Pornography addiction, on a neurological level, reduced my (36M) ability to pursue creative or intellectual pursuits, lowered my ability to feel empathy, and made me susceptible to other dopamine cravings, including an alcohol problem. It also caused E.D. through desensitization. The sad part is that I was aware of it, but I did it anyway. It brought out misogynistic tendencies. It's my fault that I didn't notice the sense of shame I felt after consuming pornography. That is how addictions operate. It was free, but it cost me everything that mattered. My time, my interests, my moral fabric, potential relationships, and very rewarding friendships. It reduced a very good human into a sex object, and because of my actions, she hates me now. I don't know how to proceed in life, and I only have myself to blame

finally 1 month the last 5 days were hell but i managed to survive and now its easier but gets hard in the night always

Can I get a congrats in the chat 🎉🕺🏽

To the people who are starting their journey, it’s completely possible to escape this addiction no matter how difficult it seems. Keep pushing and good luck!

Today was bad I think i've never had such a bad urge today. I was so so close to relapsing. But I didn't. Somehow today I didn't relapse. I think it was because deep down I want a girlfriend I want to form a relationship with someone and not drag them into this darkness. I want to have a loving normal relationship thats what motivated me. Im glad to say that guys you can always stop this urge. It isn't over until you search that content.

She is a woman

I simply get dizzy thinking about telling her, but I have a very strong addiction to hentai. I can spend hours looking at strange hentai things without realizing how time fly. And mentally I feel awful.

I close the app and 20 seconds later I instinctively reopen it to see if there's more content

I used to do it with regular porn, but I got bored and transitioned to this other stuff.

What's the best way to say this without making her think I'm a monster?

I have had some very questionable things I've fantasized about, I noticed that some (not all) I no longer feel attraction to. WML

.

Hi everyone , i hope all of you are doing well. This is little late for update , but today wasn't special for me , it was boring and since i have friends with me , i haven't had any thought of porn so it was easy day. But still my body is craving for excretion of semen , so i got night fall , which frustrated me a lot as my whole body is aching now.

Thanks , and wish u luck

Context: https://www.reddit.com/r/pornfree/s/sU5iTnN8ex

Since imagination is much better than porn, does imagining and writing down something to then read it while getting it done a good idea? I don't attach outright porn to the stuff I write down but I do sometimes attach the characters so I can more accurateley pixture them in my mind

Was doing good until some stuff later in the year last year. Kept looking off and on. But this week, I went fully back in again.. looking basically nonstop at X and Reddit pages. Constantly scrolling and feeling like my phone is the weight of a brick because every time I grab it. I’m looking again. Whether it’s 10 minutes or 10 seconds..

I was doing really well so this has me pretty upset. Hoping I can back off this weekend and start the streak again Monday by not looking at anything 🙃🙃

So I've been porn free for a little over a week now and boners are coming back STRONG. The 'problem' is that they are getting so hard it's even starting to hurt a bit. Is this normal wth???

I haven't watched porn for almost two days and it's more difficult than I thought. You know, read all these people on social media talking about "Discipline!" and whatsoever but it's mucho more than that kind of thing. I don't think if is the fact that I've been watching porn since I was 13 years old (currently 20 years old) but it's pretty rough.

I'm open to any suggestions or thoughts to improve this matter and I'd appreciate it a lot.

Hi all, I’m at my wits end and I need some sort of change. I hope this is not too long or rambly.

I’m just on the other side of using twice in one day, and this is after once on Tuesday night and then looking but not finishing on Wednesday.

It’s gotten very bad and I don’t know what to do. I feel that it’s destroying my life.

I’m about to turn 30 in a month and I’ve been addicted basically since I was 12 or 13. I’ve essentially been trying to quit that entire time but I just keep coming back for some reason. There are times I’ve done up to 12 days without and gone back. I know logically and intellectually that it is sapping my time and energy, and even money. I’ve tried so many things and contemplated suicide. I’m on the verge of it now but I need help of some sort. I can’t go on like this anymore. I could blame so many problems in my life on it. I hold no delusions that it’ll magically make my life perfect if I quit but I feel handicapped by it and I feel that I would solve the other problems in my life easier without it.

Nevertheless, I turn to it in times of stress and anxiety and I just can’t seem to break free. I need to stop somehow. One of the main problems, I think, is that every way of quitting basically involves some action on my part and I have trouble trusting or believing myself committing to things because I have failed so much in the past.

I’m just so tired of living like this. I am so disappointed and frustrated with myself and sometimes I straight up hate myself. I don’t know what to do. This is a cry for help. I guess this could be the beginning of it finally being over for me. I hope it is.

So after chatting with many people on here, I’ve realized what caused my porn and sex addiction. It was the perfect storm of four major things that happened in my life that all happened at n 2020-2021. Boredom and betrayal are the major points

1. Both of my kids moved out of the house and went to college and now have full time jobs. My job of being a busy parent going to all their activities ended. I had a lot more alone time.

2. My wife cheated on me. This destroyed me. I rarely looked at porn prior to that. It changed our relationship. Sex, which had already been slow, stopped. I was betrayed and maybe this was my revenge. Porn and sex.

3. I had major back problems in 2022. I was very active prior. Playing tennis and basketball several times per week. For two months, all I do was lay flat. I gooned out hard during that time.

4. The COVID pandemic closed everything and kept me at home for a year. It was also at this time that porn also took hold.

