I think I'm addicted to porn, /adv/. I haven't missed a single day since the age of 11. Since then, I've had issues with social anxiety, I've felt unable to connect with other people and keep relationships, I'm unable to focus on everyday menial tasks, and I've lost interests in many of my hobbies. I've just now realized that I never had these problems until I after I started regularly fapping. I've been to psychiatrists who diagnosed me with depression and ADHD and was put on drugs plenty of times, which seemed to help while I was on them, but as soon as I felt okay and stopped taking them, my symptoms started coming back. Now that I'm at the age of 21 still having not missed a day, and often even doing it multiple times a day, I feel like the symptoms I'm getting are starting to take control of the direction my life is headed. I think It's about time I reevaluate my life choices, and the main thing I want to do is stop fapping, and if not that, then greatly decreasing how often I fap.
I don't even fap to seek the pleasure anymore, I just do it because it's a thing to do. I have it so ingrained into my daily life cycle that I haven't seen it as a problem, and to be honest, I still don't know if it is or not. I just want to try everything I can to rid myself of these symptoms naturally before I go back to a shrink again and get put on meds; but another part of me is saying that fapping isn't what's causing these symptoms to begin with, and that getting put on meds and continuing fapping is the best course of action. I've tried stopping and I just can't. I don't know what to do anymore.
What is the best course of action for deciding whether or not quitting porn would be beneficial to me?
>tl;dr is nofap actually beneficial or is it just speculation
Dont quit fapping just do it less and go completely without porn.
Try fapping 3x a week or experiment with different patterns. There is a point for me where I just get so frustrated I have to Fap.
>>17187809
The without porn part I can definitely do, but I'm finding it hard to hold off for even one day, let alone more than one. I've been through physical opiate withdrawal a few years ago due to constant surgeries and I weaned myself off of it and ended up fine, is it the same process with fapping? Should I focus on decreasing to once a day for a bit, then once every other day and work my way down, or is it better to just start off with the three times a week only rule?
Step one: Delete history, and go through all your saved files, bookmarks, external storage, etc and delete everything pornographic. Assuming that you will encounter porn again at some point, enforce the resolution that you will never save any pornographic videos or images again. This alone helped a whole lot because it turns like a 3 hour porn collecting spree into 10 minutes browsing tube sites and adult content aggregators.
Step 2: Get rid of all chairs in your bedroom. get a standing desk or some other makeshift arrangement where you only go on the computer standing up. I have found that simply sitting in a chair makes my internet addiction a whole lot worse, whereas standing it is 10x easer to peel myself away and go outside or go to sleep. If you absolutely must sit on your ass at the computer like for work or school. Make sure you have a window open where people outside can see you, and you are wearing pants and underwear. Better yet bring a laptop outside, which will further reduce procrastination/cyberslacking
There were originally more steps but I went into detail and covered everything. TLDR: Delete porn, stop looking at porn, go outside.
>>17187809
fuck you, fapping is the strongest correlate with porn addiction and the easiest way to quit porn is to stop fapping and fantasizing abut sex so you have no reason to go looking at xxx
Looking at porn while still fapping: Spend hours and hours looking at porn, while edging as long as I could and cumming several times a day
Looking at porn after I quit fapping: Browse porn material a few minutes, get bored and stop
>>17187818
fapping itself can be a serious addiction, like it was for me. If its also the case for you that you can't handle it at all without fapping like crazy, you could try a complete withdrawl and let your mind and body recover to the point where you feel so good being free of it, that the idea of ever fapping again is absolutely disgusting to you.
I have literally never been able to fap only once a week, once a day, or even once an hour- it would quickly escalate until I fap like crazy, everything hurts and my balls are dry and dick is dry heaving weakly.
>>17187818
Just make baby steps in the right direction. Cold Turkey rarely works.
>>17187847
I went 70 or so days without Fapping. I was just an emotional Testosterone wreck at the end. I guess it depends on the person. Try it out I guess and see if its for you.
