Bang 0/8. As I said, I knew it was coming. The urge just became stronger and stronger over several days and finally I gave in. What I've had a big trouble with the last couple of months is falling asleep. It feels like my mind can't stop thinking. Either I'm thinking about work, video games or pmo. Blocking all the thoughts takes a tremendous effort and it would be much better if I could replace the thoughts instead. I just installed some speakers in my bedroom, will try to sleep to some rain and thunder next night. Also I changed my counter goal definition. Any other advice is very welcome.
Cold Showers before bedtime helps a lot with sleep. The colder and the longer you can stay in there, the better. Check other threads mentioning cold showers. Magnesium supplements (the right type of magnesium that your stomach can handle) - or foods rich in this mineral. Will also improve sleep. Foods rich in Zinc will also help. Avoid caffeine, choclate, water and tea before bedtime. PMO and bad sleep is very much connected because of over-stimulation (a "dopamine overdose") and same with videogames. They are very repetitive and addictive for the brain. It goves dopamine for doing nothing, so there is no real gain in playing games. I've quit gaming altogether, and I mean completely. Becuse like all addictions they are connected like a chain. One addiction can trigger another and so forth. Your sensory nervous system has been over-stimulated and you need a rest. Reading a book is very good. Read something while laying in bed. Something that you find interesting. That's a win-win. If you find it boring you will get tired and fall asleep much easier. Try it for yourself. If you actually like to read you have something to replace your gaming with. I'm close to day 70 now so I've learned what works and what doesn't. Not only for myself but for others as well. Hope that helped. Good luck!
I agree! For me giving video games the (un)boot has helped me feel in generally better spirits. ... I also want to try running two simultaneous step counters if that's ok! I like the 28-day stretch a lot and how it ends with the 1-week step. And feeling the fulfillment of the smaller goals gives me a boost of motivation. ... 1/1 Step 1! ... Step 7 & 1/7
That’s a very good idea! During my first reboot, I did the everest challenge, the devine comedy challenge, the infinity challenge and one more no pmo-challenge, all at once! This gave me small positive boosts along the way and it worked really good for years!
Day 1/4 Why do I do this? This is not who I really am, this doesn't suit my personality! "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt Have a great day guys!
1/8 Thank you for your advice, very much appreciated! I stopped with hot showers completely three years ago and have been showering cold since then. I don't usually take them just before bed however, so that's something I could change. Thanks for reminding me. Yeah the dopamine from video games is huge. I usually don't play video games at all but my kids started to play Minecraft a couple of weeks ago and in order to be able to help them, I had to learn it myself. This really messed up my sleep. I am also noticing my kids are getting more and more addicted, so time for a change indeed. Reading a book was indeed a good idea. I will start tonight.
Great to see you all here! @Lolodb12 You're right about keeping a handwritten journal. I used to do that until I joined this site, and while there are some benefits in writing here, I've often found it unfortunate that I haven't kept up with writing offline. I'm so sorry to see your reset @100%. You had such a beautiful streak for a month already. I'm sure you will bounce back. I also think that @Akeakua's idea of running multiple counters is a nice one. @Beasthunter1998 Yes! That step was some bastard but you beat it. Now don't look back.
1/6 Porn is stronger than me if I give it the chance, there's no way around this. But I can do without it - and I will do better. The way I was being hooked through the years is especially the fix from PMOing just before going to sleep. I've always found it hard to get sleep due to whatever anxiety or overthinking. Porn always gave the sure boost of pleasure and something to numb my mind with. Besides all other drawbacks it has, it's easy to see that trying to fix your problems with an effortless source of instant gratification is unsustainable. Now that I've been doing it again far too often this year, it's been so hard to get up from bed in the morning. Nothing seems important looking from there even though it's not true. I'm pretty sure there's a clear connection, is it then about dopamine or whatever in brain chemistry. Such bad mornings drive the whole day in the wrong direction, and doing that day-to-day is certainly something I do not want to continue.
I don't know if this will help you, but it did help me overcome kind of the same problem. Make those mornings more interesting! - Take your time to sleep and be consistent. At least 7 hours, but not more than 9. - Prepare your day the night before. It gives you less things to stress about during the night, in other words better sleep! And things to look forward to. - Enjoy the little things! (You know, the ones PMO makes you insensitive fore): Wake up with your favorite music, make yourself a good cup of coffee, plan your day, make a healthy breakfast, listen to the radio, read the news... do whatever you like to do in the morning that makes you happy/makes your mornings interesting! (For example: I bought one of those smart alarm clocks for like 40$... Totally worth it, waking up with some morning tunes and now I have no excuse anymore to ban that sh*t smartphone from my bedroom )
These are useful tips. I used to work with the no screen and flying start challenges which made my sleeping and mornings much better. But that was quite some time ago, and now for several months I've been consistently lazy in the mornings, refusing to get up before wasting 15-45 minutes in bed.
Just implement a few of the things you learned doing those challenges... a little bit of discipline every morning and it will get easy to get out of bed! You can do a lot of work and fun things in those 15-45 min you'll win every morning
2/8 Thanks. Yeah, it was a good run. Every relapse has been in almost the same way: I get strong indications a few days before. Then the emotions just become stronger and stronger. Will try to figure out what to do until next time. I'm sorry that you relapsed as well, maybe we can bring each other up the ladder this time.
2/6 I was delighted when I saw two squirrels running up and down a spruce. One moment they were moving very fast, then all of a sudden they froze to either side of the tree, waiting what the other will do. And off they went again. You could hear the sound their nails were making a long distance away. I'm not sure if they were just playing around, or if there was some serious fight going on.
1/5 Today's doing great, been kept myself busy and I didn't even have any time to take a peek into it.
