Masturbation Addiction

A lot of guys want to know if it's wrong to masturbate. Masturbation is addictive and a lot of times leads to other things. Part of the problem is that when you masturbate, you train yourself to do whatever your body wants. A lot of guys masturbate thinking of certain things that they don't feel they're ready to do. Masturbating makes the desires to do other things grow and can lead to other addictions. These are extremely difficult to overcome. Occasionally, guys want to experiment just experience some things once. God has given us a body and sex is a good thing. But he wants us to control ourselves until we're married. Maturbating usually increases a guy's desire for sex and usually gets him thinking of other things before he's really ready. Because masturbation leads to other things, increases your desires to have sex even before you should, and is addictive, it should be avoided. If you already have a problem with it, you should try and overcome it. Don't wait until you're older because the longer you do it, the harder it becomes to give up, just like any addiction. If you don't believe, ask any of the countless guys who have said "I have tried to give it up, but it draws me back to it" or "How do you stop from masturbating, I've tried but can't." Those are quotes from two guys that wrote in asking for help. They were two out of thirty that wrote in asking for help over a three day period. The other 28 said basically the same thing and that was just in three days. There are lots of guys who want to give this up. Out of those who have used this site, we've tried to make a list of what worked for them.

What have other guys done to stop?

We thought it would be helpful to compile a list of what the guys the have written us have been able to do in order to overcome masturbation. Most guys used these same ideas to help them stop looking at pornography too. These are just some suggestions that have worked for others

Your Bedroom in the Morning. Sleep with your door open so that you have to get out of bed to shut it in the morning. When you wake up, don't lie there. Get out right away and start doing something and thinking about something before you get tempted to do it. If you're hard when you wake up, do something until it's gone. Don't get into the shower if you're hard. Wait until it's gone. If you're religious, kneel by your bed as soon as you wake up and pray. Then get up and start doing other things.

In the Shower. Take quick showers. Figure out how long you need to shower. You can probably be done in 3 mins or less. If you need to, take cold showers. If you're mind starts going to girls or anything that gets you hard, just get out of the shower and go get dressed. Don't give yourself time to let anything happen. Don't look at yourself in the mirrors naked if that gets you off. Just get out and get dressed. Have something to think about while you're in the shower, something you can study for school or something else that needs to be done, then get out.

After School, at Home Alone. If it's warm enough outside, then stay outside and do stuff until someone else gets home. Shoot baskets or any other sport that you like. But don't go inside if you know that you're going to be tempted. Or go in, put your backpack down, get something to eat and go back out. But don't spend too long at home. Don't go on the computer in you're the only one home. Figure out if you can study at school until later when someon's home or try joining a team that practices after school. Have a list of things you can with your time other than masturbate or look at porn. There are lot of productive things you can do.

At Your Computer. Put a blocker on if you need to. There's a free one in the other section. You can tell your parents that you want a blocker because sometimes the pop-ups are dirty. Then you don't have to tell them you have a problem.
If you have your own computer, don't have it in your bedroom. Put it someplace where other people will see what you're doing. Keep it out in the open and don't go on it if no one else is around. If you have to keep your comp in your room, then have the screen facing the door and keep the door wide open. Don't go on late at night or when you're tired.
Don't go into chat rooms. Stay away completely, especially yahoo rooms. If you have a webcam, get rid of it. You probably don't need it. Decide when you'll use the computer and only use it at that time. Give yourself, maybe half an hour a day to check your email and choose a time when others are around.
Have a list of other things you can do with your time and keep it with you, so when you're tempted to look or do something and you aren't thinking straight, you can look at the list and get ideas of what you could be doing. Have the list be things you need to do away from the computer and that involve thinking of other things. Keep weights so when you're tempted you can lift weights instead of doing it. If you get hard, leave the computer.

At Night, in Bed Sleep with your door open. Do a lot during the day so that you can fall asleep fast. If you get hard, don't just lay there and don't touch yourself. Get out of bed and go make something to eat real quick or do something else and don't go lie down until it's gone. Don't get on the computer at all, even to check your email. If you have too much energy, do push-ups, jumping jacks, or lift weights. That will wake you up for a few minutes, but make you tired after that. If this is where you normally do it, don't sleep in just boxers or your underwear. Wear some shorts that make it harder to get at it.

All of these things above are things that other guys have done and told us about. If you have any other ideas that worked for you, let us know and we can add it to the list. If you need one on one help with this,Peither because your situation is unique or these things aren't working, please tell us by using the Advice program or speaking with your mentor in the Goal Setting Program. The Recovery Program can also offer great help. Everything is kept confidential.

The Goal Setting Program and Addiction Recovery Program are both especially helpful in this area.