How to Recover from Porn Addiction

Step 1: Coming To Terms with Porn Addiction

One of the hardest steps in the journey to recovering from porn addiction is coming to terms with said addiction. Some common signs of addiction include:

• Porn becoming an important aspect of life
• The tolerance for porn use increases as satisfaction decreases
• Porn is being used to reduce negative feelings
• Relationships start to suffer due to porn
• Withdrawal symptoms from not watching porn
• Unsuccessful efforts to try and quit

Step 2: Unwire the Brain

Recognizing the addiction will lead to the second step in recovery which is to unwire the brain. To do this, search back in the brain for any traumatic life events that may have negatively impacted the brain. When beginning to understand these events for what they are and the impacts they have is the first step in emotional intelligence which is crucial in the recovery process. The more emotionally intelligent, the more emotionally mature the brain becomes.

When the brain becomes more aware, it can understand what went wrong when faced with possible relapses. When relapses occur, it’s usually due to a part of the “pivot plan” falling through. A pivot plan is a putting a plan in place for whenever urges arise to go back to the screen.

Step 3: Rewire the Brain

After building up a healthy mental state, recovering from porn addiction also requires the brain to be rewired. The most important part of the rewiring process is making a change. Whether that’s a change in furniture, habits, location, job, anything that may be triggering has to be changed in some way. The more things that are changed, the more life is changed. Setting up a new routine can also help the brain stay focused and on track. When allowing the brain too much time to sit around unstimulated, it will allow triggering thoughts to enter the mind.

When the brain is able to understand feelings, triggers, emotions, and what responses are needed for each obstacle, recovery is possible.

Step 4: Hardwiring

In order to be successful in the recovery process, all of the routines and changes made when rewiring the brain need to be hardwired. These things need to be made into habits. Finding habits to hardwire that make you feel happy and fulfilled will see the most success.

The main thing to keep in mind is to always get on purpose. Whether that’s finding joy in solo activities or groups with people of like minds, find joy in:

• relationships
• hobbies
• passions
• interests
• jobs

Practicing and implementing these steps into life’s daily routine will help and make recovery possible.

To learn more about programs and ways to help, click here.