>>17187801
its harder than youd think.
treat it like a fat person trying to lose weight
>step 1
fap as much as you want to, as often as you want. but dont look at porn. The real catch is to not even think of porn.
This is ten times easier if youve had sex before since you just remember those experiences.
If you cant help reminiscing about porn its usually fine since your brain will grow tired of the porn vids its remembering. kinda like you keep looking for clips because the same ones dont give you that high.
>step 2
Stop fapping outside of certain hours. Dont fap until you go to bed or something after a good job. Then from there slowly wean yourself off.
do this for like 3 months. When you do fap fap to photos of women not having sex. hell I personally fap to katee owen jiggling her boobs around.
>>17187863
>I was just an emotional Testosterone wreck at the end.
Please describe in detail. In the last several years I managed to quit for 3 weeks and this is what I felt like, it was kind of scary in that I felt so loaded with testosterone and sexually aggressive/frustrated/angsty that I was going to go completely nuts.
I did not experience any such things this time, the journey has been calm and peaceful. Likely because this time I'm not actually wanting to get laid, fapped so much before it caused pain and dysfunction, and that I do yoga and mediitation stuff more than ever before, which rechannels sexual energy.
>>17187864
>do this but not that
>do that but not the other
If its really an addiction as OP says, moderation won't work. Fapping is something you can actually stop completely, but in the broader sense you can't avoid seeing arousing sights online or real life even if it isn't fucking videos- by quitting fapping you become less interested in seeking out adult content, and when you do its like something you quickly observe in passing rather than spend hours fawning over while touching yourself.
>>17187847
>Delete history, and go through all your saved files, bookmarks, external storage, etc and delete everything pornographic.
I've often thought about doing this, but it's become a compulsive reaction to save file after file, even though I only fap to the most recent things I download and don't look at 90% of what I have. But you know what, fuck it. I'm going to need to make sacrifices if I'm going to change, so I'll post pic related as an homage to becoming a better person and just do it now while I'm in the moment.
Goodnight, sweet prince.
>Get rid of all chairs in your bedroom
Considering I'm NEET as fuck and not yet willing to conquer my internet addiction, I think this is out of the question for me at the moment.
>>17187864
Thanks for the insight, I find it hard to not imagine porn when I'm fapping without it mainly because I'm a beta as fuck virgin. I'll try it for sure next time, though.
>>17187863
I guess I'll try baby steps then, thanks.
>>17187856
Fapping is disgusting to me now as it is, though. I just keep doing it.
>>17187890
Yes, delete fucking everything. Honestly for me it was a process, I went back to saving porn again, then deleted, kept deleting shit to the point I never save anymore, and since quit fapping rarely even browse the stuff aside from /s/ type pictures
I'm telling you though, simply getting rid of chairs helps with internet addiction. I'm also NEET as fuck, but when I spend less time on internet I go outside more and go to bed earlier
You seem like you are ready to quit fapping, sharing the perspective that you are disgusted y it and it doesn't even feel good, but just a compulsion that does not serve you.
Neuter yourself
>>17187921
ok
>>17187909
I'll keep that chair advice in mind when I get a job or have any reason whatsoever to go outside, thanks.
I'm just going to keep it in the back of my mind when I'm on /b/ and I see a webm thread that my first instinct shouldn't be to whip my dick out. I'm just going to steer clear of pure porn boards altogether.
First, delete everything pornographic on your computer. Then block sites on the internet that you frequent using LeechBlock and give someone else the password, if possible. If you're really hardcore you could download one of those filters Orthodox Jews use.
Also, you should transition to normal fantasies that don't involve porn. (By "normal" I mean sexually healthy, not without kinks or anything like that.) It's OK to still masturbate as long as you're not dependent on porn to get off.
>>17187856
>fapping itself can be a serious addiction
sure does loses any seriousness when you call it fapping
>>17187809
>Dont quit fapping just do it less
There's a bit of humor in telling someone who has masturbated every single day for 10 years to do it less. Were you trying to make a joke while you made this post or were you genuinely offering helpful advice?
