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Does anyone else find no P so much harder than No M/O?

Discussion in 'Porn Addiction' started by Deleted Account, Aug 15, 2018.

  1. On a good streak right now, but constantly a moment away from breaking it, not with masturbation (I have no desire to masturbate) but just craving P or even NSFW images like a junkie.

    Anybody who knows me on here will know I went the best part of 2 years in the past without masturbating, but even during that time I went back and watched porn every now and then.

    started my new streak with the intention of cutting out porn and even NSFW images that I would sometimes stare at for too long and I've stuck to it, but the cravings are there and knowing that it's 1 click away is scary.

    I went down the adult content blocker route in the past, and still found myself looking at pictures and even just hot girls on my social media. and cutting myself off from the digital world altogether I get so agitated that I end up leaving the house and flirting with hot girls and getting into trouble.

    does anyone else struggle way more with getting rid of porn, and find ditching the fapping the easiest part of this whole process?
     
    boborosso, RndyBm, Joshi and 2 others like this.
  2. I agree. I think it's easier to stay away from M and O than it is the P.
     
    HereAndThere and Amazing Athest like this.
  3. BadFarmer

    BadFarmer Fapstronaut

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    I have had a similar experience. My best streak was about 200 days without PMO, but in reality I did look at porn several times during that streak. It was odd, it was like just looking at porn would satisfy me to a degree. I suspect this is because porn has a drug-like effect all its own, apart from the orgasm. Just looking at porn seems to release a little dopamine in the brain.

    This actually makes a lot of sense thinking about it. Im remembering in the book "the power of habit" (Charles Duhigg) an experiment was performed on a monkey named Julio. When a shape was shown on a screen (que), Julio would pull a lever (action), and the observer would give Julio some juice (reward). This is the "habit forming loop," a que, an action, then a reward. The dopamine that was originally only released in Julios little monkey brain at the time of reward. But interestingly, over repetitive experiments they began to see dopamine release when he received the que, when he saw a shape. Similarly with PMO, when we have gone through the loop of several times, we don't just get dopamine from the orgasm (reward), but we get a little from the que (porn).

    Anyhow seems reasonable to me.
     
    Deleted Account likes this.
  4. The opposite for me. Porn is not my big problem. Keeping my hand off my D is.
     
  5. Not hard for me to avoid P. I just got back from vacation and there were bikinis and small tight clothes everywhere. I didn’t M but I really wanted to and that for me is tougher than staying away from P.
     
    Deleted Account likes this.
  6. SensualLettuce

    SensualLettuce Fapstronaut

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    Yeah, I somewhat expected it to. Since P led me to M which led me to O, I'd naturally expect the direct culprit of the habits to be the one most difficult to get over. From my experience, battling, repairing and changing mindsets are really hard and hence why fighting the urge of P is really difficult too do because it encourages me to feed into the ideas. It gets easier with time as usual but not without taking action and embracing healthier habits (meditation, exercise, etc.). Its gotten far easier for me though.
     
    Buddhabro likes this.
  7. I too find it really difficult. I would be triggered by something and go to anonymous sites and then see full blown P which would eventually lead to M and O. The 3 are so intricately linked and I have done M maybe after some hours but it definitely had to precede P. I have never gotten past a week without P and I am trying my best again to do so.
     
  8. I fully agree. In the past, I never fapped without the use of porn at the same time and whenever I feel urges and cravings, it's always the porn I'm "missing" and not fapping per se. I guess it's that novelty thing that makes porn so addictive to me.
     
  9. JJackson

    JJackson Fapstronaut

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    Its because the addiction is PMO so when you look at porn your mind continues to get part of what it wants and also keeps getting dopamine. Tons of guys have gone the opposite direction of you (myself included for a while) where they were able to stay away from porn easily but that was only because they kept MOing.

    Killing off everything is the only way to go, your mind doesn't repair when you half ass it and continue to do 1 of them (Sadly speaking from experience) you need to drop everything. Yes that will lead to screwing up more often but as you keep pushing it gets easier and you do better and better.

    Best of luck man! Stay strong!
     
