16 Ways to Stop Watching Porn
What was once a minority of people is slowly becoming a majority.
Ever since the internet gained traction in the late 90s, porn usage has been on the rise;
The world was on a dark path. Growing up during the 00s and 10s, it was difficult to find friends that weren’t addicted to porn to at least some degree.
I’m sure you, the reader, is addicted or was addicted to porn at some point.
While you may think it’s difficult or next to impossible to stop watching porn, the answer is that you can indeed quit this habit without any difficulties or side-effects.
You just need to follow Antidopamine’s 12-step Anti-Porn Program.
How to Stop Watching Porn Once and For All
To stop watching pornography, you first need to understand the source of this need.
Just like animals can be trained to react to environmental triggers, so can humans. As sexual beings, the primary reason for a person’s existence is to spread his genes. This may sound simplistic, but it’s the truth.
This means that your biological drive will always look for ways to satisfy its sexual needs.
The worst thing about a person’s sexual needs is that they are a bottomless pit. You can never have enough women in your life. You can never watch enough porn, and you can never masturbate enough.
This is what makes online pornography so addictive. Porn makes your sexual desire be in overdrive 24/7.
Men that have quit porn have said it was one of the most liberating experiences in their lives. Not watching porn and getting your sexual drive under control will make a new person out of you.
16 Easy Ways to Stop Watching Porn
#1 Don’t go to a therapist
Most therapists are not trained to handle porn addictions.
Up until a few years ago, watching porn and masturbating was considered a healthy activity. Porn was thought of as a stress reliever.
When you go to a therapist, the therapist will have just a few goals in mind. These goals are:
- Reframe your negative thoughts into positive ones
- Focus your attention on ways you can enjoy yourself
The problem with this is that you have a porn addiction BECAUSE modern culture teaches all of us that the main goal of life is to find ways to enjoy yourself. And is there a bigger enjoyment than the act of orgasm?
The actual truth is that the goal of life is to grow as a person, to overcome challenges and to leave a better world of the generation that comes after you.
To fully enjoy life, you need to overcome your base desires and learn the power of delayed gratification.
#2 Use a Porn Blocker / Filter
A porn filter is a piece of software that acts as a protective layer on your computer and phone.
There are different types of porn blocking techniques, but what they all have in common is that they assert some type of restriction on your internet usage.
While it is possible to quit watching porn without any kind of porn filter, I’ve found that most people do eventually relapse. While you may still relapse with a porn blocker installed, it’s still worth it as most applications cost just a few dollars per month and at the very least give you a fighting chance against the desire to watch porn.
#3 Find Porn Alternatives
Part of the reason you have a porn-watching habit is that porn has pushed other healthier alternatives out of your life.
Since boredom can cause a porn addiction relapse, this means that you need to cultivate healthy porn alternatives, so that you find fulfillment in other types of activities.
#4 Join a Community
Most people with a porn addiction are male, and males are group animals.
As such, brotherhood and support is an important aspect of rebuilding your porn-free life.
The easiest and quickest way to join a group that will support you is to join an online anti-porn forum or subreddit.
#5 Read More Books
There’s no better way to grow intellectually than to read books.
There’s no limit to how many books you should read. Intellectual capacity is the single most important factor a person can possess in the 21st century.
Everything, including money, health, and status begins and starts with you consuming a high quantity of quality information.
Antidopamine is one such resource. Feel free to read all of our articles, and check the Antidopamine recommended list.
#6 You’re Not Alone in This Struggle
Just as joining a community is an important aspect of quitting porn, so is understanding that your struggle is shared among millions of other men just like you.
Everything you think you’ve missed out in life has been missed out by plenty of others.
We are all together in this, and before doing something rash like breaking your PMO streak – remember that you have a community standing behind you.
We make the anti-porn community stronger by becoming stronger individuals. Every day you are free from watching porn, is another day you’ve added glory to all the other guys in your position.
#7 Understand Porn is an Addiction as Heavy as Heroin
The problem you’re dealing here is not minuscule.
Porn addiction is a real, actual problem with harmful life-long effects.
We’re just in the early stages where science is going to recognize this as a fact, but that doesn’t make your issue any less real.
The fact that we’re pioneers in the anti-porn movement is a good thing – the first-mover advantage is among the best positions you can find yourself.
In marketing, first-movers are usually companies that experience the fastest growth.
In marketing strategy, first-mover advantage (FMA) is the advantage gained by the initial (“first-moving”) significant occupant of a market segment. First-mover advantage may be gained by technological leadership, or early purchase of resources.
A market participant has first-mover advantage if it is the first entrant and gains a competitive advantage through control of resources.[1] With this advantage, first-movers can be rewarded with huge profit margins and a monopoly-like status.
#8 Delete Your Porn Collection and all bookmarked porn sites
You must never, under any circumstance, keep pornographic materials on your phones and computers.
Keeping porn on your PC is like a serial killer keeping a knife in his cupboard. It’s just a problem waiting to happen.
