How to quit Internet addiction?

First of all, I greatly appreciate your pure courage and your strong will, which is the great foundation to get out of the addiction you find yourself in:

• I strongly believe that getting out of addiction is not in one day, it is almost impossible both practically and physiologically and mentally to change natural and cravings out of the blue, especially when it comes to addiction to pornography and the like, which are among the things desirable to the human heart, and especially to a young man whose growth hormones are rampant at these ages.

• Therefore, even if at first you continue to fail, you must not fall in your spirit, it does not mean that you are not in the right direction to get out of the addiction, but you must continue on the path that I will write to you until with God’s help you will slowly come out of it completely.

• I will write you a natural approach and a spiritual approach, when both approaches are necessary to get out of your addiction, I want to emphasize that any approach alone will not be helpful.

The Natural Approach:

The phenomenon of addiction. we will understand the situation you find yourself in, and we will know how to get out of it, and I will write briefly:

A glacier is a special natural phenomenon, in which only the tip of the glacier protrudes above the surface of the water, while under water the bulk of the glacier is located. In the same way, addiction can be seen: the visible level, the tip of the iceberg above the surface of the water, is the external manifestation of the addiction that everyone sees: pot use, shopping addiction, etc. The level beneath the surface is the crux of addiction, the emotional difficulty for which the whole series of addictions began, evident each time at the tip of a different iceberg. This part should be addressed.

Therefore, the treatment must address the iceberg in its entirety – its tip and depth, the signs of addiction and the causes of addiction. Addiction is a whole way of life, so proper treatment deals with a comprehensive change in lifestyle. Such a change requires complete changes in employment in daily life.

Practical examples: You need to check what hours you were used to watching the Internet, if, for example, you were used to watching late at night, you should schedule a different occupation for yourself during those hours and in a completely different place, i.e., playing sports, setting up a study fellowship, reading a favorite book, and so on.

The spirituality approach:

Maimonides[1] wrote that incestuous thought does not prevail except in a heart free of wisdom. And especially if you sit free from all employment, for idleness leads to sin, and to lewdness. [2] And you yourself write this, that when you are bored you watch.

And idleness and imagination work mainly in the subject of incestuousness, which is connected and connected to the world of imagination, and the world of imagination works when a person sits idle without a certain action. Therefore, apart from taking occupations during the day and night, you will try to learn Torah every day, and as our late rabbis say: “I created an evil inclination and I created a spice Torah for it.” [3] Since he is from fire, and we are of flesh and blood.

Also, one of the main things that causes the hormone rampage is the act of seeing, as our rabbis said[4]: “The eye sees and the heart covets, and the vessel of action finishes.” Therefore, you must be careful not to wander around in places that are hacked, or that may bring you to prohibited evidence.

And all must pray with tears and supplications to the One of the world, that He will help and save you, and who comes to be purified helps Him and with the help of ‘siyatah Dashmia’ you will be very successful and you will see success and be saved.

And the main thing is not to fall in your spirit, and even though the way of inclination and its tricks is to discourage man, and this is the essence of his weapon, you will not rise up as a man and overcome, and determine in your heart that God does not put man through a trial that he cannot withstand.

Good luck and prayer to God who dwells on high:

Rabbi Meir Pinchasi

Jerusalem, the Holy City and the Temple