How to Stop a Masturbation Addiction

Rewarding Yourself

Never reward yourself with what you’re trying to quit. If you’ve been clean for three weeks and you feel very accomplished, don’t ever say, “I’ve done such a good job! I’ll go ahead and reward myself now by masturbating.” I can promise you that more often than not, this doesn’t work.

Tempting Times

Temptations come most often when we’re weak; when we’re tired, stressed, angry, or depressed. For each of these emotions, have a plan of action already put in place in case you’re tempted. In the middle of these emotions, you won’t be thinking straight. But if you have a plan of action already set in place, you can know exactly what to do to avoid the temptation when it comes.

Unreal Expectations

After you’ve gone for a long period of time without masturbating, your mind starts to play tricks on you saying, “It would feel so good!” Normally, if you give in, it doesn’t feel as good as you’d imagined. And even if it does, it’s ten seconds of pleasure and then you feel shameful, guilty, and frustrated that you now have to start all over after how far you’ve come. Your mind builds up expectations and ideas that just aren’t reality.

Keep It To Your Self

If you let your friends know that you’re trying to stop masturbating, they’ll probably just pull you down saying, “It’s not that bad.” Or “There’s nothing wrong with masturbating.”

Get rid of Porn

Get rid of all pornographic material. And you have to be pretty serious about it. Throw away any magazines that you might have. You can’t keep any hidden underneath your mattress. Holding onto just one little magazine means you’re still holding onto your addiction. Get rid of it. If you have a computer in your room, move it to a different room in your house that is public so everyone can see the screen. I can guarantee you’re not going to look at pornography with your parents walking by. If you have the computer in a public room, but have troubles getting online when nobody is home, make all the arrangements you can to not be home alone. If your concern if your mobile phone, clear it from all pornographic contents and reduce how frequently you press your phone. You can also stop subscribing for internet data for sometime. If you need to quickly check something online, use your call credit. That will be expensive, but you will definitely think twice before you use such credit to download porn content.

This also includes getting rid of anything such as condoms, toys, or anything else you might have that reminds you of masturbation. Get rid of it. Now.

Stay Busy

Don’t think about it. Get your mind occupied on something else. The longer you think about it, the sooner you’re going to give into your addiction. Do you have a hobby that you really enjoy? Explore into it. If you don’t have a hobby, now is the time to find one. Do anything and everything you can to stay busy in one way or another. And the more mind-activity it uses, the better. For example: Doing a puzzle is going to keep your mind more active than watching a movie. Find something to do where you can’t easily be distracted.

Don’t Give Up

And last but not least, don’t give up. You really can do it. I promise. I know that sometimes it feels like you’ll never be able to quit. You may have been trying to stop masturbating for years. That’s okay. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is real and you can change.