Addicted to masturbation: What to do to avoid embarrassing situations

Being addicted to masturbation is something that can be incredibly annoying. Even if you don't look at stimulating images, the feeling that playing with yourself gives you is so nice that you can't stop. Thereby, you are often mainly occupied with the feeling, which makes you forget about problems for a while. This makes masturbation something you can become addicted to.

Do you feel that you masturbate too much and that it is affecting your life? Then read this blog with tips to get rid of your addiction.

Causes of masturbation addiction

If you thought that men are mainly victims of this addiction, you are wrong. Women can also be addicted to masturbation (1).

Stress, anxiety and a traumatic event are often the causes to look for an "escape." The feeling that masturbation gives you can give you that escape that allows you to take a break from thinking about the traumatic event or the factors that stress you out.

Also, you may have wrong beliefs about sex that make you desperately try to achieve certain levels of pleasure with masturbation, when it's just impossible.

In some cases, hormones can be the cause of masturbation addiction. For example, if you have relatively high testosterone you are more likely to have addictions of a sexual nature. Therefore, have your hormone levels checked just to be sure if you feel you are addicted to masturbation.

Symptoms of masturbation addiction

There are several ways a person can have a masturbation addiction. For some, masturbation is part of the daily routine. In the morning, at night, on the toilet at work during lunch and perhaps at other times.

Then you can also have people who will binge-masturbate. You then just go on and on. For this, you can even call in sick at work.

In itself, there is nothing wrong with masturbating, nor is there anything wrong with masturbating daily, but if it hurts you physically and interferes with your social relationships, you do have a problem. It can also become emotionally painful for yourself and your loved ones because you can't have sex with them, for example.

There are also some obvious symptoms of being addicted to masturbation:

Guilt after masturbating.
Self-hatred through masturbation.
Shame through masturbation.
Fear if you haven't played with yourself for a period of time.
Loneliness.
Decrease in personal relationships, or their quality.
Decreased ability to concentrate.
Less productive at work.
Sexual disorders, such as dysfunction (not being able to truly perform sexually anymore)(2).

Consequences of being addicted to masturbation include

In the case of dysfunction, for example, men may experience erectile dysfunction. For example, sex with a person is no longer pleasurable or you have been too hard on your penis so it no longer responds to "normal" pressure.

Even masturbation itself can then become difficult over time. One study found that a man who suffered from post traumatic stress disorder used masturbation to cope. He did this 1 to 3 times a day, without lubricant, which in time made it difficult for him to get an erection and almost impossible to cum. Then, when he did cum, very little came out(3).

As a result, at one point he began using marijuana and other drugs to still masturbate.

For women, dysfunction can mean experiencing vaginismus during actual sex or difficulty getting moist. Women may also experience problems with ejaculation.

In addition to these practical consequences, you can also suffer emotional consequences from masturbation addiction, such as:

Anxiety
Depression
Addictive substance use.
Impulses no longer properly suppressed.
Unable to control emotions well.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorders.

Addicted to masturbation: tips

So it is very important to get rid of masturbation addiction and to do it in a psychologically healthy way so that you do not suffer from emotional symptoms when you stop(4). There are several mental treatments that are being researched and offered for stopping too much masturbation and masturbating for the wrong reasons.

After all, stopping masturbation addiction is not about completely stopping masturbation. Masturbating is part of a healthy sexual relationship with yourself. Stopping this addiction is about being able to control impulses to masturbate, such as at work.

In addition, you get other ways to deal with stress, traumatic experiences or other causes of this addiction other than masturbation.

Hypnosis

Hypnotherapy is a technique widely used for mental addictions, such as gambling addiction. Any addiction that you do not become physically addicted to can be treated with hypnotherapy.

In the process, treatments for addictions to substances you do become physically addicted to, such as alcohol and some types of drugs, can be supported with hypnosis.

Hypnosis actually works on the addict's subconscious. It works on the beliefs you have that secretly tell you that you need the addiction for your survival.

With hypnotherapy, you can learn to see that those beliefs are wrong. In addition, you may gain new beliefs that make you think masturbating to get rid of mental health problems is just weird.

There are several techniques used during hypnotherapy, such as regression therapy, hypnotic suggestions and guided visualizations.

Regression therapy involves identifying the cause of addiction if it is not entirely clear to you. Even if the cause is clear, you can use regression to look at the cause with more distance and then gain new beliefs.

The hypnotic suggestions you receive can be about the addiction, as well as ways to solve the problem other than masturbation. For example, if you are reaching for masturbation at the time you are suffering from stress or anxiety, you can gain new beliefs through the hypnotic suggestions about what you can better do to reduce stress and anxiety instead of playing with yourself.

In addition to hypnotherapy, you also get self-hypnosis homework to take home to reinforce the effects of treatment.

For example, you can repeat the following suggestions during self-hypnosis. Before applying self-hypnosis, sit or lie down in a comfortable place, such as your couch, armchair or bed. Relax and try to breathe through your belly. When your breathing is fine and calm close your eyes and repeat the suggestions the hypnotherapist gives you, such as:

To relax, I can also meditate instead of masturbating.
Masturbating only postpones solving a problem.
Masturbation should make you happy and not ashamed.

These are just examples. If this doesn't work for you, your best bet is to see a hypnotherapist who will make suggestions that fit your beliefs.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is also used to treat sex addictions, such as masturbation addiction. In a mindfulness intervention, the idea is that the "patient" can create more distance between the impulse to masturbate.

This involves strengthening the connection between sexuality and emotions rather than feelings.

A case study showed that after the intervention, the man who used mindfulness against sex addiction suffered less from the need to have sex and had fewer depressive symptoms and psychological stress than before(5).

As a side benefit, he even enjoyed his work more and slept better. After six months, he still had these positive results.

With mindfulness, you often look at emotions with more distance. You try to stay in the here and now with your attention and thus not with the next moment when you are going to masturbate. As a result, you may even forget that next moment.

In addition, you have special mindfulness meditation. During such a meditation, you allow thoughts to come and go as well as the emotions that come with them. Accepting those emotions and thoughts is an important step for this and doing nothing with them.

During such a meditation, you have pen and paper handy. When a thought comes to mind you name the subject of the thought, such as family or work, and the emotion you feel with it, such as stress or love. Then you focus again on your breathing.

You can do this for about 10 minutes a day. Next, you may notice that there is a certain pattern of thoughts that needs to be changed.

Then you can start directing your thoughts instead of just stopping them.

For example, you can change negative thoughts, such as "I suck." to "No, I'm great.".

Want to learn more about mental techniques to get rid of addictions or to help others get rid of mental addiction? Then come to a seminar or playshop and check out Hypnosis Institute Netherlands' trainings.

Also pin this handy infographic as a reminder:

addicted to masturbation

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