What if I were to tell you that your phone is home to the world’s most addictive drug? That drug is pornography.
So many men today struggle with pornography addiction—this person might be you or someone you know. We don’t see porn addiction making news headlines because many of us are ashamed and would rather hide our secrets than have an awkward conversation with a therapist.
Here is why desexualizing your brain is the ultimate key to success.
Elizabeth Plumptree from Verywellmind wrote, “Statistics on porn addiction vary by source, but one study estimated that porn addiction affects approximately 3 to 6% of adults. It is viewed more by young adults, with men viewing it more frequently than women.”
Many people overlook the seriousness of porn addiction because they view it as insignificant and unworthy of attention. However, it’s why many men can’t look a woman in her eyes, have low self-esteem, and lack self-respect. Men think emptying their bank accounts for “exclusive” content online will make them happy, only to regret their decision afterward.
If you’re currently struggling, there is good news for you. Just like any addiction, porn is curable, and it all starts with believing in yourself.
In today’s article, we’ll be discussing six steps you can take to snap the chains of porn addiction, keeping you incompetent.
1. Be busy
We open porn in the first place because of urges, which develop when we think about sex. When we have sexual tendencies, it feels like we’re fighting for our lives because of how enticing these urges are.
One of the best ways to get your mind off porn is to by occupying yourself with tasks and to-do’s. When you have a full day ahead of you, it becomes harder to find time to watch porn. You make yourself so busy that your mind doesn’t have time to wander off and think about sex.
Organize your chore list, make time to invest in learning a new skill, or spend time with your family. Whatever you decide to do, you’ll be keeping your mind occupied by doing something. Though this won’t prevent sexual thoughts from emerging, it’s still a great way to lead your mind away from sex.
By keeping yourself busy, you reduce how many sexual urges you get while being incredibly productive. With this productivity, you could work on your goals, which serves a powerful long-term benefit in the end.
2. Identify and remove triggers
Like all addictions, there tends to be a source that triggers our urge to engage in these behaviors. Maybe it’s TikTok or the models you’re following on Instagram; either way, identifying the sources will prevent that urge from sparking in the first place.
Once you’ve identified your triggers, the best course of action is to exterminate them. Unfollow all Instagram models, or even better, delete the app completely.
If you’re curious why you should delete social media, I encourage you to read this article here.
It’s like a plumber fixing a water leakage. First, he must know where the water is leaking, so he can effectively work around the issue.
You’re reading this article because you want to overcome your porn addiction. If you don’t take action now, how will you get better at abstaining from porn?
3. Surround yourself with people
Surrounding yourself with others is another tactic that helps you get your mind off porn. When you’re genuinely having fun with friends and family, you’re desire to watch porn diminishes. Likewise, joining a community of people on the same journey as you is helpful because you have a supportive group at your fingertips.
Surrounding yourself with friends and family is a great way to overcome your pornography addiction because it makes you more human. By that, I mean you feel alive by communicating with each other, which is a natural human behavior. Locking yourself in your room and pleasuring yourself to a screen is something our ancestors would frown upon.
4. Meditation
Yes, we’ve all thought meditation was insignificant at some point, but there are many health benefits from meditation. Some of them are:
- Reduce stress
- Lower blood pressure
- Reduce depression
Ultimately, what you gain from developing a habit of meditation includes:
- Emotional control
- Patience
- Self-awareness
When you meditate, you reduce how often your mind wanders by directing your focus back to your breath. At first, it seems counterintuitive, but the practice of consistently catching your mind wandering off and returning to your breath will help you overcome your sexual urges. It takes time to master but the more you practice, the better you get.
By meditating, you’re able to catch yourself whenever a sexual thought emerges and alleviate it before it becomes an issue. It’s natural to think about sex, but keeping it under control will give you the strength to stop yourself from typing P-O-R-N into the search bar.
Urges are typically the reason why we visit porn in the first place; thus, being able to recognize them will help you manage these urges.
5. Don’t be too hard on yourself
Removing a habit you’ve been doing for years requires time and consistency because of how long you’ve programmed your mind to accept this habit as the norm. It’s like forcing a lion to eat plants; lions have been eating zebras, gazelles, and wildebeest since they were born, so how do you force them to eat plants?
Chances are, you’ve probably been struggling with this addiction for a long time. It isn’t something to be ashamed of because we were all struggling at some point. If you wish to overcome your addiction for good, you must understand that it’s not going to be easy.
Instead of running away from this challenge, embrace it and use it as an opportunity to grow. That being said, if you fail at some point, pick yourself back up and learn how you can better yourself next time. Forcing yourself to strive for perfection will only make failure feel more brutal, which can work in the opposite direction, as you’re less likely to want to continue quitting your addiction afterward.
Remember to celebrate your small wins, believe in yourself, and know that I’m rooting for you.
6. Work on yourself
As previously stated, occupying your mind is the best way to overcome your addiction because that’ll reduce how often you think sexually. The same applies to working on improving yourself. When you’re busy working to better yourself every day, why would you want to watch porn?
Incorporating healthier habits into your daily routine, such as exercise and meditation, will keep you busy, distracting your mind away from porn.
Working to improve yourself would be the equivalent of rolling a bowling ball down a hill. At first, the bowling ball starts slow but gradually picks up speed using momentum. As you work to improve yourself by going to the gym, meditating, etc., you’ll pick up momentum and won’t want to slow down. In other words, this momentum makes pornography less appealing because you’ll find yourself better off investing that time and energy into your growth.