  10. GuitarAfficionado

    GuitarAfficionado Fapstronaut

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    I feel the same way. MO was basically connected with P for me since I was 13 yo, so when I feel temptation to M, P always come together in my mind.. Most of the times, it is the P that I'm really craving. I can go on months (my highest streak was 168 days) without MO easily.. The problem for me really is the P. Too much wiring I guess.

    Keep going man, don't give up!
     
  11. Spectrum

    Spectrum Fapstronaut

    Well i disagree
    For me it is easy to stay away from P than M
    Maybe because i started P just 5 months ago
     
    GuitarAfficionado likes this.
  12. Jason_Tesla_19

    Jason_Tesla_19 Fapstronaut

    For me, only in the first week or so was the no-P more difficult than the no-MO. Now it's just the opposite! I'm about a month and a half in my reboot process now.
     
  13. newThom

    newThom Fapstronaut

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    I agree with you Questforgains.
    I find porn has been the hardest thing to give up. The cravings to watch P have been stronger the the cravings to MO. It’s the dopamine from watching P that we are craving. It’s obvious that more time is needed to reduce these cravings. I hope they go away at some point.
    Time will tell. Stay strong my friend and keep resisting those urges.
     
  14. Marcothebest_1995

    Marcothebest_1995 Fapstronaut

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    It's because going NoFap to cancel porn and other stuff means shooting the moon to get up to the mountain. You go very further than what you really want to do, so it gets easier.

    If you just want to go no porn, without avoiding masturbation or even indulging, you also have escalation effect, which makes stuff harder.
     
  15. RndyBm

    RndyBm Fapstronaut
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    I think as P in its nature is the addictive tool. Its the one that loops in your head constantly. Especially now, where most of the popular sites are utilising gifs and fast animation to really get inside your head and taunt you to find that clip or actress in that scene. So yes I would agree with you. Because, one doesn't have to fap with P. Its a choice. Its just seems like a "natural flow" to whip your D out when watching other people getting busy because that's how the subliminal programming works. And then over time, like many of us, we develop that relationship between P and M and they work hand in hand (no intended).

    But it can be different for many people. Sometimes M is the actual habit that needs to be broken, and sometimes its actually the way we have access to content that needs to change. I feel you when you say you sometimes just want to watch P without fapping. But just know, that's the addiction in us chasing that high of dopamine we get when we are seeing what we crave. And what we crave isn't good for us man. For me, It's those clips and scenes of those actresses of past scenes, that loops in my mind when I get really bad urges and jst want to see that actress get demolished again. But its the addiction whispering lies to you. Don't fall into that trap. Stay strong in your focus and in your journey dude! :)
     
    MotivatedProgrammer likes this.
  16. HereAndThere

    HereAndThere Fapstronaut

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    P is definitely harder. My longest streak without P is half of that without MO. Later on MO cravings become harder for me but that was never a problem without P. I follow this dude on Youtube and he sometimes flashes images of half naked attractive women in his videos. I wince when it happens, that P circuit in my head lights up and i feel the pattern reeling up. Its fucked up.
     
    MotivatedProgrammer likes this.
  17. Marcothebest_1995

    Marcothebest_1995 Fapstronaut

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    Focus more on self discipline mate. You can't avoid these images without living like a monk - which wouldn't be the best way of life, according to me
     
  18. HereAndThere

    HereAndThere Fapstronaut

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    Well i could indulge the pictures. I could think about them in my mind. I wince to break the pattern of that, thats discipline. But i dont think discipline will help me with that initial activation. I hope starving dopamine circuit will. I hope.
     
  19. itstimetoend

    itstimetoend Fapstronaut

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    I've got the same problem. It's not that stopping M&O is easy for me, but P poses the big problem in getting a real streak. After a while I get turned on by any picture of atractive women (like in commercials and stuff).
     
    RndyBm likes this.
  20. GuitarAfficionado

    GuitarAfficionado Fapstronaut

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    The triggers will always be there... always... They're biological.

    Our mission is to wire the brain in a way that makes us no longer a slave to that trigger, to wire it so we can consciously decide in what way we are responding to that.

    Stay strong brothers.
     

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