Hello everyone. This is my first day on the site, but probably my 3rd or 4th "serious" attempt to quit porn. Most of the time I don't think it's possible, but once and a while I think about all the ways that my life could improve without it, and I want to try. This is the first time that I'm joining a forum and looking for community support, and so that gives me hope! Going alone seems altogether impossible, particularly because at least for me, porn is a way to get at a feeling I think I'm lacking in other areas of my life.
I started watching porn with my best friend when we were younger. It was a bonding experience. We were young and into hot girls. Once we looked up Naked Women on my grandmother's computer. Back then it was mostly images; if xvideos or youjizz existed back then we were just too young to get there. That was in 5th grade I believe. Which is really crazy-- I was 10 when I was first watching porn! I didn't have sex until 16 so there was a solid six years of watching artificial sex before actually having it. I remember it being a source of intimacy for me; in fifth grade I had a 'crush' on a pornstar that had the same name as me. I also had real crushes and real relationships, but porn was a supplement. I never really talked to my partners about my porn use, although quite a few of them knew that I wanted to quit and were supportive. My best friend from college and I tried to quit together, but they have an iron will and were able to but I was not.
I don't have porn induced ED and would at first say that my porn habit isn't really destructive but I think the effect is much more subtle. I think on a very basic level it dissuades me from going out and doing things because I masturbate and then I'm lazy; it sets the tone for the day. It also affects I think how motivated I am to peruse relationships with other people, be it friendship or romantic or sexual. I'm not a bad looking guy, and I had a lot of sex in college, but in adult life and living in a city where it's paradoxically hard to meet people, that lack of motivation is pretty big. I have never laid out and thought about all the ways that porn affects my life and how much better my life could be without it, and I think this is a good place to do that. I also want to lay out like, why porn is useful to me. Like the role it's played in my life so far and what the benefits are for me, and then what I can do to replace it. Then I want to have a practical plan.
Porn in my life has been a way to destress. Recently reading this book Come As You Are, which is technically about the science of women and sex but is also just about people and sex, and she talks a lot about stress and the need to complete the stress cycle. Lots of stuff in our lives is inherently stressful, and also there's lots in our lives that causes big important emotions. The thing about emotions is they have to complete-- they can't be medicated away, or ignored, or whatever else because then they just sit in the body and the mind unresolved. There's lots of ways to feel your feelings, but as a man, a lot of those healthy ways are socialized out of us. Crying is the prime example, but I think also just on a basic how-it-feels-everyday, avoidance of emotions is more socially acceptable than letting ourselves feel them. Porn when I was younger was one way to deal with hard shit in my life and all of these emotional undercurrents that I didn't really understand. Of course also I was interested because porn is inherently attractive because of sex. I was also into porn because there was always this pressure in middle school and high school to be a man who has sex with hot women, and there was so much social pressure to be with hot women etc. etc. Porn was a way to do that and to feel included. The women who were attractive in our grades I heavily objectified and it was such a trap. I think I've carried a lot of that into adult life, putting a little too much emphasis on attractiveness at the expense of curiosity of what a relationship or sex or whatever might be like with someone. Again, it was easier in college when I had sex with a lot of pretty attractive women, and now I feel back about myself because the people who I match with on tinder aren't quite the same. Probably there's lots of reasons for that but it's a strange place to be in. At any rate, porn is a way to both distract from some of those hard emotions and also to get a cathartic release from them. Like a lot of other addictions, it seems like porn just dulls the feeling of being alive because it uses your chemicals for the wrong things. It's hard to feel just baseline happy when all your dopamine is being flushed down the toilet. I would like to quit porn because I think it will make sex with my girlfriend better, and we will be able to be more connected.
So yeah, I think porn gives me a way to complete some stress cycles, and it allows me access to that middle-school ideal of really hot women. It helps me deal (in a maladaptive way) with feelings of boredom, existential dread, loneliness, sadness, and anger. A lot of my life otherwise can feel dull or empty, but porn is a surefire way to feel something positive. I suppose this is nothing new-- obviously that's why people watch porn. I think that without porn, I will feel like I'm living a fuller and more robust life, and be a better me in interactions with other people and at work. Porn is something that I probably needed when I was younger, and it helped me survive emotionally. It provided a form of love that I wasn't getting somewhere else and a stress outlet. Sometimes I feel that I'm still not getting that love in my life now, but I'm smart enough to know that not only will porn not get me that love in itself, it's also actively preventing me from seeking it out and probably making me more distant from my partner who could give it to me. It makes me less focused on our relationship, and the sex not as pleasurable. All of this said, I'm definitely afraid of the vibrancy of emotions that might arise in an unporn medicated me. Again, as a man, I've been instructed to not feel a lot of emotions, and hard stuff from my childhood gave a reason not to feel a lot of emotions fully because that would be too hard. So I don't know, I am scared of the intensity of emotions sort of. But I have a mindfulness practice and I do a lot of yoga and working out, so I think that those will help me. I think the other thing is just remembering and being connected to all the reasons that I want to quit. That's why this forum is so great because hopefully it will be a daily practice and way to check in and remember what my goals are and why I'm doing this.
So yeah. I'm hoping to set out some implementation intentions, and make a plan. Having an accountability buddy, great. Putting something up in my room to remind me that I'm trying to quit porn, great. Getting busy and not spending a lot of time at home and in my room, great. Taking good care of myself by sleeping, eating well and getting exercise, great. Keeping my computer in the living room, great. Journaling everyday on this website, great.
