How I Overcame My Porn Addiction | Cru

I saw hardcore pornography for the first time around the first or second grade. The effects it had on my life were similar to those of abuse.

I was reintroduced to porn at a bookstore as a middle-schooler. Those were hard years for me and porn felt like a relief — something good in the midst of something bad. I was hooked.

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Maybe you’ve fought a similar battle. Maybe you’re fighting one now or know someone who is. You’re not alone.

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I took a year away from ministry to focus on restoration. It was a great year, but it didn’t help with my addiction. I attended counseling, but that didn’t help with my addiction.

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Everyone seems to want a book, and there are some good books. But you can’t read or pray your way out of this. You were likely wounded in a relationship, and that’s where you’ll find healing. In the context of safe community groups, you must focus on four areas...

Read full article here: www.cru.org/us/en/how-to-know-god/my-story-a-life-changed/how-i-overcame-my-porn-addiction.html

#2021 #BrettButcher #HopeForrester #Cru #NoFap #CultureWar #Health #MentalIllness #MoralIllness

3 Ways Facing Shame Can Take Away its Power & Help You Quit Porn

Shame is the painful feeling that tells us that something about us is unwanted or unworthy of love or belonging.

Shame is experienced most acutely when we are seen by the eyes of another. We’ve all had those moments where something we attempted to keep hidden about ourselves was exposed. Our face might become red, our bodies warm up, we avoid eye contact, our stomach drops, and we become watchful.

While we tend to think watching pornography will influence us to experience shame, the reverse is also true. The more we experience shame, the more we will be drawn to pornography. Although men and women do pursue compulsive sexual choices for pleasure and their corresponding neurochemicals, it’s worth considering that we can also pursue them for the purpose of self-condemnation.

All of us know the experiences in life where we feel shame, but rather than turning toward love or self-care, we turn toward behavior or a substance that we know will amplify the toxic inner critic’s voice.

#2021 #JayStringer #FightTheNewDrug #NoFap #CultureWar #Health #MentalIllness #MoralIllness

How to Quit Porn For Good | The Art of Manliness

If you’re reading this, you or someone you know is trying to quit porn and are looking for some help in doing so. Here’s the good news: in the vast majority of cases, you don’t need expensive rehabs or retreats to rid your life of porn. As I mentioned previously in this series, in reading a boatload of books and countless blog and forum postings on “porn addiction recovery,” I discovered that most of the advice given is the exact same advice therapists and cognitive psychologists offer to someone who’s trying to change a bad habit as innocuous as swearing or fingernail biting. Sure, there are a few differences, but overall, quitting porn is just like quitting pretty much any other bad habit.

An important thing to keep in mind with changing any habit — be it smoking, drinking soda, or using porn — is that there’s no magic bullet. Habit change takes time, discipline, and dedication, and the process will look a little different for each individual.

Progress isn’t linear, either. Some weeks you’ll feel like you’re well on your way to kicking the bad habit and replacing it with a new one, and others you’ll have setbacks that will make you feel like crap. That’s normal. The key is to not wallow in your setback, but to dust yourself off, and get back in the saddle.

So, once again another month of "No Nut November" has come to a close. While it's on my mind, I want to take a moment to thank @ fightknightHERO on voat for getting this one started and @ Native for giving me the idea to make a field report at the end of the month.

I did well on my end primarily because I treated NNN like I do Lent. With preparation to accomplish and focus on a goal, analyze the obstacles to that goal, and gradually work towards disciplining myself on the way to achieving that goal. To elaborate, I figured I'd follow-up on a comment I made last year, regarding keeping a log of ones activity to help oneself to better visualize the problem, the challenge, their own progress, and achievement when tackling this sort of problem.

I make simple notes on a small memo pad I first started using to log my workouts, so as much of my daily physical activity is in one place I can keep track of at a glance. If I fapped, I'd jot down the time next to the date with an "M 8:17PM". If more than once, then I'd simply add another time such as, "M 8:17PM, 11:34PM". If you follow the 24hrs clock and not AM/PM, jot down the time accordingly. If I didn't fap, I'd jot down "NM###" for the number of times I hadn't fapped the following morning. The goal is to have my annual NM# = NM365.

While I've still not yet reached that end goal, I can say that doing this enables me to visualize both how bad the problem was when I started engaging it and see how well I've progressed towards my end goal to bring it to a complete stop. While I've got some ways to go, I can honestly say that I'm vastly better disciplined than I was in the past. I've had no porn exposure and I'm not expecting any anytime in the near future.

How about you? Did you know that November was "No Nut November"? How did you handle it? Did you even care? Speak up and share what you know.