How does a full recovery from porn feel

i'm curious too.

 

Instead of asking we can be patient and find out for ourselves

 

Not helpful of a response here.

 

It's doesn't exist. Trying to achieve a "normal" life is impossible when dealing with addiction. It's a disease, and something you will have to deal with every day. I was clean for 543 days and I had to work on it every single day. The relapse came when the effort stopped.
Most other medical problems you gotta wake up, take your pills every day, check your blood sugar, do a certain thing. For us, we gotta wake up every day and go to sleep every day applying the knowledge to stop another relapse and stay true to yourself.

The day you start thinking there's an end to recovery and there's a day you can stop working on it is the day you will relapse.

I did. And it ruined a really good streak for me. But I gotta bounce back and keep going!

 

Wise words @Odiebear

We can however learn to enjoy restricting ourselves a bit. Not as in loving pain but just in mildy restricting ourselves from what we desire. This middle path can be very calming. This way we can enjoy the journey.

 

What do you do on a daily basis?

 

I try to diversify my approach to recovery. I've done this long enough to know what works and what doesn't. I've done everything from journal daily, on my own and on here, talked to APs, friends family, check ins with my wife. I'll even do therapy if things really aren't going my way. I've recently started meditation which I find very useful in everyday life as well. The most important thing for me anyway is having at least one productive conversation with my wife about how our day was and how we're feeling and I find that check-in is very helpful to recovery for both of us.
Find what works for you and stick to it. If something really isn't what you want to do then find something else. I'm sure you can find something unique on this website that will work for you and your lifestyle.

 

You do not have a disease, but I think you were speaking in metaphorical terms. But even if it were, you would hardly be less of a person. You had one day in which you did not meet your goal. One day. You sound like a great person to me.

 

That assumes there is a full "recovery" (yes even that one word for framing it may not always work) and that you can type out the feeling in words where the other person reading it can translate into a feeling.

As an alternative to recovery there is the perspective that it is a process of learning and development. If you think about it how can you go back in term of recovery? It isn't like a physical injury where the cut heals on your hand, it involves a developmental psychological process. You can't literally go back to being a kid or young man when you were first exposed to PMO even if you can clean up your act, but you can move forward in changing up however you nurture your development, in the nature/nurture sense.

And of course, the question is focused on the end result rather than the process. If it's a matter of doing whatever work to get through the required process then it may make more sense to talk about how it feels to be at a certain phase of the process rather than the end goal as a reward or feeling good. And you may still not feel good all the time, but then it would be a matter of other things in life instead of PMO.

 

If you have ever fallen in love it's quite amazing. Your ego collapses. You're happy as a kid on Christmas morning. You feel so much energy it's unreal. And you know what? Your body cannot keep up that level of emotion. So it levels off and you may feel that you are not in love anymore. Because now life feels . . . normal. And I think that is what a life without pmo feels like.

Getting pmo out of your life is a noble goal, but life will continue throwing new challenges and opportunities at you. I'd suggest you will be better able to face them the more you work at eliminating your pmo.

 

I’ll have to politely disagree with some of the posts here.

Of course what I’m about to write is my opinion, feel free to disagree.

An addiction is born when you are using something external, whether substance or behaviour, to ease and run from your negative emotions.

If you don’t learn how to manage your emotions in a healthy manner, you will eventually relapse. Which is why it’s important to keep a journal and really analyze what your triggers are and to build a solution to overcome it.

Also, for those who relapse after very long streaks, well, they have failed to continue to manage their emotions in a healthy fashion . Or perhaps they even just tried a brute force approach without actually cultivating healthy methods to manage their emotions. The new habits need to be practiced and tuned daily. Always tend to your emotions. When you do this, true freedom is achieved.


To directly answer your question, you’ll feel as though a heavy weight has been removed from your shoulders.

 

What I like about this reply is that you avoid the over the top language. You know what I mean, stuff like, " a battle" or "a warrior".
You refer to healthy things - manging emotions, analyzing one's triggers, looking for solutions.
I only (slightly) disagree when you say that people have "failed to continue to manage their emotions in a healthy fashion." I say this respectfully. I only mean that managing is by no means a cure or a guarantee, and I would never label anyone who made the effort a failure, just as I would never label a guy who bingeing with pmo all the time a failure.
But, those are just quibbles and I think you can understand that.
I have found dealing with the normal reality of life a great challenge since swearing off pmo. Yes, one weight has been removed (it lingers, but I feel it is off my back). I just hope some guys do not think their entire life will suddenly change all for the better. Even people who win huge money in lotteries lose a bunch of small problems, only to gain ones they never dreamed of before.

 

It's finding that peace, joy, and contented-happiness without the craving, fiending, and requirement for greater escalation. It is a clarity of mind and freedom from compulsive behavior that adversely affects us mentally, emotionally, physically, and is never sating. A contented-happiness and freedom that doesn't require anything else, at least in terms of PMO.

It's sounds trivial, but looking at it from the outside, it is truly profound.

 

Thank you friend, I am happy to engage with people like you. Level headed and respectful response, you are right. I do apologize, yes I don't mean that the person themselves are failures because they relapsed, more so the techniques or lifestyle choice they applied to managing their emotions is incorrect or insufficient. I do see what you mean though, I'll be more vigilant in my wording.

As far as dealing with the normal reality, I agree it is very challenging. At the very beginning it is overwhelming, or at least it was for me. I agree, people need to work on what they escaped with PMO to have a better life, just stopping and counting days won't do much. I personally do think there is certain benefits to actual semen retention over the longterm and I understand that not everyone believes in that, and that's absolutely fine. I also don't think it's some miracle that will, someday, turn you into a deity.

 

No need to apologize, but thank you for the very kind reply. Your post gave me a lot to think about and so I felt prompted to give my 2 cents. Keep it up!