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Porn Problem in College
It’s a well-known fact that college life is no joke, it can be pretty crazy. It’s a huge step for most of the students, to move out of their parent’s house. Start a new journey completely on their own. College life does not just merely consist of studying and attending classes.
Once you enter college, you’re expected to juggle several things to ensure you set a strong foundation for the future.
You have to start planning out your future, get yourself a part-time job, balance financial responsibilities, manage to have a booming social life, and complete the heaps of assignments and classwork assigned every week, all while managing to pass all your classes with good grades.
College is extremely stressful and keeps the students busy constantly. It is quite common for college students to turn to porn.
Many students start using porn as their one chance to escape from reality at the end of the day. Before they hit their beds, getting lost in their sexual fantasies using porn, becomes a part of their routine.
The Toxic Relationship Between College and Porn
In a survey conducted over six different colleges across the United States, 87% of male college students and 31% of female college students reported their habit of viewing porn regularly.
The same survey also reported that 67% of college-aged men and 49% of college-aged women believe that consuming porn is completely acceptable.
Although porn seems to be quite on-trend with the current generation of college students, it is seen through the immense popularity of porn across college campuses. A recent study on these porn habits revealed that, in reality, porn might be making things even more difficult for students this age.
Moving away from at such a young age often results in an adrenaline high. The lack of parental guidance and supervision just adds to this.
As a result of this, during the college years, students are extremely vulnerable to addictions and often prone to making the wrong decisions.
With regard to pornographic content, the brain reacts to porn the same way it reacts to drugs. It can have a very powerful effect on some individuals. Research shows that increased consumption of porn among college students often results in poor grades, social anxiety, and depression.
On top of that, there’s the current situation that the COVID-19 situation has brought upon us locking us up in our homes.
And this has caused a significant spike in the number of porn views that porn websites are getting. Alarming.
If you’re a college student whose life is currently being affected by porn consumption, do not panic! Although quitting porn can be hard, it’s not impossible.
Continue reading to find the 6-step guide we’ve created to help you quit porn!
The Only 6 Steps You Need to Keep Away from Porn in College
Having a system that you can refer to will help a lot, as you won’t have to spend time in deciding at every step of the way.
1. Have belief in yourself that you can do it
Believing you can break the habit is half the battle.
A large number of studies have shown that people who believe in themselves and believe that change is possible, have more success replacing addictions and entrenched bad habits than those who don’t believe they can change.
Wanting to give up porn is key to being successful and it is the first step in this case.
Often, you can be stuck in denial, and this will only hinder your progress. Accepting the addiction and believing you can give up, allows you the space to plan how to give up.
You can focus your attention, energy, and motivation away from the addiction itself towards efforts to break and combat the addiction.
2. Block all entry points for pornographic content
This means you need to install a porn blocker and accountability software like BlockerX on your phone, computer, and any other devices owned by you.
Unsubscribe from all porn websites, every provider you’re aware of. You are aware of how porn is coming into your life, block every channel that could bring you compromising content.
Make an effort to get rid of all the porn you have. Throw away every article or object, anything you have used as pornography, and clean out your computer and drive. This is just a start, you may have to do a few thorough sweeps every once in a while.
3. Recovery does not have a set timeline
After browsing through a few articles online, many start to believe they can recover from their addiction within a set period, which is often quite short. Recovery does not work that way, you won’t suddenly recover from your porn addiction by taking up a 90-day challenge of restricting yourself from watching porn and masturbation.
Your craving for pornographic content won’t magically disappear just by refusing to look at it for a specified period, the thoughts of porn and explicit images will still be lurking in the back of your head.
This fixed duration set for a reboot, only adds to the pressure instead of taking it off your mind.
The added pressure will constantly remind you of your addiction, which will in turn increase your urges and cravings, heightening the chances of a relapse. The chances are that, if you try to speed up the process, it might trick you into thinking you’re recovering faster.
But, in reality, you’re digging yourself a deeper hole.
The best way to go about a porn reboot is to keep in mind that recovery does not have a fixed timeline. Let yourself breathe and enjoy the recovery period without setting a fixed time, forcing yourself to recover.
4. Make yourself accountable
Make yourself accountable to a friend/family member on a daily basis, with regard to your porn usage. It could be anyone you’re comfortable with. People who set consequences in case of a relapse, often do better. If you consume porn in any form of content, set a consequence for yourself.
You could make yourself do leg lunges, run 10 laps, give up your favorite snack or just pick up dog poop in the nearest park for a few hours. It is completely your decision to make, just ensure you abide by it.
5. Get yourself out of your daily routine
For a lot of porn addicts, the problem is often related to being in a rut. This is usually in the form of a daily routine that is predictable from start to finish. As predictable as it is, with such a routine the day will inevitably end with you in front of your computer screen, opening up a porn site.
No matter what rut you’re currently in, stop using it as an excuse to victimize yourself. This will only end up taking you straight back to PornHub.
This is how the vicious cycle of attempting to reboot every few months begins. So instead take the time out, to flip around your daily routine. Even if it’s just one thing you can change in your entire routine. Trust us when we say it’ll make a huge difference!
A good example would be for you to break the routine by going on a run right before bedtime. This will tire you out and not allow you to put on some porn and masturbate before you sleep.
6. Relapses are normal
You must understand that you are bound to give in to your urges and temptations once in a while. But it does not mean that one little speed bump and you end up giving up on the entire process. Relapses are completely normal in any recovery process.
Anytime you come across a relapse, remind yourself of your goals and reasons to keep you motivated and rest the process.
There doesn’t exist just one single effective way to reboot, it is very rare for two people to have the same experience of quitting porn or any other substance. It does not work that way. Focus on your progress rather than comparing it with others on the internet, remain motivated, and trust your process!
Conclusion
So, now with a step-by-step system at hand, you’ll find it a lot easier to avoid falling into the porn trap while in the college environment. But at the same time, we invite you to bolster good habits for the times to come.
A big one among them is to communicate with people tackling the porn problem in their own lives, as that is important. This will not only help make things a lot easier for yourself, when tackling the porn problem but also for other issues as well.
