100 days ago: a success story from a mild addict

Introduction and Background
I'm 33, male and probably first started watching porn when I was about 15. I don't think I'd gone longer than a week, maybe a week and half without it in all the years since.

I'll be the first to admit that my addiction was "mild", in that it didn't take over my life by any means. It wasn't outwardly causing me problems apart from occasional porn induced erectile dysfunction (PIED), and I wasn't spending a lot of time on it, and hadn't spent any money on it. That being said, it was still an addiction. I wanted to kick the habit, and had told myself time and time again that I'd stop. The types of porn I watched had escalated on occasion, to the point where after I'd finished I'd be thinking "Really man?! is that what you need?"

Each birthday, each new year, any excuse I could think of to say "Ok, that was the last time." All attempts failed within a week. Even having had a amazing girlfriend these past 8 years wasn't enough to cause me to kick the habit.

But this forum was. 100 days ago I signed up on here and started my journal, promising myself I'd be here on the 1st August, writing on the Success Stories board having gone 100 days clean from porn & masturbation (PM). So if anyone is reading this, perhaps you've read some of the other journals and posts and been thinking to yourself "hmm, I don't know, maybe I'll just have another go quitting myself", sign up. Commit to 90 days free from porn, porn-subs (substitutes for porn), and masturbation. If it's easy? Great. If it's hard? Even better in a way, as it shows you're getting benefit from doing this.

Benefits
What benefits can I notice 3 months into this?

• First off, great sex. More feeling, more connected and an overwhelming sense of contentment afterwards.
• No longer anxious browsing the internet whilst someone is watching on my computer ("Is there something lurking in my search history?"
• A calmness, hard to describe but just a stable mood.

No "super Saiyan" powers, but I'm ok with that.

Closing Remarks
I naively thought early on in this journey that I'd be able to come on here and provide tons of sage advice on how everyone can succeed, and I've come to realise how futile that is. Everyone is different, what works for one won't work for another, and we're all in different positions in life. All I can suggest is that you get out of this what you put in, so don't go in half-hearted.

 

I did wonder if anyone would pick up on that! Yes, I'd still classify it as a mild addiction, even if that particular side-effect was not. Don't get me wrong, it normally worked fine down there, but if for example I'd rubbed one out earlier that day, then I wasn't doing myself any favours for performance later in the evening sometimes.

Edit: and further to this, I'm describing it as such based on what I've seen reading other's journals on here. The majority on here I would say are having multiple attempts to overcome this, and so don't want to belittle anyone's efforts by rocking up and overcoming it on the first attempt. (those words could come back to bit me, I can tell)

 

Oh for sure, any hope that this would be put behind me after three months has been extinguished - have readily accepted that this could be a year or more process.

As for whether it's as a coping mechanism? I'm not sure, I think it was just easily established as a teenager, and then after a long-distance relationship that petered out, followed by an extended period of being single for most of my early 20s, it just became consolidated.