I’m a 18-year-old female, and these are the benefits of quitting porn I’ve experienced over the last year and a half.
For context, 18F. At the lowest point of my life, porn was my escape, and it was destroying me.
With porn:
I couldn’t relate to girls my age or find my femininity. Which made me feel sexually abnormal.
I oversexualized everything, making me dehumanize even my family members in ways I didn’t understand.
My focus was destroyed. I became a failing student for the first time in my life.
It made me feel insecure and worthless, as I didn’t think I’d ever look/perform like the women in porn did.
It contributed in part to my depression and suicidal thoughts.
Without porn
- I see people differently: they’re more real to me. My relationships improved, because I’m a better, more honest, empathetic person.
- I’m better looking, healthier. More guys have asked me out, and I had better dating experiences. (High quality people attract other high quality people.)
- To quantify academic benefits, my SAT score went up 170 points with my regained focus, and I was accepted into a relatively good college.
- I was in a better mindset to work out: I lost 30 pounds, and I gained some back in muscle.
- I found my best friend through an experience I never would have gone to if I was still watching porn in a dark room, alone.
- My depression has decreased. (This is in part from not watching porn, and also from pushing myself to maintain a consistent, productive schedule.)
- I’ve become more confident, less anxious. This has also led to a myriad of opportunities.
- I stopped viewing sex as a performance I had to learn from a website, and I learned about it under the context of intimacy and love. The difference is like wine and water.
Best of all, the little things are more joyful. Sitting down for a cup of coffee with my parents, taking a walk through the woods, smelling the salt of an ocean in the summer. It is my understanding that these little things are why we exist.
Life feels real. I feel grounded. I’m living without a muted filter.
LINK – Porn-free for 1.5 years + Benefits Experienced.
By – u/thecablewoman
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For more recovery stories and info on quitting porn, see this page.
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