First relapse after NoFap

You made it 7 days which is a victory in itself. Though we all get discouraged when we break our streak, you should use this as an opportunity to analyze what happened. You said you searched an actress and that led you down the path to using. Next time you want to google and actress, think is it because you want to know more about her as a person and human being, or is it because you want to look at her body and your brain knows that if you google this then it will lead you down the path of using. Your brain is smarter than you think, and it will make you do things you don't actually want to do. If you choose to keep working on this addiction and persist to get better, over time you will recognize when your brain is playing tricks on you, and since you are now recognizing this, you can step back and say no.

 

I have been relapsing and in fact couldn't control my urges and used to masturbate every day twice. 27 days had been the longest streak without porn in my life. But now with some self guidance and help from youtube and book i made crossed day 30.

can you imagine how big of a victory it is for a person who had been watching and trained brain in similar way every day for last 12 years.

Thanks to meditation, urge surfing and jordan peterson.

I would suggest you to go through these topics; you would not stop watching porn all of a sudden, and perhaps you would fail after knowing them. But, that's the start, eventually with persistency you will be able to increase your streak

 

You should turn on safesearch and a p@#n blocker for the first few months of your streak.

 

I will tell you about 3 major things that are helping me

I was in college and one of my friends suggested me vipassana meditation to have a new challeneging experience-- it involves living in ashram for 10 days completely without talking, writing or reading. All you need to do is meditate from 5 in moring to 9 at night; all this including food and lodging for 10 days, comes with free of cost. So i gave it a try, not because i thought it would change my life completely but to see if i could make it till the end of 10days without qutting- and since i was a loner, i knew i could and i made it. It was very interesting experience man, when you sit to meditate your mind starts throwing a lot of thoughts at you, you would want to quit by day 5,6, but after that you would get a sense of feeling that you would complete it successfully.

You might wonder why am i telling you all this? cuz it is related-through this meditation i got introduced to concept called mindfulness. I like the idea of it- to be fully in the moment without thinking about past and future- and I was convinced many aspects of life would be very fruitfull if i apply it in other aspects. I saw my friend reading Power of Now by Eckhart tolle, it did make a difference in my life man. Me being an atheist, this helped me throw some perspective on how mind works. When i read that book, i had doubts but i also was able to identify how my brain works. I realized that most of the problems are mind-made and infact it amplifies the intensity and makes us suffer way more than real.

I started meditating since the beginning of corona- i did it one hr everyday for 5 months- i discontinued it now cuz i gave into my lazy ness yet the concept of mindfulness helped me cure insomnia. I now can sleep when i want to.

I was first intoducced to Vipasanna Meditation- it further made me read eckhart tolle- it helped me use techniques of urge surfing effectively. Additionally i started following Jordan Peterson as i'm planning to pursue psychology and all his explanations about personality- not addiction- helped me accept my mistakes an myself. I purchased his book 12rules for life, idk if it will be helpful for you but it is guiding me now to identify my mistakes and that i could be way more than what i'm now. I started consulting therapist- completed 1st session- not for addiction for other problems which are becoming reason for watching porn. Had i not read ncert 11, 12 for entrances and followed JP i wouldnt have made an attempt to consult therapist

In addition to all that i said there was an app called waking up by sam harris- who is a public commentator on various issues- helped in 5 months of meditation practice.

So finally, what is helping me now

1.my desire to be better and disappointment for what i have become
2. Urge Surfing- thanks to eckhart tolle, due to his book im able to follow it effectively
3.Jordan Peterson Videos and Book

 

You must to remember always why you started.

 

I have provided you with all the methods I use to block sites with. I would recommend OpenDNS and Safe Search as they do most of the blocking.


I use these methods to block adult content, hope this is useful.

1) BLOCK BY WORDS:
I believe WI-FI routers have this feature, block the words that you end up searching which are usually the reason for your triggers( ex: p@#n,etc...)( It took me a week to get all of my PMO trigger words.) (Works on WI-FI routers)

if your router doesn't have this use this:

https://blocksite.co/

it has word blocking feature.
Make sure you enable it for incognito too.


2) Set up OpenDNS: (A little complicated but, works on all devices)(Recommended)
This is probably my personal favorite, it took me a while to set up but once it was set up it worked flawlessly.
Try blocking every porn site including twitter ( It is no less than a porn site), stock photo sharing sites, Instagram etc. OpenDNS has options that allow you to select categories that you want to block, like Adult sites, photo sharing sites etc.

Open DNS:
Step 1:https://www.opendns.com/setupguide/
Step 2:https://login.opendns.com/ (Manage which site you want to block)
Step 3: https://support.opendns.com/hc/en-u...hat-is-the-OpenDNS-Dynamic-IP-updater-client- (Update your IP address with OpenDNS.)(Important)


3) ENFORCE SAFE SEARCH(Recommended):

To enforce safesearch: (Works on all devices)
https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/510?co=GENIE.Platform=iOS&hl=en&oco=0

To lock safesearch: (Important)
https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/186669?hl=en#:~:text=To confirm SafeSearch is on,%\system32\drivers\etc .

Safe search makes sure there will be no porn or sexually arousing content in your searches, image searches.


4) WINDOWS 10 HOSTFILE BLOCKING:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/141019-block-websites-using-hosts-file-windows.html

In short for windows:

1. In Windows, click the Windows key and type Notepad.
2. Right click on Notepad and choose Run as Administrator.
3. Click Yes when Windows asks if you want this program to make changes.
4. In Notepad, open your hosts file. In most Windows installations, this is located at: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
5. Type 127.0.0.1 twitter.com
6. Save the hosts file.

In general '127.0.0.1 <websitename.com>' can be used in the hosts file to block any sites for your PC.

Warning: DO NOT BLOCK Windows 10 Telemetry service.


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The problem with OpenDNS:

You see OpenDNS would need to update its servers with your network's IP address every so often, for that you would need an DNS updater like https://support.opendns.com/hc/en-u...hat-is-the-OpenDNS-Dynamic-IP-updater-client- , sadly they are only available on PCs and Laptops (Till where I know).


Note: I recommend setting up OpenDNS on a network level it works like a charm. I also believe, having safesearch will prevent you from searching up stuff.

I hope the helps.
Stay strong.