There are ~3660 days in 10 years, OP says he masturbates in the same frequency as drinking water, how is advice to do it less going to help him, even if he makes a drastic cut down by 50% he's still destroying his life. The only real option here is to stop completely.
>There is a point for me where I just get so frustrated I have to Fap.
aka you have no self control just like most porn addicts or any addicts of the sort.
>>17187809
>Just fap without porn
In this day and age, this is the most worthless advice anyone could ever give. It's like saying get your nicotine fix but just not through a cigarette, at the end of the day you're still doing the same damn thing.
also you r/nofap faggots are like a cult, you guys take this shit way to seriously
i swear some of you motherfuckers not jerking off will let you be one with jesus and shit, god damn
>>17187881
>If its really an addiction as OP says, moderation won't work
You dont know what you are talking about. I was like OP and fapped every day since I was probably 14 and quit when I was 24. You are the reason people fail to quit
Fapping isnt his problem. Porn is his main problem. Porn makes him seek out fapping. Porn is a hobby. Its like eating when you are bored. You have to break the core habit that is the problem first.
easiest way to break a two habits so closely tied is to separate them. When your brain no longer associates porn with a good fap then its easier to quit both.
I relapsed many times because I tried to quit both at the same time but realized I never broke my need for porn. Id relapse like a year later because Id browse porn for fun because its a hobby. The high you get from watching porn was still sustaining even without fapping.
>>17187948
OP here, quitting outright cold turkey has been quite literally impossible for me. I always have the thought in the back of my head saying "come on, there's no reason not to do it, it won't hurt" and time after time I give in. Eventually I want to stop masturbating altogether, so any impact toward that goal I feel is a step in the right direction.
>>17187956
>at the end of the day you're still doing the same damn thing.
No you are not. Porn has some serious damaging effects to your mental health. You become unsatisfied with reality. Develop specific fetishes, and you waste hours and hours because theres so much of it. Along with ed symptoms.
fapping without porn is actually much harder since you are relying on your memory and imagination and since theres no mental high (same reason why you cant tickle yourself. You cant introduce outside stimulation from yourself) you are less likely to fap as often and for as long.
>>17187967
After some time you just have to say that the gig is up. You can't say, "Oh I'm gonna not fap for 2 days then I will reward myself with a 10 hour marathon" I used to be where you are and I told myself these lies you are telling yourself right now. Granted I didn't start till 4 years ago, funnily enough cause my ex was such a porn degenerate fiend horn dog addict and got me into it, there was a part of my life where I went through a day without touching my penis to videos on a screen. That day existed for you too.
My advice to you is to find something to do, you masturbate probably cause you have nothing better to do all day or with your free time. Late at night you do it too cause you realize you didn't do anything all day and just want a fast Nyquil pill, obviously when you're on the road to recovery you'll keep relapsing but I'm telling you right now that one day you'll just have to wake up and say, "This stuff is disgusting, it's wasting my time and ruining my life"
>>17187967
I used to quit cold turkey, but I would relapse like after 6 to 7 months. Separate porn from fapping first. That way when you do fap its not to porn. Never fap to porn again. Porn is a hobby and fapping is its counterpart.
youd be surprised how often its not that you want to fap, its that you want to watch porn and fapping goes with that
>browses 4chan
>looking at pics of sexy women
>get horny
>watch more vids of sexy women
>fap
See its not that you wanted to fap, its that you got horny for sexual images and porn.
If you cut that part out youd find it easier to stop.
>>17187975
The idea of telling people who have already been exposed to porn practically most of their lives, and are exposed to where it's manufactured potentially 24 hours a day, not to fap using porn is what's fundamentally wrong with your argument because guess what, most fap addicts do it cause they once went on myspace and saw boobies, it's a useless piece of advice cause soon enough they'll find out that they're not enjoying the experience doing it by themselves.
Like I said, it's telling a nicotine addict to get their fix somewhere else instead of a cigarette. The problem is still there.
>>17187983
I forgot to add, after separating the two, when I did break and fap again, it wasnt to porn. And without porn the need to fap would hardly ever arise and I could easily distract myself from my urge to fap. The urge to watch porn is much harder to break.
