Anything that triggers the right chemicals in the brain can turn into an addiction. You have to treat it like one. Which is supposedly the point of this kind of community, but it looks like there’s not enough presence on lemmy for other addicts to have run across this yet.

Which means that you gotta take what I’m about to say with a grain of salt, because I’ve never experienced that addiction.

I have, however, stopped using porn, and haven’t sought it out in years. Which, the why isn’t important, but if you think it might help, I’ll share that.

That doesn’t mean I’ve stopped masturbating, and I definitely didn’t stop having sex.

When I need external stimulation (as in not things already in my head), I reach for erotica. Yeah, it’s slower paced and doesn’t jump into the action. That’s a good thing. The process of reading, letting it build up, it works to break the connection between seeing something and arousal. You might be able to reconnect with your inner world that way, allowing you to at least take small breaks from porn while you’re seeking addiction counseling.

You must love it more than you hate it if you keep doing it. I used to be religious as a young person and porn was an issue, once I left and it was no longer forbidden it stopped being an issue.

Addiction to anything is tough, like that one balloon dude on my strange addiction, but make no mistake porn didn’t take away years of your life, you spent years of your life watching porn and beating yourself up about it. The fact that you’re posting about it now means it’s probably constantly on your mind. Let it go, use it as a tool, live your life and move on. You’re obsessing over your perceived failures which makes you think about it more.

Idk I’ve watched plenty of porn and it didn’t do anything to any years of my life. Pretty normal romantic and sexual history. I don’t think porn itself is the problem, try therapy and escorts