Day 177, struggling with temptations.

I am sorry to hear that you have been giving into temptation lately after such a good streak. Did you not realise that edging completely messes up your challenge. It is worse than masturbating and cumming! Gary Wilson explains this here: http://yourbrainonporn.com/what-if-i-use-porn-without-orgasm

As for digital tits, I have to tell you, that you are rationalizing - it's not two people having sex, so it's not technically "porn". The dictionary definition is: "writings, pictures, films, etc, designed to stimulate sexual excitement". I think you know you need to reset and take stock of where you are and what you want.

 

I agree to IGY. u just messed up with that tantric practice. by that u r practicing not to eject or doing orgasm less sex. which is not good. i m on 61 day and felling stronger evert day. u r just putting unnatural pressure on ur sexual veins. restrat again with completely avoiding pmo. ull definately see improvements.

 

Rolando, you did the right thing man. Porn is anything naked period. If they wouldn't show the images in the grocery store isle, it's probably porn man. For me, I will reset even if I start looking at half naked women online.

Good luck with your journey!

 

Did you intentionally seek out the digital tits? If not it's not a reset.

Accidents happen.

- VM

 

Hey Rolando, congrats for your 177 days streak. If I was you I wouldn't reset the counter because a pair of tits on a screen is not like porn... Or a woman bending over in leggings or anything sexually suggestive. Also, I'd want to talk about this :

This "superpowers" thing has to stop in my opinion. Seriously, I think we need to change the Nofap home page which says "Seize control of your sexuality and turn it into superpowers." .
Most people reaching 60+ streaks describe that they start to feel life for real and stuff, but that's no superpowers. The same for Gabe's video in which he says he has morning woods everyday, hard erections, great sex and stuff. This is normal life.
When we take a look at the Success Stories forum we can see that a hell lot of guys talk about "feeling like new man, the world is mine, Nofap is the best thing I ever made"... And they are on Day 15-25. It's completely normal to feel like this at the beginning once you made it past the first two weeks. So why a lot of these people reset their counters a few days after ? Why the Success Stories forum is full of "made it to 30 days ! this is incredible !" but not 200 Days streaks ?
I'm not saying that if you are not able to make it past 30 days now you'll never make it, and I'm not saying that 30 days is bad. But I think people could avoid a lot of relapses if Yourbrainonporn, Nofap and all the other websites weren't full of "If you stop PMO for 90 days you'll become God". Because they'll fall into the withdrawals time, understand that superpowers are not coming, understand that their social anxiety, facebook addiction and erection problems are not walking away after 20 days of nofap, and relapse.

Just my opinion of course.

 

ADC, I totally agree with you.

As I've said in other posts: I don't view the NoFap process as something that has a beginning and an end. I view it more as a lifetime commitment to change. As far as I can see, you might be a bit less addicted in 90 days than you are now by abstaining, but if you've been addicted for 10 years, you aren't going to rewire the brain's pathways in three months.

For me, a lifestyle change is what would bring the feeling of a new start, etc, and that is achieved over a period of time.

 

Hey Rolando,

Strong work on getting to 177 days! You are a real deal Fapstronaut, hats off.

IMO, if I was you, I would reset. But I wouldn't view it as a bad thing. You made it to 177 days without caving. That in and of itself is a huge accomplishment and I'm sure that you've reaped the benefits in terms of positive effects. I would reset because it would start a new period, a new challenge. Success is never final. You made it to 177 days. Now you have your benchmark. Follow that with 178 days.

I'm currently at 37 days and visited the forum today because I'm fighting off some mean urges.

In response to your thoughts on "What's the point?" You could use that same question and apply it to pmo. What's the point? It's not like if you go pmo you're going to reap any great reward. It's going to be 20 minutes of pleasure followed by a potential slippery slope back towards the addiction (that's what it would be for me anyway, your situation may be different).

I recently heard about the marshmallow test by this psychologist guy named Walter Mischel. It's about addiction, will power and self discipline. It's all about putting a marshmallow in front of a kid and telling him, if you eat this marshmallow, that's the end, you can't have any more. But if you wait a few minutes, you can have two. Delayed gratification. If you wait and don't pmo now, you'll get rewarded with something better in the near future (in this case it might simply be avoiding the slippery slope, or the empowering feeling of conquering one's urges ("To conquer oneself is the best and noblest victory" ~ Plato)).

http://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/struggles-psychologist-studying-self-control

Whichever path you have chosen to take today doesn't matter too much. You've made it 177 days and have demonstrated to yourself and everyone else on the forum that you have the will power to move past pmo. Even if you relapse, you've already proven you have ample ability to get back on the horse and ride another long stretch without pmo.

Thanks for a good post and again, great job.

 

Never feed into the desire. Starve it to death. It's going to fight back. FIGHT HARDER! We have 6 seconds in our mind to make a decision when presented with an option . Within those 6 seconds our minds have been made up. For instance, if you see a picture on the side of a website talking about hump day and it's showing a woman's butt in lingerie, you have 6 seconds to run or stay. Within those 6 seconds (whether you know it or not) you've already made your choice to feed the desire or stand strong in your abstinence. But without God it will always be impossible.

 

Not true. There are tons of Fapstronauts who are well into the process of beating PMO and are not religious whatsoever. It all depends on where you find your inspiration.

Personally, I am religious person. But can God compete with technology? Can God call out from above when you see that woman's butt in lingerie and your mind starts racing and your pulse sky-rockets? No he cannot as much as you might hope so. What religion does provide is a sense of support, comfort and a steadfast figure. But when you are fighting PMO, the will and the desire MUST come from within. There is no other way around it.