Help! Stuck in a cycle of insomnia and porn

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Dragonair99

New Fapstronaut
Hello everyone. I really need help with an issue I've been facing. To start, I am a recovering porn addict who has made great strides in overcoming this problem to the point that I don't feel I need it at all on my good days; i used to watch porn multiple times a day but now im down to a few times a month. However for the past 2 years I have been overcoming a persistant problem in the form of chronic insomnia and addiction to sleeping pills. While my sleep has started to improve and i have cut down greatly on pills, whenever I have a horrible sleep, it triggers my anxiety, depression and irritability which makes me feel that I need to watch porn as a crutch to ease my stress and catch some sleep. Often times this is followed by a chaser effect which simply perpetuates what feels like a vicious cycle of always having recurring sleeping issues and going back to porn addiction; I always end up feeling terrible after relapsing several times and as though I will never overcome this problem fully. Has anyone ever overcome porn addiction with insomnia and if so, how do you remain disciplined on the bad days?
 
Pls give more details
How many years were your addicted to porn?
How many times per day on an avg did u fap?
Did u use porn plus fap late at night to relax and go to sleep?
 
Dragonair99 said:
Hello everyone. I really need help with an issue I've been facing. To start, I am a recovering porn addict who has made great strides in overcoming this problem to the point that I don't feel I need it at all on my good days; i used to watch porn multiple times a day but now im down to a few times a month. However for the past 2 years I have been overcoming a persistant problem in the form of chronic insomnia and addiction to sleeping pills. While my sleep has started to improve and i have cut down greatly on pills, whenever I have a horrible sleep, it triggers my anxiety, depression and irritability which makes me feel that I need to watch porn as a crutch to ease my stress and catch some sleep. Often times this is followed by a chaser effect which simply perpetuates what feels like a vicious cycle of always having recurring sleeping issues and going back to porn addiction; I always end up feeling terrible after relapsing several times and as though I will never overcome this problem fully. Has anyone ever overcome porn addiction with insomnia and if so, how do you remain disciplined on the bad days?
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You might want to consider getting a doctor's advice on the sleep issues. That's an important external factor that, while P use may be effecting, might be caused by something else you need medical assistance with. Once you know if there's an underlying problem and you can get the help you need to combat that, I guarantee that combating the P addiction will be a lot better. When you're deprived of sleep, especially in a significant way, your body is coming online without a great many of the defense mechanisms active you'd normally be able to access while navigating through combating an addiction. It makes those pathways designed to override our rationality and sense far more powerful, and thus difficult to overcome.

I'm not said sleep doc, but I don't want to leave you with nothing. Try and figure out with a healthcare professional how you can improve your sleep. They are much better equipped to help there. The most I could safely recommend is cutting back on caffeine after mid-day, whatever that is for you (3 PM is the common time, but it's whatever mid-day is for you if you woke up at 8 and went to bed at 10.) As for the trigger itself, that's something that might require some heavy manual gear switching. I'd suggest finding an alternative activity, since you're awake, and using that instead of PMO. I'm there with you 100%, these urges are some of the absolute worst and I struggle with them heavily. But what I do is I'll either start reading, do some riding on my exercise bike, push-ups, or even pop on here and start supporting people. It gives me a conscious objective and the urges I allow to pass by without further attention. Easier said than done, but it's something I can wholeheartedly recommend based off the scientific literature and my own experience.
 
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