START HERE: Porn-Induced Sexual Dysfunction

PIED

YBOP suggests you see a competent medical professional to rule out psychological issues, dietary deficiencies, hormonal imbalances, or organic causes.

  1. Porn-induced Erectile Dysfunction (2014), by YBOP
  2. If you haven’t already, watch this video by Gabe Deem: The Basics Of Rebooting
  3. Video – The Essential Basics of PIED Recovery by Noah Church
  4. Watch this 13 minute video blog: Porn-Induced ED Reboot Advice Vlog: Gabe Deem (9 months to have sex, 15 months to get an erection by my own touch alone)
  5. A 3-minute video – “Did Porn Cause My Erectile Dysfunction? TAKE THE TEST!” (by Gabe Deem).
  6. You should also read Rebooting Basics.
  7. Many experts recognize this relatively recent phenomenon. See – Experts who recognize porn-induced sexual dysfunctions, including PIED which contains studies, articles, blog posts, and radio & TV interviews.
  8. Peer-reviewed review of the literature – Is Internet Pornography Causing Sexual Dysfunctions? A Review with Clinical Reports (2016)

MAIN ARTICLE

Are you a porn user who is developing erectile dysfunction? There may be a connection between the two. When we first started chronicling men recovering from porn-induced erectile dysfunction we witnessed two main patterns of recovery:

  1. A few men bounce back in a relatively short time: about 2-3 weeks. Perhaps their ED is due to mild sexual conditioning accompanied by increasing habituation to online porn. Perhaps high levels of masturbation (fueled by porn), played a role.
  2. The vast majority of guys we encountered needed only 2-3 months to fully recover.

Around 2011 – 2012 things started to change. That’s when men in their twenties, who grew up using internet porn, reported needing several months to fully recover. Some needed up to a year to regain normal erectile functioning. A few need even longer.

We suspected that the arrival of porn tube sites in late 2006, may have been the game changer. Aligning with what young men were reporting on forums, studies assessing young male sexuality since 2010 have reported historic levels of erectile dysfunction, and startling rates of a new scourge: low libido.

Withdrawal

Most “long-rebooters” experience a variety of withdrawal symptoms, including the dreaded flatline. It’s likely that men in this group have experienced addiction-related changes that reduce stimulation of the brain’s erection centers. Without a doubt, sexual conditioning is the second mechanism responsible for PIED, especially among young guys who started early on Internet porn.

Many men cannot believe that Internet porn has caused their ED—until they stop using it and recover completely. Instead, men tend to assume their ED with a sexual partner is caused by anxiety, low testosterone, the fact the person is not their “type,” or lifestyle factors such as smoking or poor diet. If you are under 40, and not on specific medications, and don’t have a serious medical or psychological condition, your copulatory ED almost certainly arises from performance anxiety or Internet porn—or a combination of the two.

Note: We use the term porn-induced sexual dysfunction because porn-related performance problems encompass far more than just ED (see the list below). However, porn-induced erectile dysfunction has emerged as the most common term with PIED as the favored acronym.

Wondering if your problem is porn-related?

Forum member: How are people so unaware of PIED? There are ads for boner pills all over every page of every porn website. The porn company profits on every click you make along the way to breaking your dick (and they KNOW you are breaking your dick, thus all the boner pill ads everywhere) and then they profit off your boner pill clicks as well. It’s rather like Philip Morris, while profiting off of your online cigarette orders, having ads for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease meds and lung transplants all over the same pages that are selling you the cigarettes, and then profiting again off the clicks you make on behalf of your ruined lungs.

Simple test

The first bit of advice is to see a good doctor to rule out any medical abnormality. If you have done so, try this simple test. It will help to distinguish between porn-induced ED and performance anxiety-induced ED (the most common diagnosis):

  1. On one occasion masturbate to your favorite porn (or simply remember what it was like).
  2. On another masturbate with no porn/porn fantasy. Try masturbating to sensation only (no fantasy), with the same speed and pressure you would experience during intercourse.

