How bad can withdrawals get?

I'm not sure people were meant to ever go that long without M or O. P, yes, we can live without that forever. But how do young men, who are biologically wired to have an orgasm every so often, go without one for some extraordinary amount of time. Maybe the hard re-set is not for everybody . . . I'm married, it's not for me, I'm just here to try and quit porn.....but each person is on their own journey. I think sexual cravings are part of life and have to be dealt with - now at the beginning, I think you do without everything for a while, but porn is the problem, not normal masturbation.

 

If you have a girlfriend or a wife and that you have decent to good real sex, its easier.
If you are real busy with work load and a family to care for, it fills much more of your time.
If you are married or in a steady relationship, you have your partner in bed to cuddle, easier to fall asleep. You can go to bed early and get some sex, or simply read a book together. You can even discuss your addiction with her.
If you had erectile dysfunction caused by porn you get pretty pissed at that and you have a huge incentive to get better!
If one had a little drink here and there (not saying its good) to relax, you release a little bit of pressure.

 

I wonder how many of these young men masturbate WITHOUT porn nowadays anyway. Back in the day, you had NO CHOICE. Your older brother's porn mag, your own thoughts, this is what you had to fantasize. Now that everybody has a phone, a tablet of a computer, there isn't much left to the imagination!

i couldn't do hard reset. I would freak out.

 

So far I have had a few urges but no withdrawals symptoms. I would have them before but for the first time where I have gone this long I don't feel much.

I suspect its to do with the fact that I'm more proactive this time. More determined. I'm more active, more self-aware and notice a lot more when I'm feeling the need to seek arousal so that could be a factor.

The only thing I have had is a little bit irritated, and some headaches. My zombie state has cleared up a lot. I feel better about myself nowdays a lot more.

 

I think sometimes when people are SO FOCUSED on their streaks of being free of PMO the temptations begin to surface. It's some kind of reverse psychology so something. It's happened to me. I'll realize that I haven't PMO'ed in 10-15 days, and then 2-3 days later the pressure of keeping up a streak causes sexual thoughts to flood my mind (and then I falter).

The worst withdrawals I get is when I wake up at 3 in the morning with sexual thoughts flooding my mind and not being able to go back to bed.

 

I too get headaches after about 2 weeks.
As for the cravings that get you after a 30 days: It's the nervecells in your addiction pathway in your reward center that grow many new connections after about a month of abstinence and cause the strong cravings. It's kind of its last resort cause after that the pathway will continue to get weaker and weaker (as long as you don't relapse). I personally never got that far so I really don't know how hard that is but you need to get through it!
Stay strong!

 

I've done two decent streaks, and now on the third. What I've noticed is not so much the withdrawals, but the lapses. The discomfort of the withdrawal gets weaker, but when you succumb it is worse. It's like snakes and ladders. For you go from a higher level of clarity all the way back down one of those long snakes to the dreaded basement level of brain fog. The relative difference between the states is greater, so the misery experienced is worse. Perhaps this is the last piece of the motivational puzzle required to get one to the finish line.

 

I've less withdrawal this time but I am working on the symptoms and what's going on beneath the surface more. The desire to watch P is slowly going but there is a lot of unresolved stuff underneath that I'm tackling with therapy, CODA and a new sponsor

 

Me 181 Days clean and going strong.
You are ABSOLUTELY right that we use PMO to escape our stressful lives. I had to quit my pathetic job and take financial help from my parents BEFORE I could embark on the nofap journey. It really helps to remove unnecessary stress from our lives so you could focus on yourself.

Check out the website
https://www.yourbrainonporn.com/
It will really help you understand why you relapse and help you prevent it (it’s all a brain game and evolutionary traits).

Be Strong. Stay Strong. And Keep Going.
Nobody in the world cares about you but you yourself. Other than this community you are alone in this fight. And fight you must cuz this is the fight for your life.



For Withdrawal Symptoms and Timeline checkout my link:
https://www.nofap.com/forum/index.p...uring-nofap-nofap-withdrawal-symptoms.222993/