Hi Eerie, I hope Shabbos was great! Hatzlocha and best outcome from the issue that you mentioned.

I really appreciate that! Yes, Shabbos was beautiful, and we are back at work and busy, too. Thanks again! It really means a lot to me that people care about me and my wellbeing

Hi dear friends. A while back I wrote about email ads that were really presenting me with tests. I figured out how to stop the ads. Back then when the ads would come I would open the emails, and they had pictures of not the most tzniusdig women. Not terrible who-knows-what, but not something I should see. For a long time I have not received those emails. Today such an email came, I was trying to delete it without opening it, but by mistake I opened it. And then I closed my eyes. I did not see the image in the email. Thank the One above for helping me there, I would be nowhere without all His endless kindness! I am undeserving of the love He has showered upon me the last few months, and I only hope I somehow make Him proud

Eerie wrote on 25 Apr 2023 23:27:

Gevurah.

Wow, that is such a hard nisayon!

Very inspiring! Thank you

Two things someone showed me. In chrome you can add an extension which blocks all images from showing. You can open specific images by clicking on them, or exclude certain websites etc. Look up wizmage (?).

Also, you can set Gmail to not show images in emails by default. You click on a button to show images per email if you want.

Both great ideas to help guard your eyes. 

frank.lee wrote on 27 Apr 2023 14:34:

Same thing with Apple email app. You can choose to manually load media. So it shows as empty or blue box with ? Until you click on “load content”

Hi there all my holy friends and brothers! 
I have written in the past about when I used an unsafe device, which I only do if I contact my accountability partner before and after, and I wrote that I found that I had a real urge to search for stuff I know I should not see, and I wrote about how having somebody that will be looking after me was the thing that helped hold back. I wanted to update the oilam here, and share my experience.
It has happened a few times recently that I needed to use an unsafe device, and each time I texted my partner before and after. And I noticed that my urge to search for inappropriate content was much less than the earlier times. 
I think (and hope) that the reason for this is simple. My brain was wired that 'device=internet=search for __________'. I avoid the battle, and I don't generally use unsafe devices, but when I needed to use those devices my urges came right back, because my wiring was still the same. But now, since I have used those devices a few times and BH behaved, my wiring has changed. My brain doesn't automatically send the message for my heart to start rushing and pumping just because I have a device in my hand.
This is not to say that I don't have a YH, or that I don't have urges. I definitely do, and I do not trust myself with an unsafe device. But it is comforting to see the change, to see that my wiring is getting the message that we're in for the long haul.
Dearest friends, I can not thank you enough for all you do for me, and I thank Hashem that I'm part of your family!

Great post! The internal changes are legitimate. Love it!

Eerie wrote on 14 May 2023 22:28:

This has the ring of truth. You've articulated something that I have been feeling for a little while, but didn't quite know what I was feeling. When I was locked into searching for inappropriate material, it often struck me at how impossible it was to just use the computer for whatever legitimate need I was using it for, without that extra click. But now I see that technology can wire a person's brain so that it's almost automatic. When you embark on a different path, and remove yourself from this way of life, you can actually rewire your brain to not react that way. I think this is a very powerful point. Thank you for bringing it out.

Hi, all my special friends and brothers, my family at GYE!
I have been planning for a while to write a nice piece here, but I simply can't find the time. It will have to wait. So, what's the occasion that I'm writing on my thread? Today is BH 275 clean from P and M, but that's not what I want to write about. I was just reading a bunch of threads, and I was so inspired. I thought about it a few minutes and I am blown away.
I am here for only a short while, having joined in July, but really only started visiting regularly and taking an active part since November. And I have seen so many special people come here, I've watched them start off, hesitating, wondering if they can do it, airing concerns, and then slowly but surely they get the hang of it and they start soaring!!! Literally soaring! 
The epiphany I had as I read through the threads, of Chaimoigen, of Yitz, of Eccentric Composer, of Yeshayahu (or was is Bradley Smith?), of SimchasTorah, Iwillmanage, MY41, and so many others, and seeing what truly special people they are! Such really special people! I'm sitting here reading and I can't get over it, there are so many special people here! There are so many that were here not so long ago that have BH reached a place where they are healthy enough to move on(although it would have been nice to have them inspire some others). It is so beautiful, I have no words. And to see the oilam supporting each other, helping, inspiring, sharing advice, making each guy feel like a brother, it is so unbelievably beautiful I cannot capture it in words. It is just amazing, to talk to some guys here, every guy I've ever spoken to struck me as so special, as having such a good and positive interior, of wanting so badly to just be good, of working so hard to get there. I am awed. I know I don't come close to doing justice to the beauty of the oilam here.
In my first post I said that when I read the things people here wrote I'm awed into silence. My friends, I've come full circle.

Eerie wrote on 24 May 2023 23:36:

And much of it is thanks to you. You are an incredible chizuk around here! Everyone who is/was lucky enough to feel your care and concern has become better for it.

Please keep it up!

P.S. Can you please add your number of clean days next to your username? It gives chizzuk...

I feel so special that I give you chizzuk, thank you so much!

Eerie,
Your genuine encouragement and warmth has given me the koach to "buy in" here. Hope I can stay in and keep trucking as you say.