I lost all my progress

Hello brother, do not give up, keep going, I read your story and although I have never had a very long streak you encouraged me to start again. You have another person who supports you, it always happens to me that I forget because I want to leave it and by the time I realize it I have relapsed again, I think I need to tell myself more often and share it with others.


Greetings and success in your week!

 

Hey man, you've got this! You seem like an amazing person, and it looks like you know what you want. Real connection. I believe in that too. Excited to see how you do. And yeah, I think all of us struggled during covid, especially at the start of this whole thing. My addiction was at the worst it ever was. Right now I'm in a bit of a rut. If you ever need someone to reach out to, feel free to private message me!

 

Maybe you lost it, but that doesn't mean it can't come back. Just try again

 

Late to the party.

I'll respond to the thread title.

All that progress is not lost. It exists, it happened. If you did it before then you can do it again. Keep standing back up, we can all stumble.

 

Here are some tips. I've been pmo free for 3 1/2 years.
Find a spiritual path (this can be anything from religion, prayer, meditation, spiritual books/practices, 12 step, really anything that connects you with a higher power. If you're an atheist, find a way to connect with nature or some type of practice that feels somehow spiritual to you.)
Use the pain from relapse as a motivator to not do it again. If you're porn free for awhile, you will be feeling much better psychologically. Even if you're upset about something, the pain and misery from using porn is always worse.
Hobbies
Use a relationship as motivation. If you are free from porn, chances are you will feel less shame and feel better about yourself. The better you feel about yourself, the more likely you are to attract a better partner. If you really trust in the process, you may end up finding someone who you have a healthy sexual relationship with. This isn't always going to work and it's not about getting a girlfriend perse, but this tact helped me stay motivated. When I was using porn, I was either attracting very toxic women or no women at all. But then everything changed when I stopped using it.
Know what your triggers are and structure your life in a way where it's super difficult to use it. Blockers, staying out of the house (go for a walk when you're super triggered), scheduling meetings, calls, even if it's on zoom, talking to/seeing friends, business or school related things, filling up your day with commitments so there is no time to use.
Definitely use blockers on the strictest settings if possible.
Find accountability partners.
Exercise.
Honesty. I had to be very honest with myself. This is like heroine and if I use it my life goes up in flames. The addict part of our brain keeps telling us lies so we will use it. Get real honest with yourself and it will be harder to use. Essentially, fill your life up with as many barriers or obstacles in between you and using porn. This also creates a time barrier.
hope this helps

 

As a person still in the fight but had some successful streaks, all this advice is good and were things I utilized.

If you have ever heard of the book, “Tiny Habits” by BJ Fogg, it talks about how one reverses a bad habit. Part of that is simply removing “prompts”. For example, one thing that I had to do was stop using and throw away lotion from my room. This helped a lot on the days I was tempted, although I recently had to bring it back bc of my absurdly dry skin (resulting from the winter air). I hate that I have to have that right now but tried to get a type of lotion that wouldnt be as tempting at least. Other things may be prompts as well,
like social media. I know explore on instagram is a very dangerous area for me.

Just wanted to second the advice given and encourage you with things that have/are helping me.

Never give up.

 

Best of luck to you

 

‘I lost all my progress’ anytime I read this It makes me sick. The progress was never lost. The timeframe is your life

 

Yes I can see how challenging this can all be during COVID. I had to find new things to enjoy to replace the old things that I can't do anymore. Things like "Masterclass" or other online courses have replaced some of the in person workshops I used to go to. Being out in nature is really important for me. Connecting with friends out of state over zoom. These were things I did not really do that much before. Planning out my day has always been a great tool. Best of luck with your journey!

 

You have time to change things. It’s not the end. Far from it. Start again and don’t look back. This can be the beginning of your new life.

 

Do not give up friend there is always hope, it seems difficult but if you do what is difficult your life will be easier this demon that torments one this horrible habit yesterday I relapsed and felt shit because I always promise and in the end I do not comply but through that damn relapse I realized one thing and it is that it depends on each one, go to the bottom of your heart and think if you really want to leave it too because it is easy to say it but not act in another way, it is that before I was not a very believer of God But when I met him he gave me a great truth and that is that there are demons who want to trap you in his clutches so that you are not that successful, happy, sociable person, I advise you one thing above all and that is that if you feel that you want to relapse, ask him to God help you and then analyze your heart and you will know if you really want to leave it NEVER GIVE UP

 

i feel so annoyed after relapsing 3 weeks. my cousin just sent me an unapproriate video containing sexual scene and i open it up by accident hope i havent disturb my streak again although i shut it off immediately after watching it few seconds...this does start to make my edge hopefully i an beat this battle

 

I keep gravitating to my discord account but so far resisted acting on my massive overwhelming desire