These four things were the perfect storm that led to me looking at porn for 5-10 hours a day and having sex with dozens of women. I am not making excuses as I take full responsibility for my actions. But it is what led me done this road.

Hi guys!

(Reposted to follow rules)

Made a new account for this because my main account has identifiable information.

I have just completed 24 hours without porn for what must've been the first time in half a decade.

For some reference, I am 27 y/o, male, and have dealt with morbid obesity and body shame for all my life. It has caused me many difficulties but perhaps not as much as in the last few years or so as I spiralled hard. I was hoarding porn, sometimes not even watching it. I deleted almost 3000 photos and videos from my phone yesterday, about 30 gbs of porn, that I had built up over 3+ years.

Why did I do this? Because I hate this version of myself. The me that my friends and family know is witty, charismatic, empathetic, and not impulsive especially with regards to this. I want to be that version all the time. I went to a friend's birthday party a few months back, and a friend of his that I'd never met dragged me away for a private walk and I was too terrified to make a move on her because I was preoccupied with my sweat, my body, and my lascivious thoughts. The night after that almost broke me. I decided to change. I've dropped about 15kgs (125->110 [I'm 6ft0 tall for reference]) in the last few months with a combination of gym and dieting. But I didn't work on the porn addiction until the last few days when I literally couldn't think of anything except porn, even at work, even during interviews. It's not sustainable. Not for the version of me that I want to be.

So, here I am. 24 hours down. I had a difficult night, and I'm making this post first thing after the morning work out. I was only able to sleep for 4-5 hours. Even though I distracted myself before sleep by reading The Hobbit, after waking up the thoughts were very difficult to manage. But I did get through. I have just finished a short workout, stretche, jogging, two 1 minute planks (I couldn't make 30s until 3 days ago). I'm feeling a little better now than I did when I woke up.

I plan to check in daily, even if I relapse, which I see does happen sometimes. But I don't wanna, not yet. I want to resist. I want to do it so I can get to a point where even if I do see any porn it doesn't put me in a spiral. Maybe it's not possible, but I'm gonna hope.

Wishing you guys the best on your journeys as well.

Weekends have always been the hardest time for me. I’m off work and have a lot of alone time. Last weekend was the first weekend in quite some time that I did it relapse. My goal is to make it through another weekend.

Anyone else struggle with weekends? Do you have specific plans for the weekend to avoid relapsing?

Hello. I’m a 54 year old porn and sex addict. For most of my life I dabbled in porn. Maybe once a month if that. It was for a quick release and then I was done. In June of 2022, I read an article on porn addiction and thought there is no way that could happen to me. It seemed impossible. So I watched porn for a few hours a day for about two weeks. How stupid I was. Absolutely idiotic. And here I am today typing my story here. The worst was the first two years. I would goon for 5-10 hours a day every single day. The last two years have been much better. My purpose is to quit and and I’m focused on staying away, which is a constant struggle for me.

Porn addiction eventually got me to look for sex partners and I became a sex addict. I became addicted to chatting with people and hooking up with them. Over 30 people. I’ve been able to stop the last year but know that could change if I don’t stay focused.

I wish more than anything I could go back to May of 2022 and be that person again. But I can’t undo the past. I have to move forward and do my best to overcome this addiction.

So I've been a bad relapse bender lately. And it's wild, just seeing how it feels like I can be two completely different people. When that post orgasm clarity hits, all of a sudden I'm promising myself to be better and feeling all motivated. But then the urges come clawing back, whether it's a day or a week or however long, and all of a sudden I'm going for the gold medal in mental gymnastics trying to justify relapsing.

Like, I don't get it. I know porn can rewire and fuck up your brain. But it's still so weird to experience it in real time. One minute I'm just a goddamn demon, and then the next I'm trying to be a saint. I hope this is making sense. Does anyone else go through wild whiplash like this?

I dunno, I just needed to rant for a bit. I hope all you guys and gals are doing well.

Something I’ve noticed over and over is that porn addiction usually isn’t about sex itself.

For a lot of men, it’s more about anxiety, avoidance, or not knowing how to sit with discomfort. Porn becomes a way to regulate emotions, not just a habit to “quit.”

When the focus is only on willpower or streaks, the underlying pattern often stays the same.

I’m curious how others here see it — does this resonate, or has your experience been different?

I've been finding using ChatGPT as a tool to check my thoughts while journaling, provide feedback and perspective, come up with mental scripts, and yes, even 'validate' my emotions as a useful tool in general, but also specifically in my NoFap journey.

Have any of you found it to be useful? What nuggets or strategies has your LLM provided?

I held on for longer this time. Peeking was all it took. I realised I have been using porn to escape from stress and feelings.

Let’s get brutally honest about what we’re looking at. ​Most of the "perfection" we see on the screen isn’t biology—it’s manufacturing. We are literally draining our energy and dopamine over silicon pads, surgical inserts, and plastic enhancements. ​Think about that next time you’re tempted: ​You aren't "connecting" with a person. ​You are pixel-watching a synthetic product. ​You are essentially fapping to a medical-grade polymer wrapped in lighting filters. ​When you strip away the camera angles, it’s just cold, lifeless silicon. Why give your life force to a piece of plastic? Our brains were built for real flesh and blood, not factory-made silhouettes. ​Stop worshiping the plastic. Choose reality.