Our brains & nervous systems are excellent at recognizing things that could be a danger and letting us know.
When someone smells smoke the first thing they say is “Is that smoke?”
Which is followed by trying to find the source of it.
Obviously because where there’s smoke there’s fire and we’re highly attuned to the dangers of fire.
We don’t even really need to think about it, we just react.
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I know a guy who used to work for the police handling 911 calls. The job was as stressful as you can imagine but for him it was deeply traumatizing so he ended up having to leave it.
In his next job, he did tech support and on the very first day when he sat down and put the headphones on, he got triggered. He nearly had a panic attack because his nervous system associated sitting at the computer with those headphones on as sitting in the 911 center.
The physical environment triggered him.
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The same goes for porn addicts & addiction.
How many times have you caught just a glance of a person or a body part and you and your mind became laser focused on what you thought you saw?
“Did I just see ….. ‘
And
“Was that a… “
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I remember a mentor in a 12-step meeting who had really thick glasses. He’d say “I’m blind as a bat but I can spot a female body across a room that has 50 guys in it, without problem”.
Our minds have become trained to react to the things it sees.
Think about the physical environment where you watch porn. Most people watch it from the same physical space using the same devices over and over again.
You walk into that space and your brain is likely reacting and thinking in some way, this is where we watch porn.
It’s like your mind & body are expecting it because of where you are in your environment.
Your nervous system is doing its job perfectly by recognizing patterns and getting you ready for what usually comes next.
So instead of fighting that response, change the pattern.
Move the computer, use a different chair, work somewhere else.
Change where you sit, what device you use, how the room is set up.
Break the association. Break the physical pattern.
Start fresh somewhere new that isn’t associated with watching porn.
Use any and all advantages that you can when fighting this thing.
Your future self will thank you.
