I’m on day 39 now, and after the first 2 weeks I feel like it’s been easier than ever before.
Granted, my addiction wasn’t very bad, I only used like twice a week. But I hated how I felt, because I am in a serious relationship and I was hiding it from her for years. Prior to this new streak, I had been clean for 3ish weeks. But after a particularly shameful relapse on March 1st, I decided that I was never going to use again, and I was going to take actual measures (not just mentally saying “don’t do it!”) to curb my PMO forever.
1. Accountability Partner.
That very day, I called a close friend of mine and told him about my situation. I asked him to be my accountability partner through this. I was scared of his reaction, but he was receptive, supportive, and even offered to join me in the reboot. Every day after a win (a whole day with no porn), I text him a checkmark emoji, and he does the same. Now I know that if I fuck up, I will be letting him down. It’s a great motivator when I get tempted.
2. Spin Browser to lock down your phone.
Spin Browser is an iPhone browser like Safari except it has built-in web restrictions, and has an option to disable all images. I LOVE this feature because most of my “traps” that I used to fall into were random ads/images with somewhat sensual connotations. Eliminating all images is a gamechanger. Slightly inconvenient but oh well, it’s the price to pay. ALSO important, I removed Safari and all other browsers.
3. Plucky extension to lock down your computer.
Some people recommend the full installation of Plucky, but I just use the Plucky Lite extension, it works very well for me. With the default settings, all images and videos are blocked. Also, there are premade configurations that block a lot of porn websites. You can add your own rules if you know certain sites that tempt you.
4. Go piss.
Literally. Sometimes when I’m “horny” and feel tempted to do something, I just leave my devices where I am, and go pee. Usually, I just had to pee and the horny feeling was a side effect. Really weird tip but it works for me.
5. Sober Time app on iPhone.
I use this app to see how many days I’m on every once in a while. It’s been a nice reminder to have on my phone of the constant mission I’m on.
I’ll check in after a few more months and post another update. I feel pretty strong and motivated to continue forever.
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