Your ritual is a key part of your porn use and masturbation habit. Everyone has rituals for acting out, and this is one of the most valuable things for you to identify for your recovery. Your ritual is the starting point of the road that ends with acting out.
Another word for ritual might be “preparation.” It means anything that you do to get ready for a sexual experience, a preparation checklist so to speak.
Farah, for example, started her porn ritual by mentally checking that she would be free from disturbance (home alone on Friday night). Once she sat down she’d then begin with the “How-close-can-I-get-to-porn” game. She’d trick herself into finding sexual material by telling herself that it was okay because it wasn’t porn. She’d edge closer and closer until she crossed a tipping point where she felt there was no going back and end up consuming full-on pornography.
