack of life in your eyes. They notice how you look at them, how you treat them, how you treat yourself.

Your heart pumped blood, and you lungs breathed air, but you can hardly say you were alive.

-Last thing that has helped me, is praying to Virgin Mary and God. I want to get rid of PMO for me, for God, and for my future wife, so every night I pray them and i ask them to give me the strenght i lack to be free form this addiction.

 

A lot of the advice I would have given in this thread has already been given, so I figured I would mention one of my pitfalls to see if anyone else has dealt with this.

There is one particular amateur video I used to watch during my fapping phases. I won't describe it because I don't want to trigger anyone. I always liked the video, but it's not like I would watch it every single day. Maybe two or three times a month. I wouldn't even consider it a favorite.

But for some reason whenever I've gotten a streak going beyond like a week and a half, once the urges start setting in I'll get these intense urges to fap to that video. I'll get intense memories of the video and start fantasizing about it. I couldn't even tell you what I like so much about the vid (shrug). That damn video has made me relapse on too many 2+ week streaks to count, and every single time, after I'm done I scratch my head and think 'what the heck, it's not even that good!'

I think for me, when I have the intense urge to watch something very specific it's more dangerous than the general to watch some trash. I guess when I process that abstractly it actually does make sense how that could be more seductive in roping me in.

Actually as I'm writing this I'm dealing with this exact problem. It's the most intense urges I've had since the 2nd or 3rd week of this streak, and honestly I'm really struggling right now. I think what triggered was that yesterday a this cute waitress gave me free baklava at my favorite middle eastern restaurant and then we had a flirtatious exchange when I saw it. Everyone knows free food is a sign that the waitress thinks you're hot. That got me fantasizing about me and her in bed last night, and then from the time I woke up today I've been coping with the problem I already described.

Writing about this has already made me feel better and more in charge of the situation, so hopefully nobody minds that I used this thread as a self-therapy session. If I still have 70+ days in my day counter when you read this I was able to stay strong and make it through the weekend in one piece.

Good luck to everyone out there. May you all win these small but very difficult challenges when you face them