How to Forgive Yourself and Heal from Porn Addiction
Breaking porn addiction is difficult, especially if you’re quitting cold turkey. When attempting to break any habitual behavior, you’ll need to develop coping skills and utilize tools to help you replace the destructive behavior through new habits. Dwelling in guilt and shame is unhealthy and it’s important to develop positive habits to keep moving forward on your journey to recovery.
Here are 5 steps to forgive yourself and get back on track after a slip-up.
1. Understand You’ve Made a Mistake
The first step to overcoming your addiction is recognizing that you have a problem. When you experience a setback in your recovery identify your mistake and take accountability for your actions. Once you’ve done this, you can start the process of forgiving yourself and moving on.
2. Accept That You’ve Messed Up
It’s easy to be in denial or frustrated with yourself that you don’t want to face the reality of your mistake, especially when you’ve been working hard and taking steps towards a porn-free life. Acknowledge you’ve messed up and accept responsibility for your actions. Next, talk with your therapist, support group, or trusted person who will help you stay accountable and move forward in your recovery.
3. Notice the Difficult-to-Face Facts
Recognizing the reason for your slip up isn’t always easy, but it’s necessary for your recovery. Take a good, hard look at yourself and what happened, and try to identify why you chose to look at pornography again. Identifying your triggers and what led you to backslide may help you avoid turning to porn in the future.
4. Learn from the Mistake
Choose to turn your setback into an opportunity to better understand yourself and reconfirm your strength. Resolve to stay committed to your recovery. Consider practicing positive affirmations, or introducing new good habits to help you in times when you desire to take part in old habits.
5. Let It Go
Once you’ve completed the first 4 steps in the process, now is the time to let it go. Dwelling on your mistakes and imperfections will only hold you back on your journey to recovery. Choose to continue to push forward, never allowing your past transgressions to make you feel worthless, especially when you’re working so hard to overcome your addiction. Remember, you’re working toward something that requires a lot of internal strength and perseverance, and those are wonderful qualities to cultivate.
Recovery Is Possible
Taking the first steps are difficult, but possible. Expect to make mistakes along your path to recovery, but know that no matter what, there’s always hope. With the help of sexual addiction recovery programs, as well as supportive relationships with family and friends, you’ll have the tools and strength to overcome porn addiction.
