Porn saturated world

Hey so since I stopped PMOing, the biggest change has been that I am now realising how utterly saturated our society has become with images that objectify women. 
Not only this, but with every day that goes by it seems that cravings to look at porn subs get stronger and harder to control.  And every day it seems that there is one more part of my life I need to shut out in order to succeed. 
I live in South Korea and there is a popular online shopping site here.  I have been doing a lot of shopping lately since I just moved into a new apartment and needed some stuff.  But holy shit!  Every time I opened that site it was like water torture not to succumb to the pictures of beautiful women sporting their yoga pants, shorts skirts, leggings etc.  My brain kept telling me it wasn't porn and it would be ok to click and even search out more pictures by scrolling up and down the page.  When at one point I actually did find myself getting my dopamine hit from these pictures I snapped out of it and realised I had to reset my counter.  (Also I was really confused cause I still wanted to keep the days that I hadn't PMO'd but it wouldn't let me....)

What should I do at this point?  I feel like my brain is craving dopamine so much now that it is seeking out even the slightest manifestations of sexual novelty in order to score just a little hit of dopamine.  It was easy to cut out porn sites, but now I'm starting to catch myself clicking on girls on facebook. And even real women are causing this reaction in my brain now.

These kinds of things were normal before I quit porn.  I didn't think they were bad at all.  But now I'm aware of them, and that is coupled with my growing dopamine withdrawl. 

Any coping strategies beside quitting the internet altogether? 

Thanks all! 

Basically i deleted all social media and apps that connect me to the internet lol. I now spend time readings books and only at night do i come on my computer and post here and read! But thats just me

I agree that I need to minimize my technology usage as much as possible but due to where I am in the world (facebook is the only contact I have with friends back home) and my job, it is pretty much impossible for me to give up everything, as nice as I think it would be.  I deleted my facebook app on my phone and now only use it when I am at a computer, however I already feel the withdrawl just from doing that.  Now when I am sitting on the toilet I have nothing to do.  Or when I'm sitting at a boring work dinner where I don't understand what anyone is saying, I just want to claw my eyes out out of boredom.  I end up looking at my photos or scrolling through messaging apps looking at other peoples photos (basically becoming the same thing as facebook but without so much novelty).

Also, I tried to figure out how to block images in my google chrome but all the instructions I could find were for very old versions.  Can anyone tell me how to do it with the current version of google chrome?

Anyway, I think as time goes by and I remain vigilant about noticing what is giving me dopamine hits, it is becoming a bit easier to look past the sexual images and the cute girls on my feed.  Perhaps I still need a period of complete isolation, but after that, is not better to retrain myself to leave such images alone on my own accord rather than to pretend the don't exist?  What kind of techniques can I use in order to do that?

There are two things that contribute to your problem.

One is the fact about the "porn saturated world" as you call it. And I agree - porn subs are everywhere. Maybe others wouldn't call it "pornographic material", because that's just not what it is. But our world is indeed "sexualized". I think people (especially men) are used to these images that commercials need to find more and more appealing women posing in sexier positions in order to attract attention. Yet we have to realize that this is not a new phenomenon. Sex sells...and it does for hundreds of years.

The other factor is your desensitization to porn. Now that you wean from porn you realize it better, where it occurs. I didn't quit facebook and stuff, but I made up strict rules about which pictures are okay to view and which are not. And I found that it's not only the content of the picture, but also the context. Learn to analyze your feelings. Learn to listen into your body and know WHY you want to click. Is it about content or dopamine?

Reboot ROK said:

Also, I tried to figure out how to block images in my google chrome but all the instructions I could find were for very old versions.  Can anyone tell me how to do it with the current version of google chrome?

Click to expand...

We really need a good set of instructions with screenshots! But here's my best for now:
[list type=decimal]
[*]Click the icon on the left of the URL bar (left of www.rebootnation.org at the top of the browser window)
[*]click "Site Settings" at the bottom
[*]click radio button "Do not show any images", then click "Done"
[/list]
Now images are blocked absolutely everywhere. However, when you visit a site, there will be an image icon on the right side of the url bar with a red X on it. if you click that, you can permanently unblock images just for that site.

You can unblock RebootNation, for example. No P subs here ;D. Also, some web sites do not work well without images, so you will have to enable them there.

If you unblock a site, you can easily "reblock" it by clicking on the URL bar icon.

I really hate this now. Our world is so highly sexualised. I guess you just need to focus on the face and not breasts or ass. For example I saw an old friend a few days ago and she was wearing a dress that slightly exposed breasts..had to be very careful not to get drawn in and focus on the face. Was challenging but I did it. Keep in mind that sometimes your eyes will instinctively dart and you got to pull back. I don't think there is anything wrong about instinct (we are male after all) but actively seeking it out is the issue.

I'm one of the lucky ones in that high speed internet porn wasn't available to me when I was young, so luckily I can get to a state pretty quickly (a few weeks) where I'm not as sensitive to triggers.  We are all different, so I can only speak of my experience, but for me, it's like I'm Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  On the one hand, when I'm in the porn cycle, I can't understand how I would be free of it, it's so compelling; any trigger, no matter how small can send me straight to the wank cycle.  But when I'm free of it, I can't understand what's so appealing about it, it just holds no interest for me at all (it's gross actually).  What's interesting about that for me is how easily and almost completely my brain's reward system can control my rational mind, it's not a fair fight - not even close, so the focus on avoiding triggers during recovery is crucial.  However, hopefully you can get to a point (as I do) when you are strong enough to live in our hyper-sexualized society without feeling that your recovery is fragile .

This is a great thread - I see the problem [of our porn saturated society] as just the latest in a long string of examples where something which hijacks our reward system (and is therefore addictive) is taken up by big business and allowed by the political system to be used as a driver for consumer sales and profits.  Did you know that the vast majority of alcohol sales goes to alcoholics?  At some level, that shouldn't be surprising, since alcoholics drink (a lot) every day.  However, what does that say about the businesses who profit from their plight?  What does it say about our politics that allows this to happen?  Cigarettes - same thing (although that industry has somewhat lost political favor).

Ultimately, I think we [collectively] will wake up and realize that porn is a drug and should be regulated.  That doesn't mean that it will go away, I'm certain that will never happen.  But it shouldn't be freely available to anyone at the touch of a mouse.  It's a dangerous "substance" and should be treated as such.  People who indulge in cocaine (or worse) know what they are getting themselves into; that's not yet the case with porn. 

@Sender: Just with the difference that a little cocaine few times a week IS a problem, whereas porn consumption for millions of people seems to be not. Don't forget that we are the few who discovered problems and are willing to change. There are many who suffer from PIED but don't know or don't care. And there is the majority of people who use pornography in a more or less responsible way. I would not want porn to be forbidden by law. But we need a public awareness of the problems that can occur. We need to sensitize people at young age to what can happen to them if they lose control over it.

Hey Reboot ROK,

Glad to see you trucking.

All I can say is - your questions shows you're on the good track, bro You're also starting to dig into stuff that is really difficult for us addicts.

I'd suggest installing K9 - it will help. You can adjust material in there. Blocking images is a very good tool I'm using too: Chrome -> Settings -> (advanced settings) -> Privacy -> Content settings -> scroll to Images.

with every day that goes by it seems that cravings to look at porn subs get stronger and harder to control.

Click to expand...

This can happen in the early stages, but if you stick to no PMO, the cravings will get much weaker and it will get much easier.