Hi community, I’m almost 5 months in my recovery and have to say it’s been a very difficult journey so far I experienced a lot of withdrawals (especially psychological ones) that made me think I was getting crazy I was literally living in my own head thinking nothin made sense in life, couldn’t sleep and lost my appetite, bad bad weeks Anyway, for the last 2 weeks more or less, I started feeling better, hoping I was out of the woods or near my final step of the journey thereabouts (I was not thinking about tragic scenarios or hopeless thoughts, just living my present moment, but not that sense of “enthusiasm” everybody talks about when they are fully healed). In the last two days I started thinkin about sad things and scenarios almost like I was in the first part of my journey, just when I thought I was almost fully healed, sadness and hopeless thoughts arised again in my mind, my question is: How do I know if I’m fully recovered/healed or I’m just in a “calm” phase before the next storm of withdrawals come? Can someone who’s already and surely fully healed answer me? Thank you (I don’t know if it can depend on that but I found myself looking at (not indulgin that much) a photo that popped up on social media and that aroused me but soon stopped looking after some minutes and didn’t come back to that later)
I guess you are really healed when you stop caring and you start living your life porn-free without any effort. That does not mean you will always be happy because life can be hard sometimes, but you will be strong enough to face reality and look for solutions to your problems.
Yes, I meant how do I know I don’t have to expect other withdrawals (i talk about the psychological ones) and can consider myself free from them
if you're an addict you will always respond strongly to the drug (porn, pictures of girls etc.). So you're never fully healed, but you will feel pretty good when you're not doing it. Once you relapse after a long time of abstinence you will realize the ground breaking difference, of how shit you feel compared to being abstinent.
They can come in waves, so I don't have a satisfying answer for you. I don't think there's a way to know for sure at this point. But why not look at it this way: You have overcome these symptoms for five months. So if they come back, you already know that you can deal with them, even if it's hard. If they do not return, great, if they do, you'll deal with them again and they'll pass again.
Im going through the same thing It felt like I was having a panic attack even though I have done nothing wrong. It's like my mind won't stop thinking about pied to the point it causes my body to twitch.
I guess you will always be anxious about PIED until you have sex with your partner. How can you convince yourself the problem is solved until you actually see it for yourself? After 90 days of noPMO I went from DE to the opposite, however with time it normalizes.
There are more than just 1 way to know if you have been cured. 1 thing is if theres an opportunity but you tend to fend it off without second thoughts.
true. healing is the wrong word, you get the problem under control. If you manage to live most of your life without porn that's success. Even relapsing only occasionally is much better than watching porn 3 times a day. I can get excited by thoughts about my fetish, but I havent acted on it since over 5 years irl, so that's OK for me.
2 years. I have been told a full recovery from any addiction takes roughly 2 years. Both mentaly and physically. Simply put, if one does not change the mindset, even being physically sober, the reboot is futile.
It is probably useful to think of this as an addiction, but it is not a physical addiction such as heroine. Do you know of any evidence that it takes two years to recover?
I don’t know that is true. When my sex life returns to normal and I have so serious urges to masturbate while watching porn, I will consider myself fully healed.
