I’ve been noticing lately that by cutting off all p sites, my monkey brain tried to subconsciously find a way to seek other outlets that could appease my addiction like Instagram. I quite like Instagram and use it a lot to chat with friends, but the ‘search’ function brings up quite a lot of images that can serve as a catalyst to push me into breaking my streak.
I don’t want to delete Instagram given I use it for other matters however, which is not ideal, but it’s looking like I might have to as a preventative measure. .
Has anyone else faced this problem before? Not just with Instagram but having your brain try and seek new sources that aren’t p websites but can trigger a relapse?
Not sure if you’ve tried this, but in case you haven’t, you can tell Insta “see fewer posts like this” in your suggestions. I’ve found it can be pretty effective after a few days of marking the type of posts you don’t want to see. You do need to click on the post though, but then click the 3 dots in the top right and say “not interested”. It’s much easier than trying to block every account that puts up those types of images
I faced this same issue now the solution to this is
1).My personal suggestion would be if it’s just friends and for passing time you use Instagram then avoid it completely avoid social media completely for atleast a month or two it’s a nice feeling not only urges but you also feel more in zen mode altogether close friends will stay in touch dont worry social media friends are superficial anyways
But if you dont want to quit social media for xyz reason then
It will require some time of yours
2).Unfollow all insta models or any provocative pages immediately
In your search section long press on every provocative image ie insta hot models, beautiful girls etc and select the not interested option for all the post and refresh and keep doing this for sometime ( I did it for for more than an hour)
Follow inspiring pages which push you to be positive
After this tedious task soon insta search will start showing you more of inspirational pages and less provocative images also in future if still it shows any sexual content which will be rare remember to select not interested option soon Instagram realises that you are not interested in sexual content and wont suggest such sexual content in your search instead suggest you what other nonsexual content that you liked
Also if you plan to quit social media still you need to do this so in future when you start to use social media again it wont show you sexual content.
Thank you both for the suggestion, I had no idea about this option. I’ll give it a go but maybe coming off social media in general would be a good thing for me too. Thank you for the help
Very well written answer by @totto_rewire! He covered everything which I wanted to say.
I just wish to add that if you just use instagram to chat with friends and assuming that you don’t chat with hundreds of friends on a regular basis, why not consider chatting with them on some safer medium? For example, you may ask them their whatsapp number or telegram id or something else and since they are your friends, they will most probably share it. I understand when we are using an app regularly for our needs, we get so comfortable in using it that we feel reluctant to switch to some other platform. But in most of the cases, the switch is not that painful as it seems at first.
About the problem of our brain seeking new milder sources, it’s a common problem as our brain tries to search for other means of sexual satisfaction. But we must not give our brain the option to do so as even though these milder sources of sexually provocative contents may seem safer, they quickly lead to lots of urges and finally, a relapse.
brother…My 90% of relapses are caused due to instagram…unintalling is the solution its simple a devil which kills your streak. You can use instagram after recovery thats the best choice.Other than its all based on your mind control.
