How your brain fucks you over while rebooting (Please Read)

Agree totaly

 

These thoughts come from the irrational part of your brain. It's the primitive bit of your brain that tells you to run away from a woolly mammoth. It makes quick decisions but with little thought about consequence. All of the rational decision making gets shut down. Later on, rational decision making kicks in and you find yourself saying "Why the hell did I just relapse?"

Try the 15 minute rule when thoughts like that arise. Say to yourself "if I'm still having this thought in 15 minutes then I'll act on it. I won't act on it before." Then go and distract yourself - listen to music, walk, run, push ups, cold shower - whatever helps. What will happen in those 15 minutes is that the thought will get through to your rational brain and you will realize what a bad decision it is to act on it.

 

Along with that, I would also say to mentally treat those thoughts like a whining spoiled puppy that wants attention. Like the puppy, after waiting 15 minutes, that same puppy will probably realize it's not getting what it wants and will be quiet.

 

This Is so bitterly and harshly true

 

You might think of it like a trojan, a malware but instead of on your computer it's in your own mind! That should tell us how screwed up it is and take the issue seriously.

 

I like this view. When you open something contaminated on your computer, you find you have a virus that is hurting your computer. Sometimes you do not realize it right away. Always it is more complicated to get rid of it than it is to get it.
There are a lot of similarities with that and how porn can infect our brains. It is in us complicating our processing, but it did not orriginate in us; it is something foreign that we caught from what we were watching. Now we need to clean our system, and reboot.

 

That is exactly how it happens.

Thanks for putting this all down for us.

 

And if you hear an expert talk about malware, one obvious thing is it can get to a point where just a typical anti-virus security program can't deal with it. Sometimes, in really severe cases people have to use multiple programs, special tools to regain control over their system. Besides, you wanted to have the AV already installed BEFORE to PREVENT being infected in the first place.

Our challenge is we're ALREADY infected, and we've been in this shit for years, decades even! The good news is it is possible to manually work on it, as the malware experts do, but obviously you need some expertise and knowledge to do so.

So I think that's what we need to do, we need to become at least a little bit of an expert on the subject to deal with it. It may be really hard if our concentration is also shot but it stands to reason that as you stick with it it gets better, and even if your learning is slow at first the more you learn the more it builds on previous knowledge and we have the community to draw on.

Don't let this make you - not only stupid, but primitive, guys. We're better than that.

 

I hate that reptilian ahole part of my brain that undercuts me because he wants dopamine.

 

He made your ancestors alive, so, without it, you wouldn't exist

Also, it is one of the centres of our sexuality, and it wants dopamine because it was tought in a bad way.

 

I can totally relate to this. For me, I should be a year 1/2 free from PMO already but I always get trapped in the " You're not going to get laid anytime soon, why not just PMO and start when you see any opportunities to get laid". But through many relapses and mistakes I have learned how to combat with those thoughts and stay busy. Most of the relapses I had were learning experiences and every time I would start a new streak I would know my triggers and anything that would get me to start PMO'ing again. Just treat every relapse as a learning experience. Its like a blessing in disguise in a way. At the same time, don't abuse your relapse and binge on PMO. Hope this helps. Keep fighting the good fight!

 

Very good.. exactly how it works.

Don't feed it.

 

Agreed bro

 

More than that, it keeps us alive now. It's the bit of the brain that controls our snap decision making. It's the bit of the brain that makes you slam the brakes on your car if a child steps out, or makes you step back if you step into the road without noticing a car. It's basically our "fight or flight" part of our brain. Our higher functioning brain is far too slow to process those kinds of decisions so they revert back to our primitive brain. It works remarkably well for what it does. The problem is, it has a habit of taking over our brains and blocking out our rational thoughts.

 

Very well said!