I've wrote a blog post specifically addressing the issue of lust and addiction to masturbation and watching porn. Read here [Beyond Willpower: How Mettā Heals the Struggle with Lust](buddhimarga.bearblog.dev/.../beyond-willpower-how-met...). You begin to overcome lust by experiencing purification and pleasure from meditation. We all need some kind of pleasure in life. Sex gives one of the highest peaks in pleasure that we can experience. But it lasts for a relatively short period of time and it has drawbacks. The aftereffect are draining to the human energy or life-force. Meditation gives more lasting, steady pleasure. It doesn't give a short bursts of energy like orgasm buy rather a continuous pleasure. Meditation doesn't irritate the mind; it makes it calm and relaxed. My experience is with *mettā*. Especially, mantra chanting. This kind of sādhana gave me my h freedom from lust and a continuously growing pleasure. Please try *mettā* and start becoming free from the clutches of lust.

Asubha bhavana practice can help. Seeing the unattractive and undesirable parts of the human body. The practice is on your own body. You sit in meditation and observe the transitory, unsatisfactory and uncontrollable nature of: - Hair on the head - Hair on the body - Nails - Teeth - Skin And one can continue with flesh, sinews, bones and the rest of the traditional 32 parts of the body in Buddhism. If you do this every day for a few minutes, it will protect you against lust. It is the antidote to lust. Women in summer outfits will just look like decaying skin, because they are! Related practice: > Atṭhika saññā bhāvanā is the contemplation on the parts of a skeleton. By practicing atṭhika saññā frequently, one may advance the meditation for the cessation of defilements. One develops passion, hatred, and delusion because of the unrestrained eye, which is attracted to the details of forms seen. The eye can be disciplined by practicing atṭhika saññā, which avoids the eye attracting to details of forms. Story: > A monk met a woman on the way when she was running away from her husband; she smiled at the monk and walked away. Her husband who followed the woman met with the monk and enquired whether the monk had seen a woman. The monk replied saying, “I saw a skeleton; did not know whether a man or a woman.” For help check the semen retention subreddit. Really try to stop. Meditation retreats I found to be best environment since there are few distractions so you can more easily control the mind and develop joy from practicing that is better than sense pleasures. Don't be too hard on yourself if you relapse and just keep on increasing your streaks. I use the Iron Will app to register my streaks. People who are fully free don't need an app, not watching porn nor masturbating became easy. Once you see what the spiritual life offers you don't want to go back to wasting your energy like that, inducing anxiety.