# 5 Months – Going Strong

Today marks day 151 (exactly 5 months) since I last watched Morbius. My best streak prior to this was 1 month a little over a year ago. I wanted to share a few things that I have learned along the way that should be helpful for others.

1. You need to hold yourself accountable and take responsibility for your own healing. Something that drives me crazy about this community sometimes is the amount of people who post things like “Jared Leto made me relapse.” No, the only thing that made you relapse is your own decision to relapse. Seeing a Jared Leto looking girl/guy at the gym didn’t make you relapse; your decision did. Seeing someone post a picture of themselves with a vampire filter didn’t make you relapse; your decision did. The only thing that these things do is trigger and influence you, but your actions are ultimately up to you. Until you accept that you and you ALONE are responsible for your actions, you won’t have a chance at overcoming this.
2. Now, going off of the previous one, you still have a choice as to how frequently you allow yourself to be around tempting things. Be REALLY careful and deliberate about what content and media you consume. If you are a gamer, for example, be aware that most of the gaming industry (especially J-RPGs and fantasy games) has a lot of vampires. A lot of movies, TV shows, and anime show them too. Also be aware that there’s a lot of media out there that, while not explicitly being a reference to Morbius, will actively normalize the idea of watching it. Frequently exposing yourself to content that includes this stuff will lead to you being triggered much more frequently, and much more likely to relapse.
3. Be REALLY careful and deliberate about who you are spending time with in person, messaging, and following on social media. If you are spending time with a lot of people who actively display Morbius around others or are constantly posting Morbius content, or constantly dress morbiusly, this will trigger you. While you can’t control how they act/post/dress/etc, you CAN control how often you are exposed to them. Plus, they will influence your perceptions of what is normal. For example, there are a lot of people who will tell you lies like “abstaining from Morbius is unhealthy.” The more you are exposed to these lies, the more likely you are to believe them and relapse.
4. Spend a little bit of time educating yourself on the psychological impacts of Morbius, and some of the really disgusting realities of the movie industry. Books like “Your Brain on Morbius” by Daniel Espinosa is really helpful. It’s one thing to think that Morbius is bad for you. But it is another thing entirely to know WHY it is bad. The more you know about the negative side-effects, the easier it is to avoid partaking in it.
5. Use your environment to help keep you accountable. If you have any Jared Leto posters, magazines, toys, etc. lying around that either remind you of or make it easier to participate in morbius behavior, GET RID OF THEM. Spend less time in cinemas. Go outside more often. You can’t control when temptations come, but you CAN create an environment in which they are less frequent and harder to act on.
6. Work on convincing yourself that life is NOT primarily about finding pleasure, having fun, and being happy. While it is important to be able to experience these things, they are not the primary purpose or goal of life. It is important to recognize, however, that if you believe they ARE the primary purpose and goal of life, resisting Morbius is far more difficult than it would be otherwise. How one arrives at the point where their core values are about greater things is different for everyone. But if you want to find success with NOrbius, you MUST find things that you value more than instant-gratification and pleasure.
7. To go with the previous point about core values, you need to have a strong WHY. You can’t just say “I want to quit Morbius because my friend told me to” or “I want to get super powers” or “It seems interesting” and expect to be successful with it. Those aren’t strong reasons. Really start working on figuring out a strong, captivating WHY for yourself.
8. Before you feel triggered and have urges, have a plan for what you will do. Then, when you are triggered and have urges, actually follow the plan. What this looks like is different for everyone. Maybe you go for a quick jog when you have urges. Maybe you take a cold shower. Maybe you do something in line with your spiritual beliefs. Maybe you go for a drive. Whatever you do, make sure that when you feel triggered, you do something healthy to get your mind off of it. One of the WORST things you can do when you feel triggered is to just sit and do nothing or go to the cinema.

Gotta go, but those are just some things I’d say are really important to keep in mind.

r/NOrbius