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Chooseurnames 90 day trip
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Re: Chooseurnames 90 day trip 24 Feb 2025 18:02 #431942

  • chaimoigen
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Agreed to the implication that blaming one’s problems on external situations isn’t the way to go. 

But, I have a slightly more compassionate view.
We have learned that much of the internal problem is often a living problem, and not inherently a lust problem, necessarily.

Therefore, in the context of your last few posts (on this and other threads), I think that changing jobs can be part of finding motivation and leaning into the posture of active living. Being in a dead-end situation that zaps energy and makes a person want to do nothing but procrastinate and escape simply ain’t good.

Positive change is positive change. Mustering the energy and courage to try to do it comes from some of the same places that recovery does.
Please feel free to reach out anytime at chaim.oigen@gmail.com

Perhaps you'd enjoy seeing Chaim's Oigen
Last Edit: 24 Feb 2025 18:04 by chaimoigen.

Re: Chooseurnames 90 day trip 24 Feb 2025 22:21 #431956

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Job change may be a great idea if what you need is a motivation boost and a sense of fulfilment.  But when it comes to that 'internal problem of living', I doubt something as extrinsic as that will solve anything. Life will just keep on lifeing.
If you're questioning whether your current method is working and kinda feel you need more powerful tools, I'll just point out what you already know, that those powerful tools do exist. You're already trying to apply some of the principles of the steps to your life, recognising that this challenge is more powerful than you and 'surrendering' yourself to Hashem etc, but joining a program in earnest is an entirely different experience. It absolutely works if you work it, and I have no doubt that you would.
I feel that suggesting SA to anyone here is kinda taboo, as though I'm talking about some dark, scary place which is to be avoided at all costs. Which is a shame and a big misconception. SA is a place of joyous freedom and recovery, a breath of hope for those who have tried all else and failed.

Re: Chooseurnames 90 day trip 25 Feb 2025 18:37 #432013

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Got bored. Filter poked. Found porn. Realized I had no interest right now. Looked at it a little. Didn't have any interest. Moved on. 

Re: Chooseurnames 90 day trip 25 Feb 2025 23:59 #432055

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iwillmanage wrote on 24 Feb 2025 22:21:
Job change may be a great idea if what you need is a motivation boost and a sense of fulfilment.  But when it comes to that 'internal problem of living', I doubt something as extrinsic as that will solve anything. Life will just keep on lifeing.
If you're questioning whether your current method is working and kinda feel you need more powerful tools, I'll just point out what you already know, that those powerful tools do exist. You're already trying to apply some of the principles of the steps to your life, recognising that this challenge is more powerful than you and 'surrendering' yourself to Hashem etc, but joining a program in earnest is an entirely different experience. It absolutely works if you work it, and I have no doubt that you would.
I feel that suggesting SA to anyone here is kinda taboo, as though I'm talking about some dark, scary place which is to be avoided at all costs. Which is a shame and a big misconception. SA is a place of joyous freedom and recovery, a breath of hope for those who have tried all else and failed.

Thank you. I have a close relative whose life was saved by the 12 Steps. 

The reason I personally don’t recommend SA to people I speak with is simply because I don’t have personal experience there, and I feel that it’s only right and proper for me to direct and encourage people how to follow a path that has worked for me and that I understand. I don’t like to opine about things I don’t know or really understand. (I have no idea if it’s for you or not, Shem).

But I know that there are a lot of special people who have not been able to find help any other way, who have found healing and recovery through the Program. 
I appreciate the fact that you’re sharing about the very positive aspects of the Program. 

( I think that some of the negativity encountered here towards SA may be pushback that came from some folks here who have taken exception to the notion that some people have stridently expressed  (it’s mostly out of vogue now) that the only true path to recovery is SA, and that if you were helped by any other method, you must never have had a real problem in the first place. I don’t think that’s true, from personal experience. I know many people, whose lives were completely unmanageable, who have been helped and found recovery through other methods here.)
Please feel free to reach out anytime at chaim.oigen@gmail.com

Perhaps you'd enjoy seeing Chaim's Oigen
Last Edit: 26 Feb 2025 00:27 by chaimoigen.