Compare one and two: quality of your erection, the time it took to ejaculate (if you can). A healthy young man should have no trouble attaining a full erection and masturbating to orgasm without porn or porn fantasy.

  • If you have a strong erection on #1, but erectile dysfunction on #2, then you likely have porn-induced ED.
  • If #2 is strong and solid, but you have trouble with a real partner, then you likely have anxiety-induced ED
  • And if you have problems during both 1 & 2, you may have severe porn-induced ED, or an organic problem. When in doubt, see a good doctor.
What the test can tell you

The above test is helpful to differentiate porn-induced ED from performance anxiety: You cannot have anxiety with your own hand. However, it cannot always differentiate between organic ED (hormonal, structural) and severe porn-induced ED – as many men with porn-induced ED cannot maintain an erection even with porn. This test cannot assess if your ED arises from severe psychological issues such as clinical depression. Nor is the above test meant to assess whether you have recovered from porn-induced ED or not. (See How do I know when I’m back to normal?).

Other symptoms may be associated with porn-induced brain changes:

  • Difficulty maintaining an erection when putting on a condom
  • Difficulty reaching orgasm with a partner (delayed ejaculation)
  • Experiencing greater sexual excitement using porn than with a partner
  • Decreasing sensitivity of penis
  • Ejaculating when you are only partly erect, or getting totally erect only as you climax
  • Needing to fantasize to maintain erection or interest in sexual partner
  • Earlier genres of porn are no longer “exciting”
  • Declining sexual arousal with a sexual partner(s)
  • Losing erection while attempting penetration
  • Can’t maintain erection or ejaculate with oral sex

Internet porn use can cause chronic ED; “excessive masturbation” or “sexual exhaustion” do not.

Internet porn (or rather its constant novelty) is the cause of chronic porn-induced ED. Excessive ejaculation and “sexual exhaustion” are not. Urologists agree that masturbation cannot cause chronic ED in healthy young men, unless one employs a serious “death grip” or traumatic masturbation techniques.

Another myth is that masturbation or orgasm depletes testosterone leading to what many call “sexual exhaustion.” All evidence suggests that porn-induced ED has absolutely nothing to do with low blood testosterone levels. (See: Any connection between orgasm, masturbation, and testosterone levels?)  A few websites declare that “over-masturbation” leads to sexual exhaustion and fabricate convoluted physiology to convince the reader. I address these claims in Isn’t my ED caused by ‘sexual exhaustion?’

On the other hand, it’s possible that masturbation and orgasm could play an indirect role in porn-induced ED. Frequent ejaculation in animals leads to several brain changes that inhibit dopamine, and thus libido, for several days. Under normal circumstances, sexual satiety (defined differently for each species) leads to males taking a time out from sexual activity. Sexually satiated porn users may override these inhibitory mechanisms by escalating to new genres of porn, or spending more time watching. Using porn to push past “I’m done” signals may lead to desensitization, or eventually the accumulation of DeltaFosB, and resulting epigenetic changes. Without the lure of Internet porn, how many guys would just give it a rest? For more see: Does Frequent Ejaculation Cause A Hangover?

Why now?

How different is Internet porn of today from porn of the past? We know of a healthy young man who rarely masturbated, but developed ED by just watching Internet porn: his schedule was to watch porn every day, but to masturbate only once every ten days. Others have developed ED by edging to porn every day, yet only ejaculating every few months.

Internet porn, with or without penile stimulation, keeps dopamine surging. Continued highspeed porn use, not masturbation, is what causes tolerance and escalation to more stimulating genres. Porn is what allows you to override your natural sexual satiation mechanisms and continue to masturbate or edge.

