How to beat porn addiction: my methodology after eight years of suffering

This post is a repeat of my post from r/PornAddiction, hopefully it's ok.

I've actually been addicted to porn and the PMO cycle for a bit longer than 8 years, but 8 years has become a time frame where I recognise the problem but still can't deal with it. I've stopped using alcohol and nicotine during that time, but PMO, it's a hell of a lot harder. And I want to share what has started to work for me personally, although I'm just at the beginning of the journey and this is the first time I'm discussing it with anyone. I'll provide my system first, and detail it below.

The way I'm struggling with this right now:

1. No fast dopamine: deleted instagram, tiktok and other rubbish.
2. Phone settings set to block all sexual content on the web.
3. My phone is in shades of grey mode, removes unnecessary stimulation and the phone becomes less interesting.
4. I only pick up my phone when I need something and in my head I clearly answer the question ‘Why are you picking it up, man?’ before I pick it up. If the answer is not work, business, personal relationship related - I don't pick it up. IMPORTANT: once the deed is done, the phone is immediately locked and put away.
5. The phone is not in my line of sight while I am working.
6. Do an analysis of your weak moments: in what situations do you break down? What did you feel? What preceded it?
7. In your moments of weakness, replace porn with anything else you find acceptable that makes you happy and helps you get out of a difficult emotional situation. For me, 5 hours of watching a film, reading, a good meal, coffee, talking to friends would be better than 1 hour of porn.
8. Decide where you are going to put the energy you have freed up. This is extremely important because, believe me, porn kills you as an extremely motivated person and you should decide on an endeavour that will have a positive impact on you.

And a little dissection of why what's on this list is what's on this list. In my opinion porn addiction is related to the addiction to the phone / fast dopamine, I would say simply mindless waste of time. All the points about the phone can be adapted to your PC / laptop, because all of the above: tools to achieve some goals. Before using these tools you should determine - what goal am I going to achieve, what problem to solve that I take the phone / sit down at the PC?

It is important to analyse the situations in which you break down, your moments of weakness. You will most likely notice that you are just suffering from something: you may be generally unhappy with your life, dislike yourself, dislike your job or be in some situations. You won't always be able to remove these problems from your life just by realising them, but knowing your weaknesses will allow you to say in these moments ‘Stop, I think I'm about to make a mistake. I can help myself in a different way. I'm going to go do /there's any acceptable substitution for PMO/’.

And it remains to determine the sphere of activity where you will direct the released energy. Porn was killing me as a person who wanted to develop personal relationships, a career, and simply grow in this life. If you don't identify what you want to pursue, you will begin to feel empty along the way from the time you have freed up and empty inside as a serious part of yourself you are trying to rebuild.

I hope this has been helpful, you are not alone, we can do this. Have a great day!