3 ms·

I've tried quitting either for years, very much addicted. Or at least a very strong coping mechanism. If you're anything like me, it's more or less impossible

by pornthrow2018 9y ago

I've tried quitting either for years, very much addicted. Or at least a very strong coping mechanism. If you're anything like me, it's more or less impossible to quit one and have the other. Watching porn will eventually lead to masturbation and vice versa. I've recently tried taking the half-measure of exclusively audio pornography (/r/gonewildaudio) - in an effort to see if I notice any changes in my perception of women or anything. Been on it exclusively for a few weeks now and I feel the same. If anything, I'm more tired since it takes much longer without the visual stimulation.

mattmanser 9y ago
I am curious, having recently found out I am not able to visualize in my head, "see with my mind's eye", are you similarly unable to see pictures in your head? When reading about Aphantasia[1], one of the questions people with Aphantasia get is "how do you masturbate?". My main motivation has been because of doing the course Learning How to Learn and Barbara Oakley talking about visualization being an effective study tool and I finally realized other people can really summon flying donkeys in their head with air sounds, which I cannot. That they really picture these moving scenes in their heads. But it occurs to me this might drive some people to use more porn than others. [1] which I don't have, I can very, very occasionally summon extremely brief pictures and with some practice I seem to be starting to get somewhere.
ovao 9y ago
My approach to quitting porn is (relatively) simple: mentally decouple porn from masturbation. Excessive consumption of the former leads, usually, to excessive acts of the latter, and to a link between the two, but after some time without it, porn simply becomes unnecessary for masturbation. I can watch porn now without feeling compelled to masturbate to it, but after a while it loses an incredible amount of its appeal. You can re-align your thinking in a way that sexual fantasy becomes just as effective as porn, and, eventually, you may find that you’re able to masturbate without fantasy either.

mattmanser 9y ago

I am curious, having recently found out I am not able to visualize in my head, "see with my mind's eye", are you similarly unable to see pictures in your head? When reading about Aphantasia[1], one of the questions people with Aphantasia get is "how do you masturbate?". My main motivation has been because of doing the course Learning How to Learn and Barbara Oakley talking about visualization being an effective study tool and I finally realized other people can really summon flying donkeys in their head with air sounds, which I cannot. That they really picture these moving scenes in their heads. But it occurs to me this might drive some people to use more porn than others. [1] which I don't have, I can very, very occasionally summon extremely brief pictures and with some practice I seem to be starting to get somewhere.

ovao 9y ago

My approach to quitting porn is (relatively) simple: mentally decouple porn from masturbation. Excessive consumption of the former leads, usually, to excessive acts of the latter, and to a link between the two, but after some time without it, porn simply becomes unnecessary for masturbation. I can watch porn now without feeling compelled to masturbate to it, but after a while it loses an incredible amount of its appeal. You can re-align your thinking in a way that sexual fantasy becomes just as effective as porn, and, eventually, you may find that you’re able to masturbate without fantasy either.