once you're addicted you're addicted for life

Life isn't perfect and addiction isn't just days counted. With that been said i recognise that most people relapse soon or later but some people don't. Why do you improve your life chasing goals buying things to improve your life finding the one in your life by the time that you know that you will die? Recovering from an addiction can improve your life even if you relapse once after many years.

 

If you are able to abstain for a longer period the benefits of having a healthy psyche and healthy relationships will stay longer as well.

 

It is same as saying to person who has overweight "You will be overweight for your life, there is no need to change your life, eat healthy and exercise". Those are just excuses of you, so you can stay watching porn. So go ahead if that is what you want. You don't have me or others with it. Just yourself.

There is no need to convince you of the effects of PMO.

 

Why are you wasting your time on NoFap then? So go ahead watching porn, masturbating and having sex with your computer if that is what you want. You don't have me or others with it. I really don't care if you have sex with your computer.

 

To some extent, but once your brain is rewired and the deltafosB is gone, the urges will be much weaker and more controllable.

Some people realise they don't need porn and never get urges again.
Some people don't get that and still get urges from time to time but they're easier to dismiss and much less common.
Either way still gotta be wary but you can live a normal life and as long as you're busy you won't think about pmo.

A relapse after a year or two won't be catastrophic as long as you don't binge and you'll be fine.

 

Yes once you are a full-blown PMO addict for years, you'll most likely be prone to PMO addiction for the rest of your life.

But that doesn't mean you can't beat it. PMO is no special addiction, its mechanism works just like any other non-physical addiction.

I haven't beaten PMO addiction yet, but I recently successfully beat 2 other non-physical addictions. Internet (news) addiction and gambling addiction.

There is a way out. And the good news is: if you successfully beat an addiction in your early years, you'll have more resilience against other future addictions and mid-life crises. Also keep in mind that you'll know exactly how dangerous future technologies like VR will be. Future generations will probably have it much worse than us.

 

Is anyone familiar with the idea of the self fulfilling prophecy? Be careful with this.

 

I don't buy into "once an addict, always an addict". Neuroscience that has come forth in the past few years that suggests addiction is not actually a chronic disease for most people. I prefer to say: "once an addict, always easy to become readdicted" because the only truly permanent effect of addiction is the fact that addictive pathways will remain dormant, and if you use again they will immediately spring back to life. If you don't use however these pathways become increasingly weak so that after 5+ years of sobriety (or so) they may as well not exist.

 

You haven't heard of people that have beat this because you are in a forum with people who are trying to beat it. But there are stories of guys out there that have left this all behind. You don't consider 2 years long enough to have beat it? I'll be back in 3 years to tell you that you are wrong. And then in 4 years. And then in 5 years.

 

I am going to consider myself an addict in recovery for the rest of my life. I will still be completely sober though.

 

I think if you objectively tease this out it's the 'rigorous honesty' part mixed up with negative identification. You can say it's getting better and better and there's some degree of addictive tendency, which I think is more accurate, it's just too long and most people (not without influence by the dominant recovery culture) just says "recovering addict." But a simple identity really doesn't give you enough information. If you look at it as a disease, which is again the way traditional recovery culture views it, it's also not meaningful if you just identify as a sick person. There is the aspect where people can feel more at ease "knowing" there's a diagnosis, but at the same time doctors do tests like bloodwork - without it you're not really looking at any objective information.

It doesn't matter how honest you are if you don't have accurate information that's helpful. We don't go to a doctor just because of their rigorous honesty, we want them to understand what's going on and help with the situation. Lack of denial is an important part but it's just not everything. Someone can be honest on this level and never want to look at any detail too.

 

I was born in the 70's and I was totally addicted to what was available at the time before I came across high speed internet porn. I remember entire weekends binging to the porn movies I rented and mags I bought from the sex shop up the road. Since my brain wasn't wired for HSIP, the VHS tapes and mags had a much more powerful and addictive effect. If technology didn't improve past that point, I feel like I would still be in the same place as now if it were just those things and no internet. It would just be more expensive.

Oh, and I might add, I learned about PIED the hard way when I first started having sexual experiences. I had never heard of such a thing, and in fact I don't think the term had even been created yet. All I knew was that I was young, and I couldn't get hard when I was with a girl. Wasn't ED only for old people? I chalked it up to nervousness at the time and never thought it was connected to porn. So of course, I would get more nervous during future experiences, etc, a total downward spiral. At least if I had known about PIED I would have felt better knowing what was causing it. So things were still pretty shitty before HSIP. Very addictive stuff, causing PIED, brain chemical disasters, etc. And more expensive.

 

I actually don't think it's a discussion to engage in "debate". For me, at least. I chose to treat it like it's a chronic condition so that I'm always alert to the possibility of making decisions that can send my life back into the dark. If, through the Grace of God or a miracle, I never have an impure urge or thought and never struggle with the pull of porn, GREAT. Either way, I'm still going to keep using the tools that I know work for me...and let fate unfold as it will. I certainly will never question someone who claims they are fully recovered or healed. They get to own their truth. My opinion is not needed there.

 

I disagree I think with the right strategy you can win

 

Once in recovery, always in recovery. There is no such thing as a recovered alcoholic, only an alcoholic in recovery. I would say that it is the same for porn, but like any addiction, it is possible to stay clean.

 

Look up Terry Crews. He beat porn.

 

He opened my eyes.

 

Yes, that part is true. It's all a lot harder to avoid now.
Definitely do not agree with that last sentence though. I would rather be a PMO addict for the rest of my life than do that.