Do porn blockers even help ?

Porn blockers are at best, a temporary fix. They become useless the minute you learn you can disable them or turn them off.

 

The reason they don't work, Is They don't change your mindset, they change something on the outside, while you are still thinking about the same stuff the moment you turn them off your NEVER going to turn it on again

 

They help, however not the solution. Use it and learn to develop self-control, blockers could be circumvented and then you fall. With self-control well developed, you won't need to be concerned with the need of a blocker.

 

In the midst of my battle I used blockers as well. As an ICT'er I was very smart in ways to walk around the blocker and got my p0rn thrill.
I created an own blocking system I could not bypass (with a physical key I brought to an external hired safe).
Problem was the 4G that I coukd not block.
Oh I did so many things so safe myself.
And I think for me these steps were necessary.

In the meantime I worked actively on my recovery (especially trauma processing).

Nowadays I don't use a blocker any more and the need to watch poisoning porn is gone.

You can try the app called Cold Turkey blocker. This app is able to block a device or an app completely for an amount of time. That can help. If you block your smartphone as soon as you know you wíll gonna watch p0rn, it gives you time to cool down, to call somebody etc.

 

At some point during the long abstinence, it eventually transforms from "I should quit P" to "I'm quitting P" to "I don't use P anymore". This took about a year of consistent trying for me. At that point, blockers are no longer necessary. However I still use blockers just incase there's one bad night and I want to use P again for some reason, then in that rare instance, the blockers would act as a good reminder.

Edit: During the initial stages of quitting P, blockers did help, but I did "unblock" the blockers when the cravings got really bad. During consistent trying though, the cravings eventually got weaker and weaker to the point that blockers are a reminder rather than a blocker.

 

No they don't help. What helps is ---> Cutting out ethernet cable/Wi-Fi in scheduled time.

 

One of the best things I've ever heard said about them is they should be viewed as road blockers - they won't stop you from looking at porn, but they will make you stop and think before you look at it. I've been critical of them in the past, but I'm in a porn rut right now and installed Safe Surfer on my phone. The trouble is it slowed my phone right down, so I got rid of it. I'm looking into other apps.

 

There's no mobile app unfortunately

 

I already tried some of them, but it didn't work for me. Firstly, I wouldn't rely in a software to block porn, since they aren't 100% effective, you can still see some images or video that have a certain degree of triggering content (women in bikini, tight clothes, etc.)

Also, their weakness is that you are always able to disable or uninstall them, they don't have good system to disallow you to bypass the security.

IMO the best thing you can do is limit the time spent on screens and filter what you follow and see on internet. The more time you spent offline and outdoors the better. If you don't use your phone/computer, there is no way to see triggering content.

 

Without question they help--provided that 1) you allow them to work the way they're supposed to, and 2) you view them as a tool that supports your recovery, and not some magic pill that will instantly cure your addiction.

I've heard so many people say "filters don't work" simply because they can circumvent the filter somehow. That's a bit like kicking in a locked door, and then concluding that locks don't work. But if you allow filters to function they way they're designed to, they can be very effective. I look at them as a speed bump. I see the "blocked site" page come up, and I'm reminded that I'm trying to make a positive change in my life. Can I just turn off the filter? Sure ... but it takes a few steps (and you can intentionally make those steps more difficult to get through), and if I turn it off, that isn't an indication that the filter doesn't work--it's an indication that I don't work, and that I need to develop a better understanding of just how much damage my addiction has caused.

I use Covenant Eyes on my laptop, but I just use the internal "ScreenTime" restrictions to block porn on my iPhone, and it works fantastically. It blocks 99% of what I need it to block, and I can whitelist/blacklist sites as necessary if there's ever an issue. Here's a video of how to set it up on iPhone:

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For me that was always the problem.
I'm happy that I now can live without blockers today. It seems that I solved my real problems and don't need p0rn any more.

P0rn blockers are a tool to give you more space to work on the real issues.

 

Ultimately, i want to just take the step and use a dumb phone for when i am outside and my PC for all internet activities, where it is easier to block this content with cold turkey. But dang it it would be such an inconvenience because of all the tools it can provide. Plus the real danger is when you are alone with your phone in private, so pretty much the opposite of public. My best bet right now is prohibiting myself if using my phone in the bedroom or bathroom

 

That will pass too amigo.
As a single I live alone, some days without seeing anyone. Without the need to grab the drugs.

It pray you will become able to do the same.

Peace!

 

Yeah, I did a flip phone for about 8 months.

Unfortunately, with my work (and I imagine with a majority of people these days) I really do need mobile e-mail.

I've thought to myself "Gosh it would be amazing if some company made a phone that could do calling, texts, e-mail, GPS, and music, and that's it." But then I realized how handy my airline/rideshare apps are ... and my banking apps ... and I just realized the answer is that *I* just need to be better about how I use my phone.

 

I wish Android had that. This morning, I spent about two hours going through blockers on the Play Store. Most of them are fancy apps full of all these extra features with expense subscription prices, when all I wanted was a basic filter.

BTW any Android user wondering, I went for is Truple Web Filter. Another good one is BlockerPlus which is a bit more advance but not over the top like the other apps.

 

In my experience the porn blockers did not help me. I would always find ways around them.

What helped me were boundaries, instead of blockers:
1. I don't take the phone to bed with me
2. I avoid casually browsing social media
3. I only use certain websites on the internet
4. And so on.

 

Porn blockers help you to find the time to cool your urges.
Blocke rX is a nice extension to chrome.
It allows the user to make an accountability partner and sends an email to that partner whenever you would bypass the blocking.
Involving trustworthy people in your recovery process definitely helps even if they dont know it.

 

for me they dont work. I just end up masturbating without porn or to youtube videos for example.