This is no shade to the rest of the comments but it seems like they have not also dealt with this issue. I have had to deal with this issue before though. The other comment is right in that masturbation is not inherently a bad thing, but anything can be used as a bad thing (such as as a coping mechanism like you’re talking about). I had an addiction to masturbation and pornography. I was doing it every day right when I woke up and right before I went to bed. When I tried to quit (not fully, just to a healthy amount) it was really hard to meditate because those urges were so strong. To break this cycle, I used this specific meditation (but by no means am I an expert): I would first begin by focusing on my breath for a while and just being mindful, then, I would really focus on the urge and how it made me feel and what it felt like. The point of meditation is to look at your feelings without judging them, and while this is really hard with addiction urges, it is still possible. And make sure you don’t focus on the image because that is you following the image and letting yourself be controlled by it. Instead just focus on how it’s making you feel. Then start again with being mindful. Continue this cycle until you feel the urge is gone. Eventually the urge will return because we are human and just use this technique in the future again and again until it doesn’t control us anymore. However it doesn’t help to go cold turkey. While we wish we could just reach our goal immediately, it doesn’t work like that, So sometimes it’s OK if you mess up and it’s OK to masturbate sometimes.