
This will be my first time posting about this topic. I will start by giving my view on this. It may get pretty long but there's a reason I need to lay this out properly.
You may be familiar with threads like this one:
https://web.archive.org/web/20160118191619/http://8ch.net/fringe/res/18822.html
Posters are asked to make a pledge in the style of Anonymous Alcholics or Weight Watchers and if you fail you have to post a confession. This is intended to shame you into giving up your obsession, but this is moralist method, it's not scientific in any way.
The problem with this approach is that it relies heavily on willpower alone. There's no step-by-step way of working yourself through it.
What I present is going to focus on searching yourself and finding your own motivations, this is what I myself used with success.
To use the similarities with over eating/drinking, I'll start by retelling from memory an interview with Micheal Mosley, a brittish doctor, author and creator of the 5:2 diet.
These are his main points
>it's a common idea that you need to eat to maintain your blood sugar level
>if you don't eat for a while, you get tired and in a bad mood, and you think you need to eat to raise your blood sugar
>this is false, we've found by measuring blood sugar levels that when people experience "low blood sugar" it's not actully lower than normal
>you get in a bad mood because you are used to eating, it's a habit
>people don't eat because they are hungry, they eat because it's time for breakfast, time for lunch etc
>in reality you could go 5 days without eating and your blood sugar level won't drop, your body will produce glucose using your fat reserve
So what we are talking about here, is going against conventional scienctific "truths" and accepted methods for handling these issues.
It's a problem with your habits, and with your notions of what the problem is.
Transferring this to NoFap
How did you start masturbating, at the very beginning? Do you remember it?
Did it really feel good at first?
I'm going to make the point right here at the start and then support it with my personal story.
Masturbating is just massage, it does not automatically give you any sexual arousal or pleasure.
It's just like with eating, you don't need it to raise blood sugar - you just think you do. When learning how to masturbate, you created a notion, linking massage of your genitals with sexual arousal and pleasure. This is not hardwired in your brain or body, it's something you formed. By repeating this action you are making it stronger and by adding porn to it, you are creating a more complex concept. You now think watching other people have sex is something that gives you pleasure.
It's at this time easy to add in the widespread conspiracy theories of (((who))) wants people to do this, because you are literally programming yourself to enjoy getting "cucked", right? It's all fine to discuss this, but let's keep that to a minimum in this thread. Let's try and help each other get out of this first.
Just like with the idea that you need to eat to gain energy when feeling tired, you have created the idea that you need to fap to feel better and relax. You also think sexual pleasure comes from physical stimulation of your genitals. This is also a false idea. Sexual pleasure and excitement comes from your mind only. Somewhere in there, you have an idea that gives you a positive feeling. You've manually linked this idea to masturbation and porn, creating the illusion that you will feel good by fapping and porn watching.
>My personal story
I tried the conventional NoFap way back in 2003 -2004 and it seemed to work ok. For a while. I could go a few weeks at first, then set a record at 8 weeks. But it would always end in a fail. This caused me to give up. I had some vague idea that I need to go deeper with this and find the real reason I feel like fapping is something desirable. It's not even in line with my values, I don't want to do it.
So I thought I'd get socially involved, whatever reason I there is, I should replace this time alone with time when I'm not alone. So I did what I thought was what I wanted in the sexual area, and I ended up realizing I don't even like it. Other people are morons, they do things without thinking and they have kids way too early, their lives are miserable and they have no goals in life. Being like them or with them isn't desirable either.
I ended up back alone but richer in experience.
Over time I tried different things and realized there seems like a way out in finding what your original "excitement" or "fetish" really is. If that part can be made known, I'd find a way to make it physical and then it would be gone. That's the logic I used.
After going online and browsing places like 4chan /gif/ for a while I found it's really just the same old webm:s being reposted and on other sites it's the same old vids everywhere. The actual number of individual themes in porn are quite limited. Whatever combinations you try, it comes down to these categories and it's the same everywhere.
Then the question is, why do I care, I already know what it's about. There's no need to watch it. I started identifying exactly what aspect of a clip I found interesting, went on to associate it with something else in a normal setting.
Like for example:
>I like this vid because of the girl's tits
>what girl I know of in real life has similar tits?
>why am I not focusing on her instead then?
>see reasons why - it's impractical, she has an annoying personality etc
>so the idea of getting beyond the initial visual interest is actually futile
>at this point, why do I do more than just watch it?
>I can just watch the girl I know of when meeting her and leave it at that
>no need for porn or further action, problem solved
By breaking down every little thing like this, I gradually started getting closer to the original idea, the reason I started looking for something online in the first place.
In the end, it just clicked into place one morning
>how can touching genitals feel good?
>what really feels good is just thinking about something, so it's just an idea
>really felt something happen in my mind
>try fapping again, doesn't feel good, it's just like getting a massage
End of story.