Hi guys ! I'm currently at the end of my reboot. It was not easy, I had very powerful temptations. Now it's over and since the last 3 weeks I don't feel the need to watch porn anymore. However, I've started to look at some pictures. Not nude ones, just beautiful sexy dressed women. I know there is a risk for me to relapse. The problem is that its not clear to me whether I should or not watch those kind of pictures. It is not the same feeling as with porn : I just want to look at those girls but right now I don't want to see her naked. So what do you think ? Did you experience the same thing at the end of your reboot ? What can I do deal with that ? Because it's not like urges, it's really not the same feeling and I don't really know how to deal with it. Beside, those pictures are available everywhere (on ads typically) !
Hmm, that smells fishy to me @Haddock! Hahaha! Seriously, though, virtually nobody reboots in only 3 months... You see, you have been here before: I really thought I was cured but the truth is I'm not. It is commendable and you have done well to get to 3 months on hard mode, twice. So, I am not rubbishing your application or achievement. It is noteworthy, however, that already you are looking at p/subs. These are not the actions of someone that has rebooted. It sounds like your 'wiring' is still unresolved. You may not think your porn addiction is bad compared to the extreme cases you've read about here. But it may take many more months of abstinence before you do not feel the need or the inclination to look at sexy pictures of women. Anyway, you have a girlfriend, your thoughts should be with her buddy.
I haven't done a so called reboot and I'm also not abstaining from masturbation, these are just my two cents: How you should handle yourself depends on who you want to be. Imagine the guy you want to be in life, would you respect him if he looks at some beautiful women from time to time? If the answers yes, then it's ok. Live your life now as you'd like it to be for the rest of your life.
I'd rather go to the beach or pool see and talk with people in an natural setting. Plus just going out there to enjoy myself would be nice too. I wouldn't go looking for P to test myself ha.
There is no end of the reboot, addiction is a permanent, incurable disease. Once you relapse, you have to start it over again. What you're doing by watching those images is just exposing yourself to triggers, which increases your chances to relapse. Yes, there are triggers everywhere, but when you search for them intentionally that's just your old habit slowly taking over you. It always leads me to relapses. Maybe you're different, but I don't recommend testing it.
Don't reset. This is in reset worthy. You've simply had a small stumbling block. Think of it like you picked at the scab of a healing wound. You just irritated it, now leave it alone. No need to completely reset, it's not like you completely tore it off(full PMO).
Would you believe me if I tell you we want to stay abstinent until marriage ? That's the truth and it's not easy. Actually this is a recent decision we take about two months ago, during my reboot then. I think the idea of nothing until we marry (by nothing I mean no sex, no porn, nothing !) is difficult to accept for me. The answer is no. I can see it clearly now, it was voyeurism and I don't want to be like that I hesitated to reset or not. But you're right, it's not worth it since this was not really porn and I did not MO. I agree this was taking a risk. I thing you're wright, I was abused by my mind who wanted dopamine
@Haddock I did a 180 days no PMO reboot in 2016. Look at my counter now....understand that after my reboot I was good and thought that I learned my lesson and that I would never fall back into the rabbit hole...and then here I am AGAIN. Like every other addiction, you have to accept that you are sick, and being able to consume only sporadically SHALL not be the goal...its more dangerous and addictive than you think. Have you suffered for porn induced erectile disorder? Because its another huge incentive to stop seeking a dopamine hit by looking at pretty women using the internet. Ideally, your hit should get provided by a real sex partner in front of you, not a screen or a magazine page.... Trust me I understand..you are looking at TRIGGERING MATERIAL. See this like an ex-alcoholic studying for becoming a barman....would you advise the guy to change career path? Most likely, knowing that the poor lad would be exposed to alcohol all the time... Like the obese person having eating disorder..would you give that person that is weighting 400 pounds a gift certificate to a gym or to a junk food chain? Right now, your curiosity may feel content with non P content, but its like playing with fire....I have easy fetish triggers that I can easily find content outside of porn channels too. Youtube, Flickr, etc can trigger you if you look for it...I can get triggered by music vids from surprisingly sexy singers...mind you, popular signers are rarely ugly... I started getting back into the P by looking at images and music videos of nice ladies. Also, I played with audio porn, thinking that it would be good for my imagination, therefore beneficial for me....not quite...I started going on Amazon and buy toys to introduce in the bedroom. I got frustrated when the wife didn't want to try it....and then slowly but surely, I was back into watching P and PMO, searching for willingful ladies that don't seem to EVER SAY NO.
Oh, you naughty boy Shouldn't be harmful, so don't worry. But I would reset the counter. You acted on your urges. That is what counts. If you just stumbled upon the pictures, it would be a different story. But you were looking for that material and even got a kick out of it.
No never, hopefully ! Yes indeed. I stopped going on facebook to avoid the triggering pictures. Ok you started getting back into P but you knew what you were doing right ? There is a gap between looking at sexy pictures and masturbating to porn videos no ? (I don't know there was audio porn. It seems less harmful but still bad...) I see but I think I won't reset. I didn't look at porn, I didn't M neither O. To me, opening a porn tab would have mean resetting the counter and I didn't wanted to. That's what prevented me from doing it actually. (Congratulation @overclocked for your 100th day ! )
@Haddock, Yers, I knew what I was doing when I started looking at "soft P". Sexy pictures have always been there, think "pin ups" centerfold pictures from old porn mags. Your mileage may vary, but I can look at a sexy pic and get a bit of feel good about it....so it triggers me, might not trigger you! Now that I really think hard about it, I feel like I self-medicate with PMO and alcohol when I get very busy at work and aggravated by non-sense or short deadlines that don't make sense. Also, when drama happens....its not always fun to manage people! The problem is that those self-medication options are destructive. The more I do it, the deeper I get. Then to the complete opposite, when I stop the behavior, I start going to the gym more and reduce my booze consumption dramatically. Just like a lung cancer patient that continues to smoke, we as humans are often hurting ourselves by our behaviors.
