our approach

No streaks. No shame. No day zero.

Most quit-porn apps count days and reset you to zero when you slip. We think that's backwards, and the research on relapse agrees. Here's what rerute believes, and how the app is built around it.

why there's no streak

Streaks break. Roads bend.

A streak counter turns one slip into day zero. Day zero feels like failing, and feeling like a failure is one of the fastest ways back to the screen. Psychologists call it the abstinence violation effect: the thought "I've blown it" is what turns one lapse into a binge.

rerute measures what you've built instead. Your road gets longer with every clean day and every urge you outlast. A lapse bends it back for a few days, and the milestones you passed stay passed.

Why streak counters backfire →

Shame feeds relapse.

Shame feels like it should keep you in line. It does the opposite. It's a hiding feeling, and porn has been your fastest way out of hard feelings, so the shame after a session is often the fuel for the next one.

In a study of people in early recovery from alcohol problems, those who showed more shame about their last drink relapsed more in the months that followed. So rerute never shames, never mourns a slip and never mentions what you're "missing".

Why shame makes you relapse →

A lapse is data, not a verdict.

When you log a lapse, the app says so plainly: logged, a data point, not a verdict. Then it asks for the useful parts: the hour, the place, the mood and the first small step that led there.

That first step is where your next if-then rule goes. Over a few weeks your plan becomes a map of your own old road, with a turnoff at every point where it used to catch you.

What to do after a relapse →

The gray zone has one rule.

Masturbating without porn isn't a lapse. Masturbating with porn playing in your head is. The drug is porn, the supernormal stimulus, not your sex drive.

If it needs a storyline, it's a session.

The rule is deliberately blunt, because ambiguity is where rationalizing starts. If you can't separate the two yet, and most people can't at first, treat them as one thing for a while.

The gray zone, explained →

You're giving up nothing.

Porn doesn't add calm. It takes away a restlessness it created. We call that itch the little monster: it's mild, and it fades within weeks when it isn't fed.

Quitting isn't a sacrifice to endure, so the app never treats it like one. Every urge you outlast is the little monster starving, and that's worth being glad about.

Why porn is so hard to quit →

Built to be forgotten.

Apps paid for by engagement are designed to be opened often, and being reminded of the addiction all day is part of the addiction.

rerute sends no notifications, ever. Logging takes seconds and puts itself away, and the numbers stay sealed between monthly reports. The best day in rerute is the one you notice you haven't opened it in weeks.

A tool, not a treatment.

rerute is a self-help tool. It isn't therapy or medical treatment, and it says so.

If your porn use is tangled up with depression, trauma, other compulsions or thoughts of harming yourself, please talk to a therapist who knows this area. If you're in danger right now, contact your local emergency number.

Is porn addiction real? →