Porn recovery takes time, love, and understanding. It also requires truth and accountability and taking the right steps at the right time.
—Mitch
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very former porn user we spoke with for this book had a different story to tell about how they quit. Some had phased out porn gradually, using less each week until they had finally weaned themselves from it. Others told us they shifted from hard-core to soft-core porn and then later gave it up altogether. Some quit cold turkey, riding out their discomfort with sheer willpower until the cravings diminished. However, while the initial strategy used to quit may have differed, each former user followed specific action steps to stay committed to quitting and to keep the journey out of the porn trap on track.
In this chapter, we will introduce you to six basic action steps that will help you be successful in quitting porn. These steps—which are based on our counseling experience, clinical research, and the interviews we conducted for this book—show you how to reach out and get support from others, reduce your exposure to porn, and develop healthy new skills and behaviors that will create a more fulfilling life without porn. By focusing your time and energy in new directions using the steps presented here, you will find porn’s pull naturally lessens and becomes easier to resist. In later chapters you will have an opportunity to learn more advanced strategies and techniques that can further reinforce your goal of staying porn-free. Knowing all your options and how best to move forward
can help you take the right steps at the right time as you travel toward a deeply rewarding life without porn.