Masturbation is a common sexual practice. It is absolutely normal because it enhances sexual pleasures and maintains a healthy sex life. But the addiction to anything is not good. So, if you are unable to control your urge to masturbate, and it is interfering with your daily activities and has become unhealthy and problematic, it is time to stop masturbating.
In this article, we will discuss when this healthy activity (masturbation) tends to become a problem, along with some tips on how to stop masturbating. All you need to do is give some time to these approaches and have patience and consistency to create a healthier balance in your life!
When Does Masturbation Become a Problem?
Masturbation is considered a healthy activity when it's done by males or females 3-5 times per week. However, constant engagement in this activity can cause compulsive behaviour, detach you from other activities, may impact your mental health, and sometimes become physically painful, ultimately becoming a problem for you.
Signs when masturbation becomes a problem:
- Your too much time and energy is being consumed.
- Your school, college, or work schedule gets disturbed.
- You become impatient to masturbate.
- You cope with negative emotions such as anger, stress, and anxiety.
- You constantly think about masturbation.
- You start to feel guilty, depressed, or upset.
- You masturbate even when you are not aroused.
- If you also sense these signs and find yourself in compulsive sexual behaviour, it can be problematic, and you should think about cutting off or stopping masturbation.
How To Stop Masturbating?
If the above problematic signs define you, and you want to turn off the urges of masturbation, we have some practical tips for you on how to stop masturbating. Be open and motivated to follow these approaches. Let's explore lasting solutions:
1. Avoid Pornography
Pornography works the same way, similar to drugs. Porn videos drive your mental desire to masturbate. Visuals of porn are so strong that they directly impact your thinking, memory, and controlling behavior. According to data, 35% of all internet downloads are related to pornography because it is very easy to access such websites in a few seconds. So, if you want to really stop this habit, the first thing is to stop watching pornography, such as pornographic images and videos, or searching for pornographic websites.
To help yourself prevent such addictive fantasies, you can place some barriers, such as blocking porn websites from your electronic devices, avoiding explicit content, or activating your browser's safe search filter, where sexual graphic is not allowed. However, due to your addictive and compulsive nature, you can unblock these websites. But try to control your impulsive urges and create positive brain patterns to spend time in some other activities. When you make pornography nearly impossible to access, it will be a lot easier for you to stop this habit, making a healthier life for yourself!
2. Avoid Alone Time
Spending more alone time can trigger you for excess masturbation because you feel lonely and have nothing to do. So, to reduce the likelihood of masturbation, you need to decrease your solitude. Start to live around other people. Start doing activities that require the involvement of others.
For example, if you masturbate at any particular time, make that time your social connection time. Plan to meet people and family, engage with others, and enjoy real connections. Spending time with others will help you divert your mind to other things and help with your loneliness, thus minimising the possibility of masturbation.
3. Stay Active and Exercise
The next best tip to distract yourself from the habit of masturbation and engage yourself in something productive is to stay active and do regular exercise. This will give you numerous health benefits, such as reducing muscle pain and tension and making you feel relaxed. Exercise also releases a chemical called dopamine, which helps to enhance your mood. Moreover, it improves your health, stamina, and concentration and decreases the urge to masturbate. You don't need to do exercise at the gym, even if you put in little effort like walking, using stairs, or doing household chores, which can help you reevaluate your thoughts and keep you busy for longer hours, keeping you away from masturbating.
4. Stay Busy
Keeping your full schedule busy and diverting your mind to other things can definitely help you to stop masturbating. In other words, filling your whole day with fun and fulfilling activities can keep you away from this habit. You can engage in some activities, such as creating a new hobby that is self-soothing, engaging, exciting or working on personal goals.
Address the factors that make you masturbate and then try to divert your mind and activities towards something purposeful. Work on something that you need to improve or work on enhancing your relationship with others. All this will keep your energy in a healthy goal and leave you not thinking of masturbating.
5. Change Your Daily Routine
If masturbation has become a part of your daily routine, then its fantasies occur at specific times of the day. Generally, it happens when you wake up, take a shower, or just before you go to sleep. Now, the question is how to stop masturbating. To do this, you need to change your daily routine.
