I need help with sleep problems, and porn addiction

[tweedlealice]

Dear Fets,
PORN- throw it away! Can you block yourself from porn sites?? Erase them. Keeping busy w many things keeps our minds off PORN. No movies or songs that describe sexual things. Put in your head, that girl could have been your sister or mother. That would probably gross you out! That’s the point. It would upset you, if a family member worked in the sex industry. Pray for their souls. All the beauty in the outside that tempts you shouldn’t keep your mind away from concern about their Salvation.
That’s how we are to look at ppl. Think of their souls. Think about yours. You can’t serve MAMMAN AND GOD. The World & God. Jeremiah 29/11. I have a plan for you, Son. It is a good plan w/o evil. It has a future & a purpose. Why were you born. What is your Going d given position?
Sleep will adjust after Porn is resolved. Say a rosary if tempted. Google prayers for purity.

Sleep=download CALM APP. It’s getting praises for helping ppl sleep. Quiet, soothing Christian music helps calm the savage beast. Also, they sell a heavy blanket that is weighted. The premise is it makes you feel secure???
Join the military. They’ll get you up!! Security. Death=you can’t die until it’s your time to die.
Read your Bible at night. Even if you want to read your Bible, you’ll fall asleep reading it.
God, You know every hair on his head & every beat of his heart. Send Your Holy Spirit to comfort him & grant Him Peace. In Jesus name. Amen

My peace, I give you.
My peace, I leave you.
Peace. Peace. Wonderful peace.
Have a blessed NEW YEAR.

 

[guanophore]

But then porn kept me up till about 2:10.

How it that, exactly? Did you not intstall protections on your internet?

How do you understand the phrase “avoid the near occasions of sin”?

But now it’s 3:48 and porn didn’t have any part in keeping me up till now.

Your topic title says “porn addiction” yet you seem to have very little understanding of the nature of addiction. If you think that the porn had no role in your wakefulness, then you really don’t understand how addiction affects the brain. Addiction continues to affect the brain even when you are not in immediate contact with the addictive element.

People act like solving problems is just a matter of putting yourself in the right frame of mind and doing the right things.

There is some truth to this, and I would venture to say that no one can recover from an addiction without doing this. However there are realities of what addiction does to the brain that are beyond willpower. This is one of the basic definitions of addiction. It is a loss of willpower.

And YOU turn your life around.

You make a good point. Your life will not “turn around” without your participation, but personally, I think that, if the turning is not rooted in the grace of God, it will fail.

Last night I got 6 hrs of sleep,

No one has ever died from lack of sleep. When one has trouble sleeping, one is best served by allowing their body to rest quietly.

If I’m not well rested I’m not driving an hour round trip on the interstate.

It appears that you have created conditions for yourself that make it impossible to succeed.

Anyways, my point is, I need help sleeping.

Are you familiar with the serenity prayer?

Have you considered accepting that you are not sleeping?

Have you considered making porn inaccessible so that you can sleep better?

And I need help with my porn addiction.

It appears that the two are closely connected. You do not seem to realize how your brain has been affected.

And I need help with a lot of things.

One thing at a time!

my effort alone has failed.

Actually this is a very good place to be. It is not until our ego collapses, and we can realize to the core of our being that “my effort alone has failed” that we can really trust in God’s grace to the degree that is needed.

And I’ve also been trying to fix my sleep schedule for 5 months. With little success. Despite my best efforts.

The details of this are more suited to your personal therapist, but it seems to me that indulging in porn at bedtime is counterproductive.

So, I really need help on these problems.

Perhaps your diocesan family life office cn refer you to a good therapist.

 

[guanophore]

I’ve been trying to fix my sleep for 5 months now.

This means you will have something for hopeful expectation. When you are right with God, you will sleep better.

8 I will both lie down in peace, and sleep;
i For You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety. Psalm 4

I personally think Valium would be a great help to me. If I could get my hands on some.

