I’ve recently gave up masturbating (5 days in) and tried giving up porn. From time to time I’ll see a sexually suggestive post on instagram or tik tok and get tempted to look at other posts like this. I haven’t masturbated to them but in the back of my mind I feel like I’m cheating at my challenge. Like sure I’m not masturbating but occasionally I have seen sexually suggestive content while trying to fully quit. Does this even sound right? I read on a post that some guys try not to masturbate to build up some sort of increased sexual desire because of not cumming for so long but am I cheating the process when I occasionally see some sexually suggestive content? I know this app says masturbating is healthy but my girlfriend is coming back from a work trip in about 2 weeks and I’d like to think this build up would lead to me being extra horny but I’m just not sure if me seeing some lady shake their ass on social media is ruining it for me.
Not sure if it’s too late to answer but you’re not cheating as long as you’re not actively seeking out sexually suggestive content. If you accidentally stumble upon it that’s okay, as long as you don’t end up masturbating to it. I took a week off of viewing porn and masturbating and I did accidentally see sexually suggestive content on YouTube and instagram during that week. However, since I didn’t masturbate during that time my sexual desire was very high at the end of that week. You don’t have to fully quit porn and masturbation, you should actually just try to limit porn and masturbation overtime if you think you have an unhealthy relationship with either one. If you want to fully quit then that’s up to you but it’s more about what you use porn and masturbation for rather than the actual act of watching porn and masturbating. If porn is getting in the way of your life and taking up too much time, or you use it as a form of escape from the real world then you should definitely reduce it. The same thing goes for masturbation, you also want to make sure that if you did want to still masturbate that you do it gently and with lube, it shouldn’t be very rough and your grip shouldn’t be very tight. I rarely watch porn now that I no longer use it as an escape, I’ve actually started using audio porn to become more aroused by my other senses. I used to do prone masturbation which I didn’t know was killing my erections. I’ve recently switched to conventional masturbation with lube while making sure not to masturbate aggressively and my erections have actually been improving ever since.
There is a podcast - rebalance porn use. I recommend you to watch it. It is in Explore tab
Also, there are always going to be sexually suggestive things in the world - so you can’t really get on with life if you berate yourself every time - it’s about recognizing and managing your emotions.