Where can I learn how to stop Masturbating? What are the harms of Masturbating? What are some things you can do not to masturbate? What is the best way to stop masturbation? This article has all the answers you need on how to stop masturbating.
My name is Sean Galla, and I am a facilitator of online men’s groups with more than ten years of experience. These support groups address different issues related to everyday life, including addiction and masturbation. This gives me a firsthand view of how being part of a support group can help beat addictive sexual activity behavior and enhance the members’ quality of life.
If you are looking for a place to learn, grow, and get assistance to stop masturbation, this article has all the information you need. This article will cover everything on how to stop masturbating.
Table of Contents:
How to stop Masturbating – It is not fundamentally bad
As a young man or adult male, it is normal to have sexual desires and needs. Sometimes, the only way to deal with these urges involves taking matters into your own hands. It is essential to understand that masturbating in itself is not a bad thing for all genders. Medical and mental health professionals can argue that it comes with its own health benefits to some extent and it is normal.
However, like anything else, masturbation can become excessive and addictive if not regulated. What starts as a fun activity to boost sex drive can sometimes turn into a compulsive sexual behavior that can become uncomfortable and difficult to deal with. Once it gets to an uncontrollable point, this is when it is said to be an addiction.
When masturbation becomes a problem
It is normal for sexually active adults to engage in masturbation three to five times a week. It only becomes a problem when you realize that the urge to masturbate for sexual pleasure is out of control.
Masturbation becomes a bad habit when the idea of the act takes over your regular routine or when you can’t stop yourself when the urge hits. This takes time away from other important activities in your day-to-day, negatively impacts your mental health, and even becomes physically painful.
While there is an ongoing debate about whether masturbation addiction is possible, millions of people worldwide struggle with this compulsive behavior.
Common signs of masturbation addiction include:
- Masturbating takes up most of your time and energy
- It starts affecting your home, work, or personal life
- Canceling events, being late to meetings, or leaving social appointments early to masturbate
- You masturbate in public or uncomfortable places because it “can’t wait.”
- Masturbating without arousal
- Using masturbation as a coping mechanism for negative emotions (sadness, anger, loneliness, stress, etc.)
- Feelings of guilt and distress after masturbating
- Uncontrollable thoughts about masturbation
If masturbation affects you in any of these ways, you can learn how to stop masturbating.
How excessive masturbation can impact your life
When you masturbate excessively, it can cause both personal and interpersonal issues. These issues can distress your social, mental, and physical health. Like any other form of addiction, masturbation addiction occurs gradually. Eventually, it becomes chronic and challenging to stop.
Compulsive masturbation is common among individuals undergoing other issues like life distress, addiction disorders, and mental health issues.
Some of the negative impacts of compulsive masturbation include:
- Edema
- Skin irritation
- Inability to form a physical or sexual connection with people
- Excessive addiction to porn material
- Social isolation
- Choosing to go home and masturbate instead of engaging in activities you enjoy
- Low self-esteem
- Stress
- Development of mental health issues like depression and anxiety
While there are serious side effects to masturbation, there are also a lot of myths about the habit. Contrary to popular belief, masturbation cannot cause infertility, erectile dysfunction, or premature ejaculation. It will not cause insanity, blindness, or frequent urination. Masturbation does not affect your growth, facial features, hair, testicles, or kidneys or cause skin issues.
Tips on How to stop masturbating
If you have realized that masturbation is ruining your life, there are a combination of steps you can take to quit masturbation.
Stop watching pornography
Exposing your brain to porn is an easy way of triggering the desire to masturbate. Part of learning how to stop masturbating involves giving up your porn addiction. Placing a barrier between you and anything that triggers the urge to masturbate can go a long way in keeping your thoughts away from the habit.
You can block access to porn material from your phone and computer using porn-blocking software. Remember to get rid of your sex toys as they act as triggers whenever you come around them. learn more about how to stop watching porn here.
Be active
Having too much idle time is often a common cause of compulsive masturbation. It would help if you found activities to fill up your time.
Finding healthy outlets for energy release makes it easier for you to stay away from masturbating. Consider taking up new hobbies or returning to doing things you once enjoyed before the addiction.
It is also essential to develop new goals as this ensures you focus your thoughts and energy on achieving them.
See a professional
Compulsive masturbation, like any other addiction, is a mental health issue. When it starts affecting your life negatively, it may be ideal to seek medical advice from a healthcare professional, preferably one specializing in human sexuality.
With the help of a mental health counselor or therapist, you will be able to unearth underlying issues that may be exhibited in the form of compulsive masturbation. Talking to a therapist or psychologist can help you work through negative emotions affecting your sexual health, and you get to learn behavior modification to help you stop.
Spend less time by yourself
For most people, the masturbation habit often occurs when they are alone. If this is the case for you, you need to limit the amount of time you spend by yourself.
Take on activities that force you to be in the company of other people for longer, work less from home and more at the office, and spend free time outdoors. Doing this for a while will force your mind to stop focusing on your sexual urges.
Work on your sexual relationships
If you are in a relationship, you need to divert the sexual energy back into your relationship. If having your sexual needs unmet is what drove you to masturbation, you should be able to talk about this with your partner and find ways to meet each other’s needs in the bedroom. Making your sex life more fun and exciting will take away the need to masturbate.
Exercise more
Like orgasms, exercise is also an ideal way to release endorphins, the feel-good hormone. Activities such as weight lifting, swimming, and running will have the same positive effect on your brain, like the feeling of ejaculation. This leaves you feeling happier and relaxed, reducing your body’s need for endorphins or dopamine boost from masturbating.
Be patient but persistent
Habits take time to form; thus, it will take time to get over them. While this does not mean excusing your behavior every time you give in to temptation, it is important to be patient with yourself as you work through it.
Remember to remain committed to the result you want to achieve, which is finally stopping to masturbate. It will get better with time.
Setting up a reward system is the best way to ensure you commit to improving. Consider this as a way of rewarding yourself for remaining committed to quitting the habit. You can set milestones to hit and determine how to reward yourself for each milestone.
Join a support group
When living with compulsive masturbation, it is easy to imagine that no one understands you. This leads to feelings of shame, guilt, and feeling like you are a failure or beyond help.
This is not true. If you are feeling lonely and isolated because of uncontrollable masturbation, joining a masturbation support group on a platform like MensGroup.com can go a long way in making the process of quitting easier. In this peer-led support forum, you will meet like-minded men going through the same issues related to masturbation.
Here, you will learn healthy coping mechanisms and where to get helpful resources and professional help to quit once and for all.
About MensGroup
MensGroup is a men-only online support group that offers peer support to any male looking to connect with others as they fight various issues, including porn addiction. At Mensgroup, men can talk about their triggers, shortcomings, and failures in their recovery process.
You can also find peer support groups for different physical and mental health issues here. MensGroup is a forum for mutual acceptance, self-discovery, and understanding amongst peers. Participants can join chat rooms or meet with other porn addicts through video calls. With MensGroup, you do not have to go through life alone.
Conclusion
Like any other addiction, porn addiction requires behavioral therapy and guidance for one to recover. If you are a man who is a porn addict, joining a men’s group like mensgroup.com is an essential step toward finding healing and recovery from this addiction. Doing it with others like you calls you to be accountable and improves your chances of making the change you seek.
