Stop calling it an addiction, this is a huge reframe to help you break through. It's your decision every step of the way. People call it an addiction so they can keep doing it over and over. An addiction presupposes you have no free will or control over it - the truth is you do. This mindset of irresponsibility makes a person ripe for bondage. People deny that they have control so that they can continue to do what satisfies their lusts. It's simply an intense desire for something that you chose to develop, then you deceive yourself into giving into it as if you had no choice. Quit lying to yourself. You can choose to make the desire strong, or to make it weak. If you make it weak then you won't suffer the pain of making the right decisions.
That's what you choose to believe - and it's a belief that will not strengthen your decision making regarding the bondage that we are talking about. I choose to believe that it my choice, and that really is a true belief. Everytime you choose to gratify yourself with pornography it IS your choice even if the desire is overwhelming. You choose to make it overwhelming or choose to weaken it.
It is an addiction bro. It's futile to believe it's a small deal it will get you anyway, just recognize you have a problem and have faith.
It is an addiction. Preach otherwise when you've gone 360days free of it first try. We don't call it an addiction so we can stay involved in it. That's foolishness. There are real biological and psychological things that need to change in order to stop. It's not a simple choice. It's a series of conscious choices made over a lifetime that let's us overcome it. @countitjoy5 you don't have to call it an addiction if you don't want to. Lables are just lables, but for the rest of us who have been struggling over a lifetime we are going to call it as it is and not live in denial.
You can call it ABCDEFG etc... The devil remains the same... Only the name is different. So will it make or break your reboot? Nopes! It is way deep than that. But I get what you mean. So whatever floats your boat I guess.
This is preposterous. Furthermore, you know it is! In the last 48 hours you have referred to "this addiction" several times. Twice in this thread: https://www.nofap.com/forum/index.php?threads/addicted-to-fantasizing.200521 and once here: https://www.nofap.com/forum/index.php?threads/just-to-look-at-it-i-wont-touch-my-self.200692
Addiction is a useful word, but I don't use it in the sense that is typically meant - in fact I will quit using it altogether; I let myself resort to it for a time because everyone on here seemed bent on focusing on their addiction. It's all about your belief system and the concept of "addiction" only perpetuates the problem; we choose to do the behavior, we are not automatons of our desire as science would have us think.
Calling it an addiction gives PMO more power than it has - do you want to make it harder? Be my guest. It is powerless filth and I'm going to make it easier by taking responsibility and calling it a foolish decision that I have chose to make. I chose to make the desire overwhelming, now I am choosing to trample it in the dust.
How do you know PMO is an addiction? How specifically do you define an addiction? Do you define it as something that renders your free-will incapable of operation or the ability to exercise self-control, if so I don't agree with you. All addiction is a very strong desire that a person foolishly builds up. No matter how powerful the desire becomes you still have the capacity say no to it.
Actually it's more than that because addiction is a concept that comes from the world of science which has shown itself to be overly materialistic, deterministic and fatalistic. If you have a fatalistic mentality you will get that outcome.
And furthermore what I have found is that people let their "addiction" become part of their identity, which only further compounds the issue. They self-identify with it and it becomes part of their core setting up perpetual failure.
Then people take "addiction" a step further by calling it a disease, adding yet another layer of fatalism.
This is wonderful news. I can hear doors slamming on addiction centers and I can hear the ratta tat tat of keyboards rewriting textbooks and professional journals all over the world. Addictions are made up fairy tales. This is huge!!
I see no reason why we can’t extend this line of thinking to other “diseases” as well. Cancer? In your head, just choose not to have it. Diabetes? High cholesterol? Those pesky chest pains that doctors lead you to believe are heart attacks? Nope, all made up and all instantly curable by saying no. Just say no! I’ve never felt healthier in my life!
What is an addiction then? You could also say you have the choice to just quit smoking, quit drinking, quit drugs, quit eating unhealthy food or whatsoever. The point is that your brain is stronger then your "free will" when addiction overcomes you. Fighting this circumstance is something that you can do after you admit you have an addiction.
I disagree. Calling PMO an addiction is the plain and simple truth and by no means enables failure. If someone realizes "I have an addiction", they then have a choice of how they respond. Some people may say "I can't beat an addiction!", and that is foolish. But that's not inherently because they called it an addiction. I recognize PMO as an addiction, and that keeps me from underestimating the power that it actually has. I say to myself "This is an addiction, a major problem, and I need to put forth my best and strongest efforts to beat it". If you're reading this, recognize the facts. PMO is an addiction. That doesn't mean you can't beat it, it just means you're going to have to really fight through it.