CXLI Several family crises going on, spending every day visiting hospital or nursing home, so posting will be intermittent. My intention from the beginning was to post every day unless life intervened. Feel pretty stoic about it, although basically everything has hit the fan at once, the perfect storm. Libido is basically on flatline, too busy to worry about self-abuse. Definitely opportunities for growth here, so I'm grateful.
To obtain the Νìκη των ηδονονων, the victory over the pleasures (of life), I am back here. I was reading a beautiful book, "The name of the rose", which I suggest you to read, and I finally realised it, how much time I lost in search of ηδονη. This is the final take. I'm going for it.
I added video gaming and viewing the news to my noPMO commitment shortly after I started my current streak. I was using these as escapes from work responsibilities. Giving up gaming was easy for me, but news was a lot more of a struggle. I haven't viewed the news for at least a couple months now. My mind seems more peaceful as a result. I do stay minimally informed by tuning into National Public Radio from time to time, which is working well enough for me.
I keep hearing from people like you who were porn-free for a pretty long period of time, then went off the nofap forums for awhile, probably because they figured they had changed and didn't need a support group anymore. Then came back because they either relapsed or started to feel they were slipping. I get the impression that sexual addiction either takes a very long time to cure, or it is like alcoholism where there really is no cure, you just stay in recovery mode for the remainder of your life.
Day 3- So I used the Four Ds relapse prevention strategy again yesterday and it worked supremely well. At this moment, I don't feel strong urges but I will still rehearse the 4Ds. I want it to be a strong habit that I can call upon at any given time when those inevitable powerful cravings hit. My confidence that I had built in my previous streaks is still there. Today, I was able to talk to people with a measure of confidence and it felt good. In essence, a relapse does not necessarily erase previous progress unless one enters a binge cycle.
Have you read Goggin's book? This guy is insane....insane in a positive way. The things he did to callous his mind to be mentally indestructible is just beyond words. I don't think his methodology is for everyone though.
That’s exactly it mate. One little slip get back on nofap and pull the reigns back! Every day clean is a triumph
That has to be a personal choice for each of us. Some nofappers commit to no porn, but still MO. Others commit to no PM, but still have sex/orgasm. I don't plan to ever go back to masturbation. Sex would depend on whether I got into a relationship. If that happened I would adjust my commitment to just no PM.