Hello dear friends

Welcome Longwaytogo! You’re in the right place. How often do you plan on visiting here? Is it just MO or is P part of the picture?

 

Longwaytogo, sounds like you have the desire to quit but are looking for help. You are certainly in the right place but joining this community won’t magically make it go away. You will be the one who will have to put in the hard work. But we can help! We’ve found things that help but it will ultimately be up to you to choose to abstain.
First of all, count yourself fortunate that you are not heavily in to porn. Stay far away from it, treat it as if it is a horrible disease. Don’t even do it just a little, it can completely destroy you.
I too, have had periods in my life where MO has been a consistent problem. Having a support community will be of great benefit.
Here are a couple of things that have helped me:
1. Find out what your triggers are. When does it happen? Sometimes people do it when they are trying to cope with a difficult situation or to escape reality. It could be loneliness, boredom, or multiple reasons.
2. Exercise regularly - this has helped me a lot.
3. Set goals
4. Keep a journal- go to the forum called “recovery log” and start a new thread in your age group. Keep track of each day. Write down your successes and your failures. Ask questions, people who follow you will offer words of encouragement and will give you good advice.
5. The unfortunate reality of our situation is that we are probably not done relapsing. Don’t beat yourself up because in order to get out of this mess you have to learn from each failure. You will start seeing patterns and you will find ways to avoid those triggers - counter attack strategies. You will find ways to keep you far away from falling in that pit that you keep falling in to. Eventually those relapses will get farther and farther away from each other. Eventually it will no longer be an issue for you.

I wish you the best of luck on your journey to full recovery. I’m with you, I never want to do it again and I want it out of my life. I’m taking it one day at a time and the days are starting to add up. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help or if you have any questions. Feel free to PM me. Take care!

 

Our minds will go anywhere they need to in order to get that dopamine hit that they are so addicted to. “Just once won’t hurt” or “visit this website or google this curious thing”. We have to find a way to short circuit those thoughts. The pleasure portions of our minds hijacks the logical portion. If you are ever wondering if something is ok, just come ask the community here. They can re-insert logic into your thought process !