Porn Addiction / Sex Addiction

[Steene]

I believe this is a big one for many people, especially men. I am struggling with this addiction since almost 4 years now and unfortunately only with moderate success.

What I have learned during this years is that willpower is definitely not enough to overcome this. Sometimes the battle starts to become very hard until you reach a point of no return because you feel more and more miserable during this process.

Also what I have learned from you all here is that estrogen is one main cause of hyper sexuality (porn addiction/sex addiction) and with relatively good experience in that matter but it seems it isn't enough. It only dampers my cravings to a certain degre. Pregnenolone seems to be another big factor in getting sober but I have no experience with this substance.

So my question is how to balance this out in order to have a higher success rate in overcoming this addiction? I am asking especially from a Peatish point of view rather than lifestyle changes (I know these are also very important topics but it varies strongly from person to person and I'd rather won't start such a topic).

 

[Prosper]

How often do you go? Are you seeking to lower your frequency, or to become a celibate?

 

[Steene]

My streaks are normally 10 days (min) till up to 60 days (max) but it varies. In summer it's as expected WAY easier (probably less stress hormones) to maintain a longer streak, but this is not my goal. I want to lose that desire to watch it all together because I know how FANTASTIC I feel on longer streaks. I am not declined to be celibate for many months or even for a full year. There is almost no desire to masturbate without porn or any other stimulations. The desire comes mainly from stress like little sleep, boredom, etc. So I believe my stress response is a total mess.

Oxytocin is often mentioned (being social and so on) but this isn't that important at least thats what I learned in all these years.

 

[Prosper]

That does not sound like an addiction. It's barely even low moderate. Celibacy IS hard, there is no way around that. Regarding porn, have you considered ejaculating quickly the instant you feel like you're about to type the url of your preferred pornsite? By doing this every time you're about to relapse to porn, you will over time start disassociating porn with masturbation. When there's a distinct mental separation between these two activities, controlling masturbation should become much easier.

 

[Steene]

Well I forgot to tell that when I relapse it is a full blown one (no pun intended) which can last many hours thats why I see myself as an addict. The only positive thing is that I have the discipline to stop that afterwards and start over again. What I experience during these years was in the beginning I was shaking like crazy whenever I started watching porn again (probably an extreme dopamine rush) but this is fortunately not the case anymore.

The part with the celibacy is that I can control my urge to have sex very good but it is not like this with porn.

 

[theLaw]

My streaks are normally 10 days (min) till up to 60 days (max) but it varies. In summer it's as expected WAY easier (probably less stress hormones) to maintain a longer streak, but this is not my goal. I want to lose that desire to watch it all together because I know how FANTASTIC I feel on longer streaks. I am not declined to be celibate for many months or even for a full year. There is almost no desire to masturbate without porn or any other stimulations. The desire comes mainly from stress like little sleep, boredom, etc. So I believe my stress response is a total mess.

Oxytocin is often mentioned (being social and so on) but this isn't that important at least thats what I learned in all these years.

No offense dude, but that's not even close to an addiction.

This "problem" appears to be self-imposed as you yourself claim to be bored.

Go..........Get out...........build something...........start something........anything................just Go!!!

 

[Steene]

No offense dude, but that's not even close to an addiction.

This "problem" appears to be self-imposed as you yourself claim to be bored.

Go..........Get out...........build something...........start something........anything................just Go!!!

Of course you are right being occupied by different kind of activities helps and MAYBE I am not what you can call an addict, but I believe you understood the main message.

Again the main reason for this thread is: How do I balance myself out in order to reduce cravings for pornography?

 

[Prosper]

Well I forgot to tell that when I relapse it is a full blown one (no pun intended) which can last many hours thats why I see myself as an addict.

Would you also classify someone who gets shitfaced once a month and then doesn't drink at all for several weeks an alcoholic? Or a recreational user/abuser? Your behavior is certainly not healthy, but it's still far from being an addiction.

I was shaking like crazy whenever I started watching porn again

I have experienced this too. Your symptoms are signs of healthy sexual function, not an addiction. You're not even getting the worst of it. See quote:

Fainting, vomiting, urination, defecation have been noted as occurring in young men after the first coitus. Epilepsy has been not frequently recorded. Lesions of various organs, even rupture of the spleen, have sometimes taken place. In men of mature age, the arteries have at times been unable to resist the high blood-pressure and cerebral hemorrhage with paralysis has occurred. In elderly men the excitement of intercourse with strange woman has sometimes caused death, and various cases are known of eminent persons who have thus died in the arms of young wives or prostitutes.

 

[Prosper]

Again the main reason for this thread is: How do I balance myself out in order to reduce cravings for pornography?

Are you in any frequent physical contact with women? When you have conditioned your mind to get sexual release through pornography, that's what it will keep guiding you towards. You will probably never break the loop until you start having sex with actual human beings.

 

[Steene]

It varies. Sometimes yes but then not for a longer period of time because I find relationships are very exhausting to me. During my relationships I did not see any difference in porn usage. But it is probably an ongoing process which may take some years. The biggest hurdle is to find someone who is not totally batshit crazy, but thats another story.

 

[Steene]

Would you also classify someone who gets shitfaced once a month and then doesn't drink at all for several weeks an alcoholic? Or a recreational user/abuser? Your behavior is certainly not healthy, but it's still far from being an addiction.


I have experienced this too. Your symptoms are signs of healthy sexual function, not an addiction. You're not even getting the worst of it. See quote:

Thats interesting thanks for that!

 

[Sepulchrave]

Practicing Vipassana and the Eight Fold Noble Path diligently is guaranteed to destroy cravings. Porn has much less appeal to me now.

