I'm 48 and married to a wonderful woman. For as long as I can remember I have played the balancing act between PMO and sex. Almost split evenly every other day. Occasionally I would double up on PMO. For the most part it hasn't affected my sex life but it has recently and it's just time to stop. I'm curious if anyone has a similar situation and if you were able to recover/reboot from porn and continue your sex life normally?
For sure, but if it's been a long time, it might take a while to get a hold on that habit. I've never been a fan of cold turkey, I'd recommend cutting down on use before cutting out altogether. For me that was the most successful route after years of regular use.
I'm a week removed and no issues so far. I've quit for a few months here and there throughout the years and I've always done it cold turkey. I've really tried to limit my consumption and I don't know at what level my addiction would qualify as. I will say the two times I've had sex this week has been incredible so I don't know if that's residual dopamine or if I'm just not going to experience a flat line.
If you would like to quit I think you need to know within your heart why you want to quit. Is PMO getting in the way of your life? And how so? I think getting a handle of this piece of information will start to help you paint a "big picture" idea of why you are doing what you are doing. Then things can make more sense.
I feel like I'm quitting to be a better man in my relationship. I'm on day 12 and I really haven't felt a lot of the things I've been reading about. Sex with my wife has definitely improved. I am not getting urges to watch porn at all but I do still have pervy eyes when I'm out and about. I try to catch myself and avoid the rush. I am starting to question if my habit was to the point where it really hurt me. Not that I want to go back to it but I'm just not going through all of the bad stuff, at least not yet.
I started with magazines around 12 and I've done it a few times a week since. I swapped to movies around age 21 I would say. In my marriage I've limited PMO to every other day and only watch it when I'm going to orgasm. In other words I wouldn't allow myself to watch it just to watch it. We would have sex every other day in between. I also wouldn't allow myself to do it more than once a day the past year or so.
Normally you’d have more symptoms. You’re still early. Withdrawal for me hit the first time I hit 30 days. Have you increased sex with wife?
If it's going well, then all the better. I've never flatlined myself, quitting masturbation only ever increased my sex drive in the short as well as long term.