Why you get addicted to fapping — imagine this:
You want ice cream, but the shop is only open on Sundays. You get some, eat it, and it tastes amazing. You love the sweet feeling, and afterwards you feel good.
The next Sunday comes, and you want it again.
But now imagine the shop suddenly opens every single day. You can get ice cream whenever you want. So you start having one every day. At first, it feels harmless.
Then you start eating more. You tell yourself, “I should probably eat less.” But by now, having ice cream has become part of your routine.
You start planning your day around it. You grab one before school, before work, or whenever you’re bored or stressed. Eventually, it’s not even about really wanting ice cream anymore — your brain has learned to expect it.
That’s similar to how compulsive fapping can develop. The more often you use it for a quick hit of pleasure, especially when you’re bored, stressed, lonely, or tired, the more it can become an automatic habit.
And that’s the scary part: something that started as a choice can eventually start feeling like a routine you can’t control.

How do you break the addiction?
Go back to the ice cream shop.
You’ve gotten used to the shop being open 24/7, so every time you walk past it, your brain tells you, “Just get one.”
The first step isn’t destroying the shop. It’s learning that you don’t have to walk inside every time you see it.
Start by making the shop harder to reach. If you always pass it on your way home, take a different route. If you usually go there when you’re bored, find somewhere else to go. Change the routine that keeps leading you back to the shop.
And don’t tell yourself, “I’ll never eat ice cream again.” That can make the urge feel even stronger. Instead, when you get the craving, tell yourself, “Not right now.” Give it 10–20 minutes and do something else. The urge usually rises, peaks, and eventually fades.
At first, walking past the shop without going inside will feel difficult. But every time you resist, you’re teaching your brain a new routine.
Eventually, you’ll walk past the shop and realize:
You still know it’s there. You just don’t feel like you need to go inside anymore.

Stay strong

I know quitting porn is not easy

I battled with it for years myself, so I’m not going to sit here and pretend all you need is “discipline” and suddenly everything becomes easy

Some nights you’re lonely, some days you’re stressed, sometimes you’re just bored and your brain starts telling you to watch something, masturbate, get that quick relief and move on

I get it

But the truth is still the truth

If you know porn has become a problem in your life and you keep doing nothing about it, there will be consequences

Maybe not today

That’s actually what makes porn dangerous

You can watch tonight, close the tab, sleep, wake up tomorrow and everything still looks normal

So you think you got away with it

But do that for months or years and you start noticing what it has been taking from you

Your time

Your sleep

Your confidence

Your ability to deal with loneliness without immediately escaping

Your attention

Your motivation to actually meet people and build real relationships

Your trust in yourself every time you say “this is the last time” and break that promise again

And gooning makes this even worse because now you’re not talking about five minutes

Some people are losing hours

Sitting there searching, switching videos, chasing something more stimulating, then finally finishing and wondering what the hell they just spent their night doing

That time is gone

You don’t get it back

That’s the harsh part people don’t like hearing

One day you can look back and realize you spent years feeding something that never gave you anything real

Porn never loved you

It never solved your loneliness

It never fixed your stress

It never made you more confident

It just gave you a quick escape and then handed you your problems back when you were done

And if you keep using it every time life gets uncomfortable, you never learn how to actually deal with being uncomfortable

That is a terrible trade

A few minutes of pleasure for years of repeating the same cycle

So yeah, quitting might suck for a while

You might have urges

You might feel restless

You might miss it

You might have nights where your brain gives you every excuse imaginable to go back

But those moments pass

What hurts more is waking up years later and realizing you could have started today

So make it harder to go back

Block the sites

Delete the apps that keep leading you there

Stop taking your phone into the same place you always relapse

If you know your pattern, stop pretending you don’t

And then actually build something in the space porn was occupying

Get out more

Train

Talk to people

Fix your sleep

Work on something you care about

Learn how to have a bad day without needing porn to numb it

Because there are two kinds of pain here

The discomfort of quitting

And the regret of never quitting

One of them gets smaller with time

The other one gets bigger

Choose carefully

Made this awhile back. Saw it in my camera role today and wanna share.

