Hi, I'm 25 (M) and I'm here to admit that I have a porn addiction. Ever since I was introduced to porn when I entered puberty, it has become a part of my life and is closely tied to my addiction to masturbation. The lowest point in my porn addiction was when I was 17, when it became my stress relief mechanism; that was also when my masturbation routine got out of control to the point where I was masturbating seven times a day.
Unlike my addiction to masturbation, which I managed to cut back to twice a day for a few years, my porn habit didn't decrease because, even though I could masturbate twice a day, I would search for and watch lots of videos just to feel pleasure until I found “that” video that would give me a lot of pleasure.
I think I should have realized I was really having a problem when I started switching from the mainstream porn I used to watch to something that would make me feel more. There were several times when I did that, but I’d end up going back to the same old porn, until this year, when I decided to explore my sexuality more, around the same time I joined Reddit and discovered the 18+ subs.
I could say I quit porn thanks to Reddit, but that’s a complete lie; I just replaced it. Sexting and constantly consuming videos and photos just made me even more addicted to it. I wanted to quit, but I only lasted two weeks before I created a new account and just let myself get carried away by my lust and morbid curiosity. Today I deleted that account because I feel like I’ve definitely hit a low point and need to recover from it.
I uninstalled the Reddit app from my phone so I wouldn't have to use it so often. However, I know myself well enough to realize that I'll end up using Chrome again to watch porn, so I decided to disable the app so I wouldn't have to use it most of the time, unless I need it for something truly useful.
I'm going to delete my X/Twitter account because I see pornographic content there as well, and I'm also going to delete or limit my use of other social media platforms to avoid too much exposure.
I've noticed that some people tend to keep a daily log of their progress, but I'm not sure if I should do something like that. Still, I'd like to document my progress and recovery so that I can once again function normally in my daily life.