It can be hard to notice the improvements in the midst of them; as time passes, I gain more clarity. Last year I was a wholly negative, porn-stricken mess. I thought I could never break out of my porn habit and that I would be lonely and ashamed for the foreseeable. In the end, I sat down and made changes. Got on meds for acne, started lifting, keeping myself and my surroundings neat and tidy, checking in here frequently, and reading.
I’m in my early twenties. Started NoFap probably about a year ago. I’m doing the so-called ‘easy mode’ because porn is the real problem for me, as opposed to imagination-only masturbation (which I try to avoid anyway). I found that I was coming home every day and using porn to de-stress and avoid problems. In the end, I was being falsely satiated by porn and had little motivation to pursue women; whenever I did have success with them, I would be clingy and very attuned to even the slightest whiff of rejection (same when talking to themon or just using Tinder). Porn took up too much time and I always hated myself after it. Life is better now.
3 weeks porn-free and she said yes when I asked her out. She said yes. Second date has been set up. This time last year, I would have been gorging on porn and lonely as fuck. I’m learning not to objectify women and not to put them on pedestals (learning/relearning very slowly, that is). Despite this, I’ve been so horny recently and was very tempted to look at porn, to the point where I was Googling real-life erotic experience stories. Almost fell down the porn warren again but stayed away, thankfully.
I am doing this for no woman. I need to learn self-discipline and self-confidence and assertiveness, which I often lack. My life is so much better without porn. I don’t care about NoFap’s detractors; this subreddit is life-changing. I still have things I’m working on-I need to stop looking up and caring about celebrities, I need better discipline in avoiding Facebook and Instagram etc. But this check-in is primarily to give hope to others who are enmeshed in porn addiction. I relapsed countless times and it was getting to the point where I was considering how to fit porn into my life because I believed I could never get out. I’m going to keep going.
LINK – 3 weeks porn-free and she said yes when I asked her out
;