Re: Chooseurnames 90 day trip 26 Feb 2025 02:42 #432078

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chaimoigen wrote on 25 Feb 2025 23:59:

iwillmanage wrote on 24 Feb 2025 22:21:
Job change may be a great idea if what you need is a motivation boost and a sense of fulfilment.  But when it comes to that 'internal problem of living', I doubt something as extrinsic as that will solve anything. Life will just keep on lifeing.
If you're questioning whether your current method is working and kinda feel you need more powerful tools, I'll just point out what you already know, that those powerful tools do exist. You're already trying to apply some of the principles of the steps to your life, recognising that this challenge is more powerful than you and 'surrendering' yourself to Hashem etc, but joining a program in earnest is an entirely different experience. It absolutely works if you work it, and I have no doubt that you would.
I feel that suggesting SA to anyone here is kinda taboo, as though I'm talking about some dark, scary place which is to be avoided at all costs. Which is a shame and a big misconception. SA is a place of joyous freedom and recovery, a breath of hope for those who have tried all else and failed.

Thank you. I have a close relative whose life was saved by the 12 Steps. 

The reason I personally don’t recommend SA to people I speak with is simply because I don’t have personal experience there, and I feel that it’s only right and proper for me to direct and encourage people how to follow a path that has worked for me and that I understand. I don’t like to opine about things I don’t know or really understand. (I have no idea if it’s for you or not, Shem).

But I know that there are a lot of special people who have not been able to find help any other way, who have found healing and recovery through the Program. 
I appreciate the fact that you’re sharing about the very positive aspects of the Program. 

( I think that some of the negativity encountered here towards SA may be pushback that came from some folks here who have taken exception to the notion that some people have stridently expressed  (it’s mostly out of vogue now) that the only true path to recovery is SA, and that if you were helped by any other method, you must never have had a real problem in the first place. I don’t think that’s true, from personal experience. I know many people, whose lives were completely unmanageable, who have been helped and found recovery through other methods here.)

Elucidating.

I just gotta say that I iwillmanage generously shared his time with me today to talk about his experiences with GYE/SA, and while I still don't know what the future will bring I do know that he is a really awesome guy to schmooze with.

Re: Chooseurnames 90 day trip 27 Feb 2025 03:57 #432143

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Been a rough day. Feel like sharing these iconic words here:

Mirrors on the ceiling, the pink champagne on ice
And she said, "We are all just prisoners here of our own device"

And in the master's chambers, they gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives, but they just can't kill the beast

Last thing I remember, I was running for the door
I had to find the passage back to the place I was before

"Relax, " said the night man, "We are programmed to receive
You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave"

Please feel free to reach out anytime at chaim.oigen@gmail.com

Perhaps you'd enjoy seeing Chaim's Oigen
Last Edit: 27 Feb 2025 14:57 by chaimoigen.

Re: Chooseurnames 90 day trip 27 Feb 2025 05:19 #432150

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chaimoigen wrote on 27 Feb 2025 03:57:
Been a rough day. Feel like sharing these iconic words here: 

Mirrors on the ceiling, the pink champagne on ice
And she said, "We are all just prisoners here of our own device"
And in the master's chambers, they gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives, but they just can't kill the beast
Last thing I remember, I was running for the door
I had to find the passage back to the place I was before
"Relax, " said the night man, "We are programmed to receive
You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave"



Yes! Abie Rotenberg!

Re: Chooseurnames 90 day trip 27 Feb 2025 22:57 #432205

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I'm feeling less like Hotel California and more like the Overlook Hotel

“Once, during the drinking phase, Wendy had accused him of desiring his own destruction but not possessing the necessary moral fiber to support a full-blown deathwish. So he manufactured ways in which other people could do it, lopping a piece at a time off himself and their family.”


People forget that before Steven King became famous and starting churning out endless repetitive garbage, he was an amazing writer.

Anyhow. What a day. 

My boss told me this week to shelve everything else and work on a crucial project he was going to assign. So I shelved everything else and was promptly assigned nothing. He slowly doled out a few minutes of work here and there. Culminating in today me being forced to stay in the office till Hashem knows when just so 1) his ego can be suitably massaged and 2) I can do a couple minutes of work after he's finally done f'ing around and gets his piece done.

All of which I could survive except for 1) only getting paid for work I do and 2) my wife is freaking pissed I'm working late today. 

With that in mind, I think everyone will understand today's episode of dancing on the edge of cliffs.  Still sober in the sense of I haven't seen actual pornography and haven't masturbated. But a lot of lusting. 

To look on the bright side, I'm absolutely shocked I didn't continue the "fall" I had last Thursday and Friday into an all out binge this week. That's amazing! To look on the dark side, I'm still giving in to the lust that lead to the falls last week - filter poking (successfully?), novels with semi-erotic content, far too many second glances at women around me. It's not gonna end well unless I can admit where this is leading to and do something about it. 

Re: Chooseurnames 90 day trip 28 Feb 2025 00:58 #432214

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Here’s a warm hand. 

