VICE: So obviously I have to know why. Why did you do this to yourself, and why 100 days? One hundred days, dude. Why? WHY?
Rory Patrick: I’d just noticed how jerking off had altered the trajectory of my day-to-day life. For instance, sometimes I’d planned to go to the gym or go on a run, and then I’d say to myself, “OK, you’re going to run, so let’s have a nice moment to yourself before that.” After masturbating, though, I’d find myself curled up in my bed watching television with a bag of chips instead of actually running. Coming was also my primary coping strategy for stress or pain, and that just didn’t seem healthy at all. So when a friend of mine was talking about a group of people that were going without for 90 days, I just competitively reacted, saying that I could do 100 days. I just hoped that the challenge would give me the impetus to be cum-free for a while.
So you made the decision and then charted your 100 days with a hashtag on Twitter. What has support been like?
It has been heartwarming. The Twitter community can be so overwhelmingly positive and supportive. My friend Josh and I started taking pictures of ourselves doing that salute from The Hunger Games and people caught on and would take pictures of themselves doing the salute with the hashtag. It let me know people were thinking about me and kept me honest, because it seemed like people were having fun with it. I didn’t want to ruin it one night because I was stressed about work and needed to rub one out. You had some people that asked every week if I’d come yet and some others that would intermittently send me nudes to try and tempt me into succumbing to coming, but generally people were just behind me and hoping I lasted the 100 days.
How often did you masturbate before doing this?
Daily. On average, daily. As I said before, it ended up being necessary because I could tell that every time I was stressed, I’d feel this urgency to get back to my room and jack off or be intimate with someone. My sleep routine was also connected to coming. Coming before sleeping at some point became a habit. I probably should have a more diverse range of coping skills to deal with life’s curveballs than draining my own balls.
When was it the hardest? Were there specific days you can recall where you came close to giving up? How did you resist temptation?
The first four days were hell, and it was apparent how much coming helped me get through life on a day-to-day basis. I just had a routine of coming before sleeping. My routine at first was still built around trying to come and go to sleep. When I started, I’d still watch a little porn and then go to sleep without touching myself. Sleeping was impossible. I was rolling around all night, trying to put together like 3 hours of rest at a time. I tried everything from sleeping pills to food-coma-ing myself, and I’d still struggle to get to sleep or stay asleep.
The one day the whole challenge was in danger was after some Twitter people had come in from out of town. We got very drunk, and sometimes after drinking heavily, I’ll get severe anxiety the next day. I remember it specifically being day 86, because I said to myself, “It’s OK, you did 86 days. Not many people could’ve done 86 days,” with my cock in my hands, ready to start jerking off. After a lot of breathing, though, my friend texted me back (I’d texted a bunch of people, but it was the middle of the night), and was supportive, and it gave me the boost I needed to just get up and take a shower and shake it off.
So this no jerk-off rule, did this also include no sex?
No coming at all. So I couldn’t masturbate or have sex to completion.
Read the rest of the interview here...
I wish I could try 100 days. I lasted about a week or so and the urge of letting it go is just too....urg.
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