>>17187988
As someone who did exactly that, you are wrong.
You just dont know what you are talking about.
You see boobies. And you dont go fap. You look up more boobies. Fapping to an image is far harder than you think. Porn is a hobby.
>>17187991
really? Most of the time I spent edging was cruising through pictures on places like 4chan and tumblr. When i went to tube sites I would just skim the videos, find pornstar name and then look at and often save pics of her.
Although it was usually when looking at an actual video that I lost when edging, or deliberately go to xvideos when I been at it for a while and wanted to bust a load
>>17187991
Yeah you got me I totally don't know what I am talking about.
>porn is a hobby
No fapping is a hobby, a rather peculiar one that most humans like to indulge in like picking their nose and eating boogers, only difference being that in the latter people don't make dumb excuses for doing it.
Telling someone to switch to another form of fapping *when* they are trying to quit wasting their time cause I guarantee no one just looks at porn 10 minutes a day and goes on with their life, is just about the dumbest piece of "advice" you could ever give anyone.
>>17187998
looking at pornographic images is still looking at porn.
You have to stop seeking porn. Theres a high that comes with it.
For me, after mentally fapping to my imagination over and over it just wasnt enough and the fun was sucked out of it. It just wasnt enough and lacking too many details. Watch a porn seen and its like giving me candy though.
Theres a huge mental aspect to sexual satisfaction. And you get that part from porn.
OP here, going to bed, I'm going to try slowly stopping watching porn for now, and if that doesn't work I'll just do the fuck it adjustment and go cold turkey and try until I succeed. Thanks to everyone who posted, I feel as if I have a chance now.
>>17187991
>>17188002
You both have good points, by the way, so there's no sense arguing. People are different, what works for one won't work for the other, etc.
inb4
>no sense arguing
>on 4chan
>>17188002
>No fapping is a hobby
Have fun not knowing what you are talking about.
You are literally proving my point. Porn waste so much time. you could rub one out fairly quickly without it.
Porn is a bigger strong habit than fapping and you spend more time on porn than actually fapping.
>>17188013
>slowly stopping watching porn
how are you going to try that. Id recommend changing you fap material until it becomes too vanilla to actually fap
>>17188007
I was merely providing a counterexample to his claim that looking at static images is not like watching porn videos, duh its still looking at porn.
My personal mission/resolution that I am enforcing for myself is not to masturbate. As a result, porn viewing is something I might do a few minutes a day, but I'm not being a purist about it
I never got a high from just looking at porn sans fapping, but I do get such a feeling seeing sexy women in real life.
As I often mention, I never had as much a problem with porn as some people who can't get hard without it and develop all sorts of fetishes. This is evidenced by how I can go look at porn and my dick stays flacid, but I can get a rapid boner just talking to a woman in real life.
>>17188029
thats not a counterexample. images and an image arent the same thing.
>>17188016
>Have fun not knowing what you are talking about.
Repeating this over and over again doesn't make you right you know?
>you could rub one out fairly quickly
You can do the same damn thing with porn you gremlin
>>17188047
>You can do the same damn thing with porn you gremlin
No one does. Because theres more to porn than just rubbing one out.
have fun not knowing what youre talking about
>>17188049
>No one does
And you have quantifiable stats to prove this?
Just stop posting, your initial post was bad enough.
>We hear you want to get off heroin, so instead of shooting it up your butt, shoot it through your nose and don't share needles!
>>17187991
>Fapping to an image is far harder than you think.
Yeah that's why playboy magazine was such a colossal failure in the 90s eh?
>>17188058
the difference is youre addicting to porn here. you are literally too stupid to grasp the concept that you arent addicted to needles.
>>17188059
Id be willing to bet there wasnt a nofap cult before the age of the internet.
>>17188063
I'm still waiting on you to validate the "no one does" statement you just made, till then hold off on calling anyone stupid.
>>17188069
No need to validate common knowledge.
