Does staying away from porn solve problems? or do you need to solve problems to beat porn?

Sure, it's definitely both. When quitting porn you are faced with the new challenge of filling that void as well as addressing the issues that your relied on porn to fix.

By the same token, you've got to stop using porn, period.

Let's take an extreme example to make the point: if you're compelled to commit suicide, you don't want to figure out what causes you to commit suicide before you do it, right? The first priority is to stop yourself from doing it, period. Then you reverse engineer what it is that's going on.

Does that make sense?

 

I guess this is a chicken and egg question. But as billy said, I think both come into play as you need to want to stop first and foremost before you can actually do anything about it. I see nofap as a catalyst or a prompt to incorporating healthier habits that reduce the need to use crutches like porn, or video games, or drugs or whatever someone may have an issue with. And that's why a lot of people who build their life around not pmoing can hit their magical 90 days and still not have a lot to show for it, cause they missed the forest for the trees and forgot to actually work on a life they want. But if porn makes it harder for you to do these things, stopping can certainly help.