40 year old fapstronaut, looking forward to a new journey

Hi

I have been reading about nofap on and off for a while, but created this account today and am posting my introduction.

I'm a single 40 year old male, based in the UK. I have been looking at porn on and off for about 20 years but my problem wasn't porn so much as dating apps which I was using as a substitute. Specifically, gay dating apps where the chat and pic exchange is pornographic and in my case, became highly addictive.

I was spending long periods of time on gay dating apps, checking multiple times per day in a compulsive way. I came to recognise it as a problem because of:

1) the amount of time wasted, which could have been spent more productively elsewhere
2) the feeling of not being in control of my own actions
3) the "add to basket" mentality of such apps, viewing others as objects in a highly transactional and judgmental way
4) developing almost a fear of real life sex, as the interaction within the apps took the place of real life interactions instead - and feeling more turned on by virtual exchanges than real ones
5) feeling at best, unfulfilled and lonely and at worst, guilty and ashamed after meeting anyone from these apps (which I did occasionally but not that often latterly - more so when I was younger)

So on 16th November 2018, I deleted all the apps from my phone and since then, I have been abstinent from PMO. My goal is to achieve at least 90 days in hard mode but potentially open to longer, depending on where this journey goes. At this point in my life, having only had two unsuccessful gay relationships and a host of unfulfilling casual encounters, I am open to the idea of long term celibacy - i.e. no sex and no PMO, essentially living in monk mode. I can perhaps explain my reasons for feeling this way (which are not religious) on a future thread to avoid this one becoming too long, but I'm aided by the fact that I'm moving soon to a small and relatively remote area which has no visible gay community, so the temptations will be less. I'm also aided by the fact that, at age 40, whilst I obviously still have a sex drive, it is less urgent than it was when I was younger.

Anyway, as of today, I'm on Day 24 of hard mode and looking forward to the journey. Previously, on another earlier streak, I managed to get to about Day 50 (I didn't track the days precisely) which so far has been my personal record/longest streak in adult life. This time, hoping to make it to at least 90 days and hopefully beyond.

To assist me, I have also given up Instagram (to avoid triggering images). I do lead a fairly 'clean' lifestyle anyway, as I'm teetotal and into fitness, but I'm hoping to use the time saved by avoiding PMO to improve my exercise and also to become more outward looking after a period of being quite withdrawn. I am still addicted to my phone but mainly Twitter for news and politics - I'm hoping to reduce this smartphone usage after the UK election (on 12th December) but I figure there's only so many things you can give up at one time

Anyway - this is my intro - looking forward to what's ahead.