No matter how nostalgic and sentimental you are with your porn collection, you must remove it at once. Not only will you feel better and happier, but you will free up a massive amount of disk space, which you can then use to download things like books and documentaries so that you become a smarter, wholesome person.
Related: How to Delete All Porn
#9 Make Yourself Accountable
I’m not a fan of personal accountability, but for some reason, you people keep emailing me about this.
So OK – if you feel like you need to be accountable to your best friend, do it. Tell them that you will give $10 each time you watch a porn video.
Try it out like three times, and if things don’t work out, look for a different solution. I think a porn blocker is a better solution than “punishing” yourself with being accountable to your friends.
#10 Limit Your Internet Time
Limiting your online time is a great thing to do, not just for quitting your porn addiction.
Spending less time on the internet leads to all sorts of great things. Reading books, being social, meeting new people and pumping iron are just a few of the things that will enlighten your internet-free days.
The best way to limit the time you spend online is to just do it through discipline, and through cultivating healthy alternative hobbies. For example, make sure you exercise at least 3-hours each week.
Those are three-hours that you would need to cut off from your cellphone-time.
#11 Identify Your Triggers
A trigger is any visual or audio effect that focuses your mind towards the addiction neural pathways.
To put it simply, it’s a thing that reminds you that you need to engage in your addiction.
For a cigarette smoker, a trigger may be watching the first cigarette ad they saw as a kid.
For a sex addict, it may be seeing the glowing neon lights of a strip bar.
For a porn addict, even an advertisement with a scantily clad woman may be enough to trigger. That’s why it’s important to limit the amount of time you spend online.
For a porn addict, the most dangerous place to be is also the most important place today – the internet.
#12 If You Can’t Find a Girlfriend, Focus Your Time on Other Activities – Being Alone is OK
For many guys, being a porn addict made them feel unattractive and isolated from the opposite sex.
There’s nothing wrong with needing time to work on your dating skills.
That’s why after you quit porn, you don’t have to rush towards dating and meeting women. If you find that you are socially awkward or just shy, take some time to work on yourself.
Confidence comes from an actual ability to be able to get things done. Being good at dating is a skill, just like playing video games is. Grooming is an essential part of dating.
If you find that you are not yet good at meeting women, don’t push things. Improve your career, get fit, meet new male friends that can later be your buddies for life.
Remember, you are attractive.
#13 How to Control the Porn Urge
During the time you are away from porn, you will from time to time get an insatiable need to browse porn websites.
During this time, you need to remind yourself of the cost-benefit value of not watching porn.
Not watching porn makes you:
- More energetic
- Smarter
- Have more free time
- Have higher testosterone levels
- A more interesting and unique person
These are all the things you sell out on when you watch porn.
Print this list somewhere on your desk, or in your favorite text editor. Remember why you want to become a stronger person.
#14 How to Control Feelings of Loneliness and Isolation
For some guys, the first few months after quitting porn may lead to feelings of isolation and loneliness.
This is nothing to be afraid of.
Porn was a buddy to you for a long period of time.
But porn wasn’t a good buddy – it was a terrible friend that made you miss out on a million other things, but it was there for you when others weren’t.
However, like all imaginary friends, you have to grow up and let them go.
The women in porn are not real. They’re just a figment of your imagination that needs to go.
#15 Go to Bed on Time
Sleep is one of your most important allies in cultivating a healthy lifestyle.
Not only is going to bed early important so that you don’t get bored and watch porn but getting enough sleep is a minimum requirement for keeping fit.
Not sleeping enough increases your appetite (which leads to weight gain), lowers your energy levels, and as you may have noticed: most porn-watching happens at night after you don’t have anything to work on.
#16 Be Social
Being social is one of the last things in this list, but it’s one of the most important aspects of quitting porn.
Having friends and people that care about you is one of the most fulfilling things you can have in life.
All video games, even single-player ones, are social simulators.
Humans are social animals, which is why the more people you know, the better you will feel. You don’t have to make best friends for life to achive this feeling. Even chatting with a few different people in the week can change how you feel.
How to Stop Watching Porn – Questions and Answers
Can I Really Stop Watching Porn?
Yes, although a life without pornography may seem distant to you now, you have no idea what the future has in store for you.
In life, success comes as a compound of all the good things we do.
Each day you spend without porn, makes you a stronger, healthier person. Even being five days without porn and then relapsing, will make you stronger on your next anti-porn streak.
Don’t be afraid to leap ahead and quit watching porn.
What’s the Best Way to Quit Watching Porn?
This article lists all of the things that can help you in quitting porn.
If you need help in deciding which kind of porn blocker to use, check out the comparison table here.
What if I Relapse?
There is no shame in relapsing to porn – it happens to everyone.
When you relapse, try not to spend too much time reflecting. The worse thing about a porn relapse is spending too many days before returning to your porn-free life.
If you relapse, make peace with this fact, check out any motivational anti-porn article on Antidopamine, and then continue onwards.
Related article: Porn Relapses.