For example, if you masturbate in the morning, leave your bed right away and focus on exercise or your breakfast, like “What should you eat today? If you do it before bed, engage yourself in watching some movie or calming song that makes you fall asleep faster. If it's in the shower, take a cold and short bath. Changing and adopting these habits will help you cut the urges for maturation.
6. Meditate
Medication is very popular because it is helpful in many ways. It works with your mind, body, and spirit to make it more focused towards something positive. Doing medication is another best option to stop masturbating, which works in two steps:
- It is effective in replacing one habit with the other.
- It allows you to control your thoughts.
To stop masturbation, you can adopt various meditations such as orgasmic meditation, erotic meditation, and tantric masturbation, which work with your mind to make you more aware of your thoughts and emotions and work to control your sexual urges, reduce stress, enhance emotional well-being, and your life better.
7. Find a Support Group
When the habit of masturbation becomes addictive, it can be due to reasons such as relationship issues, untreated mental health conditions, cultural differences in sexual expressions, cultural conflicts, etc. In such cases, getting help from a support group can be very beneficial.
Joining a support group gives you encouragement, understanding, and guidance. It allows you to connect with other people who are in similar situations to understand their coping strategies to overcome such addictive behaviour. When they talk about their concerns and express their challenges that are similar to yours, your feelings of shame and guilt linked to compulsive masturbation decrease; this will help you get ideas on how to stop masturbating. Join the group addressing masturbation concerns so you can connect with them openly and have a non-judgemental environment.
8. Find a Therapist
The next option is to talk with a therapist. If you are struggling to stop masturbating, your therapist will help you to add some additional strategies to help you quit. Fix some appointments with a therapist especially who specialises in human sexuality. They are well experienced and use their knowledge to find out if you are dealing with some emotions like depression, shame, and anxiety. There can also be some underlying health conditions, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Becoming comfortable with your therapist may take a few sessions, but be open and transparent with your therapist. Talk about why you feel like masturbating and how it is affecting your lifestyle so he can better understand your psychology and suggest some strategies to cope with your temptations. Your therapist may recommend medication and cognitive behavioural therapy for your personal growth and well-being.
Some of the successful therapies in this regard include:
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.
- Motivational Enhancement Therapy.
- Social Competence Training (SoCo).
- Cognitive Therapy (CT).
- Reality Therapy (RT).
9. Medication
The next tip is to try certain medications to help stop masturbating. Although there is no such medicine approved by the FDA in this regard, your therapist or doctor can recommend some medicines for compulsive masturbation, such as antipsychotics, antiandrogens, and mood stabilizers.
The prescribed medicine is based on the mental health condition of the patient and is helpful in obsessive behaviours and thoughts caused by brain chemicals. Medicine like medroxyprogesterone acetate or cyproterone acetate lowers testosterone levels and sexual drive and urge.
10. Set Goals and Mark Progress
Quitting your addiction can be challenging, but if you set a goal and work progressively, the result will be fruitful. Stopping the habit of masturbation may take some time, but start with small steps. Set SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely). After setting a goal, implementing it, evaluating it, and improving it, you will soon see progress and find that you are on the right track.
Try to cut down on this habit daily and then weekly, and trust yourself that you win the battle of overcoming the urge and the learned behaviours.
What Happens When You Stop Masturbating?
There is no scientific reason that you should stop masturbating, but it depends on how frequently you masturbate or how addicted you are. If you do this activity daily, you may notice physical or mental side effects such as guilt feelings, skin irritation, and a lot of societal, religious, and moral hang-ups. Also, excessive masturbation can lead to Oedema, which can lead to swelling or inflammation. So, you need to stop your addiction.
You will notice the following benefits after stopping masturbation:
- Higher focus on your work.
- Improve relationships.
- Reduced anxiety and depression.
- Increase sperm count.
- Better focus and more energy.
- Overall health and mental improvements.
- Increase self-esteem and confidence.
- More discipline and willpower.
- Increase happiness.
Final Words
If you are working to stop the habit of masturbation, you are not alone. Although masturbation is a normal act, it can become a problem when it starts to interfere with your work and personal life. So, it's essential to take action to stir up negative thoughts and cut off this act. From the above article, you now know many techniques of how to stop masturbating, seek the appropriate one for yourself, and work towards a healthy life!
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