Internet Filters for Porn Addicts?
While they can help to reduce or block certain sites from being accessed, it merely covers the symptoms of your addictive habit. There are filters to block “shopping sites” if you have compulsive shopping and spending problem; there are filters to block out gambling sites if you’re addicted to betting and gambling online, and various other types of compulsion/addiction. They are useful to an extent by alerting you whenever you stumble upon such sites, but no tools will the examine root cause of your own behavior. For instance, if you’re addicted to food, would you put a lock on your refrigerator? That may provide relief for the short-term; for long-term effectiveness, it’s better to examine and resolve the root issue within.
Internet Filters may be ideal if you have a family and want to protect the kids from obscene materials online. Filtering softwares are a good measure for having an accountability partner to monitor your web surfing activities and habits if you wish to let other know of your web surfing issues. There are great Internet filters out there to block adult-related sites for certain situation that can serve as one of the many resolutions to alleviate your porn addiction. To some people, however, it does not address the mental behavior. Adult-content filters act much like using Internet security firewalls or anti-popup softwares; they only block the unwanted content/websites, but not the real reason why you are tempted to visit such sites in the first place. In short, it can stop the porn out there, but not stop porn addiction yourself.
The issue of being addicted to porn lies in your subconscious habit. If you’re really tempted, chances are you’ll use whatever means to watch porn to recapture that “pleasurable” urges. To break the addictive cycle, it requires a shift in your core values and mindset. The temptation to watch porn did not come from the computer or Internet, but began as a habit as a result of emotional triggers such as stress, boredom, procrastination, and loneliness based from an area of your life that’s off-balance. If your issue is a chronic emotional issue such as depression, it’s strongly recommended you seek a professional therapist or counselor to help understand your unique situation beyond the Internet.
For shifting your thought pattern, it helps to become more aware of your web surfing routines. For instance, think of your usual web surfing habits — for many folks, it may include checking your emails, visiting daily news sites, visiting your businesses, academic, or entertainment sites. Those web surfing pattern were acquired through your daily habits through a subconscious level on autopilot. Everyone all have habits for the activities they do; likewise, your web surfing habits and the motive behind them are held in your subconscious programming. It’s also worth noting that the decision to watch porn on computer may actually be formed offline as well — you were perhaps tempted by a “trigger” in your environment and decided to use the Internet as an opportunity to check out some porn images to masturbate to. Regardless, it’s important to become more aware of your thought pattern and habit to break the cycle.
Some helpful solutions to be more aware of your web surfing habits:
1) Know the reasons why you’re visiting the sites you do – is it for work, school, consumer research, or a break?
2) Always have a plan for project or task you set to accomplish when surfing the web – focus one thing at a time and avoid distractions
3) Plan to gauge the time it will take to accomplish certain task on whenever you use the computer — you’ll be surprise 30 minutes can become 3 hours real easily if you do not keep track of your usage.
4) Focus on pleasurable outcome instead of pleasure feelings. It’s likely you’ll digress from your work and seek some kind of fun when you procrastinate. Consider that the real long-term pleasure may actually come from completing “dreadful” tasks first.
This will take repeated measure as it takes a certain amount of repetition to establish new anchors and habits. Think about how you were still writing the year 2009 on your checks, paper, or documents when it is now a new decade. It took you awhile to make the habit change as a repeated process. Consequently, when you placed your attention in changing your mental programming, you shift the focus of having the power, choice, and responsibility to change. Internally, you can instead apply the “filtering” software within your mind first.
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Can-Internet-Filters-Help-If-You-Are-a-Porn-Addict?&id=3562439
