Quit Pornography and Masturbation Warm Turkey over a 7 Month Period
One way to quit a pornography addiction is cold turkey. However, this can lead to relapses followed by binge consumption. Abruptly quitting your addiction may not be best suited to you, so this seven-month plan is designed to reduce the chance of any relapse.
Contents
Steps
- Make a list of habits you want to break and pair them with habits you want to form. When it comes to breaking bad habits, united they stand and divided they fall. You need to be able to fill in the void left from a habit, or else you'll feel some emptiness in your heart (and routine). List all of your bad habits on paper and pair them with habits you want to form.
- Separate masturbation and pornography from each other. Use a timeframe of two months, and cut this period of two months into four parts.
- For the first part, never masturbate and watch pornography at the same time. Have at least a five-minute gap between the two so that your mind can learn to decouple both habits.
- For the second part, eliminate masturbation and be sure to limit your pornography sessions to 15 minutes three specific days of the week (e.g. Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays).
- For the third part, eliminate pornography and limit masturbation to the same three days of the week.
- For the fourth part, repeat the second part. At this point, your mind will have sufficiently separated masturbation and pornography and will be prepared for you to cut out pornography forever.
- Stop pornography forever.
- Cut out all sources that trigger you to want to use pornography.
- Install a free internet filtering service (like K9 protection). This greatly reduces unwanted exposure to pornography.
- Remember that many of the people involved in pornography are victims of abuse, and by using pornography you are perpetuating the demand for pornography and their abuse.
- Control masturbation over a three-month period. Use the time you aren't masturbating to work on improving other aspects in life (such as the good habits you wanted to form).
- Limit yourself to mornings on three specific days of the week. At first it will be hard if you used to masturbate many more times a week, but towards the end of the three months it will become easier.
- Wean yourself off of masturbation.
- Spend one month limiting yourself to two days of the week (Tuesdays and Fridays). This helps increase your confidence level.
- Afterwards, spend one last month limiting yourself to masturbation only on one day of the week (Tuesdays).
- Finish off all of the bad habits on your list and develop all of your good habits (e.g. showering and brushing your teeth twice a day).
- Stop masturbation forever. Use your newly gained confidence to break free of this secret habit. Take the time to review the gains you've accomplished over the last seven months, and give yourself a healthy treat and a pat on the back.
Tips
- It is possible to stop masturbation without a significant other.
- If you ever have children, insert filters on your computers to prevent them from unwanted pornography.
- Church groups, community centres, and counselors may be able to help with pornography addiction.
Warnings
- Should you have qualms about quitting both habits, prioritize quitting pornography over masturbation. Pornography causes the most changes to your brain's reward circuitry. In other words, don't use relapsing to masturbation as an excuse to use pornography, since that will drill the nail into the coffin.
- Don't let involuntary wet dreams alter your schedule or discourage you.
- You may experience some headaches due to your brain being confused and changing itself.