Developing a drug addiction will not be the best solution in the long run.

 

[Fets]

I made an account on Reddit for NoFap once. But I don’t understand how Reddit works. It’s not like a forum. If you post a thread there’s no guarantee that anyone will look at. Things are marked by popularity and not chronologically. Idk. No one would look at things I posted. I’d get like 2 comments.

 

[Servant31]

Hey friend sorry to hear about your struggles. I was a sleep technician for four years in a clinic, and I’d be happy to answer any questions I can. I would strongly suggest looking up “sleep hygiene”. It does make a major difference. There are those who are late phase sleepers, they seem to move their bedtime back an hour or so per night naturally. In our clinic we had physicians and a psychologist… there can be quite a few causes for insomnia. I dealt mostly with treating physiological phenomena (obstructivesleep apnea) so I’m not sure how much help I could offer but feel free pm me.

 

[po18guy]

Something triggers your desire. Since this is negatively impacting your spirit, your work and your sleep, consider drastic action. You will benefit from removing those things that trigger your impulse toward porn. If you have any will power at all, trash the porn. Cut the cable. Cancel the magazines, papers, etc. Shred all images and teach yourself the custody of the eyes. Force yourself to look at others’ eyes and nowhere else. Consider drastic action, shocking action, a major change that you will always and everywhere be cognizant of.

Porn is a double sin inasmuch as you are degrading yourself as well as helping to degrade those you are viewing. Might as well be giving them money to feed their heroin addiction. They are someone’s sons and daughters. The only image you need in your life right now is our Lord hanging on His cross. Replace the porn with the Crucifix.

Remove the triggers. A gun will not fire without a trigger.

 

[Delphinus]

First of all, you HAVE to see a doctor about the sleep problems. Sleep problems are usually a good indicator something isn’t quite working right somewhere, and it’s very likely it can be fixed. If nothing else, they can get you some tips or medications to help you sleep. In the meantime make sure you are getting a LOT of exercise. When I go through insomnia periods I try to go for a solid run a good 4-6 hours before bed and run until I can’t do any more at all. It takes a day or two but it usually works.

About the porn, you can install all the blockers and use all the tips and tricks you want. They are good tools! But in the end only Jesus can do that work. If you try to do it on your own through your own strength, you will fail. Jesus is the only way. But focus on loving him and seeking his will in your day-to-day life and focusing on his love for you and allow that to change you. As you let Him fill your heart, it can push other things out. Jesus conquered the unholy desires in my own life this way. I stopped focusing on “don’t do the thing!” and started focusing on prayer and seeking God’s love and things just kind of…dried up. The tools are good for keeping them away when I’m having rough days.

 

[njlisa]

Hi, @Fets:

Minus the porn aspect, I share your problems. I lay awake watching wildlife videos or playing solitaire games on my iPad. Sometimes, I can’t fall asleep until 5:30 a.m. (Nuts, right?)

I’m trying to make a number of changes in order to reset my sleep clock.

• Based on my doctor’s advice, I take melatonin before bedtime. Melatonin is a natural supplement available over the counter. It is non-addictive.
• I’ve set my iPad and MacBook to Night Shift mode from 4 p.m. to 7 a.m. Night Shift alters the colors and lights so I am less agitated. On the iPad (and/or iPhone), look under Display and Brightness in your system settings. You can do the same thing on a Mac laptop. Find “Display” in your system preference and go from there. If you have a PC, Windows probably offers similar settings.
• Using your e-reader on a low light setting would be helpful. I would feel better if I just read a book. My Kindle has no glare, and the display light can be set very low. But for some reason, when I am in zombie mode, books don’t appeal to me. I’ll have to work on that.
• I have one more suggestion. Pop over to the prayer forum and post a prayer request. While you’re there, post responses for a few intentions if you feel like it. We can always use more stalwarts.
• Find something else to watch instead of porn. Any G-rated topic that appeals to you will work. If you feel prayerful, click on “Come Pray the Rosary.”

