16 Days No P, Willpower decreasing

Hey NoBrainer,

What always kills my streaks is basically obsessing over the porn stuff. I've been to 14 and 18 days at the most, and always the urge seems to build and build until you think it's gonna burst. And on those days really you just keep seeing yourself fighting one gigantig monster that keeps growing and growing, and you feel more and more afraid.

I think what would help is to get out of that seige mentality, don't think of things as "building up". Just take each urge at a time, accept it, acknowledge it, refute it with all the reasons that you have, then RUN THE HELL AWAY and go do something else that will take your mind off it. Think about what you can do for the rest of the day. Look forward to something good happening in the next couple of days. Go schedule an activity for the next day that will make you feel good. Go exercise. Anything but stay in the same spot and let the urge hit you again. The last few times I relapsed, I managed to reason the urge away, but then I just stayed at my computer, zoning out not really doing anything, and that basically just invites the urges to come at you again and again. We need to try and disrupt the cycle so it isn't so easy for it to hit us again.

Hope that helps. I'm trying to be more disciplined about the running away part, so if it helps you let me know

 

Read success stories, get a calendar and mark your streak next to your PC, take cold showers, make sure you've got something to do, hang out with friends or a hobby!

 

Hi NoBrainer, I seem to be finding myself feeling weak at the moment too, the weakness started around day 16 and has been building since. Its like in the early days the changes are almost tangeable and it motivates you, but as time goes on I can't feel the benefits and I only have my will power to keep going. I'm reading this forum every day to try and keep myself inspired by the journeys others have taken, to keep my eye on the goal.
You can climb everest by only ever thinking about your next step - just make sure you're facing the right way and keep putting one foot in front of the other. If you only think about climbing everest it seems like a daunting task, but taking one step is easy. Each day all I care about is my counter being one more tomorrow, and I ignore the end goal completely.

 

Two things:

First of all, in my experience, there's period of time when abstaining from porn gets really hard. First couple of weeks are kind of OK, and then you have to brace yourself until three months - that's what it took in my case. You are right in the danger zone, so do not give in - it does get worse before it gets better.

Second of all, find a way to occupy the living crap out of yourself. The less time you spend alone with computer in the room, the better. Try to exhaust yourself with physical exercise. Hiking or cycling works the best, it can take hours upon hours of your "lonely" time away from you.