Millions of adults are addicted to porn. Many of them try to quit their addiction. One important thing is to get rid of all porn material. Imagine that you are in such a situation and that you want to take that step now. Let us not beat about the bush: what you are about to do is painful. You will need a strong moment. It is about destroying your sex collection! You need to throw away all your porn magazines and DVDs, delete all erotic pictures, stories and links to websites on your computer, unsubscribe from porn subscription and memberships, delete some telephone numbers, etc.
Boost your ego
It is obvious that afterwards you will still have enough sources of sex and that you can find new ones anytime, but first you need to say good-bye to as much as possible of what created you feelings of guilt and shame. It will be good for your ego and your self-confidence to have done it and to have proven that you had the power to do it. Realize that in theory, you can easily get new material if you feel like it. This can make it easier for your subconscious to agree to this radical step.
Two ways how to get rid of your porn
There are two ways how you can do this job. Either you do everything in one go – it only takes a few minutes, or you divide it into several steps and split it over the week and get rid of things step by step. Prepare yourself. Otherwise, the shock and the panic would be too massive. Good self-help programs can teach you how to prepare for strong cravings. Realize that freeing yourself of an addiction is not a piece of cake and that it can hurt sometimes. If your wisdom teeth need to be pulled out, it is usually not completely painless, either.
Apply autosuggestion
You can support this with autosuggestion (plus autogenic training or progressive muscle relaxation). You close your eyes and start mind traveling. The picture for your autosuggestion could look something like this: you are hiking through the forest, slowly up the hill. With you a backpack in which you put all your erotic material. It weighs like a heavy burden on your back. Finally, you arrive at the top and look down into the hardly accessible valley in which a river winds its way to the horizon. You open the backpack and take out (piece by piece) all the things that belonged to your addiction.
Empty your backpack
You slowly throw them down the mountain into the river – one by one. You see them flying towards the river where they will be taken away forever. You say farewell to them and tell yourself that you are free now. On the way back – down the hill – the backpack is empty and you can feel the lightness. No more burden on your back. You walk towards your future, full of hope and expectations. If you are afraid of heights, you could use the following alternative: you imagine walking through the forest and arrive at the shore of the same river. You open the backpack and then continue with what we just described before.
Don’t forget to mourn
Mourn about the loss that you are going to experience. Allow the pain and the doubts on whether you do the right thing throwing everything away. Remember how you got every single item that you get rid of now. Analyze why it was such a “help” for you, which need it satisfied, and what you will miss about it in the future. Do not simply throw the things away, do not be too rational, allow feelings, say farewell. Your subconscious mind should accept the separation, not only the conscious part. Mourn, but also celebrate your new start. Afford something special; fulfill yourself a wonderful wish as a reward.
Liberation instead of force
It is a thin line. You should not feel like throwing away something forbidden and fighting your bad character. This would be counterproductive as addictions thrive on negative feelings. It should be a step of liberation (in accordance with the images of your autosuggestion) instead. It needs to be your voluntary decision to throw these things away and do something nicer in life – it should not be by force.
What else do you need to do?
Will this farewell free you from porn addiction? It will if you embed it into a comprehensive approach. You need to analyze the underlying reasons of your addiction as well. You must identify the daily triggers for your cravings and learn how to deal with them differently. You should set yourself new aims in life and allow for more quality time in your everyday life. Good self-help programs can help you with all of this.
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I’m Frank Lavario and I founded the Lavario online programs to help people overcome addictions. I worked with addicts in the US, Europe and South America and travelled to more than 50 countries. My colleagues and I combined the most effective psychological approaches to design our helpful programs.
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