25 yo male who wants to be a better man. I am apprehensive about sharing!

Support wise, all I can say is don't let your emotions get the best of you. You got to be able to recognise you are emotionally compromised, or suffering from an urge when it happens and then Step back. Observe the situation. Don't engage with any of your thoughts, just observe them. "I'm feeling worried, anxious, unhappy, tired... I think this is futile, there is no benefit, its difficult, its not worth it". You got to be able to look at these thoughts and feeling and recognise that they are not you. You are completely detached from them. If you don't feel so, then detach yourself from them.

Just by knowing that, your chances of getting through this are much higher, but you're not in the clear yet. Once you have stepped back, you have to Take a few deep conscious breaths (try to actually think about your breathing, I breath in through my nose, and out through my mouth, that helps me). This will calm you down. When every humans (or in fact any other animal) are in a bad situation they have a fight or flight reaction which, you do not want. When in fight or flight, a few things happen, your pupils dilate, your heart rate soars and your breathing becomes shallower and more rapid. To escape Fight or flight, you have to tell your body, everything is ok. Taking deep conscious breaths is how you do that because, it is the only thing in my list which you can control. Your heart beat and eye dilation are subconscious, so is your breathing but you can control it. Getting out of fight or flight is hard but if done right, it can grant you full control of your mind and body.

Next, ask yourself, what you truly want. By taking a few conscious deep breaths you should be a in calm place where you can ask yourself what you really want. I want to be happy, I want to be free to do what I want and feel what I feel. I want to be the best I can be and I want to love the people I love. This has to be genuine things you desire. Things which you want deeply, things that in your core, you can't deny. By doing this, you will realise pornography and masturbation are not the way and then you'll be one step closer to freedom.

The last thing you got to do is to Respond in a healthy way. My two go to responses are to do things I'm passionate about and watch the urge. A passion is something that is a part of you, something you couldn't live without, it can be something like running, music, maths(yup, I'm that guy) dancing, woodworking, whatever. Doing something you are passionate about will be a good way to follow up from a battle like that. The second way is to watch the urge. I can hear you saying "well hold on, if I do nothing, won't the urge win". Thats not the case, you aren't doing nothing. What you are doing is watching the your thoughts, like a scientist watches his experiment or a hunter would watch her prey. Just observe. "Oh look there's that rationalisation, there's the panic that doesn't want to go away, I see some fear and anxiety". By doing this you realise what these thoughts are, they are just thoughts. They aren't a part of you, they don't control you they are just wind, hitting the mountain that is you. They can push you, but they can't move you, recognise that and just watch. They'll fade into nothingness and you will feel a sense of relief and freedom.

To remeber this, just shorten it down to STAR:

  • Step back and observe the situation
  • Take a few conscious breaths
  • Ask yourself what you really want
  • Respond in a healthy way

I hope this helped and I'm proud of you for getting through this. There are many resources you can use and I'm pretty sure they are linked in the wiki which is linked in the sidebar.

Good luck :)

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