Age 25 – It took work to kick the addiction, but my music is flowing

Benefits:

Confidence is the #1 most obvious benefit I’m feeling right now. When you don’t feel shame of doing PMO, many aspects of my character improve along with it; speaking, eye-contact, and not fidgeting.

I’ve also noticed my work in music composing has been more inspired. It’s certainly a lot more energetic and creative than ever before. This has led to less mistakes in revisions and smoother working weeks.

Really, it’s not just on-surface characteristics that improve, but everything along with it.

Background:

First off, I want to thank everybody here for their support and vulnerability to share their stories here. Even though we are connecting only through the Internet, we still can strengthen and empower one another to achieve great things and abstain from PMO.

I just passed the 100-day mark. My tale of woe goes back to the usual time period when men look at PMO, around 12-years-old. It was almost like a switch turned on in my head, that I needed to satisfy my curiosity about what women looked like. For around 13 years now (I’m 25), there was never an intense addiction to PMO, but I consistently watched around every week.

A number of tactics I tried to kick the habit. We all start off with just pure willpower; “I don’t want to watch this anymore” which eventually leads to “I don’t want to watch the hardcore stuff” which eventually leads to “Just this one week”.

I tried PMO blockers, restricting Internet time on my computer, and trying to substitute activities where I am most prone to watching PMO (after dinner), but none of them lasted long. It was foolish of me to not think of joining an accountability group such as NoFap much, much earlier.

My faith in the LORD is strong, so I consistently came to God for help on this matter. I was perplexed on why my prayers seemed unanswered when I asked Him to help me stop watching. “Show me a way out.” I came to find out that prayers do get answered in ways you don’t expect.

God wasn’t going to suddenly flip a switch in my mind that made me stop watching suddenly, but He was going to show me a group where I could put in the work to kick the addiction. I fully believe that God wants us to learn and grow by struggling through addiction, and by focusing on helping others in their journey through NoFap, it’s not just ourselves that benefit.

And so, I thank you all again. Let us all walk together, arm-in-arm, and pick each other up whenever any of us fall.

LINK – Day 100 – My Thoughts on the Journey There

By Haladavar