95. Seven Immediate Benefits of Quitting Porn: What You Will Notice in the First Few Days & Weeks

In this episode of the Unhooked Podcast, host Jeremy Lipkowitz discusses seven immediate benefits you will notice when you quit porn. Drawing from a recent client experience, Jeremy explores the positive changes, such as improved focus, enhanced mood, better sleep, increased energy, improved relationships, long-term goal orientation, and a boosted sense of self-worth. Join Jeremy as he shares insights and motivational reasons to consider quitting porn and embark on a healthier path.

00:00 Introduction to Today's Topic

00:13 Host's Personal Update

00:56 Client's Relapse and Recovery

02:29 Immediate Benefits of Quitting Porn

03:35 Improved Focus and Concentration

05:20 Enhanced Mood and Emotional Stability

06:28 Better Sleep Quality

07:16 Increased Energy Levels

08:36 Enhanced Relationships

10:18 Connection to Long-Term Goals

12:14 Improved Self-Worth and Confidence

14:36 Conclusion and Call to Action

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ABOUT JEREMY LIPKOWITZ

Jeremy overcame addiction, shame, self-judgement, and depression in his early twenties with the help of mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness not only helped him let go of destructive behaviors, it also allowed him to connect with deeper meaning and purpose in his life.

For the past 10 years Jeremy has been teaching mindfulness and emotional intelligence practices at universities, recovery centers, and companies throughout Asia and the US. He holds a Bachelors and Master’s degree in Genetics and Genomics, and spent several years at Duke University working towards a PhD in Genetics & Systems Biology before he turned full-time to teaching mindfulness.

Jeremy is also an ICF certified Executive Coach. As a former scientist and academic, Jeremy has a great passion for bringing his EI based coaching skills into the corporate and professional world. He realizes how powerful & transformative these practices can be for skeptics and senior-level managers. He is known for his calm and grounded demeanor, his expertise in habits and high-performance, and his compassionate approach to transformation.

Transcript

 Welcome to the podcast. On today's episode, we're going to be talking about seven immediate benefits of quitting porn. What you will notice in the first few days, in the first few weeks of breaking free. So stay tuned.





So welcome ladies and gentlemen. My name is Jeremy Lipkowitz, host of the unhooked podcast. It's a gorgeous day here in Bangkok. It is a Sunday afternoon. This morning, I woke up early to attend a yoga class. This afternoon, I'll be heading to the bouldering gym with a friend. And then this evening I signed up for a paddle match. With some other friends or pedal, if you say it in the Spanish or Mexican way. So it is quite a busy Sunday for me and a very lovely one. 

I loved getting out and moving my body.  And I'm recording this podcast today.  On Sunday, the day before we release it. And the topic for today was inspired by. A recent check-in I had with one of my clients. So we'll call him bill. That's not his real name, but we'll just call him that.  And bill was going strong in his recovery. 

You. He was doing pretty well. I think he was about 30 days into his recovery going strong. And then had a relapse. He ended up. Acting out one weekend. It was a short one. You. Just two days long. But we got on the call after his relapse. And you could feel the difference in his energy right away. His face was sunk in his eyes were heavy. It almost felt like he had a hangover of sorts. 

His energy was just depressed. There was no. Spark of life in him any more. This was about one or two days after his relapse.  And the thing is he could feel it too. He noticed. How quickly, just this one relapse. Had reverted him back to this state of being low energy, depressed, irritable. So that was, Where we were a couple of weeks ago. 

And then about a week after that, maybe seven to 10 days after that we got on another call where he had been. Solid. He had not acted out. And I could totally feel the difference in his energy. He was just a completely different person, even just 10 days in to his recovery. Again, after his relapse, you could a hundred percent feel the difference in his energy. 

And he noticed it too. He was just brighter and energized and full of life. And so that's, what I wanted to talk about today is what are some of the immediate benefits that you'll notice when you break free from porn? When you decide to take that significant step?  My hope is that this episode will do a few things. 

One is that for those of you who are on the fence, If you are thinking about giving up your porn habit. That this will convince you to give it a try. This might inspire you to give it a shot to try quitting porn and seeing some of the benefits in your life. So if you're. If you've never quit before. And you're thinking about doing it. Hopefully, this will inspire you. And for those of you who are already on your recovery journey, my hope is that this will provide some extra motivation. A little fuel for you in your recovery journey. 

Just remembering some of these benefits, how good it feels when you send, when you can successfully break free and get a streak going. 