Guys who were the voracious ”Constant Reader” for many long years, and then stopped reading (him and other novels) still remember. (11/22/63 is a throwback to the old incredible talent, IMONSHO, btw). I’m actually in a REDRUM mood today, too. 
(The sequel was terrible. I only read it because it was a sequel.)

I hope your sequel to today’s story contains more of the discovered inner positive desire and less of the lust, friend.
Please feel free to reach out anytime at chaim.oigen@gmail.com

Perhaps you'd enjoy seeing Chaim's Oigen
Last Edit: 28 Feb 2025 00:59 by chaimoigen.

Re: Chooseurnames 90 day trip 03 Mar 2025 14:35 #432294

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Another Constant Reader here back in the day. My favorite was a bit off the beaten track, The Talisman.

Unfortunately, I also blame his books for normalizing lustful thoughts for me at a young age (probably started reading about 10-11 years old)

Re: Chooseurnames 90 day trip 03 Mar 2025 17:49 #432309

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kavey wrote on 03 Mar 2025 14:35:
Another Constant Reader here back in the day. My favorite was a bit off the beaten track, The Talisman.

Unfortunately, I also blame his books for normalizing lustful thoughts for me at a young age (probably started reading about 10-11 years old)

Tunnel scene at the end of “It”… yeah. Me too. I was 11 or 12. … 

It’s a shame what was taken from us… 

(And pleaasse- well-meaning friends, please don’t chime in here about how I’m a much betterperson because of my challenges.
I’m happy with who I am, but I ache for that confused kid. Come to think of it, the summer I read “It” was the same summer I found that magazine hidden in the waiters shack, the one that seared its shocking way onto my brain in a way that I still can’t forget now, many decades later. I have a lot of rachmanus on that boy. I just gave him a hug. BH, he’s  doing well now.) 
Please feel free to reach out anytime at chaim.oigen@gmail.com

Perhaps you'd enjoy seeing Chaim's Oigen

Re: Chooseurnames 90 day trip 03 Mar 2025 21:46 #432328

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Literally had no work today. I sat in my office and waited for work. But nothing. 

No work = no pay.

I'm grateful that I didn't turn to lust.

I'm not thrilled I didn't find a way to use the time productively.

Re: Chooseurnames 90 day trip 04 Mar 2025 16:32 #432374

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Well. There I was filter poking away. And found my way onto a certain forum site with all the pornographic content I could wish for. And started taking a look or two. But one of my search terms popped up the below burningly painful letter from a spouse who caught her partner looking at porn.

Read carefully . . .

To the PA (Ed: "porn addict") who loves his partner but has shattered her world,

If you are here, lurking in this [forum], searching for answers, maybe even for hope, I need you to read this carefully. Because this is what it feels like to be me, the person who trusted you, loved you, stood by you, only to be blindsided by deception over and over again.

Betrayal trauma is not just sadness. It is not just anger. It is a complete rewiring of my brain, a deep, physical shock to my system. It is waking up every morning with a pit in my stomach, a constant hum of anxiety in the background of my life. It is questioning everything, every moment, every word, every touch. It is looking back at our memories and wondering how many of them were real. It is realizing that the man I thought I knew, the man I felt so deeply connected to, was living a double life right in front of me.

I did not just lose trust in you. I lost trust in myself, in my own instincts, in my ability to feel safe and loved. Do you know what that does to a person? Do you even begin to understand the weight of that?

You say you love me. But love is not just words or grand gestures or booking trips. Love is protection. Love is honesty. Love is making choices that keep me safe, even when they are hard. And you did not do that. Not once. Not when we first met, not when we built a life together, not when I gave you chance after chance. Every time you chose secrecy, every time you minimized or withheld the truth, you made a choice that pushed me further away. And now, you are standing here, asking me to believe that this time is different. That this time you really mean it.

I want to believe you. God, I want to believe you so badly. But do you understand how hard that is when you have rewritten our entire history with your lies?

Your addiction, your secrecy, your inability to face the full weight of what you have done, it has changed me. I will never be the same woman I was before all of this. The carefree, trusting, deeply in-love version of me, you broke her. And maybe you did not mean to. Maybe you were too lost in your own shame, your own self-loathing, your own compulsions to truly see what you were doing. But intentions do not undo damage.

So if you are here, lurking, searching for proof that redemption is possible, let me tell you what I need. I need absolute honesty. Not half-truths. Not omissions. Not damage control when you are caught. I need to know that you can sit with your shame, face your failures, and still choose me over your own fear of discomfort. I need to know that you understand what you have done to me, not just that you feel guilty, but that you get how deeply this has wounded me. I need to see actions, not just hear words.

