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Stuck in a Cycle (Need Help from an Expert)

Discussion in 'Rebooting - Porn Addiction Recovery' started by LostSon41, Aug 13, 2023.

  1. LostSon41

    LostSon41 Fapstronaut

    Hey I haven't posted something major in a while, but I experienced massive success in terms of NoFap that persisted until about 2 months ago. It was like I was a different person, working towards all of my goals and always in a good state of mind. I was giving a lot of advice that really was helping people my age, but now after I've been resetting my counter pretty consistently, the mentality I had is disappearing. In real life, I still believe things are going decently well, but I am starting to lose more and more control.

    Right now, I am.....torn. I call myself Restored Rebooter because I believed that I had fixed my brain and relieved it of pornography, but no, I might be worse than ever right now. I'll explain the "cycle" that I'm stuck in right now.

    1. Relapse
    2. Make a post on my journal, explaining that I need to lock in and do better.
    3. Relapse the next day due to stress.
    4. Make a much longer post on my journal, going into detail on why I failed and developing a new strategy.
    5. Live 5 amazing days full of energy and productivity.
    6. Relapse due to boredom/comfort.

    I'm currently on step 4 btw. This has been consistent pretty much since June 1st, my first reset of the entire year. I made it all the way through May without a single MO! But now I feel like my porn problem is becoming worse and worse. After I relapsed yesterday, I thought I would clear today in a jiffy as it is Day 1. But no, I caved due to convincing myself that it would "relieve today's stress."

    In 2020 I first learned of NoFap and had a 135 day streak from October 2020 to March 2021.
    In 2021 I had a 120 day streak from August 2021 to December 2021.
    And last year I made it 187 days from late November 2021 to June 1st 2021.

    I have been in high school through all of this and I'm a senior now. I am kind of a NoFap Veteran, too. But I believe I am in deep trouble, because even though I've had an MO problem since the 7th grade, my PMO problem has intensified, even between these long periods of abstinence. I think of myself as smart, but I keep fooling myself in intellectual battles of whether to fap or not. I just wanna stop for good! I can't believe how hard this is.

    I have quit all social media. I have quit all video games too, which I had been on all summer. For context on my life, I have an extremely tough semester of school, and I am playing fall sports which take up every weekday. Weekends, I am practically only watching TV at home, doing a crap ton of homework, and going to the gym once or twice. Maybe I'll soon have more time to hang with friends.

    If there is anybody who has finally broken free from Porn Addiction, but took a long time to do so, your advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
     
  2. LostSon41

    LostSon41 Fapstronaut

    Also, forgot to mention this - the only days I believe I will ever relapse on are Saturdays and Sundays because I have virtually no time otherwise to do so.

    However, because weekends are mostly going to be time for me to rest, I believe they are going to be way harder for me to get through. I can usually make it through a day with like an hour of urges, but I resisted urges for like 5 hours yesterday before failing.
     
    NF SINCE BIRTH likes this.
  3. Moscrac

    Moscrac Fapstronaut

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    Find a group of friends that involves girls.
    I don't think you should put too much thought into winning NoFap, put more thought on how you wanna see yourself in 5 years. Read the book "it works", there is an audiobook on yt.
    Life is about living, you have a chance to live something you want, so all that extra time need to be put into something.
    I would suggest to go volunteer in a hospital or anything similar where people don't have it easy, it will look great in your resume when you gonna look for jobs, you will deal with real life and realize how small and unimportant is looking at porn, while others don't have a home or can't walk, it will change you.
     
    fauxfun999 and Rostrock47 like this.
  4. Moscrac

    Moscrac Fapstronaut

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    Also your brain is fine is just that your pathways are stimulated everyday, once you move away and get busy, those pathways will go dormant. You will realize after 21 days that urges even if they are there, you aren't compulsive anymore.
     
  5. I am like you, a veteran. I joined Nofap in 2014 and have been trying to quit for around 10 years. I did 90+ days multiple times. I think my main mistake was to under estimate how strong of an addiction it is. Also, my idea of addiction have been completely wrong. What if I told you that porn isnt the problem but the symptom? Your real problem may be traumas, lack of real friends or mental illness.

    I went 7 years in therapy and just recently stopped going to my therapist because I feel okay again. What happens during a mental breakdown like the one I had is that you often loose contact with all your friends. That is where you get into real trouble with this addiction. Once you dont feel like you can connect with people in real life, it grabs an even stronger hold of you.

    You need to get back to basics. Sleep right, eat right, stress down. Build from there. Read inspiring books and I highly recommend reading books on how to quit social media, porn, smoking, alcohol. They all have something to teach you about addiction.

    Start working on improving your life from here. Where are you lacking at the moment? Financially, in your relationships, spritually, professionally and so on. Staying busy and having a direction really helps.

    Also, dont think that you have all the tools to permanently succeed yet. Keep accumulating new ideas and strategies until something sticks.
     
  6. fauxfun999

    fauxfun999 Fapstronaut

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    Nofap and overcoming porn addiction is not just overcoming porn, it is building a new life.
    Look at it that way and you can see that it will mean many more changes than just stopping fapping to porn.
    The advice of the previous posters is gold, read their comments again, it is well worth it.

    Cheers for now.
     
  7. LostSon41

    LostSon41 Fapstronaut

    Mainly, I don’t feel like I have a core group of friends anymore. I would categorize the main groups of people I am friends with into 4 groups. However, each group has a major problem of either
    (A) Stir up too much trouble.
    Or
    (B) Remain quite separate of everybody else.
     

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