Porn is one hell of a drug. Seriously – it’s a drug.

Ingested visually, porn provides your brain with an unnatural level of dopamine, causing downregulation of your dopamine receptors, leading to desensitization & addiction.

And unlike any other drug in the world, porn is free. It can be accessed instantaneously anywhere, anytime. And in seemingly never-ending quantities.

The result is that porn is very hard to quit. Very, very hard (No pun intended). I know it all too well.

I started watching porn at the age of 13. It was love at first sight. It evolved from catching a glimpse of boobs through the blurry spice channel – to the high-speed, super HD internet porn we have today.

The truth is, I would love it if I could still watch porn. But it’s simply too good. It’s too stimulating, and you cannot maintain that level of stimulation without your brain adapting to compensate. This leads to anxiety disorders, erectile dysfunction with real women, and addiction.

This was not an option for me as my main goal is to be my best. The choice was easy, but the execution was not.

For 4 years I struggled. Withdrawals, cravings, relapses. No matter how long I went without porn I would end up going back. This is the case for most guys. Years of trial and error.

I want to save you this frustration. So I have taken everything I have learned from the last 8 years and packed it into a success plan that anyone can follow to quit porn and stay porn-free.

I truly hope it helps you – and if you have any questions at all don’t hesitate to contact me at [email protected]. To your success.

Step 1: You Need to Prepare Yourself Mentally

Quitting porn is not easy, at all.

If you are not mentally prepared for this journey you will almost certainly relapse.

After long-term porn use your brain becomes accustomed to high levels of Dopamine being released on a daily basis. The result is a downregulation of your Dopamine receptors to create homeostasis at this new level of Dopamine. This means, you have fewer receptor sites in your brain to account for the higher levels of Dopamine. Everything balances out.

This is what makes it so hard to quit porn. When you quit your brain will be out of balance, and it’s stubborn. It won’t want to adjust to life without porn – it will want porn back.

And if you’ve been watching porn since you were a little kid, your brain thinks it’s a normal part of your life – And when it suddenly disappears your brain thinks something has gone terribly wrong.

So to prepare yourself mentally for this journey so you can stick it out long enough to rebalance, here are the 4 main things to be ready for.

a) Your willpower will be tested

I’ve had days where it feels like every cell in my body is screaming for me to watch porn. Be prepared for extreme cravings to watch porn on this journey. Your brain wants that huge release of dopamine it’s so accustomed to, and it knows how to get it. It will try to do anything it can to restore what it thinks to be homeostasis. It will even convince you it’s a good idea. It’s not. Resist. Eventually your brain will adapt and find homeostasis without porn.

b) You may experience withdrawals

As you’ll learn below, when you quit porn your brain will have to upregulate your dopamine receptors to account for the loss of daily unnatural surges in dopamine. This may trigger withdrawal symptoms. So just be mentally prepared that before you experience the benefits of quitting porn, you may experience a period of withdrawals.

How long do porn withdrawals last?

The duration and severity of porn withdrawals vary from person to person. Porn withdrawals can last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. For more serious addictions withdrawals can last for months.

c) This is not a temporary decision

If you’re addicted to porn, then you need to know that the solution to your problems is to quit porn forever. If you think you can just do a 90 day reboot (more on that later) and then watch porn once in a while and manage it, you are wrong. If you start dabbling in porn again, you will reignite your addiction, almost instantaneously.

d) Find your why

It’s very powerful to identify the driving forces behind why you want to quit porn. These act as motivating factors for when cravings are at their peak. Maybe it’s for your kids, to save your relationship, to fix your erectile dysfunction and have better sex or maybe just to be your best. Identify your reasons for quitting porn, write them down and keep them close. It’s easy to forget all about them when the urges kick in.

Step 2: You Need to Reboot Your Brain

As we mentioned earlier, when you stop watching porn your brain will become out of balance.

It’s used to having a steady stream of unnaturally high dopamine spikes, therefore there has been a downregulation of your dopamine receptor sites to achieve balance.

So when you end porn use, you will have a normal amount of daily dopamine release with an abnormally low level of dopamine receptor sites. It won’t feel good.

You need to bring your brain back into balance and upregulate your dopamine receptor sites.

There are many supplements and herbs that will help accelerate this process, as outlined in our advanced program, but supplements or not – the main way to rebalance your brain is by doing a 90 day “reboot.”

What is a 90 day reboot?

A 90 day reboot is when you abstain from any artificial sexual stimulation (Porn, pictures, erotic literature, etc.) for 90 days. Also, avoid replaying all your favorite porn scenes in your mind. It’s just as stimulating as the screen. I recommend avoiding masturbation during this period (Read: benefits of not masturbating).

If you do masturbate, avoid fantasizing in your mind and just stay present with yourself during the experience. If you wish to have sex, then focus on non-ejaculatory slow sex (Karezza) & focus on connecting with the other person rather than just trying to cum. If you do experience natural ejaculations during your reboot that is perfectly fine. Some people say it helps, some say it helps to avoid ejaculation. You have to find what’s right for you.

90 days of extremely low sexual stimulation will cause your brain to rebalance, and upregulate your dopamine receptors to account for the lower levels of daily dopamine release.