One guy comparing himself to his buddy:

My friend masturbates like 10-15 times a day. Not even exaggerating. He seriously has an addiction, but he thinks its normal. He also doesn’t have Internet access, so he never really gets to watch porn either. And he’s never had a problem keeping it up in bed. On the other hand, I can’t remember the last time I masturbated without looking at porn. But I might masturbate only 4-5 times a week on average. And I have tremendous issues staying hard. At first I thought it was nerves, but after getting more acclimated with sex, I actually found sex to be tiring and boring. Unless the girl was deepthroating me and telling me to choke her, I don’t really find sex to be all that great. I’m very desensitized to the female anatomy.

Relapse

Strictly speaking, you don’t have to be watching porn to develop ED:

I know with me I think I got so used to being almost hypnotized by girls online and masturbation, that real girls that I had to interact with in bed just threw me off and I couldn’t perform. I’m not even talking about porn, I don’t use porn but still look at clothed pictures of women online. Like a lot of other people here, I have relapsed plenty of times. I personally think it DOES have to be all or nothing, no ‘little bit here and there.’ You may not relapse if you start looking at girls online again, but I’m sure it slows down your reboot. I thought the same thing, that if I look just a little bit every once in awhile it would cumulatively fix me, it didn’t.

In the last 20 years, I used to masturbate an average of more than once a day. I was never into porn. And yet, I experience all the symptoms that you guys do.

Problem in your mind

The problem isn’t in your penis, so Viagra won’t stop the deterioration even if it can temporarily mask the problem. The solution for PIED is to reboot your brain. For a psychiatrist’s explanation of what’s going on, here’s an excerpt from The Brain That Changes Itself by psychiatrist Norman Doidge.

During the mid- to late 1990s, when the Internet was growing rapidly and pornography was exploding on it, I treated or assessed a number of men who all had essentially the same story. … They reported increasing difficulty in being turned on by their actual sexual partners, spouses or girlfriends, though they still considered them objectively attractive. When I asked if this phenomenon had any relationship to viewing pornography, they answered that it initially helped them get more excited during sex but over time had the opposite effect. Now, instead of using their senses to enjoy being in bed, in the present, with their partners, lovemaking increasingly required them to fantasize that they were part of a porn script.

Women’s problem

Lately we have seen more females describing porn-induced sexual problems:

Porn causing ED in Men/Causing loss of sex drive in women

I am female and I used to watch porn all the time. Mainly because my boyfriend could not get turned on without watching porn first. So he had me watch it with him.For a long time I could not get turned on without watching porn first and then having sex or masturbating. After a while I could not get turned on at all without porn and I could get an orgasm only when I masturbated, but not from sex. I have talked to female friends and some of them can not orgasm from sex but they can when they watch porn. So this does not only affect guys it affect women also.

What’s happening in the brain to cause chronic porn-induced ED?

If you prefer a video, watch the YBOP PIED presentation from here up to the 41:00 mark. Three mechanisms may be involved in the development of PIED (For much more see this peer-reviewed paper involving 7 US Navy doctors – Is Internet Pornography Causing Sexual Dysfunctions? A Review with Clinical Reports, 2016)

  1. Conditioning your sexual arousal template to everything associated with your porn use. This is the primary cause of porn-induced sexual dysfunctions.
  2. Down regulation of dopamine & opioid signaling in the reward system (mesolimbic dopamine pathway)
  3. Alterations regions of the hypothalamus that control erections (i.e. medial preoptic area, paraventricular nucleus)

1) Sexual Conditioning.

Chronic porn use can condition one’s arousal to everything associated with their porn use, such as: being in the position of a voyeur; constant searching and seeking; wanting a endless parade of novel “sexual partners”; clicking from video to video to maintain sexual arousal; or the never-ending list of porn-induced fetishes users report. Porn-induced sexual conditioning can also manifest as escalation to genres that don’t match your original sexual tastes.

