Thanks fellas

Hi S. I am a part time pizza delivery and part time musician. In other words, I never have any fucking money lol. However, I do go to therapy quite often. Small backstory is that I developed pretty severe anxiety after graduating high school (2017) and moving out of a very toxic home environment full of chaos(2018). It’s accompanied by existential dread, and sometimes unwanted intrusive thoughts, kinda OCD’ish. I know this isn’t answering your question, but the problem was me keeping alllll of that shit a secret from family and friends. I didn’t know what was going on with me and I honestly thought I was gonna end up being a wacko. It took three years (2021) before I decided to let anyone in, but when I did, everything got better, and still is getting better. I did do a lot of stuff in that three years that does and still help when I’m dealing with dumb shit, but I really would recommend therapy. Had I started there first, I think I would have been doing a lot better a lot sooner. The stuff to do is simple, but hard to keep up with: 1.) Diet and Exercise. Absolutely crucial. I’m so fucking serious on this point. If you want to see an instant change in overall mental health go get the fuck after it. It’s not to be macho, it’s literally proven to reduce mental anguish. You’re putting yourself through a hard time, so when actual hard times happen, you will be able to handle it better. 2.) Try meditating. No guru type shit, but seeing your thoughts as they float by and just let them be thoughts. Don’t let them dictate your feelings. 3.) Find a Purpose. Aimlessly wandering through life will make you feel like life’s not worth living. Figure out something to do and fucking do it. It doesn’t matter what it is as long as it’s a positive thing in your life. Travel, video games, collecting, a side hustle, a sport. Hell maybe it’s working out as well. But have a that purpose. 4.) Read and watch content that is aimed to help you change your life for the better. Find people out there that inspire you, and strive to be like them. The reason why people talk so much about David Goggins, Joe Rogan, and Joko Willink is because they understand and have done things to turn themselves into those hard as fuck men. Learn from these people. 5.) Stay sober. Putting things in your body that change your state of mind can have a negative effect on your mental state in general. That’s not me saying people can’t have a healthy relationship with drugs and alcohol, but if you’re looking for help on how to improve your mental health, chances are finding help in substances is not gonna help. My last point is 6.) Therapy. I know you’re not looking to go because of costs, but you might already be trying to do the other things listed. And I absolutely think therapy was crucial in me feeling better where I’m at mentally and where I’m at in life. It’s awesome to talk to someone who doesn’t have anything but an unbiased point of view looking at your life with you. I hope this helped. Good luck in all that you do man.

Im gonna be honest once you quit your mental health kind of just goes back to normal regardless of what you do because the porn addiction is what is causing mental health issues in porn addicts. Now don’t get me wrong, hitting the gym will 100% help with mental health, and so will picking up other hobbies or activities. However, even in the absence of these healthy activities, being porn free is a win in and of itself and your mental health will continue to get better regardless. Over time you learn how to process your own emotions and trauma by yourself and in a healthy way. The reason it’s hard to do that when you’re addicted to porn, is because porn stunts the learning curve that someone who is not addicted would have at their disposal. In fact, porn adds even more issues on top of the issues you already have to deal with in life, so what’s the point of having porn then? Here is an example: You just got rejected by a perfect 10 while you were on a night out. People who do not consume porn regularly would destress and process where they went wrong rather quickly. On the other hand, someone who uses porn would use that rejection as a reason to continue porn use in a lot of situations. Basically they are using porn to cope and suppress emotions that otherwise would help guide them and learn how to achieve their goal, in this case the goal being to pull a girl that’s a perfect 10. Through this type of pattern, people who use porn as a crutch are basically shooting themselves in the foot in a sense, and preventing growth. So basically when you stop using porn, you allow your brain to start to naturally process your emotions and traume, learn from it, and heal. So in theory, there isn’t necessarily a need for a therapist, unless you have some very serious trauma to process from the past.

The Lord and the gym