Please keep in mind that this wiki is a work in progress. Last update: 14/06/23.
What is a porn addiction and how does it impact your brain?
Porn addiction is considered a behavioral addiction that is characterized by an ever-growing compulsion to view pornographic content or material. Today, the tools available to feed a porn addiction have evolved thanks to the internet and other technologies, allowing access to unlimited pornography with a single click.
How does watching porn affects your brain - Your Brain On Porn.
How do you define porn?
If it's artificial, and if it's providing sexual stimulus, it is most likely porn. This includes erotic stories, audio-porn or nudes.
Is it hard to quit porn?
Yes. It's like quitting smoking, but having a pack of cigarettes always in your pocket.
However, ask yourself this: will porn ever satisfy you?
"If you are thirsty, porn is a sea water to you thirst, it is never enough, it will make you sick if you consume it more, and it is never enough to end your thirst"
It is worth to take the challenge of quitting porn, and restore dopamine balance in your brain - you will feel more yourself than ever before. No more hiding your phone, downloading gigabytes of explicit content, no more escalating into more and more disturbing videos. It's a truly liberating feeling.
Friendly reminder: If you're not horny enough to masturbate without porn, you're not horny enough to masturbate.
Methodology
Some people like to track how many days they're pornfree, keeping streaks. They do reset a streak after relapse, starting from day 0.
I, however, prefer the "calendar" method - I am marking porn free days as green on my calendar, and red when I relapse. This is more encouraging and helps with the chaser effect.
How to quit watching porn?
Delete your stash
First step should always be deleting your porn stash. You are no longer a person who watches porn, therefore stash will only lead to further relapses.
Identify and avoid your triggers
First, take a good look inside your chain of thoughts. What causes you to grab your phone or your laptop and search for porn? Then, cut those triggers out.
Most common advice is:
- Delete Instagram, or at least unfollow all the provocative content that led you into relapse.
- When going to the toilet, leave your phone in the living room. Never take your phone to the toilet.
- Keep yourself busy. Boredom is a huge trigger.
Take it one day at the time, minute by minute
Today you're not going to watch porn. Today you're best possible, porn-free self.
Replace porn with a good habit that will provide you some dopamine
Exercise. Go for a run. If a urge comes, do a single pushup or take a cold shower. Learn a new skill that will keep you engaged, and replace your porn habit with that.
Is "x" an relapse?
If you need to ask this question, it was probably a relapse.
Resources
Porn blockers
NextDNS
NextDNS is a DNS based adblocker with an ability to block pornography. DNS blockers are effective way to filter out things you not wish to see.
Register, configure it according to NextDNS instructions, and select host lists to block pornography. Free plan should be more than enough for one person - it also blocks ads and trackers, without tracking your internet usage or anything, really.
Apps
Android:
Table Habits
Download link
Click on the Assets, then grab app-release.apk.
This app can help you track your porn usage without tracking you. Also, can be used to track a good replacing habit as well.
Yeah, I might actually end up disabling swap in the end. I wanted to update that apparently I “fixed” the problem (not sure if permanently) by turning off the pc, unplugging the PSU, and holding down the power button for 30 seconds. Normal reboots weren’t enough. I’ll take it for now.