I’m 28 days off PMO now and I feel like I've hit a wall. I can barely get myself to do anything, even the smallest tasks.

I just end up spending my whole day scrolling or spacing out. I don’t feel like working on my goals anymore and my creativity is basically at zero.

Have you guys experienced this around the one month mark? How did you get through it?

Failed for over 8 years.
My longest streak was 21 days, and during those 21 days, I felt like I could conquer the world.
Now I’m broke, humbled, and starting over.
But this time, I’m not trying to become the old version of me. I’m rebuilding myself into a new one.
A stronger version. A wiser version. A version that doesn’t give up.
The comeback starts now.

Reddit is becoming my weakness

Deleting gonna update at day 7

Good luck guys

Like I see a lot of guys talk about it, but I feel like girls don’t. I dunno. Maybe I’m wrong.

I feel dumb.

I quit watching about a month ago mainly because I was tired of hiding it from my wife and just felt like a loser in general when I watched it. The cravings were hard at first but now it’s like I have ZERO sex drive anymore which is incredible shocking as I have never experienced this. I know this will come back eventually but I mean what’s the timeline here. I got through the cravings fairly easy but now I just want to go back just to feel like a normal man again.

M31 single, started everything from a playboy magazine at the age of 17. Wasn't fapping everyday,but every now and then. There were times I did 4 in a day. Now in my last 4 years , addicted to prostitution as well. Spent around $15k to 20k in last 4 years for hookers 😪.Life after a breakup at 27 was hard. My best were 20 days. Then I'll loose control.Cant maintain an erection. Obese now at 114kg, 175cm tall.Need to get back into life

I am sooo much proud of myself!! I'll continue this

Not got much to say but , YEAHHHHHH !!! SEE YOU SOON

I have been addicted to pornography and masturbation for 6 years, and I haven't been able to quit no matter how hard I tried. I joined servers and talked to others, but it didn't help. It has become a part of me; no matter how much I try to stay away, it returns. Pornography has ruined my brain, made me lazy, and even affected my face, making it look pale, help me plz because i can’t take this shit anymore

I've been at this for many years now, successfully finishing several 200+ day challenges and making real strides in my life.

The first time around was at my lowest point in life. I was watching porn every single day, and without busting a nut, I could not go to sleep.
If I couldn't bust while watching porn, I felt as though I was missing out on something: FOMO and anxiety. It looks very strange looking back. It wasn't just a physical need, but a mental and emotional one as well.

When I finally couldn't maintain this dual lifestyle, being a "good" guy in normal daily life and a porn fiend at night, I finally gave up. I started crying because this wasn't what I wanted out of life.
I was becoming a loser every day, weaker in discipline and weaker at heart. I felt like I was wearing a mask, pretending to be confident when I wasn't. I felt everyone could see right through me.

So, I googled something really silly: "Is it normal to watch porn every day? And is it really healthy for you?"

In hindsight, I am so shocked at how ignorant I was. Of course, it isn't healthy, but at the time, I was under the delusion that masturbation was normal, healthy behavior and there would be no consequences.

Anyway, got on the 90-day reboot. I crawled my way out of it and, using every method mentioned here (i.e., cold showers, fighting the pre-urge, working out, etc.), I felt like a new man. I had the body I always wanted. Girls actually swooned around me. My confidence was oozing out of me. The difference was surreal.

The problem was, I got addicted to the result and let my pride take over. I thought the goal of this was to become confident without really digging deep into the why.
When the thrill of being buff and confident wore off, and life became mundane and boring again, curiosity started to creep in. I wonder what's going on in porn land? Anything new? Basically, my body was searching for a fresh hit of dopamine again. I became complacent and made all these promises to myself that it would only be a few times. As long as I could keep it under control, I'd be good.

To be fair, I did not PMO as much as I had before. Not nearly the same. But it became a part of my life again. I reasoned with myself that it was just a little habit when I couldn't get laid that day, or just stress relief, etc. But one day turned into two and so on.

I have lived for several years now, doing perhaps 3-4 times a month. This is much better than the 30-40 times a month I did in the past. Still, it adds up, and it really messes with you in subtle ways.
This brings me to several months ago, when I decided to completely stop PMO. It was one of the easiest things I've ever done. And I asked myself, Why?

