Hey!! 20 year old newbie here.

Hey there, I have gone through much the same, been addicted for over 10 years. I started experiencing real progress once I learned to stop hating myself, but see myself as I would a close friend that goes through the same ordeal. What would you say to that friend? What would you do for them? Do not linger much on your failures and relapses. Think, identify what made you stumble, see what you can do to avoid it then move on. Never let your guard down, don't grow overconfident. You can do this!

 

Welcome. Glad you are here.

Take some time to read the reboot material (available here => http://www.nofap.com/getting-started) and come up with a plan for what you will do when you are faced with urges. It has good advice, so don't skip it!

Perhaps start writing a journal - if you feel comfortable telling people about happened and what's going on now, you will start to feel accountable to them. You may even inspire others. It's a nice feeling! This will help your recovery.

Also, try to add something into your life that makes you the kind of person who doesn't engage in PMO. Think about doing:
Something you enjoy
Something you're good at
Something important
Something for somebody else, without thought of reward (and if you DO get an unintended reward, do something ELSE, perhaps for a different person or group).

Read the journals of others - we all learn from each other. For example, I received the above good advice from a far moreexperienced member of the community who shared his knowledge. Don't just stay within your own age group or part of the world. Share your knowledge in a respectful way.

This is a great post about what lies ahead of you during the reboot. https://www.nofap.com/forum/index.php?threads/time-to-be-done-with-this.140257/page-26#post-1442099

This is a fantastic way to explain what you'll be feeling during your reboot.
https://www.nofap.com/forum/index.php?threads/club-dopamine.101129/

Read, learn, apply.

Look around the forums, get to know people. Everyone is friendly, and will try to support you. We're all in the same boat here.

Be kind to others and others will be kind to you, both here and IRL.

I wish you a successful reboot.

 

Aaaaand I just noticed your username Atra esterni ono thelduin my friend

 

Sounds like you mean business. Good luck and stay close to this site.

 

Hi @EragonShadeslayer
Welocome to forum.
The harmful effects of PMO is true there. We, people in the forum, all know the PMO can bring brain fog, lack of motivation, lack self-esteem, inability to focus on, and so on. But, you don't need to worry. You can recover from the drawbacks mentioned above through nofap. I have some information for you to stay on nofap. I hope you will get confident and motivated from it. Never give up
A success story, talking about how he overcome PMO.
A YouTube vid, explaining how addiction work.
An article, reading the benefits of nofap.
A human version of rat park

All the best

 

Hi. Welcome to forum!

Make sure you create a personal journal thread in Reboot Logs section and blog there on a regular basis. As well as just generally be active participant in various forum discussions. I recommend this to everybody new here because it's the major thing that helped me when I was first starting. Just lurking on forums, reading and learning is great. But it usually is so much more powerful to engage. It helps to keep us motivated and accountable when we are active part of community. And keeps this in front of our minds so we don't forget about importance of it and slip away in our old habits. Sharing is also therapeutic. This is a major reason why AA meetings work so good. But that was developed before internet era. These days we can get most of the same benefits online through communities like this. So don't underestimate the power of active participation.

I would also like to suggest you to look into mindfulness meditation. It has helped me personally tremendously to learn how to deal with urges and triggers. It takes a while to get good at it and notice results, so you need to be consistent with it, but once you do it's very powerful. It has been used by sages for thousands of years to deal with various issues of the mind. And in recent decades the science is also catching up to what ancient sages have know for centuries. Meditation these days are widely used as very effective tool by psychologists for treating addiction and by neurologists for supporting recovery of the brain. It is a great exercise for the brain the same way as jogging is great exercise for the body. Check out this Ted talk, it gives a good idea of what's it about when it comes to philosophy. As far as practical side of it there is this awesome smartphone app called Headspace for guided meditations to get you started.

Wish you lot's of strength and success in your reboot journey!

 

I love myself today! I am clean inside and out. I have 21 days of feeling good about myself. This is such an incredible boost to my spiritual growth! Thank you all!

 

@Nadamotain, glad you're doing so well!

All the best!