With Internet porn you can control your sexual arousal with click of a mouse or a swipe of the finger. However, this doesn’t match real sexual encounters. The discrepancy between masturbating to online porn and real sex plays a huge role in PIED. Real sex is touching, being touched, smells, connecting and interacting with a person, all without a voyeur’s position. Internet porn is 2-D voyeurism, clicking a mouse, searching, multiple tabs, while only interacting with your hand. To use a sports analogy, which event has your brain been training for? Years of Internet porn use can create a mismatch between what your brain expects, and what you actually encounter during real sex. When expectations are not met, dopamine drops, and so do erections.

Sensitization

Both sexual conditioning and addiction share the same key brain change, occurring in the same structure, which is initiated by the same biological signal. The brain change is called ‘sensitization’ (but full blown addiction involves additional brain changes as well). Sensitization occurs when the brain wires together the sights, sounds, smells, sensations, emotions, and memories associated with a big reward, such as masturbating to porn – creating nerve pathways that can blast our reward center in the future. When activated by cues or triggers, this pathway creates powerful, hard to ignore, cravings. Our most complete article describing this – Why Do I Find Porn More Exciting Than A Partner? (Studies reporting sensitization in porn users: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21.)

Adolescent brain

One major job of the adolescent brain is to learn all about sex: to rewire itself to the sexual environment. If this sexual environment is primarily masturbating to internet porn, then that’s what the brain expects to experience during sexual encounters. Wiring one’s sexual response to Internet porn before wiring to real partners (starting early with porn) is a major factor in long reboots for young guys. It’s likely that this unfortunate trend is the natural outcome of highly malleable adolescent brains colliding with highspeed (i.e., hyperstimulating) porn. Recent research, revealing both how scientists can condition mammalian sexuality and the unique vulnerability of adolescent brains, supports this hypothesis.

2) Reward circuitry desensitization

While sexual conditioning is the principal brain change responsible for porn-induced ED, it alone cannot account for all the symptoms men experience. Two of the most common, yet hard to explain, symptoms are the loss of morning wood (nocturnal erections) and the dreaded flatline. The absence of nocturnal erections generally occurs prior to quitting porn. It’s important to note that urologists often use the absence of nocturnal erections to distinguish psychological ED from organic ED (i.e. blood vessel or nerve problems).

It’s possible that some men with porn-induced ED, accompanied by no morning wood, are incorrectly diagnosed as having organic ED. In contrast, the temporary flatline occurs after eliminating porn use. It typically manifests as lifeless genitals, no libido and the loss of attraction to real people. Both symptoms point to changes in deeper brain structures directly involved in arousal and erections. Research reveals that erections require adequate dopamine in the reward circuit and the male sexual centres of the brain.

Dopamine

Both sexual desire and erections are powered by dopamine arising from the brain’s reward circuitry. To produce an erection, the dopamine-producing nerve cells in the reward circuitry activate the sexual (libido) centers of the hypothalamus, which in turn activate the erection centers in the spinal cord, which send nerve impulses to the genitalia. With desensitization the reward circuitry becomes yet another the weak link in the erection chain.

With desensitization, dopamine and opioids decline, as do certain dopamine receptors and opioid receptors. This leaves the individual less sensitive to pleasure, and “hungry” for dopamine-raising activities/substances of all kinds. Desensitization often manifests as the need for greater and greater stimulation to achieve the same buzz (‘tolerance’). Some porn users spend more time online, prolonging sessions through edging, watching when not masturbating, or searching for the perfect video to end with. Desensitization can also take the form of escalating to new genres, sometimes harder and stranger, or even disturbing.

Remember: shock, surprise or anxiety can jack up dopamine. Desensitization can occur without the presence of a full blown addiction – this Max Planck study reported desensitization even in moderate porn users. Note: there are now over 50 studies reporting findings consistent with escalation of porn use (tolerance), habituation to porn, and even withdrawal symptoms (neurological studies on porn users reporting findings consistent desensitization: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.).

3) Alteration of the hypothalamus sexual centers

Neuroplastic alterations to hypothalamic sexual centers doesn’t appear to occur with other addictions. The loss of nocturnal erections (morning wood) suggests the hypothalamic erection centers may be altered in severe PIED, or chronically low libido.

