The NoPorn / NoFap Thread - For Those Who're Serious

[Lawrence87]

I believe that men can definitely train resistance to urges. You can start as small as you like. Got an urge for another cup of coffee? Don't get one. Want to lay around in bed for an extra hour doom scrolling? Get up and go for a walk.

Being able to say no when our flesh urges us to do something is a muscle we can train. And we pretty much have an opportunity to train in this constantly, by not doing, or saying the thing you want. By not looking at those women as you walk past etc.

You can become adept at self denial and you can train yourself to resist stronger and stronger urges.

 

[staddlelateen]

The advice here is not very helpful. If you have been watching porn since a young age and are addicted, you likely have some chemical and physical dependency on it that cannot be cured simply by praying. Porn deforms the brain in a similar manner as heroin and other drugs, which leads to poor frontal lobe function, leading to poor impulse control and irrational decision making. It's functionally the same as the brains of people with ADHD and psychopathy. If you are truly interested in stopping, you will likely need to treat your addiction with medication therapy, including stimulants that are used to treat ADHD. Additionally, an on an anecdotal note, I have found that my urges are triggered just before and after I have a migraine, so if you do suffer from migraines than consider the possibility that the irregular brain waves that occur during and after a migraine may cause or exacerbate your urges.

 

[Lawrence87]

The advice here is not very helpful. If you have been watching porn since a young age and are addicted, you likely have some chemical and physical dependency on it that cannot be cured simply by praying. Porn deforms the brain in a similar manner as heroin and other drugs, which leads to poor frontal lobe function, leading to poor impulse control and irrational decision making. It's functionally the same as the brains of people with ADHD and psychopathy. If you are truly interested in stopping, you will likely need to treat your addiction with medication therapy, including stimulants that are used to treat ADHD. Additionally, an on an anecdotal note, I have found that my urges are triggered just before and after I have a migraine, so if you do suffer from migraines than consider the possibility that the irregular brain waves that occur during and after a migraine may cause or exacerbate your urges.

God can heal brain tumours. Of course He can heal any damage caused by pornography only a non believer would say otherwise. Of course He won't heal you if you don't believe He can

 

[Lawrence87]

To expound on that a little. Through the grace of God, Holy Confession, and by the prayers of my priest and fellow brothers and sisters in Christ I have been free from porn for 9 months. May the grace of God continue to protect me.

I was exposed to porn pretty young and at its worst point my addiction to it was a daily thing at minimum.

The main things that helped were prayer (I am sure mostly not my own), confession, and a desire to serve God. There is absolutely no need for any other kind of intervention, but if you don't believe you can do it you never will. Externalizing the solution is externalizing the problem.

Saying your brain is damaged and therefore needs medication is not ever going to work. You'll fail you will blame the ineffective meds and your broken brain and you will never escape the problem.

Prayer does work, but it needs faith. Otherwise its like a bird with only one wing. Saying your brain is broken and you need meds is weak, and faithless

 

[staddlelateen]

Thank you for demonstrating what types of response is so unhelpful. Your judgmental and anecdotal experience based on your feels isn’t going to help anyone.

My response is based on brain studies of heavy-use porn addicts that started using porn from pre-puberty, and brain scans of these individuals clearly show deformed frontal lobal activity similar to those who are addicted to hard drugs or those who were sexually abused at a young age.

Of course, God’s grace is both sufficient and necessary for salvation and of course God has the power to cure any illness, but He also provided us with free will and an intellect, which He expects us to use in order to solve our problems. In any case, this is my last post on this matter. I only dropped in because of Trump's win, and I wanted to briefly help individuals who fit this description, have tired other methods, and are still suffering. That's all. Feel free to resume your pointless bloviating.

 

[Lawrence87]

Thank you for demonstrating what types of response is so unhelpful. Your judgmental and anecdotal experience based on your feels isn’t going to help anyone.

My response is based on brain studies of heavy-use porn addicts that started using porn from pre-puberty, and brain scans of these individuals clearly show deformed frontal lobal activity similar to those who are addicted to hard drugs or those who were sexually abused at a young age.

Of course, God’s grace is both sufficient and necessary for salvation and of course God has the power to cure any illness, but He also provided us with free will and an intellect, which He expects us to use in order to solve our problems. In any case, this is my last post on this matter. I only dropped in because of Trump's win, and I wanted to briefly help individuals who fit this description, have tired other methods, and are still suffering. That's all. Feel free to resume your pointless bloviating.

Its not pointless and unhelpful. The church has helped people out of their sinful passions with the exact same methods for 2000 years. Telling people to pray, work on their faith and go to confession regularly will help them battle pornography and masturbation. I can attest to this. The history of the church attests to this.

All this talk of deforming your brain is just removing your own agency. It might be true that it damages your brain, but you can still stop jerking off if you really want to. It might take a while of falling and getting back up etc before you're completely free but its perfectly possible.

Telling yourself you have a broken brain that makes it nigh impossible to stop jerking off is exactly the defeatist attitude that will keep you on the ground.

Its this attitude of externalizing everything that keeps us weak. "Its not me, porn has damaged my brain and I'm the helpless victim of it" you are only shooting yourself in the foot with such an attitude.

 

[analyst_green]

To expound on that a little. Through the grace of God, Holy Confession, and by the prayers of my priest and fellow brothers and sisters in Christ I have been free from porn for 9 months. May the grace of God continue to protect me.

I was exposed to porn pretty young and at its worst point my addiction to it was a daily thing at minimum.

The main things that helped were prayer (I am sure mostly not my own), confession, and a desire to serve God. There is absolutely no need for any other kind of intervention, but if you don't believe you can do it you never will. Externalizing the solution is externalizing the problem.

Saying your brain is damaged and therefore needs medication is not ever going to work. You'll fail you will blame the ineffective meds and your broken brain and you will never escape the problem.

Prayer does work, but it needs faith. Otherwise its like a bird with only one wing. Saying your brain is broken and you need meds is weak, and faithless

How did you get to that level of faith? I try to love God and serve Him, but my faith feels cold and empty most of the time. His commandments can seem onerous and cruel even. I strive to follow them only because I know Christ is the truth, not out of love. All my efforts against porn seem pointless without a true love of God, and my patience is wearing thin.

It seems like love and faith is a gift only He can grant us. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't feel like I can increase my faith of my own power.

 

[Lawrence87]

How did you get to that level of faith? I try to love God and serve Him, but my faith feels cold and empty most of the time. His commandments can seem onerous and cruel even. I strive to follow them only because I know Christ is the truth, not out of love. All my efforts against porn seem pointless without a true love of God, and my patience is wearing thin.

It seems like love and faith is a gift only He can grant us. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't feel like I can increase my faith of my own power.

I don't think I have particularly strong faith or love for God, but he rewards my meagre efforts abundantly. I believe I have a good priest and his prayers have helped me immensely

First thing I think is that you need to believe that the version of you who doesn't watch porn is a possibility. A person who thinks they can't do it, won't do it.

Repeated confession is essential. My ability to abstain for progressively longer periods was a direct result of the shame I had about repeatedly confessing it.

I don't want to give too many personal details but I will say, ask if there is some capacity for you to serve at your church. Whether it is tidying up or making sure the lamps have enough oil or something. Having duty in the church will help immensely. The deeper you go into church life the more incompatible certain behaviours seem.

As for loving God. I cannot give advice because I am shamefully hard hearted myself. Just keep on the path brother.