 So Here we go. The seven benefits, the seven immediate benefits that you'll notice. When you quit porn.  The first one that I want to bring to your attention is the improved focus and concentration that you can experience. So this is almost immediately after quitting porn. Many people notice an improvement in their ability to focus their ability to concentrate, to maintain their attention on what they're doing.

 And This is because one of the main side effects or the main consequences of heavy or even moderate porn use is something that we call brain fog. That just fuzzy feeling in the mind when you've been consuming a lot of porn, and this is true, not just for porn, social media, video games.  When we're using substances that are dopaminergic, these things that rely heavily on our dopamine system.  When we are engaged in a lot of that, then afterwards, we can feel this brain fog and it's hard to focus on things. 

We have a lack of clarity. But when you quit watching porn.  What you'll notice is that, without this constant distraction, Of watching porn and pressing on that dopamine button. Your brain can actually start to regulate its attention better. You can start to focus your attention on more productive tasks. And this can be particularly noticeable in your work environment. For any hobbies or pursuits or activities, but just that ability to have a clear head. And the ability to even just think clearly about things, let alone to actually do hard work to focus on. Programming or writing or coding or whatever kind of business tasks you have. 

So that is the first benefit is the improvement in focus and concentration. Less brain fog.  Benefit number two that you might notice more immediately is just an enhanced mood. Or emotional stability. So when we are consuming porn, one of the things that can happen is that it can lead to a host of different negative emotions. The things like guilt or shame. Anxiety. Irritability, even depression.  And by quitting, you can start to find your mood actually stabilizing. 

When you take away. One of the things that's leading to a lot of these negative emotions. It can lead to a more positive outlook on life. So many people do report, feeling lighter, feeling happier, feeling more positive emotions, almost right away. Because they're less burdened by these negative emotions. Now, this doesn't mean that you won't experience some negative emotions, but it means that your overall nervous system is much more regulated, much more grounded and able to handle any. Negative emotions that do come into your, to your world.  

Benefit number three is better sleep quality. So if you use porn, Especially if you're using it late at night, it can disrupt your sleep patterns. And this is not to mention how negative emotions, if we're having an experiencing a lot of negative emotions, a lot of shame or guilt or anxiety or depression that can also impact your sleep. So when you remove that stimulation of the screens and the dopamine. It actually helps you fall asleep better and enjoy more restful sleep at night.  Now, obviously better sleep leads to a lot of different health improvements and wellbeing. It's even been linked to better muscle growth and muscle recovery also to improve the learning. Yes, sleep is quite important. 

And it's one of the benefits that you'll notice when you quit watching porn.  

Benefit number four is increased energy levels. So when you start to get better sleep, when you reduce the amount of mental disturbances, when you remove that toxin from your life. Your energy levels also get a boost, using porn and excessive use of masturbation. It's like an energy drain on your system. You're constantly feeding energy into this thing that is burning you out and frying your circuits. So when people quit porn, one of the things they notice is feeling just a lot more energized, a lot more motivated to tackle their daily habits, to pursue their interests. And this is one of the things I noticed right away in the conversation with my client. 

When we got on the call, just how energized and bright he seemed, even just 10 days in to quitting porn after his relapse. I could feel this energy, his eyes were more open. He was brighter, more awake. So many things start to happen in your physiology and your nervous system when you quit.  And this. His energy that you can then put into many different areas of your life. 

You can put that energy into the gym, to your physical health. You can put it into your work, your career. Your hobbies and passions, and obviously you can put it into your relationships. And this leads me to benefit number five, which is enhanced relationships. When you quit porn.  So 

if you quit porn, you can find that your relationships start to improve. And this happens for a few reasons. Again, one is when you are less burdened by negative emotions, like shame and guilt and irritability, it has an obvious impact on the people around you.  But the other way it can benefit your relationships is that you're just more present for your relationships. Rather than.  Your mind being consumed with, Hiding your behavior and worrying about being found out. Rather than thinking about when you're going to use porn again, or just even reliving some of the scenes you've been watching. You can actually be engaged and be present. For your relationships for the people in your life.  You also, strangely you start to become a little bit more magnetic when you quit watching porn. There's something about your energy and the energy that you give off when you quit porn. That is more inviting towards other people. 

You become just more approachable. More charismatic in a certain way. And this is something that my client told me as well on the call. He said that he noticed some of his employees, wanting to spend more time with him when he was free from porn.  Rather than when he's engaged with porn and heavily using it in his employees stay away. As if they subconsciously know that something's a bit off about his energy. So that is one of the huge benefits is that our relationships start to improve and get enhanced.  Benefit number six. 