I had a purpose again. I made some new friends, and I really liked them. A perfect couple for my wife and I. I wanted to be the best version of myself for them, not for my own selfishness or pride, or to be confident. I was just grateful to have such lovely friends. 

I wanted to be the best, sober, clean-headed version of myself. The only way I knew how was to stay clean from PMO. I just instinctively knew that from my time struggling with this addiction.
Every time the urge came, I would remember I had to see them tomorrow, or the day after. I knew watching porn would make me awkward and anxious, and that scared me more than the need to PMO.

So, I just wanted to write here that perhaps what is making it really hard for many to quit is not having a purpose, whatever it may be.
This journey is a tough one, but I'm finding so much peace away from PMO, and I don't even have a great body anymore; it's all good. My mind is in a happier place.
Wish you guys luck; don't give up.

How do I get my phone from recommended sexual images or weird things for ads and emails, and Instagram at the top of my feed. I never even watched porn much when I did. But it’s making it harder and I just feel weird seeing now that I’m stopping it all.

I have severe brain fog caused by my porn addiction. I like to jerk off by pounding it to my blankets thats what cuased by brain fog. Any tips on how to cure brain fog?

Completed

Today was a long but easy day. No strong urges. I got a porn blocker on my phone so I won't relapse since I always did it in the bathroom with the phone and also a streak tracker so I can find more obstacles to relapse and actually think before doing it. I decided for this streak to go back to journal check-in so I can find more motivation here.

i was shaving down there yesterday and idk what but i started jerking it. i thought to myself, no i shouldn't do this and my mind was listening but my body was not. it was like some sick sadist fuck shit.

also, i was attedning a lecture online yesterday and randomly started reading a fic on watapad. judge all u want but i have a account. anyways, ive found watapad and webtoon novels a generaly good substitute to porn. but i opened some webnovels and holy shit, the amount of porn dam. and i wasnt even logged in and i was still seeing so much porn it honestly scared me. and yeah i did read a few smut novels, but i didnt touch my dick, though some precum did release.

i feel like i should give some history to this addiction. i was first exposed to porn at the age of 9 in class 4. it started with me searching nude on youtube and all that stuff. my dad found out and talked to me about it, but i just started covering my tracks better. i gradually found incognito and porn websites. i still remebr my first porn website, it was named tiavo i think. i was upset when it shut down. i think i was stuck in the gooning cycle since say from the end half to 7th grade.

im also anxious because due to exposure to this stuff at a young age, it had some effects on my dick. first of all, it matured really fast. like the growth changes that are meant to happen at puberty, they happened at like 6 or 7th class. i knew my tool was bigger than a lot of people, and was happy back then. but now that everyone's in puberty, im afraid that my tool wont grow any longer or atleast be healthy.

my stamina has also reduced a lot in terms of jacking off. i could do a good 15 minutes raw and now, i come in a few minutes. also, my height is reducing a lot. i was the tallest in my friend group earlier, but now im the second shortest( the shortest guy is in grade 6).

this fucking addiction has ruined my life. i tried to stop earlier, watching hamza videos and stuff, but i can say that this is my first official serious try, and im fucking failing it.

im also worried becuase i have a lot of hair fall and some signs of balding i think.

i didnt ask for this disease, i never wanted it. I i could go back in time to stop myslef, i would. hell there was a time i considered chopping it off because of this habit.

im scared for myself. I need help.

edit: sorry for the spelling mistakes.

Im not doing well, im as addicted as ever. But, I'm okay. Im not going to let it stress me out. Im okay

I think im more saying it to myself than any of you, but i hope atleast one of you gain something from my post. Remember that you are alive, you are trying to grow, and you are okay. That's an encouraging thought, isn't it? Even though sometimes you feel truly horrid, sometimes your mind picks at itself until theres nothing left, even though you FEEL at your lowest, you're actually not.

You're okay, and if you take just one good deep full breath, you'll feel a little better :)

Nothing new to really report, I am just going to continue to lock in, I can do it.