How Do You Know You're Addicted To PMO?
How do you know if you have a real PMO addiction or if you just happen to like it very much?
Well, on this page you will find your answer.
Take a look at this video where I give you 7 questions to answer.
Also read the text under the video, as I will give you examples of those 7 questions there. Examples that you will not hear in the video, just to help eliminate any potential confusions.
7 Signs You're Addicted To PMO…
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Let's jump in and take a closer look at the questions, one by one.
I will give you real life examples from my own, and other peoples struggle with PMO addiction.
#1 Continued Use Despite Negative Consequences…
This one is pretty easy to understand.
If a person notice one or several nasty consequences yet he still goes back to using, it is a strong indicator of an addiction. In fact, this question is a part of the 4 c's that characterizes addictions.
The four C's are…
- Continued use despite negative consequences…
- Cravings to use
- Compulsion to use
- Control (loss of control)
Example:
When I learned that the reason for why I had very low libido and very sluggish erections was because I was watching too much to porn, I decided to give it up right away in order for my brain to heal.
This was many years ago and at the time I was 36 years old.
Well, not being able to get turned on by a real life woman (while still getting turned on by pixels on a screen) and thus suffer from weak erections is a big motivation for a young guy to give up the porn. Indeed, those could be classified as “serious negative consequences”.
As if that wasn't enough, porn made my social anxiety and panic attacks almost unbearable.
Yet, I always went back to fapping to porn, even after I've learned about the negative effects of my porn use. Yes, I kept relapsing for several years.
During the first years of my rebooting I was sometimes able to go for two, three or maybe four weeks without using, but then always ended up opening up a porn site and thus I saw only mild improvements…
…that, my friends, is continued use despite negative consequences.
#2 Escalation To More Extreme Stuff…
This one is also easy to understand.
Since fapping to porn blasts your reward system with such high amounts of dopamine, you quickly become “numb” to what you are doing. The correct term for this is “tolerance” or “desensitization”.
Desensitization is one of the 4 major brain changes that happens in all addictions.
Example:
Guys often start out with normal, vanilla porn. But with increased use, it quickly becomes boring and they start seeking out harder, weirder and more extreme stuff.
Sometimes people even end up watching stuff that no longer matches their sexual orientation, just as a desperate attempt to get the same dopamine buzz…
…that is escalation at work, right there.
#3 Cravings To Use…
Now here some people may go, “I don't think I notice much porn cravings”.
Well, then I would like to ask, have you ever tried going without PMO for 30 days?
You see, if you regularly use without any attempt to give it up, or reduce the amount, there might not be any much cravings.
Most of the time cravings will come when you try to go without “your drug of chice” for a while.
Example:
Sometimes when I was in my second week of NoFap / rebooting and I seriously wanted to give up PMO I would run into a visual trigger when surfing on YouTube. Perhaps it was a booty shaking video or a fitness model training her glutes, or something like that.
Well, sometimes when seeing things like that I was hit by a very strong craving to go for “the real deal”, open up a porn site and do the deed…
…and sure enough, it often made me relapse.
Most of the time, cravings follow right after a trigger.
Keep in mind, however, that we can have many different triggers. Even things you are not aware of can be a trigger.
A trigger can be visual, like in the booty shaking video example or it can be emotional, like for example loneliness, disappointment, stress etc.
It can even be a certain time of the day, or just being alone with your computer.
#4 Difficulty Getting Aroused By Real Life People, But Not By Porn…
By frequently fapping to porn we condition our sexuality to become more turned on by pixels on a screen than by real life people.
This is because dopamine is a “learning chemical” and as you remember from earlier in this post, during a fapping session your dopamine levels are sky high…
…well, whenever dopamine is high, your brain is a learning machine, thinking that whatever is going on at that moment is super important for survival.
Fapping to pixels, then, becomes important and familiar to your reptilian brain, while having sex with a real life woman pales in comparison.
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Example:
When you finally end up in bed with that girl you've been working on for a while, the experience fail to deliver that amazing feeling you was hoping for.
Sex is supposed to feel great, yet you think it feels strange, awkward and you go “is this it?” Or even worse, you lose your erection…or worse yet, fail to get hard altogether?
#5 Compulsion To Use…
Compulsion means “the act or state of being forced to do something”.
Or “an irresistible urge to behave in a certain way”.
Example:
If you have an itch you can have a compulsion to scratch that itch.
If you have a PMO addiction and your trying to quit porn, you can have a compulsion to masturbate or to seek out some erotic content online.
Another compulsive behavior guys with a PMO addiction can develop is that, when they learn that porn can cause ED (PIED), they feel a constant need to “check” if they can still et hard. The fear of ED is creating a compulsion to check.
#6 Loss Of Control…
A loss of control over the use can easiest be explained as; when a persons use no longer matches the desired amount of time spent on it.
Example:
When I started rebooting my first goal was to get to 90 days without PMO. Well, I failed over and over again. In some periods I even started using more than ever. Even more than before I tried to give it up…
…this is clearly a loss of control over use.
#7 Difficulty Reaching Climax With A Real Partner…
This one is related to #4 so no further explanation is needed here.
Let's take an example instead…
Example:
When I was at my worst, before I figured out that porn was causing me problems, I would have a hard time reaching climax when I ended up in bed with a woman.
This is due to desensitization, like I talked about earlier.
Adding a condom on top of that, which further reduces sensitivity, and reaching orgasm can become almost impossible.
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How To Know if You're Addicted To PMO
Final Words…
I hope you found this post informative.
These 7 signs are all pretty good signs that you are no longer just doing PMO because it's fun, but that you have actually developed real addiction related brain changes.
For more info on those brain changes, read these two articles…
- What happens in your brain when you watch too much porn?
- NoFap and brain recovery (this happens inside your brain)
The 4 C's are very telling of addictions in general and then the escalation into weirder and harder porn, in combination with increasing sexual problems with real life people is more targeted to PMO addiction specifically.
You don't need to recognize yourself in all of the in order to have a real addiction.
So if some of these, or worse, if all of them ring true, maybe it's about time you'd start considering changing your habits.
Thanks for reading!
-Scandinavian Bob-
P.S. Have questions or need my help? If so, you can find my contact page right here.
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