Of course do it!  Get yourself a 3-week vacation to Thailand.  Pattaya or Phuket.  You can find yourself a pretty girlfriend that you can have with you for the entire vacation.  You'll have the complete girl-friend experience.  It didn't fuck me up at all & I never regretted doing it.  No STDs. Nothing.  Just fond memories.  You can then come home and try again.  If it doesn't work out that year, go back to where your success is 100%.  Try again next year.
If I didn't have a gf, I'd be going to Thailand twice a year and probably wouldn't bother with a local gf unless she was an absolute knock-out. 

@flhugoboss I be fucking hoes in Pattaya every 2nd weekend and haven't had sex where I haven't payed. Anything wrong with me. Not that I can see. Everything okay. Game is for people who don't have money to pay for hoes. They need to always try to get it for free.

Actually, I kind of support this idea.  As long as you can do it safely and the girl is cool and nice as to be positive to your self-esteem.  It will show you that sex isn't that big of a deal and you will stop thinking about it as much as you currently do.  You will not stop thinking about it though lol.  But, ironically sex will come much easier after you don't care as much about it.  Just don't get addicted to hookers, dawg. 
Don't listen to all these goody two shoe, flacid weenars in here.  Just do it, trust me, mang.  I never give bad advice. 

"Lost" my virginity to an escort during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and I thought I was gonna die. It was the grossest, messiest, smelliest experience I had ever had and I did not nut one time, and it opened the Pandora's box for me paying escorts for sex. It feels great but the intimacy of being inside or on top or or under another person is the best part, not the sensation of your dick inside someone's pussy. But it always left me feeling empty and corrupt.
It's not worth it, being a virgin is fine. Just don't tell anyone about it just like how you wouldn't share info about your 11th pinkie toe.

Seriously, look for an escort or something, you don't need to have sex with her. Pay one just to kiss her or something. This will boost your confidence and experience with women. I lost my virginity with a super cute 19 years old escort. Best experience ever.

I love pickup. It completely turned my dating life around but fuck man it is a grind. Night after night of failure and rejection. That's what you're commiting to.
But here's the catch: you're also committing to some of the most amazing adventures you'll ever have. You're committing to improving yourself in ways you would have never considered. You're committing to living in a state of mind that's more free than the average person. And of course you're commiting to hooking up with girls you would have never thought possible.
 
Your choice.

Then hire a prostitute/escort. They'll give you exactly what you need without all that "work". No shame in that, that's why they exist.

If you don't have the money for it then you're gonna have to swallow your own bullshit, get off your ass and apply what I wrote before. Otherwise you become that loser who wants things to change but refuses to change himself.

So what's it gonna be friend?

@Peter Miklis Leo is one of the most immature spiritual leaders. His work seems to be helpful on the surface but eventually it will get people more lost and tricked. 
Forget about all the beautiful realizations, insights, etc. If the source you get the truth from is not awake, you are simply shooting yourself in the foot. Why? When the source is unawake, even if he make good points, he is prone to make guiding mistakes that will backfire any progress do. He doesnt have the total divine vision to do such work yet. Its coming from his mind, Its only partial. 
Contemplate this. You are asking how to live an awaken life from an unawake person. How much can you trust someone afraid of embodying what he teaches? 
His ego is getting bigger and bigger each day, which means he is asleep as fuck. And it doesnt even matter how much 5 meo he does. He is trapped in his own net. 
I am not hating on leo, but on his immaturity. He may have good intentions on helping out, but truth leadership doesnt work like that. And everyone here need to be ware of this, specially newbies. 
Truth is not for smart or intellectual people. It is for courageous ones. It is a matter of courage vs fear. Leo doesnt have the courage yet. Life will eventually teach him to get some. 

Look, bro, that is 0.00001% of people.
Your average poor person is a racist, homophobe, bigot, ignoramus.
When we talk about politics, we have to consider averages and lowest common denominators. Citing a few exceptional counter-examples is not smart here.

Not as much as you'd think. Most poor people are stage Blue. They are easily fooled and misled by demagogues like Trump. Their fears are easily stoked. Their prejudices, closedmindedness, and ethnocentrism is easily exploited by charlatans and narcissists.

Rich hold most of the power because they are smarter.
Poor and middleclass folks tend to be ignorant, ideological, conservative, out of touch with politics, and not ambitious enough to do anything about it.

Materialism is not an enemy of consciousness. Turquoise transcends and INCLUDES Orange.
Amazon means you can get nonduality books in 2 days, which is awesome!
Leo cannot lose because Leo is Jeff Bezos and everything else.

So what this tells me is you got A LOT of work to do before anything like enlightenment will dawn. Probably years of work.
That's okay, but what I mean is, you don't have to worry too much about enlightenment right now. Focus building up your meditation skills, psychoanalysis, yoga, etc. All of that will build up your foundation. At some point you should begin to slowly ween yourself off the medication and pursue the Truth full-bore.
Enlightenment is about facing your own death. So you need to build yourself up to the point where you're not having panic attacks and you a ready to face ego dissolution. You are not going to be able to avoid facing death. That is the whole aim of enlightenment work. Enlightenment is all about facing your deepest fears and seeing through them with extraordinary levels of consciousness and concentration.
Weening yourself off SSRI's will also allow you to play around with psychedelics -- which are one of the most effective tools for facing death and fear.

Shoot for 40-50 hours per week.
And take a 10 minutes break every 90 minutes at least.

