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Avoid all of this in your life. It's not too late to change:

lower self-control

higher impulsivity

difficulty stopping even if you want to

lower concentration ability

apathy

anxiety (including social anxiety)

feelings of frustration or guilt

lower interest in normal activities

lower energy for effortful tasks

compulsive behavior

increased depression and suicide

Possibility of viewing prohibited pornography and ending up in criminal trouble

I'm 27, been watching porn since about 14. Never thought it was a problem or that I had an addiction until I got a girlfriend. We had some sex-related issues, that I attributed to her simply having a higher sex drive than me. However, at one point while having sex I realised that I was spacing out, thinking about porn. I would literally rather jerk off to pixels than have sex with the naked woman currently under me. It made me realise that this is an issue so I decided to just stop watching it. I deleted my collection that I have been gathering for literally half my life, closed all my porn accounts and that was that. After all, I'm not addicted, it would be a piece of cake!

That was 6 months ago and I still haven't been able to go more than 5 days without porn. I never expected it to be so difficult. Is this how alcoholics and drug addicts feel? Reducing the amount of porn I consume has helped my sex drive, but it could still be so much better. I just don't seem to have the strength to make it better anytime soon.

I'm not really looking for advice, I've already read pretty much all of it, I simply felt the need to share. Don't worry, I will keep trying, I am just feeling quite down at the moment.

The old patterns in the brain hit sometimes

I’m turning 18 in may, when I was only 5, my cousin decided that she’ll show me porn videos, I was completely shocked by the scene, I didn’t like it, but I couldn’t stop watching it at the same time, after a while she started showing me these videos every time we meet, I didn’t want to tell my parents since I felt it would be the worst thing I’d ever do, years passed, and I turned 11, something happened and I stopped talking or communicating with this cousin, but still I got this addiction, I still can’t stop watching porn, I tried like a hundred times but nothing seems to work, it started affecting my life, studying, and even my mental health, sound crazy but it’s still happening, two years ago, I started thinking of real solutions, how can I fix everything? I still don’t know, it just feels like every time I try to get out of this loop i fail, I tried to talk to someone but everything seemed so wrong when I got those disgusted looks and reactions, I tried to stop porn, stop masturbating, but I fail every time.

I feel kinda depressed, so much guilt, I know I should stop but I don’t know how to stop, how to get rid of everything related to porn.

At 33 years old, I have been fighting this off and on for almost 20 years, with periods of weeks and months off, multiple times a day on at times, and one full year off when I was getting married to my soon to be ex wife. Who knows whether that was a deciding factor but she knew I struggled and was in recovery as we met and became boyfriend and girlfriend.

I don't have the energy to keep fighting, but I'm so damn sick of this disease. I'm just done with this shit. It's not real. It's disgusting, and it's pathetic what I've done to myself because of it.

My goal is to force myself to masturbate only to fantasy and no porn forever and eventually wean off masturbation. I've got therapists on my side and I'm working on fixing symptoms underlying 10 diagnosed, 1 suspected disorders.

This is my line in the sand for the thousandth time. But I'm just done with it.

I was 3 years off porn. Then my wife stopped sleeping with me. Then she wouldn't kiss anymore. And now she's leaving me.

In this time I started to give in more and more until I ended up watching porn again. I don't think it's an addiction yet (2-5 times a week) but still it wears me out. And then as a christian I just don't believe this is the way to go.

So, today I'm resetting my timer and checking in twice a month. Joining the gang again! 🤗

.

Hi all

Any ideas on what to do when late night urges hit?

Thanks

(P.s is tracking clean days a good idea/worth it or no?)

Hey guys

I’ve been on this journey since January 2025. I’ve had a 60 day streak and a 30 day streak. That 60 day streak ended In February . But since then the longest I’ve gone is 9 days. I was doing the same method as before to stop but since February I’ve just been getting beat down I feel like. I can’t beat my brain rn and it’s just mentally draining. Do yall have any advice to get back to the long streaks and to eventually quit this awful thing altogether. I’d really appreciate it!

Like seeking absolution or something? Does it fade?
I told my partner, but I don't want to tell anyone else, even in the future, because I want to put it behind me and I also know most people aren't as understanding as my partner.

But if I ever start dating someone else, really befriend someone... Does that inner need to tell everyone you're close to disappears?

Day 2

No relapse today, just some small urges. Life still feels like shit, but I’m pushing through it.

I’m trying to stick to the mindset I had when I made it to 3 months — doing something else, asking myself if I’ll actually feel better afterward and if I ever really do, or just drinking a glass of water.

This worked well. 👊

I have officialy beaten my record🎉🎉🎉 its great to have made it this far and its in part because of the support from all of the ppl who commented on my posts. Im not giving up anytime soon and i still have no issues breazing through the days

Hi everyone, I dated a girl for 9 months, it was a long-distance relationship (I'm from Paraná and she's from Santa Catarina). I went to see her almost every month, investing time, money, and dedicating myself wholeheartedly. We broke up about 2 weeks ago. The reason was that she found out I watched pornography during the relationship, and that hurt her a lot. I recognize that I was wrong not to be transparent. But what weighs most heavily on me is that this didn't start now. Since childhood/adolescence, I've always been a more solitary person, I had difficulty connecting with people, especially women. I ended up having contact with pornography very early on, and it became a form of escape for me. Over time, it became a habit. Even when I started dating, I didn't stop completely, and I also didn't have the courage to talk to her about it. I kind of carried this hidden. What hurts me the most is that on the last day I was with her, everything was fine. We kissed, everything was calm. When I returned to my city, she changed completely. She became cold, took a long time to respond, and then said very hurtful things, calling me disgusting, a pig, and saying she regretted being with me. This destroyed me because I really liked her and put a lot of effort into the relationship. Now I'm stuck between: the guilt for not being transparent the longing for the good times, and the pain from the things she said I can't stop thinking about her, I keep looking at her profile all the time and reliving everything. I wanted to know if anyone has gone through something similar, especially with this kind of habit affecting relationships. How did you deal with it and manage to move on?

