Nofap Has Changed My View of Life

Before participating in NoFap earlier this month I suffered from very severe porn induced depression/anxiety; racing thoughts, panic attacks (several times a week), social avoidance - basically the whole nine yards. I was constantly wallowing in self-pity and had close to zero confidence/self esteem. I even developed a dependance on recreational drugs (the one that is legal in colorado) to replace the feeling of numbness that I had grown so accustom to. In the weeks leading up to my decision to begin the 90 day challenge I was within arms length of taking my own life.

In the three weeks since I've made huge personal gains in my own spiritual and self growth. I've quit drugs, started therapy and began taking anti-depressants on my psychiatrists recommendation. With the help of my therapists I'm finally getting the help I need and understanding the real reasons behind why I was addicted to PMO in the first place. For the first time in my life I'm finally able to understand and identify my own emotions, the most significant change of all however is that I am finally feeling happy.

I've read two books that have been really transformational in helping me understand my anxiety and ways to deal with them; the first book is called The Curse of the Self by Mark R. Leary and the other is Waking Up by Sam Harris. In addition to these two books I also highly recommend The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky, which provides a scientific approach to quantifying, tracking and growing your happiness.

The lessons in these books have taught me how to understand my thoughts as well as how to think about the urges I have to PMO through mindfulness meditation and other tactics. This train of thought has helped me to live from in the present moment, instead of living under a veil of anxiety and fear like I was before.

Every day is a new challenge and there isn't a moment that I'm not tempted to PMO but the support network I have in place is a huge deterrent to following through with these urges. At the start of this month I wouldn't have imagined that I could've made it this far on my first try. I think that the biggest advice I could give to others is to take this challenge day by day instead of focusing on the end goal.

Whether or not I am able to complete my 90 day challenge without relapsing is yet to be seen but even in the event that I do I now understand to not let self-condemnation overrun my thoughts. I'll simply pick myself up and start again.

Huge shoutout to NoFap and the YBOP websites for the knowledge and support. Good luck everyone!

Below is a list of the tools and techniques I use:
Counseling/Therapy
Accountability/filtering software - CovenantEyes, BlockSite and New2Recovery (Android)
Behavioral techniques - Elevate (Android/iOS), Journaling and Mindfulness Meditation