Take care of yourself and God bless you. I hope we both find a way to reset our clocks.

Yours in Christ,
Lisa

 

[Rutherford2]

If you want to try Saint Faustina’s method, just fast and eat a little bread and water.

 

[AZ42]

open all the windows in your house

Why?
…

 

[BoomBoomMancini]

Actually, it already happened (someone swooping in to take care of us). Christ died for us, and the graces he offers is are available right now, if we only turn to His Church.

Not true. Mary is going to come and be his Mommy. She is my Mommy and your Mommy and She is Jesus’ Mommy and She promised to break the chains of addiction with the Holy Rosary and real men always call on their Blessed Mother.

Don’t be pedantic. You all know that’s not what I was referring to. Obviously, I’m not advising the OP not to pray for help.

 

[Ryan1]

It sounded like you were saying something like “man up and help yourself,” or something like that. Is that correct?

 

[BoomBoomMancini]

Sort of, with the obvious implication since this is a Catholic forum that he should also keep praying and seek regular spiritual counseling from a priest.

He said he already has an appointment to meet with a nearby priest so i didn’t think that point needed to be reinforced.

Prayer isn’t an excuse to be passive and say, “hey God, you’ll fix my situation without my (name removed by moderator)ut, right? Cool, I’m going back to bed.” He should pray that as he embarks on a journey of mental health and self sufficiency, God gives him the grace to see it through. Ora et labora.

If he had a serious illness, we wouldn’t say “don’t bother with the doctor, just pray about it.” We’d say “pray, but also go to the doctor immediately, because maybe God will use your doctor as an instrument of healing. You can’t just assume God is going to intervene and fix it in the most direct way possible.”

As an aside, given that the OP has a longstanding and deeply rooted pornography problem, I think the best people to address that for him are mental health professionals and a priest, not a (well meaning) stranger on the internet telling him to put his iPhone in the microwave.

 

[TheLittleLady]

the 3 days of darkness.

This “Holy LOve” group has been condemned:

http://www.ewtn.com/library/BISHOPS/LennonDecree.pdf

 

[Ihavenoideas]

You shuold pray “Holy Michael, the Archangel”(written by pope Leon XIII) and " August Queen of Heaven"(approved by Pius X). Those powerfull exoricsm + confession + Novenna to Our Lady of Pompei+open to the will of God helped me with my porn and masturbation addiction so I believe that they also can be your shield in this hard road to freedom.

 

[PHXsunsAZ]

Before going to the doctor try some OTC sleep aids or supplements like melatonin, and don’t go crazy with it either. If you over do it and take high dosages too often it will mess your internal clock even more. I’ve had chronic insomnia for 10+ years, and once you go to the real stuff it’s nearly impossible to get off them. Unfortunately I didn’t have a choice since mine was so bad.

 

[njlisa]

On my doctor’s advice, I take melatonin. I follow his instructions on how much to take. I very much agree that one shouldn’t take high doses without doing research or consulting a doctor.

 

[TryingForSainthood]

Pedantic? Let me guess, I have to look that up in the dictionary? Is this all about your personal knowledge or is this about helping a sinner who is coming to use for help, not to be condemned!

 

[TryingForSainthood]

I hadn’t thought of it in an explanatory way because it was more intuitive but I am happy to put into words what I was intuiting:

1. Fresh air has lots of oxygen and helps with sleep.
2. It symbolizes a fresh, new start!
3. It is the first step to getting out of a rut and getting out of the house, because you let sunglight in on your face and hear the birds outside and you can almost feel God saying, come on, you’ve been in the house too long!
4. It keeps you from doing bad things now that you’re more self-conscience of what your neighbors might see or hear.

Thanks for your question.

 

[wiggbuggie1]

I don’t use reddit but that’s why I think listening to youtubers for education and inspiration is great especially if your struggling with pmo.