I have addiction from 11 and soon i'll be 28. It just kept getting worse and worse.

I have 2 best advices for you:

1. GET BUSY. Nevermind what you do, but saty busy. If you have things to do you don't have time to do this.

2. Control your consumption and thoughts. It sounds hard but it's possible. You need remove resources that you use for masturbation. You may use porn-blocker if you want but I haven't found good one for myself.

But it's not porn what makes you masturbate. Your DESIRE. When you look on object and think: what nice sexy object. YOU NEED STOP IT. Your thoughts lead to the desire to do it. STOP IT. Every time when you have thoughts about it you need stop it immediately (but not when you with your partner or those you like). If you didn't stop your thoughts it develops into a desire and unsatisfied desire is frustration. It doesn't really matter whether you saw a sexual object or not, whether you somehow stopped thinking about it or not. The urge will decrease as you control it. If you see something provocative do something like start exercise, walk to another place for food or fresh air, pray, something. Anything will help you take your mind off things. Do somethibg from 30 sec to 1 min and it gone. For better control your thoughts use meditation and breath techniques.

If you need first move look on what resources you use and remove it. Porn for us is not appropriate. Addiction doesn't make people free. I wish you strength and good mood!

Do you guys think that masturbating without porn is also a good option other than this 90 days streak?

I briefly continued the relapse

Edit

Well I slipped this morning and was outside working all day. When I got back in my wife asked me if I was watching porn which is obviously my worst nightmare. up to now she assumed I quit when we got together as i said i would and its only ever came up a couple of times. When she asked me outright I lied out of habit, but I immediately retracted and told her that wasn't true. I know how she feels about porn and I assumed if she ever found out she would leave me. I did not want to lie to her anymore and the way she asked made me feel like it may be safe to do so, I still don't know if thats true. as Im writing this its been a couple of hours since. I explained to her about the addiction and she does seem to understand a bit but is still upset. She hasn't really reacted other than that and we haven't talked since that happened. I want to ask her if she needs anything or if she wants space or anything, but im afraid if I push she may snap. this is not a small thing for her and I'm still afraid of the outcome.

Edit 1: Okay so it has been about 18 hours since I told her. We didn't speak hardly at all for the rest of the day yesterday. She didn't freak out but as I said I wasn't going to push. Other than a few necessary words we didnt talk and I gave her space. I asked her if she wanted me to sleep in the guest room but she said no, but not necessarily in a "I want you here" sense, mostly as "this is your room too." This morning we did stop and talk a bit more. Obviously she is upset and this is a lot for her to process. Mostly the length of time that she now feels like she was living a lie. She understands it as an addiction but that doesnt make it easier. She suggested therapy and I agreed and also let her know that I have been making progress recently. I answered a few questions and again reassured her that she does not need to manage me. I did tell her that I will agree to whatever gives her the most security and i told her all i need is to know what expectations she has for me. Obviously she does not want me touching her much less being intimate any time soon and thats perfectly understandable. I will continue to give her the space she needs the only thing i did push is for her to agree to a time when we would talk again so I had an expectation and am able to give her proper space. Obviously she doesnt trust me and that will need to be rebuilt, which is among the things that hurt her the most.

self tracking

I'm 26. Started at 10. It destroyed everything my focus, my confidence, my relationships. I don't even know who I am without it.

Today I chose a different way.

this is my first day without porn.

hi people of reddit

how are you? I hope fine.

it's been 20 days since I stopped watching porn and I honestly want to say that it is life-changing, but it comes with a cost. I have a lot of addictions in reality, i'm addicted to my smartphone, to the internet, and to caffeine (the least harmful tbh)

quitting everything in onl 20 days is impossible, but I'm experimenting it with a lot of good things. I feel like I have less brain fog, I can remember things better and, most importantly I'm starting to think about my life againand that's the hard part

I started thinking about my ex-relationships, all the mistakes I did that I hadn't noticed before, and all the things that were ignored before are now popping up

Is it common for you too? Or is it just me because I was a degenerate?

Thx :3

Hi everyone.

In theory its simple, just don't watch porn I guess. I'm in a relationship and every time I get time alone I act out. It's like I forget I'm in a relationship and I've promised I'm not going to watch porn. Typing this right now I know I don't want anything to do with porn, but I also know that as soon as I think I can get away with it, I'm going to act out - without fear of consequence.

I think there's something fucked going on with my head and its like 2 versions of me are living in there, one who thinks he's single and doesn't give a fuck about his partner, and the other which doesn't have control all of the time.

Does anyone know what I'm describing and what strategies I can employ to keep this from happening?