For those of you reading this thread, I will again summarize some of the main benefits I noticed while going through 90 days of NoFap.
– More vivid dreams, better sleep most of the time.
– General feeling of happiness and well being most of the time, less emotional ups and downs and mood swings, noticeable decrease in anxiety and depression.
– Less worrying about what others think of me, ability to be more open and honest in social situations and relationships.
– More discipline/focus in every other area of my life, especially regarding diet and exercise.
– More confident with girls, notice them stare at me a lot more, often playing with their hair or ear and smiling. In addition girls seem more eager to be in my company, to talk to me and get to know me, to help me out if the situation requires it.
– Colours seem brighter, music sounds better, I laugh more at things that are funny. This makes sense, when you go through a flatline your brain is literally re-growing the dopamine receptors that it was forced to destroy when you flooded your brain with dopamine for years on end with constant pmo. My neurochemical reward system is repaired and rebalanced. In some ways I feel kind of like a kid again – curious, open, connected to nature and filled with the desire to move my body.
– My voice is definitely deeper than it was, most of the time.
– Better hair, skin, and eyes. Better digestion. More resilience to heat and also the cold (this could be due to the daily cold shower I take though).
– This is a big one that I was not expecting, and I am curious to see if anyone else has also experienced this, but I’ve noticed far less lower back pain. Used to get quite a lot, now it hardly ever flares up, even if I’ve hit the weights hard.
– Better memory, short and long term. Less addictive behavior and patterns in general. More comfortable in my own skin.
The first three and a half months (counting my first streak, which ran from January to march, and during which I had sex repeatedly) saw me enter a fairly brutal flat line after about day 8, that lasted until pretty much May. Dead dick, no libido whatsoever, brain fog, headaches, apathy, fatigue and emotional numbness were the symptoms I experienced. In particular, the libido/dead dick was the thing that freaked me out the most, as I thought I had turned into an asexual. I was sleeping with a couple of girls throughout the first streak, but found it really difficult to get an erection and didn’t really enjoy it at all.
When I started the current streak, I decided to be celibate for at least 90 days, give my body and brain a chance to heal. I had a very heavy porn habit in my teens (I’m 27 now) and severe PIED pretty much from when I lost my virginity to about the age of 22. I used to avoid contact with women as much as possible and jack it to porn 2 or 3 times a day. Of course as I fell deeper and deeper down the dopamine rabbithole, I started watching more messed up content. At the height of my porn addiction I needed to watch gangrape or hentai to get off.
I actually quit watching porn completely about 5 years ago, and my PIED greatly improved, as did many other areas of my life. However I was still jacking it daily, and always to porn-like fantasies. I also started using tinder to date, and often used tinder as a p-sub to jack off too. So even though I hadn’t watched porn in a really long time, I was still firing up those porn pathways, still hopelessly addicted.
The monster of a flatline I went through earlier this year is evidence that I needed to give my brain a break from orgasm too in order to heal. Since I started coming out of the flatline, in about mid April, a lot of things got put in perspective. Problems that I’ve had for years, like anxiety, depression, mood swings and lethargy have greatly diminished. I feel much more comfortable in my own skin and social situations. I am more confident around girls, they seem to warm to me easily, show me kindness and interest.
I can recall things easily, but whats interesting is that this affects not just my short term memory, but also my long term. I’m remembering experiences from years ago with crystal clear accuracy, super vivid. But the most important benefit I’ve felt from NoFap, since coming out of the flatline, and this is something I also mention in my journal, is feeling good in my body most of the time now. Feeling happy, and peaceful, and content, not strung out and pissed off most of the time like I used to be.
Like Gary Wilson talks about in Your Brain on Porn, PMO jacks up the dopamine levels on the brain and causes your brain to destroy dopamine receptors in order to protect itself. When you do NoFap, the dopamine levels drop, and the brain, over time, grows back the receptors you’ve lost. Therefore you feel good again.
So that’s my journey so far. I hope its useful or gives motivation to any guys out there who are currently going through the flatline, worrying about their junk and if they will ever be able to have sex again. It will pass. You will heal. And when you do, you’ll feel better than you have done in years. It might be worth pointing out that I put NoFap on steroids – cold showers daily, meditation, lifting weights, eating a diet high in protein and healthy fats and low in sugar and refined carbs, yoga and giving myself plenty of sleep. I also forced myself to go out more and do more unconventional things, especially regarding social situations. I really think that stuff helps a lot, and I’d advise anyone doing NoFap to do as much of these things as they can, if they want to see better results. I’m also convinced that 90 days is just the start. An important milestone, true, but I’m still getting benefits from NoFap. And I really feel that there are more benefits left for me yet. I want to do another month celibate. At the 120 day mark I will start dating again, something I am really looking forward to now that I have beat the flatline.
So today is officially my 92nd day of NoFap! Technically this is my second streak, as I started originally in January but relapsed due to the fact that I was still dating girls and trying to be sexually active (despite going through a brutal flatline that lasted for three and a half months!). My current streak started at around the end of march, and I haven’t relapsed once. For the first half of it I was in the flatline, but at about the 50 day or so mark it started to fade, and now I have a fairly healthy feeling libido again (although I still haven’t tested it out by dating again, more to come – pardon the pun!) as well as many man other benefits. For anyone who is interested here is a link to my full 90 day journal which I updated weekly as I went through this process –
https://www.nofap.com/forum/index.php?threads/hard-mode-90-day-challenge.223887/
If anyone has any questions about any part of my journey please feel free to ask, I’m happy to offer any advice I might be able to offer!
LINK – Beyond 90 Days
By shadow1234
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