Because right now, I am holding the last frayed threads of my patience. And if you truly want to rebuild, to prove to me that you are more than the sum of your worst choices, you need to meet me at my pain. Not run from it, not hide behind excuses, not make this about your struggle alone.

If you love me, truly love me, prove it. Because this time, words will never be enough. The patience and empathy I have shown you so far would have been enough for a lifetime under normal circumstances. Carve that in your mind.

Re: Chooseurnames 90 day trip 04 Mar 2025 17:00 #432377

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chosemyshem wrote on 04 Mar 2025 16:32:
Well. There I was filter poking away. And found my way onto a certain forum site with all the pornographic content I could wish for. And started taking a look or two. But one of my search terms popped up the below burningly painful letter from a spouse who caught her partner looking at porn.

Read carefully . . .

To the PA (Ed: "porn addict") who loves his partner but has shattered her world,

If you are here, lurking in this [forum], searching for answers, maybe even for hope, I need you to read this carefully. Because this is what it feels like to be me, the person who trusted you, loved you, stood by you, only to be blindsided by deception over and over again.

Betrayal trauma is not just sadness. It is not just anger. It is a complete rewiring of my brain, a deep, physical shock to my system. It is waking up every morning with a pit in my stomach, a constant hum of anxiety in the background of my life. It is questioning everything, every moment, every word, every touch. It is looking back at our memories and wondering how many of them were real. It is realizing that the man I thought I knew, the man I felt so deeply connected to, was living a double life right in front of me.

I did not just lose trust in you. I lost trust in myself, in my own instincts, in my ability to feel safe and loved. Do you know what that does to a person? Do you even begin to understand the weight of that?

You say you love me. But love is not just words or grand gestures or booking trips. Love is protection. Love is honesty. Love is making choices that keep me safe, even when they are hard. And you did not do that. Not once. Not when we first met, not when we built a life together, not when I gave you chance after chance. Every time you chose secrecy, every time you minimized or withheld the truth, you made a choice that pushed me further away. And now, you are standing here, asking me to believe that this time is different. That this time you really mean it.

I want to believe you. God, I want to believe you so badly. But do you understand how hard that is when you have rewritten our entire history with your lies?

Your addiction, your secrecy, your inability to face the full weight of what you have done, it has changed me. I will never be the same woman I was before all of this. The carefree, trusting, deeply in-love version of me, you broke her. And maybe you did not mean to. Maybe you were too lost in your own shame, your own self-loathing, your own compulsions to truly see what you were doing. But intentions do not undo damage.

So if you are here, lurking, searching for proof that redemption is possible, let me tell you what I need. I need absolute honesty. Not half-truths. Not omissions. Not damage control when you are caught. I need to know that you can sit with your shame, face your failures, and still choose me over your own fear of discomfort. I need to know that you understand what you have done to me, not just that you feel guilty, but that you get how deeply this has wounded me. I need to see actions, not just hear words.

Because right now, I am holding the last frayed threads of my patience. And if you truly want to rebuild, to prove to me that you are more than the sum of your worst choices, you need to meet me at my pain. Not run from it, not hide behind excuses, not make this about your struggle alone.

If you love me, truly love me, prove it. Because this time, words will never be enough. The patience and empathy I have shown you so far would have been enough for a lifetime under normal circumstances. Carve that in your mind.



Oh. My. Ouchness!!
May you slide down the banister of happiness and get many splinters of success up your career

Feel free to send me an owl, a howler, or even a Crumple-Horned Snorkack to Iamredfaced@gmail.com


The Red Face

Re: Chooseurnames 90 day trip 04 Mar 2025 18:44 #432378

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chosemyshem wrote on 04 Mar 2025 16:32:
Well. There I was filter poking away. And found my way onto a certain forum site with all the pornographic content I could wish for. And started taking a look or two. But one of my search terms popped up the below burningly painful letter from a spouse who caught her partner looking at porn.


And so I blocked the forum site I found after reading that letter.

Except it turned out that "somehow" instead of blocking I allowed it fully unfiltered.

And despite those searing words in the letter (which truly hit home) I found myself "seizing the opportunity" to watch porn.

B"h after awhile I was interrupted for mincha. At mincha I was able to reach out for accountability to block the site immediately when I got back to the office. The accountability helped and I blocked it. I even closed out the tab for the time in between the block request being entered and when it kicked in. (I hope it kicked in correctly. Either way, not gonna check.) 

Point being. Inspiration is nice but doesn't get the job done.
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