Naltrexone for Pornography Use
I'm sharing this here because it got blocked by the mods in r/PornAddiction and the related subs are all the same mods. I'm not against any model of treatment that actually works but I'm absolutely against keeping voices out of the conversation when they don't fit your aesthetic as to how to handle problematic behavior. Checking history any time someone mentions naltrexone, they delete the post and tell them join a twelve step group instead.
Therefore, I want this headline here so others searching Reddit might find that there are medications that can be part of the recovery process.
I understand full well that porn is not a recognized addiction and that some say it's a mere compulsion and the harm is driven by shame and guilt. I'm here to say that's not what this was. This was an embarrassing number of hours a week (potentially a process now referred to as gooning, but I'm far older than that term), a compulsion to just go watch for "just a few minutes" that turns to hours. Sure, there's a shame component there, but I promise something was actually severely wrong.
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After years of struggling with porn and Internet use in general, I told my prescriber I know all the good habits, all the tricks. I know exactly what I should do. I've joined communities, installed blockers, done therapy. I just get into that HALT (hungry, angry, lonely, tired) state and feel like I simply watch myself make poor decisions and it's badly affecting my life. This isn't some simple moral guilt issue. It's choosing porn over sleep, over relationships, etc. Checking my history, I've repeatedly likened it to alcoholism...and I know a LOT of functional alcoholics.
I lose all willpower and simply do not care. I'm a successful, highly rational person who makes careful, well thought-out decisions in my life. When it comes to my own health though, I'm less good. Outright self-destructive, chasing brain chemicals at significant personal cost. Unsurprisingly, I'm comorbid with ADHD, anxiety, and bouts of serious depression. So, he prescribed me the stupid, cheap pill.
It was like a switch was flipped. I've done SSRIs. There was no period of build-up needed. Overnight, the nagging need to essentially goon, often for hours, was just gone. My phone usage meter has dropped by literally hours a week, and porn use further still, replaced by healthier scrolling. I feel good. I feel like an adult able to rationally run my own life instead of being yanked by the ear by some monster into things that during-the-day-me had no interest in doing. Even if I'm not completely clean, I'm actually managing. I'm not distressed about a "need". I don't get the pull and if I do, I can tell myself no. I can redirect. Like people say habit building is supposed to work.
Only bad side effect are orgasms don't feel as good (go figure) and early nausea.
Point being, you might want to try it. Also to point: it's infuriating how easy we've made porn access and how we treat addition to it as merely a "habit" when a medication designed to treat hard drug abuse is the only thing that works for some people, and it works extremely well. It's awful what we've done to ourselves.