>>17188071
So this is you admitting you just pulled it out of your ass, along with all the other stupid opinions (yes opinions cause let's face it you have 0 facts) you're spewing out.
People get addicted to porn in the first place cause they start off by quickly "rubbing" one out to a picture and quickly clearing the history on the family computer, and with time it gets gradually worse to the point that they can only get a boner from watching hentai midget porn.
To say that everyone who watches porn can't use it as a and to actually believe it is beyond stupidity, not only cause you can't prove it, but it's demonstrably false in all the stories that people have told about their addictions and the fact that people have smart phones that can stream HD videos nowadays you big dummy.
how would i go about not jerking off in the mornings, usually in the morning i get horny as fuck and my imagination runs wild because of the half sleepyness and always want to jerk off or bust a nut
i'm not like OP where i think im addicting or anything, my reason for some stopping is usually my dreams are more vivid when i dont jerk it and thats pretty cool, i haven't jerked off in 2 days so im doing decently, mornings are rough though
>>17188118
Just jump out of bed and put on pants the moment you wake up instead of laying around if thats a problem for you. I get morning wood usually and sometimes even feel a tingle of horniness, but its like as soon as I stand up the feeling goes away.
>>17188118
Your dreams are more vivid when you eat cheese before bed. Not sure why, but tis true, look it up
>>17188118
Thank you for proving to the idiot I was painstakingly arguing with that you can be addicted to fapping.
Now onto the advice part, find something to do in the morning instead of just lazing in bed with the laptop on your bed.
>>17188136
i think that might be a good idea, any tips for jumping out of bed right away? i tried the setting my alarm clock far away so i have to get up to turn it off but i usually just walk back to bed and doze off for 10 mins
also i'll look that up too
>>17188151
you're assuming a lot there friend, that i am addicted to jerking off, that i own a laptop and that the first thing i do in my day is go online
you are right that i laze around though, usually my imagination runs wild with sexual thoughts and girls that i'd like to bang so laying around doesn't help too much
i sometimes go days without jackin, sometimes i don't , some times its every other day, jackin' doesn't affect my responsibilities or get in the way of anything i need to do, i just noticed i dream more vividly when i dont jack, and thats why i wanna stop for a good while
>>17188169
is it possible to wake up without an alarm so you don't fap yourself awake.
>>17188175
maybe, i can try letting some more sunlight into my room so the sun wakes me up like the folk of old
thanks for the advice too , appreciate it
>>17188183
counting the days in my 4chan posts and talking about it often does a lot to reinforce the permanent lifestyle change
get a gf
>>17187881
I was emotional as fuck 90% of the time and could really only think about sex. The smallest fucking things would set me off and I would try to clear my head and go outside but would just see pretty girls everywhere and was so frustrated that I couldn't have that. I did have periods of apathy towards sex but the slightest thing could trigger that furious desire. I figured it wasn't worth all the stress and emotions and just decided to use fapping as a sort of reset to balance myself out.
>>17187801
An Hero before it gets any worse
>>17187801
You suffer from arousal addiction. That is, the easy access to new stimuli has made you averse to actually working for the little jolt your brain gets when you do something worthwhile.
And I don't know how to counteract that. It's a very new field. Lots of people, especially young men, suffer from it. It's what keeps me F5-ing threads on 4chan when I know I'm really just throwing my life away.
Most of what I've read, is people just make the decision to stop, and find something else to fill the gap. They learn a new language, or take up programming, or whatever. But if you're like me, you have zero confidence, and you need confidence to do that shit.
You're not weird, at least. You just fell into the trap that so many of us fall into, and it's hard to get out. personally, I don't buy into the no-fap bullshit. It's not fapping that's hurting you, it's the desire to seek out new stimuli. The no-fap rules are just ways of achieving a rejection of those stimuli, but no-one who follows them seems to realize it.
Discipline is key, I guess. Maybe make a deal with yourself to do something else, every time you want to look at porn. gradually replace porn as an activity with something else. Just pick something that requires attention and you enjoy doing. I'd recommend something with a tangible result.