This is an interesting one, which is that what I've noticed in my clients is that when they quit porn, There is more of a connection to longer term goals, longer term aspirations and dreams in their life. When you quit watching porn, you shift from just being concerned about your immediate satisfaction. And your immediate pleasure and you shift towards more of a concern over.  Your overall life trajectory, where are you headed? 

And what's really important in your life.  And then you just spend more time thinking about the things that are actually important, not just getting your fix right then and there in that moment. So obviously when you connect to longer-term goals or longer term aspirations, This can be things like caring about your relationships and the quality of your relationships. It can also be related to career. 

Let's say you have some career goals, some aspirations in your career. When you quit porn, you are more connected to those aspirations. You spend more time thinking about them and prioritizing them.  So instead of just thinking one hour at a time, or, what's gonna get me my fix right now, you start thinking. Okay, how am I going to get to where I want to go five years from now or 10 years from now? And this is a key component in longterm success and happiness. They've done studies to show that truly successful people. Tend to think in longer timescales. 

So rather than thinking about just today or tomorrow or a week from now, People who are successful, tend to think about where do I want to go in five years or 10 years? This is one of the other benefits of quitting porn.  The seventh benefit. This is the final one I'm going to talk about today. And this is possibly the most important benefit. The creme de LA creme, the number one benefit is. Your improved relationship with yourself. Your improved sense of self worth.  And this is because when you're doing something out of alignment with your values, when you're engaged in something unhealthy and you know, it's unhealthy, You know that it's unskillful, you feel the weight of that on your soul. 

One of my clients in the unlocked academy called it a laceration of the soul when you're acting out in this way. And it's hard to feel good about yourself when you're engaging in these unhealthy behaviors.  And so making that decision to quit.  It instantly gives you that boost to your confidence and boost to your self-worth.  This is instantaneous. 

Also the moment you make that internal decision. I'm no longer doing this.  You feel that sense of being uplifted or feel that sense of of self-worth of. Knowing that you're doing good and wholesome things. Things that are good for yourself, it's if you're trying to lose weight, And you have a big sweet tooth, which I do. 

And, you're, face-to-face with somebody offering you a big donut or a slice of chocolate cake, and you know that it's not in your diet plan. You know that you're trying to be more careful with what you eat.  If you give into that and you say, oh, okay, just give me the donut. You don't feel so good about yourself.  Whereas, if you, in a very grounded and wise way, you skillfully say. No, thanks to that slice of chocolate cake or to that donut. 

And you just say, I'm actually, you know, I'm really focused on eating healthy and watching what I put into my body. And I'll decline on the chocolate cake. You feel that sense of self-worth and that sense of pride that, you're taking care of yourself and doing good things for yourself.  And that leads to greater confidence in yourself. When you are walking a path of integrity and that is something that you can feel and others can feel it too. 

This is something I felt instantly in my client. When we hopped on that call. I just saw him, just the confidence, the sense of. Of pride that he was living with on that second call after he had you. Relapsed. And then 10 days later we caught up again. So that is one of the most important benefits. 

Is it improves the relationship with yourself. Those are just a few of the immediate benefits you might experience when you decide to quit porn. And some of these are also long-term benefits. There are things that grow over time, obviously focus and concentration. Your relationships. Your sleep. 

A lot of these things also improve long-term over time, but these are things you can notice immediately. Some of them within the first few seconds, some of them within the first few days or weeks,  So that's my shortlist. I'm curious if there's anything you feel that I missed. If there are any benefits that you've noticed in your life. Feel free to drop a comment below, feel free to send me a message and let me know what you think I missed. 

I would love to hear it.  And the important thing here is just to recognize that. Taking that step of quitting porn, making that decision to live healthier will benefit your life in so many different ways.  So I hope that you make that decision. I hope that you have the courage to go through with it and experience some of those benefits.  Now as always, if you're looking for support in this journey of recovery, please join us in the unhooked academy community. 

We still have space for about five new members this month. We have resources. We have live coaching calls, guided meditations, accountability. Everything you need to get back on track. It is really a wonderful community. And I hope that you'll join us in there. You can sign up for a free discovery call on my website.  Or you can go to unhooked academy.com to learn more about the program.  So that is it for today, signing off from a beautiful sunny Sunday in Bangkok. 

I'm off to the climbing gym. And I will catch you guys on the next episode.