How to Quit Porn with Six Daily Routines

Are you wondering how to quit porn? You’re not alone. Pornography addiction is a growing issue, and we’re here to help. In this article, we will discuss a number of practical tips to help you learn how to quit porn for good.

In the Sex Addiction Training Workbook, author Dr. Weiss gives six clear tasks for those who want to know how to quit porn. These are adaptable for other addictions as well, such as overcoming gambling, smoking, and in this case, pornography.

Six Techniques for How to Quit Porn

1. The Rubberband Method

For every addiction there is a dopamine perk. A neural pathway is created that prompts you – it cries out for more of that perk that it has grown accustomed to.

The Rubberband Method is a way of interrupting that promise of pleasure. When that first thought comes, it will give you a negative reaction to having that thought.

Here’s how it works:

Put a thick rubberband around your wrist. Every time you feel prompted, instead of continuing in the thought or the fantasy (which can be a ‘reward’ in itself), you snap the rubberband hard.

This changes the reaction your subcortical [impulsive, not higher thinking] areas of your brain receive when they send the prompt. By doing this repeatedly, you establish a new reaction to the prompt and cut off the demand for the dopamine perk that was associated with it. You cut off this avenue.

2. Prayer

If you are in recovery, this is a vigilant time. EVERY DAY, in the morning, ask God to help you because you can’t do it without help (you’ve already tried that, right?). You don’t need to feel like praying; it doesn’t need to be convenient; it just needs to be every day.

This changes things – it changes your sense of your source of strength, the strength with which you overcome the addiction, but it also starts changing the way you look at your source of confidence in everything else you do.

3. Phone Calls

If you are in recovery, connection with people is essential. Addictions are almost always reclusive – a dive into aloneness, away from relationality. Restoring and increasing relationships is an essential piece of recovery.

Having other people that you can call when you are feeling a temptation crisis will make a huge difference. To reach this point, it means you have found the humility, overcome the awkwardness, and the taken the initiative to establish people in your life that care enough to be available and who hold you accountable. Call them! Always call.

4. Read

Again, recovery is a vigil, a crisis era. What to do with extra time? Be reading books on the particualr addiction you are recovering from. There are lots of books on porn addiction.

Keeping your mind engaged in the effort, hearing the tips and experiences of others, all are part of engaging your mind in the process.

5. Meetings

If you are in serious recovery, then you have probably been told by whoever is helping you that you must be in a 12-step group of some kind. We’ve already talked about the importance of relationship, of accountability, of hearing others’ experiences, and establishing community.

Taking the consistent effort to get to a meeting moves your body and your schedule, dedicating them to the effort and making recovery even more tangible – a substantive goal, not just a subjective wish.

6. Pray

At the end of the day – give thanks. This may sound at first like a flourish, an extra – but it’s not. It bookends the day with request and thanks, and there’s an inherent review of the day as well as a recognition of God’s help (which might otherwise be intangible).

Christian Counseling to Help You Learn How to Quit Porn

If you need help establishing these six daily practices or you want to chat further about how to quit porn for good, contact a Christian counselor today.