Is it better to stop immediately or go at your own pace?

I think with this kind of addiction the only way to go is to cut it off completely(cold turkey).

 

I think to make a successful reboot you need 90 days off to deprive the non-healthy pathway in the brain from nutrition and return back to the normal ones.

 

For me, I tried that an found the more I fed the temptation the more wanted it so I was completely abstain to cut it off because 'treating' yourself could end up you making it harder for yourself rather than easier. That's my opinion, hope it helps

 

I would start with cutting out Porn. With this you will automatically reduce Masturbation. Do this long enough and then you are ready to cut out Masturbation. Cold Turkey is fine but most people will probably relapse at some point which is absolutely ok. They complained that they are missing something. With my way you don't have this feeling of missing out.

 

I tried to quit for two years and kept failing with the cold turkey approach. The truth is it's a lot to ask of yourself to quit everything at once. I broke my main goal down into smaller goals.
My first goal is to go 75 days without jerking off to porn. However I still look at it if I feel an impulse. Not for long, just a few minutes and turn it off again every 3rd day or so. I know I'm not gonna relapse because I've decided not to. What's cool about this is that I'm not afraid of triggers. They don't change my decision to quit like they used to when I went cold turkey. Also I still masturbate to my fantasy when I can't see my gf.
After 75 days I will also stop looking at it. First for 20 days, then I'll extend. It's very useful psychologically to make clearly defined goals where you know the rules, instead of giving yourself indefinite timelines. Basically you help your own reward system to motivate you to stick with the goal.
The key is to build motivation and positive emotion and witness yourself succeed at your own goals, which builds confidence. Rather than witnessing yourself relapse over and over because you think cold turkey is the only way out. Relapsing many times is very bad because you stop trusting yourself to do what you say you'll do.

Everyone here needs to figure out on their own how to tackle their problems, I found my way to work like a charm so far. Of course I did a lot of self-analysis beforehand and I made manyf experiences what relapses mean in the past two years. That helps a lot to stick with my decision. But at the end of the day it's just that, stick with your choice, stop questioning yourself. If you have to fight your urges in your head you're doing it wrong. That only means you're not sure of what you actually want.

 

wow great congratulations yeyeyeye!

 

I’d say try cold turkey , see how long U will last , the problem with addiction is that u think that u will control it but that’s impossible

After a week , u will feed your brain just peek dopamine . If it did not get enough dopamine hits , it will keep asking for more . U will get more urges after a relapse , than urges when u still haven’t PMO’d

 

I was thinking about your method as well. I would rather keep my libido up instead of going into flatline by at least MO with a girl that I’m seeing. The problem is stopping from escalating into the porn is all. It seems like your doing a great job and probably do not have as many withdraw symptoms as others. I think for myself and others that have been addicted for long need to weaken the pathways entirely for awhile. The flatline sucks but the libido comes back slowly though...

 

Libido is a difficult subject. Decreased sensitivity through excessive porn and MO has definitely it's influence. And the best remedy for that is obviously to not touch yourself for a while. But I think the phenomenon of flatline is more complex than that. I've had a lot of sex in the past 4 month and I could observe how my focus and my lust shifted towards "sex triggers" rather than "porn triggers" if that makes sense. It wasn't always easy adjusting to that new reality of being aroused by a girl rather than porn. So sometimes it felt like I was flatlining, but I realized several times it had to do with the way I saw sex. Aka too much thinking not enough feeling.
When I had sex before quitting I had to fantasize a lot while fucking to keep myself erect. I also used to get soft several times during sex. That all changed. I can now enjoy the full moment and how she is rather than a mental image, plus I have stable boners. ^^' I found having a gf a great help to quit btw because it helps showing my brain what I'm supposed to enjoy instead of porn and how much better it is.