The result of this is that your sensitivity to everyday activities like sex will return to normal. People often report their erections return, sex improves, motivation and focus increases and much more.

After the reboot is done, you can return to whatever sexlife is normal to you. Just continue to avoid any artificial sexual stimulation from here on out.

Step 3: Track Your Progress

This is a journey. Sometimes a long one, with many ups and downs, successes and often failures. It can be very beneficial to keep a log of your journey to identify any patterns that lead you back to porn use.

There are many ways to do this. The first is with an App. The best one I know of is The Manhood App. It keeps track of how long you have been porn free, allows for notes & records all of your porn free streaks so you can see if you are improving or stuck relapsing at a certain period over and over. With this information you can make adjustments and breakthrough your barriers.

Another way to keep track of your progress is through journaling or keeping a log.

What I did was keep a daily log of my cravings, withdrawals, wellbeing etc. and scored them out of 10 to see the improvements over time. I also jotted down any relevant information like when I had sex, sex/porn dreams, any time I orgasmed or if I gave into temptation and watched porn.

I was able to recognize many patterns. For example, I found any time I had a dream about sex or porn the next few days my cravings for porn would be enormous and I was most vulnerable to relapse.

This allowed me to be extra vigilant on these days, ultimately achieving success.

Step 4: Make it Impossible For You to Watch Porn

The reason why porn is one of the hardest drugs to quit is because it’s so easily accessible.

You can have the willpower of a Tibetan Monk for months but all it takes is one stressful day, one lapse of judgment, one fight with your GF and guess who will be there to put its arm around you and tell you everything will be okay.

Porn.

All it takes is 1 click. 1 click and you open up a world of infinite sexual pleasure with no end in sight. You don’t even have to stand up. A complete mental escape from all other thoughts and stressors. Sounds awesome right? Let’s be honest, that’s because it is – but it’s dangerous. As you know. It’s too good, hence the addiction aspect of it.

It’s too easy to watch porn. And I don’t care who you are, there will be a time on your journey where you let your guard down and give in to the temptation.

As long as it is as easily accessible as it is now, it will happen. It’s just a matter of when.

This happened to me maybe 30 times. Talk about being stuck on a hamster wheel. I realized that I had to make it impossible to watch porn.

I created a system, or setup, consisting of certain software and iPhone hacks that made me unable to watch porn on any device. I have a step by step breakdown of my setup in our advanced program How to Quit Porn For Good so you can easily do the same.

If you want to make your own setup I use Covenant Eyes as my porn blocking software of choice for my mac and my iPhone.

Now no matter how stressed out I get, no matter how bored I am at home with my laptop staring at me, no matter what cravings come and even if I feel awesome and forget what a problem porn was for me and think “Oh I’m sure I’m better now and it will be fine to watch just this once.”

I can’t.

No matter how hard I try I can’t access it. And you know what?

What a fucking relief.

Do you realize how exhausting it is to be constantly fighting against the urge to instantly satiate your carnal desires? Day after day. It’s crazy, it’s exhausting.

Imagine for a second that you completed a setup that made it impossible for you to watch porn on the spot. You could give into your cravings, only to be rejected by a password protected lock screen. You could try and try and try, but eventually you’d just let it go.

“Fuck it.”

The constant battle against your cravings would be over.

I highly recommend that anyone who is trying to quit porn makes use of a porn blocker like Covenant Eyes, or makes a setup where it is impossible to watch porn. If you want to follow my setup I walk you through it step by step here.

Step 5: Rewire Your Brain

Abstaining from porn is good, but the pathways created from years of porn use are strong – and just quitting porn is not enough to end your addiction.

When you remove porn from your life there will be a big gap where porn was that needs to be filled. If you just leave it there unfilled it will suck you back in like a black hole. You can’t just quit porn, you have to quit it and then replace it with healthy habits.

You have to form NEW pathways. And use pattern breaking techniques to interrupt the old patterns until they disappear.

This is a science. It’s an incredibly in depth topic.

As part of our advanced program, How to Quit Porn For Good, we’ve created a full eBook on how to do this.

You’ll learn how to rewire your brain using habit hacking and neuro reprogramming techniques so you can not only interrupt the cycle of porn addiction, but you can replace porn with positive habits that will accelerate your life forward.

You’ll also get a PDF of the setup I use to make it impossible to watch porn and a PDF of the supplements I used to naturally increase my dopamine levels and to regrow my downregulated dopamine receptors.

If you’re interested you can find the program here.

Final Thoughts:

As you can see by now, quitting porn is not easy. I really hope this success plan helps you. It is a great place to start and if you have any questions at all about quitting porn don’t hesitate to contact me at [email protected].

I also want to invite you to join our community, The Menprovement Academy. It’s a social network for men who want to be their best. You can ask questions, make friends, join groups and be around guys who are on the same journey you are. Sometimes just having somewhere to talk about porn addiction and get advice on what you’re experiencing makes all the difference.

And check out our advanced program: How to Quit Porn For Good | And Start Living The Life You Crave. You’ll learn how to rewire your brain to remove porn and replace it with life accelerating habits that will lead you towards success in life, as well as meeting and having sex with real women.

And yes, we can teach you how to do that as well.

I hope the best for you brother. Thanks for reading.

– Sean