The "No Arousal" Method - Celibacy of Body AND Mind

This isn't a view that is "preached", it's merely presented as a tool, an option, that some might find useful if other ways have been failing.

 

I second that.

I feel that we live in an over-stimulating society anyway, so having a "moderate NoA mindset" even post reboot would be a good thing. It gives us room to reconnect with our emotional selves, and we all need a little bit of that.

 

Sounds like you are being closed minded out of fear. We don't undertake recovery to gain credibility from anyone, or to push forward any anti movement for some stripes. The modus operandi is to get our health back the best and most effective way possible

Nevertheless, The op never presented it to be a permanent idea

No one is forcing you to partake in the challenge, so I don't understand why you felt inclined to warn people of it being ''utter nonsense'. Even though people like you lack the discipline to even undertake such an experiment let alone have any idea whether it is ''utter nonsense' or not.

 

I had no problems with porn craving for as long as I stuck to my version of NoA. I relapsed some weeks after I begun negotiating with it and allowed myself little peaks here and there. Now back to NoA although it's not that easy at the beginning - requires conscious effort on my part but worth it

 

I hear ya, it really shuts down a lot of pathways that could lead to a relapse. Glad to hear you're back doing it, personally I am trying but having a really hard time shutting down my wandering eye, it's literally automatic. I'm not really feeling much of a dopamine buzz from women on the street right now though because I'm in a flat line. My aim is to experiment with versions of NoA too.

 

Yeah - wandering eye is a bitch for me, too. It takes time to shut it dow but is well worth it. Before it took only about a week or two of constant reminding myself to look away..... but worked like magic

 

Thanks for the encouragement, JJ. I will stick to it and hopefully a week or two will do it.

I think what gets a lot of guys who have gone on long streaks is fantasy and eye molesting women on the street. It definitely turns that unhealthy circuit on. I would think after a few years completely clean we should be able to get away with looking at real women because it isn't 2D, but that is an experiment for 2018.

 

I HIGHLY recommend that anyone trying this method should enroll in a 10 Day Mindfulness Meditation course.Its Free.

No Sexual thoughts allowed
No Ill will towards others
No speaking
No Reading
No technology( you check in your phones when your show up)
No hurting other living beings(including insects)
No meat

This is a process that will train your mind, and purge you of your sexual thoughts- but first you must face yourself during meditation.

I have nothing to gain from sharing it here- Everything is free- you get a private room and bathroom, fed three times a day.

You have the option of giving a donation if you felt the course helped you, as it is run by volunteers.

It was and still is instrumental in keeping me off PMO going on almost 8 years now. And for the method described in this thread, it provides a methodical means of maintaining the practice.

www.dhamma.org

 

This is my next step - I'm in the process of looking for a teacher.

At the moment I do 20-30 minutes of zazen per day (few exceptions here and there) and it seems to be the single most important part of my recovery.

 

I need to get back into meditation, I'm busy ramping up my exercise habits this month. Once they are stable I will get serious about meditation, changing too many things at once just never works, it goes against our nature.

Just an update about NoA, it's crazy difficult for me to control my roaming eyes. I'm not getting any dopamine buzz from it right now because I'm in flatline, but once I come out of that if I notice the roaming eyes is giving too much of a buzz I will definitely shut it down. To me it's all about shutting down that high dopamine feeling anywhere outside of real sex.

Glad to see this thread getting more attention, it's a brilliant theory in my view.

 

Yes - lesson learned for me. I paid the price - so this time I go very sloooow. Right now it's meditation, physical exercise, long walks, reading 10 pages of good book per day, brain exercises. It's still a lot when I look at it - and it took a year to stabilise most of it. Now I decided to quit "powders" (cocaine and sporadical speed - work along the same pathways as porn) and marijuana (mary temporarily probably, it was never a problem in itself). But left alcohol (not getting drunk too much) - I'm worried about doing everything at once. It's crazy when I look back at my life - life of a junkie

I noticed that in my case, even when I'm flat and look at girls out of habit, it's being "stored" somewhere" in the recesses of my mind.... to be used later, when the time is right. So fuck it. Today I managed to turn away after less then 1 second quite a few times (in superstore, on the street) - I'm actually quite proud of myself)

 

I'd say a Vipassana retreat is really a great thing to do, very constructive and life changing, but it's way too intense for someone who's just recovering. Maybe after a few months of (successful) reboot, but not while suffering from rather heavy withdrawals.

NoA - and avoidance of unhealthy (usually artificial/chemical) stimulation in general - is a great way to go, without or without meditation. Meditation just helps in enforcing any decision, and Vipassana is kind of the ultimate mindfulness meditation.

 

If you believe in this method you can just go to a monastary and live as a priest... as if that will make you happy

 

I believe in nothing

 

It's super hard, I'd be happy with that result.

 

You could not believe in the method, try it to see what benefits it might bring you, and then go have sex with beautiful women...that's an option too.

 

I can stay away from porn, but quitting masturbation or significantly reducing it makes me extremely depressed/suicidal

 

Fair enough, then you need to do what you have to do to see sane. NoA may help you in keeping away from porn more easily in the long run, or you can invent your own version of NoA if you wanted to. The main point, in my view, is that the method is scientifically sound; it's definitely not for everyone, nothing is for everyone.

 

This is actually the only method that WORKS. Because it is in line with BIBLICAL teaching of not lusting.

I will bet money that the people that have seen real success of beating this addiction used some form of The "No Arousal" Method.