This is day zero (masturbated this morning).
I started watching porn with my best friend when we were younger. It was a bonding experience. We were young and into hot girls. Once we looked up Naked Women on my grandmother's computer. Back then it was mostly images; if xvideos or youjizz existed back then we were just too young to get there. That was in 5th grade I believe. Which is really crazy-- I was 10 when I was first watching porn! I didn't have sex until 16 so there was a solid six years of watching artificial sex before actually having it. I remember it being a source of intimacy for me; in fifth grade I had a 'crush' on a pornstar that had the same name as me. I also had real crushes and real relationships, but porn was a supplement. I never really talked to my partners about my porn use, although quite a few of them knew that I wanted to quit and were supportive. My best friend from college and I tried to quit together, but they have an iron will and were able to but I was not.
I don't have porn induced ED and would at first say that my porn habit isn't really destructive but I think the effect is much more subtle. I think on a very basic level it dissuades me from going out and doing things because I masturbate and then I'm lazy; it sets the tone for the day. It also affects I think how motivated I am to peruse relationships with other people, be it friendship or romantic or sexual. I'm not a bad looking guy, and I had a lot of sex in college, but in adult life and living in a city where it's paradoxically hard to meet people, that lack of motivation is pretty big. I have never laid out and thought about all the ways that porn affects my life and how much better my life could be without it, and I think this is a good place to do that. I also want to lay out like, why porn is useful to me. Like the role it's played in my life so far and what the benefits are for me, and then what I can do to replace it. Then I want to have a practical plan.
Porn in my life has been a way to destress. Recently reading this book Come As You Are, which is technically about the science of women and sex but is also just about people and sex, and she talks a lot about stress and the need to complete the stress cycle. Lots of stuff in our lives is inherently stressful, and also there's lots in our lives that causes big important emotions. The thing about emotions is they have to complete-- they can't be medicated away, or ignored, or whatever else because then they just sit in the body and the mind unresolved. There's lots of ways to feel your feelings, but as a man, a lot of those healthy ways are socialized out of us. Crying is the prime example, but I think also just on a basic how-it-feels-everyday, avoidance of emotions is more socially acceptable than letting ourselves feel them. Porn when I was younger was one way to deal with hard shit in my life and all of these emotional undercurrents that I didn't really understand. Of course also I was interested because porn is inherently attractive because of sex. I was also into porn because there was always this pressure in middle school and high school to be a man who has sex with hot women, and there was so much social pressure to be with hot women etc. etc. Porn was a way to do that and to feel included. The women who were attractive in our grades I heavily objectified and it was such a trap. I think I've carried a lot of that into adult life, putting a little too much emphasis on attractiveness at the expense of curiosity of what a relationship or sex or whatever might be like with someone. Again, it was easier in college when I had sex with a lot of pretty attractive women, and now I feel back about myself because the people who I match with on tinder aren't quite the same. Probably there's lots of reasons for that but it's a strange place to be in. At any rate, porn is a way to both distract from some of those hard emotions and also to get a cathartic release from them. Like a lot of other addictions, it seems like porn just dulls the feeling of being alive because it uses your chemicals for the wrong things. It's hard to feel just baseline happy when all your dopamine is being flushed down the toilet. I would like to quit porn because I think it will make sex with my girlfriend better, and we will be able to be more connected.
So yeah, I think porn gives me a way to complete some stress cycles, and it allows me access to that middle-school ideal of really hot women. It helps me deal (in a maladaptive way) with feelings of boredom, existential dread, loneliness, sadness, and anger. A lot of my life otherwise can feel dull or empty, but porn is a surefire way to feel something positive. I suppose this is nothing new-- obviously that's why people watch porn. I think that without porn, I will feel like I'm living a fuller and more robust life, and be a better me in interactions with other people and at work. Porn is something that I probably needed when I was younger, and it helped me survive emotionally. It provided a form of love that I wasn't getting somewhere else and a stress outlet. Sometimes I feel that I'm still not getting that love in my life now, but I'm smart enough to know that not only will porn not get me that love in itself, it's also actively preventing me from seeking it out and probably making me more distant from my partner who could give it to me. It makes me less focused on our relationship, and the sex not as pleasurable. All of this said, I'm definitely afraid of the vibrancy of emotions that might arise in an unporn medicated me. Again, as a man, I've been instructed to not feel a lot of emotions, and hard stuff from my childhood gave a reason not to feel a lot of emotions fully because that would be too hard. So I don't know, I am scared of the intensity of emotions sort of. But I have a mindfulness practice and I do a lot of yoga and working out, so I think that those will help me. I think the other thing is just remembering and being connected to all the reasons that I want to quit. That's why this forum is so great because hopefully it will be a daily practice and way to check in and remember what my goals are and why I'm doing this.
So yeah. I'm hoping to set out some implementation intentions, and make a plan. Having an accountability buddy, great. Putting something up in my room to remind me that I'm trying to quit porn, great. Getting busy and not spending a lot of time at home and in my room, great. Taking good care of myself by sleeping, eating well and getting exercise, great. Keeping my computer in the living room, great. Journaling everyday on this website, great.
This is day zero (masturbated this morning).