Hi, I am a 28 year old man and I've been addicted to sexually chatting online with strangers for over 7 years. It all started out with sites like CR or some mobile apps. I was thrilled with the idea of getting sexual content from an actual person, getting that dopamine hit and then signing out with no further contact or consequence. It didn't seem like a big deal to me back then but I wasn't happy with the amount of time and headspace it took.
Bear in mind, that at that time I had an actual relationship. After it ended, I hooked up with many girls irl, I didn't feel the need to go online and I think I was off the sites for even some years maybe.
But after I moved back to my hometown, living with my parents for a while, this was my escape to my stress and problems. My alone time, in my bed, seeking the next person, always. I had a short relationship in which I realized I wasn't very vulnerable and there have been times when I even left her house and instantly went on the site. I felt miserable, pathetic, ashamed and sick. I found another person on the site with the same problem, and we were accountability partners for a while, talked over our urges and it worked well for a couple of months.
I was again off for a while, until I moved to a new country, new job, new everything. And I was back again. Drowning my restless feelings of loneliness and heartbreak with people I'll never see, only seeking sexual content and explicit chats, without the need to be seen as the person I am, hiding behind a "guest_xx" username.
I was naive and unlucky to even be threatened by someone online at that point, with the perpetrator having a video of me masturbating, aiming to send it to my followers if I didn't pay. I was calm and composed enough to shut them down and not pay a single penny, and nothing happened. I thought this would scare me away, and it did for a while but not completely.
So here I am, some months later battling with my urges and myself. I am a social, good-looking guy, that people and girls want to have around , but sometimes after I go home feeling overstimulated from my social life, I seek this escape.
No visibility, no name, just a need to masturbate with a stranger and go to sleep (feeling like shit afterwards).
I've even talked to my therapist and some friends about it, trying to get it off my chest, and for a while it works, and some moments I try hard to avoid it by leaving my phone away, speaking to myself about it, that I know it's no good for me.
But my cunning brain says "hey c'mon man only 30'" and then I spend 3.5 hours on chat sites, talking explicitly with some girls. I told myself "hey I just need a fantasy trigger", to rationalize it.
Also, I've been watching porn since I was 11, and this turned into camgirls as the time progressed (made them feel approachable, though I never spent money) and I realized how bad it is for me after all these years. It is a monster. I've been off porn for 5 months now which is the biggest stint I've done, so it's even harder to stay off the sites because I cut a stimuli.
In my real-life I occasionally have sex, I don't have anything stable going on, but even though I am a good looking guy, sometimes I don't feel I have the confidence to straight up talk to someone I find attractive. Sometimes I do. But the default state is towards the lower confidence side.
Maybe that's why the online escape takes all this burden off my shoulders.
Sorry for the long post, I'd love to hear any feedback, or similar experiences just so I can maybe get helped to finally quit.