this morning, i was kinda bored, so i just opened instagram (with no intention to search sexy stuff) and scroll the feeds, and unluckily i found a photo of my friend wearing bikinis at the beach, and y'all now what happened. yeah, i was triggered. BUT, i quickly look away and quit instagram immediately, and i continue my day. and then, this evening, i watched a nofap video on youtube. it says that fapstronauts should stop using instagram, youtube, netflix, etc. it says that once we see a glimpse of triggering pic or video, it will leave a footprint on my brain and we'll be struggling to get this out of our head for a period of time. and i completely agreed with this statement. but then i was remembered to the incident that happened this morning when i glimpse a triggering pic. THEN, my evil OCD mind was telling me "yeah, you've left a footprint on your brain and so you have to reset your counter fully and make a new clean and fresh start." AND yeah, i eventually relapsed. i'm tired dealing with my OCD. it causes me to always make a justification and find any reason to relapse. i relapsed today on day 2 by the way so yeah probably chaser effect took part in this relapse. can anyone figure out a way to stop this? thx.
You did a good thing when you watched that nofap vid. Keep that up. Remove every trigger you can think of. Make some rules. Then approach this one day at a time. You will eventually break the shackles of this addiction.
Be patient. It won't happen overnight. Imagine PMO like meat-hooks embedded into your heart. You let them dig their way in for a long time, right? It'll take a long time to get them out. I took 90 days of sobriety for my mind to reboot. Until then - and particularly throughout the first 30 days - my mind was constantly turning to sex and porn. But it does reboot. And you'll find the complaint at that time for some men becomes, "why is my libido so low?" It's a good problem to have? You imagine? Worrying about why you don't think of sex so much? lol.
yeah the hard thing is to stop my ocd to tell me what to do. and yeah i found that i'm more easily triggered than i used to. thx!
yeah i've been addicted for 2 years and im still 14 years old lol. so yeah i think hormone factors take parts also in my journey. thx for the reply!
I forgot to mention that the best way to do this is hard mode. That has to be clear. Hard mode means different things to different people but what I found to be an effective method after managing 105 days clean not too long ago was to never indulge in any kind of sexual though or fantasy. My dick was not there for me to play with. I steered away from suspicious websites, pictures, triggering text. Everything which could trigger me consciously or unconsciously. I was careful with alcohol and sugar as they affect your ability to make good decisions. Exercising, eating healthy and meditating on the other hand makes your willpower grow stronger.
THIS. The start of this fight is in our lustful thinking. Avoid playing the porn movies in your head and when you get home you'll find it's easier to fight temptation.
thats the reason i deleted instagram. and i only watch youtube mostly for educational purposes, not to entertain myself. but i think stopping fantasy is not that easy tho lol. but yeah ill try my best. thx guys!
I can understand, I have been through this in the past and also had OCD. I would say, forget about that nofap video that you watched, it sounds fear driven and is not healthy or sustainable long term. I mean, we are here to become normal and healthy again, to feel normal and get ourselves sorted out, not to become OCD/paranoid and fear driven people that avoid everything around us because we are afraid that we will be ''triggered'' lol. In the past when my OCD was more prevalent, I would also see a sexual image or a sexual scene in a film and believe I had to restart to start off ''clean'' again. This really is just OCD, like washing your hands because you feel contaminated, you wash your hands to rid yourself of anxiety, but that anxiety never goes away until you stop washing your hands, stop trying to be clean and perfect and stop living in fear. If you see a sexual image or anything that is ''triggering'' to you, this is what you do - you forgive yourself for allowing yourself to be triggered in the first place (it is all programming, it isn't real) and you let it go, you move on. Believe me, if everyone restarted every time they saw a sexual image, no one would ever be anywhere. I want to expand on this point a little further. You wrote that you saw an image of a woman in a bikini and that triggered you. Ask yourself, why did that trigger you? We all have legs, arms, a torso, faces, hair, etc. What probably happened is you went into your mind/thoughts and sexualised/pornified the image, but the image itself is completely innocent in reality. In reality, there was a woman in a bikini, nothing more, nothing less, nothing sexual about that, even if she was naked, there is nothing sexual or triggering about that. A breast is simply a breast, two sacks of fat, and an ass is simply an ass, tissue and muscle, nothing less, nothing more, like how a cup is a cup, correct? It is our minds that distort and deform reality, our programming, how our culture and media has taught us that a breast and an ass is arousing and sexual when in actual fact/reality there is no such thing. Do you understand? I want you to work on that, on deprogramming yourself. If we avoid everything that may be triggering to us, we only give it power over us, instead we should be exposing ourselves and facing this shit, removing the programming and becoming innocent again. Man, I hope this helps. I know what it is like to have OCD and these voices in your head and the anxiety. I Hope this can atleast bring some kind of answer and relief on this point for you. So, if you see a sexual image or scene - breathe, don't allow your mind to take over, breathe, return to the present, remain in reality and move on like any other healthy person would do and eventually you will be able to use instagram or anything else without fear and without limits because you will be free unlike those who are avoiding everything and hiding in the dark out of fear.
Dude, you're the man. that really helps me and thats the solution i really need. thx alot for ur time to reply! ill crush my OCD and addiction.
PLEASE HELP....FLATLINE HITTING HARD...I FIND NO JOY IN DOING DAY TO DAY ACTIVITIES...I FEEL LIKE LYING ON MY BED ALL DAY....TODAY IS MY 9TH DAY...WHEN WILL THIS END???...IS THIS REALLY FLATLINE???....PLEAE REPLY ASAP
Yes it happends to everyone of us and will happend to everyone us it's life man, just be strong ans try to find some goodsides on it