Sorry that this is tempting you. Maybe try to leave the house when this happens; walk in a shopping centre and observe all the other sights and sounds and things so that you're distracted from impure thoughts.

I think that if you've been watching this stuff for awhile, the images are bound to stick around in your head. I think that once you've quit for a little while, your thoughts will no longer carry these images.

Best of luck. Stay strong!

There are rapid eye movement tricks you can use to disengage your brain. Quite literally your brain can get hijacked by sexual stimuli and early in recovery it can happen very quickly. As soon as you feel that that part of your body/mind is engaged try moving your eyes around and finding all the colors in the rainbow. There are other's where you move your eyes in a certain order. Something to research and try I've heard some have good luck with that and others find something else. But my husband had learned that stopping it before preoccupying is key to not acting out. Continue exploring your feelings and how and why you react to certain events, stress, etc. so you can be more on guard at these times. Hope that posting here relieved the addict brain.

Thanks for the support and the help.

I may have to go out shopping today. I was supposed to have a division meeting, but that got cancelled. In other words I have the whole day off to myself, with no real plans (other than some grading). I can probably get a head start on test questions.

I tried the rapid eye thing. I'm not sure if I did it right because instead of seeing the rainbow I ended up playing Eye Spy with myself. Nevertheless I managed to distract myself.

Another trick I know someone to use and like when the picture is in your head is to visualize handing that picture to Jesus. For some reason this has helped to eliminate that picture. If you are a believer or perhaps maybe handing it off to a higher power. If one thing doesn't work than try something else eventually you will have the right tools and know how and when to use them. Trial and error. Keep on talking about it. Is there a person you can call when the temptation is strong. Setting up a network is so helpful. Isolation is the enemy because it is easier to make excuses to yourself but entirely different when you have to use them on a person who is sure to see right through it. You may need to google rapid eye desensitization skills and see what comes up. Also there is a neat trick I'm using for ptsd called the tapping solution. Where you tap on your meridian points with ptsd I can live in my thoughts so doing things that bring me into the present moment help disengage the preoccupying mind.

Generic,

It's good to find simple things to get your mind off it. Try to think of small steps you can take to a larger goal. And what I mean by that is this:

Consider a canyon. It was carved from years and years of erosion from the same path the river flows. Our brains make the same canyons so to speak. When you follow a specific thought process repeatedly, it's hard to change where your thoughts go when triggers hit (Which sometimes happens to be boredom).

Also consider learning math. When you learn 4x4 you first take steps. 4+4=8, 8+4=12, 12+4=16. When you do this sequence of events enough you get to a point where you can just jump to the conclusion that 4x4=16 because you've done it enough that you just know that that's the end product.

The same goes with an addiction to pornography. You no longer follow a distinct line of thought before getting to the conclusion of what you want to do. Your brain is trained to automatically jump to what you want to do when you start feeling bored, or when another trigger hits.

So when I say take steps, I don't mean "Try going this long before relapsing. Then try to go a little longer next time." What I really mean is at first you may find it too exhausting fighting with your brain and trying to think of more wholesome thoughts. So instead of thinking about what you want to think about, you may consider getting out of the house and visiting a friend or family member.

In time you can train yourself to consciously think of a subject that fascinates you or cultivate a new hobby so you don't have to distract yourself anymore. Eventually you'll be carving a new canyon so every time it rains, the water flows down that new path, essentially training your mind to default to better thoughts.

Eventually the images will dull so they aren't as vivid. And eventually you won't even have to worry about an image coming into your head because you'll constantly be thinking of the better things when you have time to think.

In fine, distracting yourself may work at first, but that's just a band-aid. You should be working toward a greater goal as you learn to distract yourself.