Although all rewards intertwine into overlapping circuits, each natural reward (food, water, love and sex) has its own devoted micro-circuits. With porn-induced ED, I suspect that male sexual centers (hypothalamus) and limbic circuits devoted to sexuality are also affected. Erections require adequate dopamine in the reward circuit and the male sexual centers. Could it be that years of overstimulation down-regulate dopamine signaling and rewire innate sexual circuits? Porn-induced ED in healthy young men, which takes months to reverse, suggests this is likely.

Further support for the “hypothalamus hypothesis” can be extrapolated from a 2012 fMRI study on men “psychogenic ED.” Those with psychogenic had atrophy of the reward center (nucleus accumbens) and the male sexual centers within the hypothalamus.

What do guys who successfully recover suggest?

Always keep in mind that about porn-induced ED is on a spectrum. You must judge what’s right for you based on your history, symptoms and current situation. Be flexible in your approach. The two main suggestions

1) Eliminate porn, porn substitutes, and recalling the porn you watched

Or to put it another way, eliminate all artificial sexual stimulation.

By artificial I mean pixels, audio and literature. No porn substitutes allowed, such as: surfing pictures on Facebook or dating sites, cruising Craigslist, underwear ads, YouTube videos, “erotic literature”, etc. If it’s not real life, just say ‘no.’  It’s not so much content as whether you are mimicking the behaviors that wired your brain to need novel, artificial stimulation. See – What stimuli must I avoid during my reboot? 

2) Rewire your sexual arousal to real people

While this helps everyone recover, it may be a key component for young men with little or no sexual experience. This does not mean that you need to have sex to “rewire.” In fact, slowly getting to know someone is probably the best path. Snuggling, smooching, hanging out, whatever you can do to connect sexual arousal and affection to a real person, may be essential to your recovery. Said one young guy who recovered from PIED:

Rewiring is just as important as avoiding porn. While it appears that a certain amount of time away from orgasm is needed, this number is not as great as most people think it is.

Common mistakes

You see, a common mistake is that people try and tackle the reboot as if it’s two separate pieces: reboot, THEN rewire. It’s not. You can start rewiring whenever you want. The more rewiring you do, the faster you’ll be cured of ED. Some guys have successfully employed fantasizing about sex as a form of rewiring One guy even pretended that his pillow was his girlfriend. See the following:

Sex can be beneficial, although orgasm may cause cravings. Some guys suggest gentle intercourse with no ejaculation, while others mix in ejaculation. If you have ED and decide to orgasm regularly, do not compare yourself to rebooting accounts where guys abstained from orgasm. If you are trying to reboot and have sex with a partner see the following FAQs:

“To Masturbate, or Not to Masturbate, That is The Question”

Short answer – you need to figure this one out for yourself. Logic indicates that you need only eliminate porn to regain erectile health. That said, many of the men who have recovered from porn-induced ED – and posted rebooting accounts – temporarily eliminated masturbation and drastically reduced frequency of orgasms (even with a partner).

There’s also an established history of temporary sexual abstinence by men with porn addiction and those in recovery from sex addiction. Some suggest 90 days, see – No Sex For 90 Days?? – The Sex Fast, Part 1, by Terry Crews. And many rebooters claim that a temporary timeout helps reset their sexual arousal template.

It’s possible that men who continue to regularly masturbate and orgasm during their recovery become frustrated at their lack of progress and give up. Maybe ejaculation induces cravings sending them back into porn binges. Since we have very little data on those who continue their previous rate of ejaculation, we can only report the success stories we have.

