Hi Everyone - Good to be here and look forward to meeting and supporting you! Little bits and pieces about me: The best times of my life in terms of baseline happiness *i.e. how I feel moment-to-moment regardless of stimuli* were the 9 months or so in the last 20 years that I haven't fapped or looked at porn. My Golden Ages: Three months when I was 12. Blew it (literally) in the Art section of a Borders book store... ...and the 6 months or so prior to meeting my wife (the added confidence probably helped that one out!). Once we met I was unable to healthily process my rediscovered sexual desire. Unfortunately we were both raised in a hyper-strict fundamentalist sect (glad to be done with that, but don't judge anyone for what gives them meaning and purpose) that prohibited any remotely sexual activity outside marriage so I didn't really know what to do with what I was feeling. Blew my streak on some youtube bikini video once my brain left monk-mode. It's just gotten worse and worse over the years. Now I watch porn and fap at least twice a day, usually more. It's making me endlessly procrastinate and is hurting my relationship with my wife and my self-respect is pretty crap now. It's time to permanently fix the problem that's plagued me since adolescence.
I suggest you start taking cold showers. Believe me, it's helped me go 7-10 days fap-free easily. I start with hot showers but the last 60 seconds are ice cold.
We have some mutual goals. I'm a conservative Muslim so premarital relations are forbidden. It doesn't help that I'm only 20 and marriage is a decade away. I also need to lose 40-50 lbs. and go NoFap for 90+ days. The longest I've gone is 14 days NoFap. There's a huge difference in confidence, self-esteem, physical/mental strength, etc.
Good luck man! You can totally do it!!! I remember feeling totally amazing when I wasn't PMO'ing all the time. The last couple years before I got married I had it pretty much under control. I would masturbate every once in a while, but never with porn. My brain was in much, much better shape. In some ways I'm a little jealous of single guys, because it's really hard for me to balance and differentiate healthy sex with my wife and PMO. It would almost be easier to go total monk-mode and not think about sex, girls, etc. AT ALL rather than have a healthy, balanced sex life. It's the same with food for me too - for me it's almost easier to completely fast than it is to have a normal, sane person diet. As you can see, I'm really not very good with balance. Cold showers are a good idea, thanks! I'm going to try disconnecting the wifi router when I'm not working so I simply spend less time poking around the internet. I can't look at porn if I'm reading a book or something! Congrats on Week 1 dude! Just one more day