You're not gonna be able to sustain more than 40 hours per week for long. Programmers burn out and destroy their health all the time.
You should research why we have a 40 hour work-week.
Where did it come from historically?
Do you know that Henry Ford and other industrialists of the early 20th century actually commissioned studies to find out the optimal amount of the time their factory workers should be working to produce the highest output and thus earn them the most money?
And you know what number they came back with?
40

Yeah, but your system recharges every week, so it's like pouring water into a leaky bucket.

How is hiring a prostitute a few times going to change anything for you?
You gonna keep paying every week? For how many years? And then what?

@no_name Hey, I appreciate your post and your straight forwardness, I also like how you expressed your opinion. 
@no_name I disagree with you; escort girls are just like any other person, so I do not see them as the lowest bottom. Perhaps (and really perhaps) the lowest bottom would be a husband cheating on his pregnant wife (3rd pregnancy) with his male colleague from work while both of them are doing crake-cocaine under a bridge in town at 4am, and even so I really think it is okay. For example, I personally would comfortably date an ex-crake cocaine addict prostitute if she is changed and is self-actualizing. In fact, I think on this case we could both grow so much that would be ridiculously amazing. I am saying that not because I am an ex-addict or something like, in fact quite the opposite; I am "luck" enough to have an extremely good education and now a solid professional/business career (soon to get out of Matrix), but I do not judge people and I have a very open mind and I am looking for an authentic connection when it comes to relationships, regardless of the background. 
When it comes to STDs and HIV, needless to say I ensure to protect myself, I also ensure to get the best and highest possible sex services, in addition to that I regularly take HIV tests (at LEAST once a year) since some of my "friends with benefits" ask me for it. The last one was from Sept. 2020.
Finally, it is important for me to tell you and for you to understand that girls like you or your friends (as you mentioned it) are PRECISELY  the type of girls that I am NOT interested at all. I do respect your opinion A LOT and your way of thinking, and I see where you come from, but I have a different perspective on things.
  
 

@UniverseWithin Thanks for your post, I appreciate your honesty and opinion.
@UniverseWithin Escort girls are very interesting and they come from a large variety of backgrounds, so definitely every  encounter I have is a new and exciting one and I always take away something, either positive or negative, but there is always something to learn. 
Clearly when it comes to sexual liberation escort girls get 10 out of 10, but I am also looking for that type of self-developing kind of awareness if you understand me correctly. Particularly, I would love to find a self-actualizing escort whom is subscribed to Actualized.org
@UniverseWithin Why did you stop escorting? I mean, what was the main driver for you to stop it? Do you mind sharing? 

@Jeff21 From my experience, scorts are one of the best discoveries I had at 18. They are open minded, cool and very sexual. Theres nothing bad in it. Maybe you can make a gf out of a good one. 

Hookers are cheaper.  
I think OP just wants to satisfy his urges, I don't think a "connection" is priority for this.  If you just think of hookers as sex toys then, suddenly, the question of "is it wrong" becomes completely retarded.
 
Dude.. you have any idea how unlikely it is you'll just stumble upon a woman with the right personality type for you?  AND be attracted to her AND she won't have any dealbreaking issues?  I mean, if you're some stereotypical ISTJ, have no hobbies besides watching "whatever's on TV" and your only criteria is "don't be too fat" then sure, I would be more inclined to  agree.
AHHHHH NOW I HAVE TO FIGURE OUT THE CORRELATIONS BETWEEN PARTNER PREFERENCES AND SD STAGES!!  How foolish of me to think Socionics, MBTI, Enneagram, temperament, instincts, etc. would be enough to have the basics down..
 

Consider from which culture are the scorts you are picking. I find most euro and american scorts cold and with lack of empathy. 
If you can, try brazilian, colombian and venezuelan scort models. They are very friendly, open minded and sweet, which I love. 
I dont have problem attracting girls, yet I love scorts. I dont know why people see it as bad, I see it as something very positive. Maybe thats just me because im very sexual and really dont care being looked at as a fckboy or whatever. Fckng love good whores.
You know how good it is to have a couple of scort friends and when you get tired of fckng with one, just switch to the other for some time? I know it sounds a bit rude, but hey im honest with my self and girls. What I want  from women most is simply fun and fucking. And I even care for scort girls, is just that you save so much time, energy and drama, while getting exactly what you ask for . 
You who have to make it fun. I have not met an ordinary girl with the sexuality (experience) of a scort yet. Take out this idea of making sex something sacred. Is just animalistic desire. You give too much meaning to it, lol. You better say, what you want is making holy love not sex... 
Find one who suits you and become her friend. Dont generalize so quick. Telling you fckng a scort is bad is just as close as telling you money is Evil. You dont know what you are missing out . 

That's actually weird. I don't think I would be able to live with an escort girl.
First of all, I would be really concerned about my health.
Secondly, this intimate bond between two people should be exactly between two people, no more.
Actually, there are different escort girls, the ones that have really expensive "services" are a lot more beautiful and sometimes even smarter. They usually wear expensive clothes and especially underwear. I've used their service when I was living in Amsterdam. They all were too fancy about their appearance, yet the services they provided were much better than the ones I used to receive ordering cheap escorts.

Because you are too busy willing your dream.
Whatever is occuring is what you wanted.

@hoodrow trillson Value is whatever you feel helps you survive as a finite self.
If you feel that getting your dick sucked by a donkey helps your survival, then that's value for you.