How did you get a decent streak? What changes did you make?

The one thing that I am doing is when I have a need to fap, porn, etc. is to log on here and post or reply. I get strength from reading the encouragement that is freely given as well as giving it. This is a great place for "emergency intervention". When you are feeling really triggered try instead of booting up porn or anything similar, log on here and do some posting.

 

I am using it to focus on my work, myself and not focusing on "putting in time". I am tracking my time but filling my life with so many other healthy things that when I have an urge I am usually to busy to deal with it. Public places are good, gym, starbucks (if you need to work, take your laptop) fapping in those places would be very difficult and awkard. If you have a workout buddy go with them so you don't sneak off into the bathroom for to long if that's an issue. In SAA we do outer circle. Look at the SAA Circle method might help with some ideas.

 

I am a newcomer...how can I start?

 

dark-light, first you always wear pants in front of the computer. That's where I started. It s a joke and kind of true.

You start where you feel you need to, there is formula. Do what you can do to get some success under your belt and go from there. Usually the best is to start with any behaviors that are out right dangerous or illegal (places that are unsafe, sex in public, masturbation in public, etc.). Those would have to stop immediately, then next to identify what behaviors are compulsive to the point of uncontrollable. Then work your way out from there. Look up the SAA circles.

New rule for the site No Posting Unless You Have Pants On!! - Anyone else with me on this?

 

thanks the-navigator

 

Interesting suggestion.

I have a different take on it. The content in porn isn't really of importance to us, what we truly crave is the dopamine and such that come out of it all. Because of conditioning, essentially not only the porn becomes addictive but everything else that is associated with it. So basically, every time you go online, or use the search bar, and etc. you get the same feeling as you do with porn. Now Nofap isn't exactly all that similiar to porn, I mean there isn't anywhere near the same level of novelty and its not like one could masturbate from Nofap, but still I would argue that no internet whatsoever would do far better for your brain that doing Nofap ever will.

 

Took me six years to cross 2 month mark. You don't have to take that long; learn from your relapses. Get professional help if you can't do it on your own. Get an accountability partner. Talk to someone whom you trust and someone who would care for you. Longer streaks don't just happen, you have earn it. The process is same for every streak after the relapse. One thing that helped me was thinking "If I were to give up now, I would have go all over again through this entire process" during the tough times. You gotta have a ton of patience and be consistent with your reboot. Good luck!

 

I tried many techniques, but once your addict mind has pmo in it's seights it just takes over and you unlock your pornblocking software and commitments you've made just don't cross your mind. That's why i learned it's all about conciousness, the ability to realize that you have a choice between growth and relapse in those moments. I practice having increased conciousness by listing up what I should be doing at what time (making an agenda). And whenever I catch myself wandering away from the task at hand, I redirect my mind. If you keep practicing this in everything you do, you soon become fully in control of your thoughts and actions.

 

"The unexamined life is not worth living."

Examine yourself, and look at the emotions that lie beneath your use of P. These are the cause of all of our addictions. Most often it is anxiety. You want to face it, not run away from it. Feel it, learn to build a resistance to it. Learn to harden up, and take it on the chin, instead of running away and crying like a little baby, and looking for that sugar-coated dummy to stuff in your face.... and suck to your oblivious content without a thought in the world. Because that is what we are doing when we watch P. We just have to grow up.

 

I have disagree with this just a little bit. The reason I do so is that I work in technology and I have to spend my life in front of a computer, web browsers etc. The other thing I can say for certain is that while I may have a significant draw to be on this site and posting and reading is that it helps with dealing with the addiction and the craving. I don't loose entire days to the nofap website like I would to porn. The one thing that is being drilled into my head by 12 step and sponsor is to reach out and get and give support it only helps your recovery. I can't spend all day in meetings or calling people but I can do a quick 5min check in on here then go back to my work.

I am not dismissing what you say and I am sure there are people that have to get off the computer all together, especially if they really have no other reason that email and porn. To that point I completely agree.

However for me there is no dopamine rush when I open a browser or type in a web address unless it's fapping material.

 

Although I don't have decent streak as yet,what helped me to reach 14 days this year and right now is I had to change my routine.I had to remain busy anytime I got an urge or anytime I was alone.Also I had to put a curfew on myself at what time I would come offline and how long I would be on the internet for whether it was on the phone or the computer.Most of my relapses would come from my phone as I would have it close by when I slept and the porn blockers wouldn't help,no matter how I tried.

What I had to was remove my phone away from my sight whenever I would sleep,this took a few tries but it seems to worked.Another tactic I would try is keep my sexual thoughts to a minimum,meaning if I had one.I would accept it and move on.Another thing I did was no touching of my member because that could lead to a relapse.Also I would remind myself that anytime I got an urge to watch porn I would tell myself that if I take one peak at porn my streak would be over.So taking any look at porn whether you are on a decent streak or not is a big no,no!

 

get ED from a chick, and that will be enough to put you on full gear to recovery.

Atleast for me it was.

 

That's an interesting question.
I think, you will realize something, indeed.
The shortest version of that is probably like @FPDoc said "Keep on making the most of your life one PMO-free day at a time! "

Your journey will look like this image (already posted 1000 times ...)

And the quote
"It doesn't matter how many times you fall down - it's how many times you get up!"
is true as well
Just commit to it and win this day for day.

The point is:
Use this journey and time to LEARN about your ENEMY (=PMO (Link *1)) and YOURSELF.
One of the most important things is (imho) :
Analyze your relapses.
What lead to it, and then apply changes, so you wont be in this situation anymore, or be at least aware of this.
So you'll at least reduce the chance for PMO.
(And know how to deal with relapses, especially don't be so hard on yourself, and just get up and continue)

Meditation is awesome as well.
After a while you'll have gained far more self-awareness, and will hopefully experience positve changes (if you used the saved time for self-improvement !).
This will reinforce the positive behavior and this will be your decent streak then.

Disclaimer, my best streak was 41, and it was months ago, so I have to follow this myself:
Don't get comfortable too soon, and never let your guard down in the next 90 days !
But with over 225 days since nofap start, and about 40 relapses upto now, I feel changes (and some of the super powers ).

So good luck and here's a motivational song


Useful Links:
*1 http://www.rebootnation.org/forum/index.php?topic=1256.msg64262#msg64262

 

Really interesting question.

In my humble opinion, there are a number of things that lead to bigger streaks but I honestly consider that most people don't just reach a big streak out of the blue. Just as a PMO addiction was a process, so it is recovery from it. The brain has an incredible ability to change at any age, but it takes more than one porn video to completely change it.

One of the main reasons people reach long streaks is the commitment to the process. I mean not only vowing to yourself (and to the NoFap forums) that you will quit porn, but actually taking concrete steps towards that goal. Delete all porn videos from the computer, read about the topic and make small, sustainable adjustments to your daily life, but don't do these because we tell you, do it because you want to kick PMO out of your life.

Another good reason is learning from your relapses. Ruminating on how weak you are is not going to help, it is necessary to take a moment to analyze why relapses happen because there are reasons for those, even when they are not immediately obvious.