New topic to hang out there

I am an addict

I'm addicted to the internet

At work its on my pc
In the car (dangerous)its the blackberry

And at home its the blackberry

My addiction has nothing to do with lust

It is a simple matter of being addicted to the internet

I visit maybe 5 sites
GUE
Gooooogle news
Matzav
Bardstown news
Chabad

Zeh huu

Of these 5 sites I spend wayyyy to much time


Now I am also addicted to this forum

All day and all nite

Yes it replaced my addiction to shmuts

But it is not a way to live


Any suGgestions

Please

B

Sugestions:
have a tehilim handy or a few kapitlach & force yopurself to read them before & during
surf-time
try finding something -anything -to learn when you have a free minute
try getting into reading (the world before tv & internet) wharever interest u & is clean
tefilla & more tefilla
&chessed always helps
hatzlochoh rabboh (I need to cut down myself-ain't easy)

Same problem here.
At least you're accomplishing a lot on the forum.

Please let me know the level of your seriousness on this issue.

It is true that it is easy to waste away day after day surfing the web, even without lust.

i've got the same problem, but i don't have a phone with internet, so it is limited to when i am sitting in front of a computer, at work or at home

We're all in the same boat here chevrah.

if you are going to be online anyway it might be better to spend the time here on GYE than elsewhere.

this place is full of heilige tiyere yidden trying to better themselves, a lot of chizuk, some divrei torah, and some jokes (at least that's what i've heard, i wouldn't know)

but being on the internet so much and feeling that "i must check my email/thread/blog/news" is not a good thing.

I wrote something to the same affect on my thread just yesterday.  Being that I am new here I have noticed that I crave the moment when I can return to my computer and read all the comments that you guys put up, and then comment back etc. 

          In recent years people have started to acknowledge the existence of an addiction to Facebook.  The experience that one gets when he can write something and watch as other people comment on what he has to say, in a public forum no less, is a feeder to the very powerful ego.  It can be addictive.  It also doesn't attack the same portion of the brain that other addictions do.  That's why the addiction to this site won't replace the lusting that remains inside of us, but it will fill the addictive needs of our brains.

          I will not leave go of my addiction to this website as I feel that it will pinch-hit for my addiction to lust for as long as possible.  The lusting that I still have inside of me will not go away through this and that is why I will continue to advance myself to begin the 12 steps, get a partner/sponsor, etc. 

This is an educated opinion of my own, and I welcome debate on its merits.

RisingUp wrote on 27 Jan 2011 19:30:

i agree 100%

but there seems to be a deep-based human instinct to interact, socialize and share thoughts and feelings. if it is done with 'live' people or on an online forum the same obsession can be developed, needing to interact constantly. is the online version more of a problem?

bardichev wrote on 27 Jan 2011 06:31:


[Moderator's note: Comment has been removed.  GYE policy does not permit this type of post].

little off-topic

but i am a beneficiary of rebbe b being part and parcel of GYE, so even though we say אין אומרים לאדם חטא בשביל שיזכה חבירך I think it is safe to say that GYE gained more than we can imagine by having rebbe b here so much and so often

WE LOVE REBBE B! thank you

back to regular programming

Great topic as I could very much relate.  In fact I’ve heard myself try to justify in the past that I have an internet addiction not a lust one.  Let me provide two suggestions which seem to help me.
1) Change your home page to some dull and boring website (usually accounting and law firms qualify for this).  Mine used to be set on Google, which casused many useless searches (and many leading to shmutz), only because it was there and available.  Eventually I changed it to Aish and then to Matzav, but I would still spend too much time reading interesting articles when I was suppose to do something else.  Now my homepage is set to a very monotonous site and I am distracted much less.

2) Figure out what hour of the day you spend the most time on the internet (if you have web chaver, the reports tell you this).  Make a kebala not to go on the internet every day for that one hour period for any personal use, NO MATTER WHAT (yes even GYE).  Try it, see how it goes after a week

Hatzlacha.

come on yidden!!!

this site is not for this (

remember
פאליטיק בגמי' עמלק

no matter which politics
period

Back to the topic of the thread................

I identify with obsession with the internet or GYE or any other "kosher" site.  I take it as a reminder that I am still spiritually ill.  My soul is still malnourished and in need of an effective spiritual experience that the 12 Steps can provide me.

This really hit me hard today as I was off from work and spend way too much time on the computer. 

My experience was that the ichy yicky feeling was enough to help me get back to doing some writing on Step 4.  YAYYYYY!!!!

In the old days pain and bad feelings demanded to be numbed with lust.  Today I take is a signal that I need to step up my actions of spirituality and seeking my Higher Power - GOD.

Thank you GOD for the Steps.

Boruch Hashem! There is a beautiful member story in the back of the AA big book called something like Acceptance is the key (answer?). (It used to be called "Doctor, alcoholic, addict", I think, but got changed in the 4th edition.)

Anyhow, one of the big things the member relates about how he succeeds in recovery, or rather, how Hashem has guided him into success in recovery so far, is the idea of "no longer needing to fight anything or anybody". he used to be competitive, criticize others in his own mind and walk around with armor to ward off "wrong people". Most of us know that powerful armor as "our resentments". We really love them...or at least we sure act like we do. Right? Any debate out there on that?

As far as I can tell, the domain of kana'us is not a place for me. I am an addict. I convert kana'us into deep emotional struggles and personal insulting garbage quite naturally. Much as I love to consider myself 'a truly principled man', I have never actually argued vehemently for principles - it was always against a person or group of people. Sure, my fight starts as something like a war of ideas, but it quickly morphs into a very personal and bitter battle. I hate it. The self-righteous ego that I need to inflate high in order to fight that good fight is deadly. It's my chometz.

It makes my sobriety impossible. So I do not engage in it, be"H. Cleaning the world of charlatans will have to be His business. He'll have to save His world without my help.

I think He's got what it takes. My first job is to be sober, of course.

And thanks, Jooboy, for that beautiful share above and for sticking to recovery rather than useless distractions.