Hare Krishna
Please Accept My Humble Obiesances
All glories to Srila PrabhupadaI am facing a very bad situation.A bad porn Addiction, it is affecting my health and my mind.I can't get rid of itI chant my rounds everyday and pray to Krishna to help me.I feel guilty and regretful, I feel Krishna doesn't like me because of this bad habit.Will he ever accept me and will I over come it ever?Dandwat Pranam
Replies
Hello. I had the same problem.
The problem became solvable, when I stopped fighting lust, but started to work on the psychologic problem called dopamine addiction. I'll share some realizations which may help you.
1. Porn addiction is NOT lust. Also, related regulative principle is also not about lust - to get rid of lust is a totally different level than a new devotie following 4/16.
2. What you're facing is probably not lust, but dopamine addiction - a habit for cheap gratification. It's important to understand this, because lust and dopamine addiction are very different problems, and they require a different treatment. To conquer lust is a very advanced spiritual level. Removing dopamine addiction, however, is much easier. And after that lust will be maneageable - it'll still be in you, but it'll be much, much easier to resist.
3. So I would recommend just searching the web "how to stop porn addiction". All articles have pretty much simillar simple tips. But they're helpful. Again, your goal is not to remove lust, but get rid of porn addiction.
Some tips I used from these articles:
1. Remove any physical evidence. Movies, social media, videogames - these often include soft-porn - i.e. not naked women, but something which will place a seed of watching porn later this day. Also includes looking at women at the streets.
2. Be aware of your triggers. Sometimes it's not the opposite sex who trigger it. Sicnce the root is dopamine addiction, the triggers can be: you played a videogame, and remembered another thing you usually do at this place and time... Or came home after a very difficult day, exausted, and remembered the usual thing you do to drop the tension. Be aware of these triggers. When you fail to control yourself, analyze why exactly it happened, what caused it, and be ready next time.
3. Think of a healthy distraction. When you feel that you can't resist, go to walk or run, physical activities outdoor is a good distraction.
And there are many more tricks which may be helpful. As much as I would love to say "just pray, chant your rounds, read scriptures", it didn't worked for me. I love reading Srila Prabhupada books, and chanting my 16 rounds. But it didn't worked for me to get rid of porn addiction. It just had a stronger arguments, so I could go do it in a middle of rounds. Until I stopped waiting for a miracle and start fixing my brains. Took less than a month to get control over it.
Don't get me wrong. We need to pray to Krishna. But sometimes there are "direct" ways to solve a particular problem. Like when we need to clean our room - we clean, we don't pray to Krishna to do something with it. And porn addiction is the same: just a trash, we need to collect it in a bag and throw away. And then work on a more deeper anarthas...
Start your day with Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, even one verse. It resets the mind spiritually.
Worldguessr
Hare Krsna prabhuji,
PAMHO.
These are few things that can be done to overcome lust.
1) Eat only Krsna prasadam. - Do not eat food with onion and garlic in it.
2) Chant in the morning, preferably in a group.
3) Digital detox - no digital/ social media for atleast 2 hours before you go to sleep.
4) Sleep early, wake up early. No late nights.
5) Avoid watching movies, romantic songs.
6) Listen to more bhajans and discourses on God.
Haribol,
Best of luck.
Your servant,
Radha Rasamayi DD
Thank you Mata ji
Dandwat Pranam