Shavua Tov. I'm clean for about a week now and I'm facing my biggest test yet.
I suffer pretty bad from insomnia and that's when I have the hardest time. Those hours in bed twisting and turning... The catch is that being MZ"L usually helps me fall asleep. I've spent hours fighting the yetzer hara only to lose in the end.
I slept this afternoon for a while and I get the feeling that sleep is not coming for a long time. I'm determined not to lose it tonight. Any suggestions?

distract yourself with something. play a game, read a book.
read some of the attitude handbook.

spend some time on GYE writing up your story. I just read both your posts and you haven't told us that much about yourself. How old are you, how long have you been addicted, why do you want to stop?

sorry just not used to sharing this kind of stuff. i'm 23 and married. i started being MZ"L without knowing what i was doing when i was nine. i didnt even realize it was assur for years. by then i was addicted like a beast. porn came around later to spice things up but even without it i was in pretty hot water. i tried stopping a million times. i even had a 5 month clean streak once, but every time i fell eventually. this is the first time i think i found the right tools to help me stop.

I'm glad you found GYE!
Davening is a very important part of recovery, keep that in mind.

Hey goodkid,

Why not try doing some exercise during the day and then relaxing a bit before bed to help you get to sleep? If you still can't get to sleep my advice is go on the GYE forum, read something boring like a dry part of the bible, or maybe do some work. After a while, the thought of falling asleep may seem attractive compared with doing work at like 3am lol.

Hope that helps.

BW,

DL

Thanks for the chizuk last night. I just wanna say that I made it! took till about 4am. I read the forum a little, listened to some music evened learned some. It worked

Well done!!! ;D :D 8) You won this round! Now you've got a strategy that works for you in these situations.

Welcome!

I wonder how much of the insomnia is generated by the addiction.  Because I can relate to having difficulty falling asleep until I would m* (when I was in active addiction).

Assuming you are addicted, how much have you read about lust addiction here?
Other than distracting yourself and fighting the taiva, what is your recovery plan?

You make an interesting point alexeliezer. I wonder if all those sleepless nights have something to do with all this business.
You ask me about my plan. I don't really know. For starters I put k9 filter on my computer and ipod. I'm working on the 90 clean days and I'm reading the handbook. I also get the daily emails. I guess my plan is to just fill up my head with all this positive stuff and see what happens. If you or anyone else has any suggestions - hit me back.

goodkid wrote on 19 Feb 2012 17:07:

Did you give the password to someone else?

also, check out this thread www.guardyoureyes.org/forum/index.php?topic=4309

Thanks for the link. My wife made  the passwords but the k9 on my computer is on the default setting. I still wanna customize it to block out more stuff. Bli Neder today I'll take care of that.

Way to go!!!
Lechaim!

goodkid wrote on 19 Feb 2012 17:07:


The handbook is a great place to start.  Learn what it means to be a lust addict.  Learn what lust is and how to avoid it, how to surrender it to Hashem.  Learn the difference between fighting a natural taiva vs recovering from an addiction.  Consider studying and working through the 12 steps.

Keep posting here.  It's important for your recovery to stay in touch with fellow strugglers.  We help each other.

Hey Alexliezer,

A Chinese doctor (the traditional chinese medicine kind) told me that masturbation amongst other things leads to insomnia. It's just a vicious circle that gets worse and worse. In more extreme cases you also have night sweats, loss of appetite, hair loss etc.

I suffered from all of the above symptoms and far worse ones too, so I can testify that the doctor was telling the truth.

BW,

DL

Hello again and thanks for all the support till now. I'm clean ten days and I overcame a couple of real tough ones (including a few sleepless nights which are the hardest). I have a question I was hoping someone could help me with. Since I got involved here I keep on reading about submitting to Hashem. Give up the fight and just let Hashem do the work. It's part of the 12 steps, it was in chizuk email #938 and all over the place. I just don't really understand what it means. I thought that I have to try to fight the Yetzer Hara in order to kick my addiction. Here at GYE they teach me that I should put the fight in Gds hands. Well, if I sit back and say "Ok hashem, you take it from here cuz I'm done with this fight", whats gonna stop me from doing whatever i want whenever i want. Obviously I'm wrong but what am I missing???