Success

Have I Succeeded?

Remember, you should:

1. Rewire your brain
2. Resolve your root cause

You must use your best judgement to assess whether or not you've successfully done both of those steps. If so, it's a clear indication you overcame self-destructive technology use, congrats!

If you have another vice in mind, now would be a good time to start recovery for it.

This is a never-ending journey, don't get cocky

Unfortunately, urges never go away (opens new window) since you already have neural pathways (memories of the pleasure) associated with your vice.

The good news is that, due to rewiring your brain, urges are much less frequent and intense then they were when you first started your journey.

But always take it seriously. Relapses can and will occur whenever you drop your guard.

895 days without porn eventually led me to believe that I was invincible, that somehow, I wasn't bounded by principles of willpower. That day I decided to test this fallacious reasoning and didn't remove myself from a environment causing urges to watch porn.

While my willpower had more capacity to fight urges due to continued abstaince, that capacity was still finite and it slowly but surely depleted into a state of ego depletion, causing a relapse to happen.

I find that the more cocky you get, the less careful you are, leading you to become more susceptible to relapsing. It's always best to see yourself as a recovering addict and not some 100% free from your addiction.

Can I Try Moderation?

Yes, but majority of the time you shouldn't.

I'd be a big fat hypocrite if I said you can never go back to moderation since I transitioned to moderation for one of them successfully. Out of all my previous vices (Gaming, Reddit, YouTube, Porn), I made the transition into gaming in moderation.

When does it make sense for moderation?

1. Have greater benefit(s) for moderation than from abstinence.
2. Resolve your root cause.
3. Rewire your brain.
4. Have restrictions to abide by.

I choose to transition into playing video games with restrictions simply because I found that playing games enriched my life more from when I played them correctly than when I abstained from them completely.

Resolving my root cause ensured that my gaming wouldn't be done for the purpose of distracting myself from my life problems. Not only did this drastically reduce my desire to compulsively game, but it also felt much more enjoyable when I decided to play. I didn't feel any lingering dread caused by avoiding my obligations or gave myself pressure to play well since I didn't tie my self-worth to the outcome.

Rewiring the brain allowed me to make this decision at a rational level without being jaded with any of the fallacious reasons my primitive brain came up with to justify a quick dopamine fix. If I was not in control of myself for 90 days of abstinence then I would surely have a harder time controlling myself in moderation.

To transition into moderation, I made sure than I couldn't game until all my tasks were done for the day and that I didn't play past my bedtime.

Of course, these are merely my guidelines for moderation. What works for me may not work for you.

If you often find yourself unable to follow through with your restrictions then you should not go back to moderation. Restrictions are meant to assess whether or not you are in control or not. If you can't control your restrictions then you are not in control of how you use your vice.

Closing Remarks

And that's a wrap!

So you just finished the guide and now you are asking, what should I do next?!

I'm glad you asked!

You should check out our lovely reddit community (opens new window) and get to know your fellow peers.

If you got ViceDrop (opens new window), I recommend you input your recovery steps and post a daily journal entry.

Continue to face your problems

Down the road you may have other life problems that make you want to avoid them by distracting yourself with pleasure, but as I'm sure you know by now, it isn't an answer.

You must always understand the reason behind why you want to avoid a problem and create an action plan ready for facing it. This is the key to living a life free from avoidance behavior and unnecessary suffering.

Found this guide helpful?

Send feedback!

Feel like you got use out of this guide? Your honest feedback is greatly appreciated! It's nice knowing that I've helped you, no matter how small the impact may be.

If there is anything you'd like to be made more clear, see grammar errors, etc., then please include it! Cogent feedback will be used towards improving the guide.

Feedback Email: [email protected]

Spread the word!

I want to spread as much awareness about this site as possible in order to reduce suffering caused by technology addiction. Unfortunately, there is only so much hours in a day I can put into doing that by myself.

This is why I am calling upon anyone else who feels the same way I feel about this global issue.

So if you have loved ones, friends, social media followers, or dogs in mind that you feel would benefit from this information, consider sending them a link to our homepage propaganda.

Maybe it even saves their life and they feel the need to repay you by giving you a gift card to Costco, a new set of tires, and a pack of gum, you never know.