Brother, remember the Lord forgives and so should you. The hardest person to forgive can be yourself, I say this as someone who took years to learn this. Take a deep breath and remember the addiction is not you. This addiction could very well be your trial, your path to becoming closer to God. Do not be ashamed, for you are actively seeking help and flighting this problem. All of us here stand behind you! But for you to be successful in battle you need a plan. First I would like to educate you on the nature of our beast. I assume with you being new you have not read much literature so allow me to condense. We are trying to reform our minds and increase dopamine sensitivity. Eating and sex releases massive amounts of dopamine to the body to reward us for staying alive and passing out genes. These are the two most, biologic. important functions to humans. The major problem is we have flooded our bodies with so much dopamine that we have been wearing away at our receptors. Like an alcoholic who always drinks we have to find something new to keep the novelty and keep reaching completion and enjoying it. Through a process called neuroplasticity we are able to change the neuron pathways in our brains. This is what we are doing on a scientific level. We are attempting to starve these "bad" pathways and replace them with the "good" ones. We are starving ourselves of a specific type of dopamine, which is goings to feel terrible and be hard. This is a chemical that is made to reward us, but we must abstain. Instead we need to teach our body to enjoy the dopamine that comes from physical exertion, intellectual pursuits, social gathering and courtship. To make it simple, we are trying to replace hard cocaine with black tea to our brains. This is why finding an outlet is so important. I will always push working out. Reading as well! Your two main enemies here are idleness and boredom so fill your time with things you enjoy. I have been lucky these last few days to get out and spend time with friends instead of sitting in my room alone. Go in public so you can't go sneak away! I say all of this to help make your battle easier, I found all this out over a period of years so please arm yourself with knowledge of our foe. You will vanquish this, I have faith in you. Take a deep breath, steel yourself and prepare for the onslaught. The hard part starts now!
-Abstainer