 

[theLaw]

Of course you are right being occupied by different kind of activities helps and MAYBE I am not what you can call an addict, but I believe you understood the main message.

Again the main reason for this thread is: How do I balance myself out in order to reduce cravings for pornography?

Like I said before, the boredom might be what's drawing you back to porn, but there's nothing inherently wrong with porn, you're just sitting around doing nothing.......so porn sounds better than nothing.

Sounds like estrogen + adrenaline. Cyrpoheptadine would lower both of those.

Also, throwing around the word "addict" smacks of emotional immaturity, which might be effecting your social life. "Bored" is code for immature.

It's difficult to present yourself to others if you don't know who you are, which is where life experience fits into the picture.

Never met a socially healthy person who said.....

I am not declined to be celibate for many months or even for a full year.

How about taking some risks by putting yourself out there?

If not, you future might be......

 

[LCohen]

Same thing here. I was craving for porn, masturbation. Sadly, only think that stops it for me is HRT.

I take Spiro (200mg) and Estrogen (4mg). Not only stopped porn/masturbate addiction. Everything about sexuality, libido, addictions are cleared away. I'm (sometimes) switching to Cyproterone Acetate (not to confused with Cyrpoheptadine). 50Mgs of Cyproterone Acetate completely erasing my sexuality. Makes you feel just like an asexual. Over the time it completely castrates you.

I know this isn't solution for male. I just wanted to write cuz I really struggled with hypersexuality. Most of my times was passing with sex, porn, masturbation. God it was like hell!

But some things worked for me even before HRT. Here take a look:

• Zinc (Sulphate or Picolinate) > Zinc in little high doses. Reduces sex drive. Makes you less horny. (Also good for sperm health)
• Prolactin Inhibitors > Cabergoline, Bromocriptine are prolactin inhibitors. Next day after you take, you'll feel less horny.
• Cyrpoheptadine > Not only reduces sex drive. But also makes you feel like a zombie. But it works.
  
• Aromatase Inhibitors > I used both Aromasin and Letrozole. Didn't try Arimidex. Aromasin is a great regulator for sex drive. Reduces extreme wantings. Letrozole also doing good. But it crashes your estrogen too harsh.
• Magnesium > Magnesium itself doesn't do much for hypersexuality. But if you take with Zinc, it makes you feel more relaxed. Take especially at night. It will improve your sleep.

 

[johnsmith]

Any advice on blocking porn?

I found a browser extension called LeechBlock and I highly recommend it. I no longer watch porn on my computer because of it. It lets you apply many different kinds of blocking filters and choose what specific sites you want to block. If you apply a lot of different blocking filters, it's too much of a hassle to turn them all off. I also use it to apply a black & white filter to YouTube so that it's less flashy and addicting.

I'm still having problems with my iPhone. I can only use the phones "content & privacy restriction settings". These settings are quite simple and easy to turn off. I'm guessing there's nothing else iPhone users can do to block porn. This makes me want to switch to Android. Are there a lot more options with Android for blocking porn using apps and settings? Thanks.

 

[Inaut]

I just stopped watching porn because I knew it was unhealthy... Cold turkeys

 

[Aymen]

Any advice on blocking porn?

I found a browser extension called LeechBlock and I highly recommend it. I no longer watch porn on my computer because of it. It lets you apply many different kinds of blocking filters and choose what specific sites you want to block. If you apply a lot of different blocking filters, it's too much of a hassle to turn them all off. I also use it to apply a black & white filter to YouTube so that it's less flashy and addicting.

I'm still having problems with my iPhone. I can only use the phones "content & privacy restriction settings". These settings are quite simple and easy to turn off. I'm guessing there's nothing else iPhone users can do to block porn. This makes me want to switch to Android. Are there a lot more options with Android for blocking porn using apps and settings? Thanks.

put the phone away from your bed to wake you up in the morning,
don't use phone but use computer instead,
use the computer in the kitchen or somewhere when you know your mother or any family member will come there visit you so you will be concerned about them and that will prevent you to watch it,
the software blockers didn't help me, you can't still open images in the internet and watch them and they will trigger you to watch a video,
it takes a lot of patience and a lot of relapses to fully success in not seeing it anymore.

 

[Hgreen56]

I just stopped watching porn because I knew it was unhealthy... Cold turkeys

why is it unhealthy?
Your body doesn't see the difference if you fck a girl or fcking your left/right hand.
The same with sports. You body doesn't now the difference between doing heavy labor work or lifting weights.
there are also no study's thats says porn is unhealthy.
Men are programmed to replicate themselves as much as possible in order to survive. its our instincts.
So lots of testosterone/libido and having the urge to have lot of sex/porn is healthy sign.
You see when this is going down (as with older men) health complications increase...

 

[Sulcuscentralis]

why is it unhealthy?
Your body doesn't see the difference if you fck a girl or fcking your left/right hand.
The same with sports. You body doesn't now the difference between doing heavy labor work or lifting weights.
there are also no study's thats says porn is unhealthy.
Men are programmed to replicate themselves as much as possible in order to survive. its our instincts.
So lots of testosterone/libido and having the urge to have lot of sex/porn is healthy sign.
You see when this is going down (as with older men) health complications increase...

Long term excessive pron use can cause erectile dysfunction - I don"t think that's healthy. There also been studies showing men having more mysoginistic views about women, because of watching too much porn. Chronic porn users also show structural changes in the brain similar to cocaine users. Yourbrainonporn.com has lots of info.

 

[Inaut]

Long term excessive pron use can cause erectile dysfunction - I don"t think that's healthy. There also been studies showing men having more mysoginistic views about women, because of watching too much porn. Chronic porn users also show structural changes in the brain similar to cocaine users. Yourbrainonporn.com has lots of info.

What he said ^^^^^^^^