What keeps you from relapsing?

Whenever I manage to go for a long streak, the thing that keeps me going is the memories of all the other times I've relapsed and how crappy I've felt afterwards.

 

For me it's the Lego mosaic I'm building as a physical/visual counter. I have a design for it but I really want to finish the mosaic. Any time I think about relapsing, I just remember how terrible it would be to take up all the tiles I've already put on the mosaic and start over. It's a much better way of visualizing my progress. When I am simply counting days, I easily relapse thinking "No big deal, it was just time that passed." This way, I'm actually constructing something and literally building towards a goal, rather than counting days as they pass by.

 

What LegoT said. I do something similar. Every morning before I leave my room and face the day, I take a quarter from my change jar and put it in an existing arrangement on dedicated shelf. I have three full rows right now.

 

The idea of "failing" and lying to myself makes me wanna puke. Even in my dream. Everytime I had a wet dream I woke up only because I thought I already had relapsed and was just plainly mad at me. Also when I'm in immediate danger of relapsing I convince myself that I'm not doing it for me but for the Bianca, the singer which the interview made me started NoFap. I only can doing this by stopping to think, it's hard to explain. Also I don't know I look back and I've never been happier and I told myself I had already quit the 5th day or so so it wouldn't even be RELEVANT to relapse, because I already quit. A heroin addict doesn't inject shit in his blood if he has already recovered. Same for me.
More causally I found that setting a ritual before going to bed really helped. Keeping my head busy, getting tired and losing weight at the same time.


But I never relapsed so I can't really tell how to avoid it.
I prefer prevention to healing I guess.

Stay strong guys.

 

For me what's keep me stronger is, I want to be free from all the negative feelings that I feel after PMOing
I don't wanna be slaved by this addiction,
PMO has affected my social life, my carrier, my health and my religion, so when I look back I don't wanna live the same as I had the last 10 years.
What helps me too is that I try to convince my self before the urges get so stronger, that I don't need to PMO or even to have sex to be happy.
And also that I think having sex with the person you love its gonna be muuuuch better , and I don't wanna ruin that by PMOing.

 

For me, it's the fact that I have never been this long without fapping, I nearly relapsed tonight, after looking at an adult contact site, just to see how it would effect me, big mistake!
If I relapsed, I would just be going back to familiar territory, and not getting stronger.Self mastery is rewarding.

 

What keeps me from relapsing is by doing anything that distracts you and steers you away from porn. Hanging out with friends, playing sports, and listening to music, and more, are the things that i love doing, and by doing the things i love keep me away from porn. If you need any help, feel free to reply to my Journal thread or pm me. Stay strong.

-Tony

 

I like using a counter here. I definitely feel like it provides some motivation and I can keep track.

 

I like this quote. Taking control of me is a big motivational factor. I control me, and not the other way around (if that makes any sense

 

the idea that my dreams will no longer seem impossible or hindered by this disease

 

"It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles." -The Buddha

 

Sham, welcome to nofap and the best thing on earth. This is a tough gig you signed up for. Do not underestimate the hard work, and do not underestimate your ability to conquer this elephant, one day at a time. You are here for a reason, probably to grow, to heal, to recover, to create a new you. There are probably another 1,000 guys age 25 that look at nofap and laugh and move on to continue looking at porn, continue masturbating and feeling like crap afterwards, continue degrading women, and it somply does not get better with some hard determination and work.

OK, so you admit you need to learn. There are some experts on this site that you will want to find out and read their posts and learn learn learn. You can identify them because they have over 500 posts. They have big numbers on their counter. They encourage. They provide good links to other threads or other websites to give you more. Their name is Mark. Their name is William. There are others also.

Start here: http://www.nofap.org/forum/showthread.php?2402-Get-educated-get-tools-and-learn-to-love-withdrawals

Also spend time on ybop and listen to video after video and radio programs after radio program.

Also start a journal and really journal. Write about you. Write about your past, how you got here, where you want to go, what your daily struggle might be, share daily success stories, encourage others.

Get some friends. Get an accountability partner. There are so many people here. We are all the same. We are all different. We have the same struggles. We use different tools to get through those struggles.

Sex is great. Sex stinks. My goal is to get rid of the stinky sex in my life and only partake in great sex, which is any sex with my wife. It has taken my 21 years of marriage to get here, but I am here and here is where I will forever stay.

Welcome aboard. Looking forward to following your story and your success.

FW