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Not sure what to do

Discussion in 'Partner Support' started by cbh11, Mar 19, 2019.

  1. cbh11

    cbh11 New Fapstronaut

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    Hello!
    I’m new to this site. I am needing someone to talk to who understands where I’m coming from and can help me understand my boyfriends porn addiction. We started out as best friends about a year and a half ago. We became an official couple about 4 months ago. When I met him, he was homeless. Either sleeping in his car or crashing on a different couch every night. He was on drugs really bad. He had the attitude that he couldn’t wait to go back to jail because he didn’t have to worry about anything in there. He was headed down a terrible path. I helped him get his life back together. He now holds a steady manager job, got rid of all his no good friends, is completely drug free, and is doing great. I’m so super proud of him. But, for the past month or so, we have been fighting about his porn addiction. I knew he had an addiction, and for the first 3 months, I didn’t really say anything. But it started getting to me more and more. Especially because he was not showing me any kind of sexual attention at all. Nothing. He wouldn’t have sex with me, he wouldn’t touch me, he wouldn’t even let me do anything to him. I’ve expressed my feelings about it and how it makes me feel over and over. He said he was going to try to stop watching it. Ended up finding out that he doesn’t like sex a lot. And that a big part of it is because he doesn’t last long and he doesn’t want to disappoint me. I kept telling him that I wouldn’t be disappointed. That I wanted sex with him and only him. That I don’t even need to get off, but I just wanted to be intimate with him sometimes. Well I looked at his phone one night while he was in the store, and I saw he had just watched it again that day. He got back in the car and I didn’t say anything. Later on that night, I asked him how his no porn situation was going, and he said good, he hasn’t watched it at all. I asked him if he was lying and he said no, and he even offered up a pinky promise (which is a big thing for us). He pinky promised me and I immediately felt sick. I told him I didn’t want dinner, that I wasn’t hungry anymore. He knew something was wrong. He kept asking if he did something. I just got dressed because I was going to go for a drive (something I do when I get stressed). But I stopped and started crying. I looked at him and told him I couldn’t believe he looked me straight in the face and lied to me. Even broke a pinky promise. Told him he knows I have trust issues, and how I trusted him, and I don’t know how I could even trust him again now. Things were not okay for a couple of days. He kept saying sorry, and how he felt so bad, and how he doesn’t even know why he lied, but he instantly felt bad. I ended up telling him we would work through it. Because I love him, and I know he has an addiction and I know that he knows he has an addiction and he doesn’t know how to stop it. Well, I ended up finding that he watched the same exact porn video two days later. The day I finally forgave him and thought we were working things out. We came to a solution that every time he wanted to watch porn, he would have to show me some kind of affection. He agreed. Two days later, he had already broken his promise. He admitted to watching porn and then four or five days went by, and he still hadn’t shown me any kind of sexual affection. We’ve sat down and talked multiple times about this situation. And I thought I had finally gotten through to him. Because he started showing me sexual attention and affection, and even had me go buy him some enhancement pills. Insisted that I get them. So we could both be happy sexually. We tried them, it was supposed to work in an hour and it didn’t. But he was ready to have sex with me almost 24 hours later. I was super happy. Then, the next morning, he wanted to have sex again. Well right in the middle of it, he went down and couldn’t get it back up. All he said was “well that was a good try”, and then he got frustrated over it. I kept telling him it was okay. We would figure it out. It’s not a big deal. Well it wasn’t a good day for both of us that day, had a lot going on, but the porn fight got brought up again. We talked more about it and talked about maybe just splitting up and moving on. Ended up telling me last night that he watched porn against yesterday. Neither one of us want to leave each other, but we don’t know how to fix this. He wants his porn and he doesn’t think he will ever be able to stop. But he said he is going to get another cell phone that he can only talk and text on, no internet so he can’t watch it because he is tired of seeing me upset over it and tired of putting me through this. I told him he didn’t have to do that because I want him to be happy. And if porn makes him happy, then I will just find a way to deal with it. My problem is, I literally don’t know how to deal with it. I’ve never met a guy that doesn’t want to have sex with his girlfriend or let his girlfriend get him off. I’ve never met anyone like this so I literally don’t know how to deal with it. It would be different if he watched porn and still wanted to do sexual things with me. But he doesn’t. And it makes me feel absolutely terrible. Makes me feel like there is something wrong with me or I’m not good enough. I’ve told him all of this and he said that’s absolutely not true at all. He just has an addiction to porn. I don’t know what to do. Any advice will help. I just don’t want to be so hurt over it all the time. I would love for him to be able to do what makes him happy, and me not worry about it so much. But it’s all I think about. I’m always wondering if he is at home doing it again or at work doing it again, or I always have urges to check his phone and I don’t want to be like that. Please help!
     
  2. EyesWideOpen

    EyesWideOpen Fapstronaut

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    Im so sorry you are going through this. Looking at your story and his multiple addictions, it seems his problems stem from something very deep. You cannot be his fixer.

    He needs a 12 step program, maybe more than one for his different addictions, and a good therapist. I would recommend a CMAT.

    For you, I would suggest getting the book, Codependent No More by Melody Beatty.

    It's a long road and you'll find a lot of support here. You are not alone.
     
    cbh11, hope4healing and RobbyGo36 like this.
  3. Numb

    Numb Fapstronaut

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    I'm sorry you're going through this. It's hard, impossible if they are not truly willing to put the work and effort in.

    A couple of things that stand out to me. One you say 'And if porn makes him happy, then I will just find a way to deal with it'. I spent a long time trying to accept and get over my boyfriend PMO'ing. A very long time, probably over ten years. You know what that got me? More and more depressed, more distance between us and me wanting to just not wake up anymore I was that depressed. Over a year ago I was ready to leave, he's been clean since. As for the first part of that quote, it may or may not be making him happy. But even if it is would you tell an alcoholic to keep drinking because it makes them happy? It is an addiction and isn't healthy. Not for them or their SO.
    You can help and support him but it has to come from him, he has to want to give it up, heal and get better. He needs to look inside himself to see where these addictive tendencies come from.
     

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