  • Key point 1: Our information comes from those who have posted rebooting accounts. There may be many guys who easily recover while continuing to regularly orgasm
  • Key point 2: Longer is not necessarily better, when it comes to complete abstinence from ejaculation. You need to be flexible. Monitor the effects of orgasm as you progress in your reboot.
  • Key point 3: Some guys with porn-induced ED eventually need to orgasm in order to jump-start their brains after a reboot or extended flatline.
Different reboot paths

The reality is that some men continue to masturbate or have orgasms with a partner and make decent progress. What makes these guys different? Nearly all started late on Internet porn and had a steady diet of sex or masturbation to fantasy for years before Internet porn. For example:

I’m married, like you. I gave up the P and the M…but not the O’s with my lovely wife. We had regular sex throughout my reboot. I still healed just fine. I no longer suffer from ED or PE at all, and my sex life is getting better all the time.

I’d never say my way is the only way. I just know it worked for me. And I ALSO think that I might have healed faster if I had abstained from the O’s with my woman for a while…though I will never be sure. In my mind, it was a trade-off I was willing to make. And it worked out well.

Healing

Another way to view porn-induced ED: Sometimes healing involves more than just removing the original cause of the problem. If you break your leg in three places, it takes more to heal than simply avoiding further accidents. You need to cast, immobilize, and not put stress on that leg until the bone is strong. Sexual contact is great, but ejaculation can slow your progress, especially in the beginning.

Back to the analogy: when the leg starts to feel better you don’t test it by playing tackle football. In other words, having several orgasms in a row, following months of rebooting, may set you back. Ease into ejaculation. Although you may be functioning OK, most guys report continued progress after erection return.

YBOP is NOT an anti-masturbation website

I need to shout this, because I’ve read this nonsense on many forums, where discussions over Internet porn causing ED quickly devolve into pro/con masturbation debates. The name of the site is “Your Brain On Porn.” Confusion occurs because: 1) this generation sees masturbation and porn use as synonymous, 2) men who recover best from ED do so by also eliminating masturbation/orgasm (temporarily). It’s real simple: few men heal porn-induced ED while continuing on a regular masturbation schedule. We do not advocate abstinence as a permanent lifestyle. Note: Those with obsessive compulsive disorder or OCD tendencies who abstain from masturbation may experience increased symptoms. Even temporary abstinence may not be for you.

The last thing you want to do is to become so “anal” that you never attempt to give up porn. Check out this thread on The Orgasm Reboot, and this thread on a cult being developed around masturbation being unhealthy. The take away from both threads is that guys quit trying because they believe that rebooting is all or none. This is complete nonsense. If you fall back into porn use, you have not lost all your gains. Simply begin the process again.

Additional note

Although rebooting and rewiring your brain seem to be the keys, it may also be helpful to keep blood and nitric oxide flowing in the penis. Here’s what this man’s urologist suggested:

It’s part of the same protocol they give to patients who have had a prostectomy. This can also be achieved with the use of a  vacuum erection device and probably through kegels and reverse kegels as well. I don’t know how important this is for someone with PIED vs vascular forms of ED but it’s what my doctor recommended and it seems to be helping. Taking them at a low dose over a period of time also helps to establish a baseline level of nitric oxide to help make erections stronger but that can also be achieved through diet and exercise which I recommend strongly. [NOTE: The longer term effects of becoming reliant on ED meds may not yet be established.)

Bottom line:
  1. Eliminate all artificial sexual stimuli: porn, chat rooms, erotic stories, surfing for pictures, etc.
  2. Contact with a partner may be essential. It doesn’t have to be sexual intercourse, but there is nothing wrong with that.
  3. Orgasms may slow the process in the beginning, but this depends on multiple variables.
  4. There comes a point in the process where you need to rewire to real partners or consider masturbation.
  5. Longer is not necessarily better when it comes to complete abstinence from ejaculation. You need to be flexible and monitor the effects of orgasm as you progress in your reboot.

The process

The return to full erectile health can take 2 – 6 months or longer, so be patient. For more, see How long will it take to recover from Porn-Induced Sexual Dysfunction? Be aware that men report continued improvement long after their initial reboot. Since 2010 a disturbing pattern has emerged: Young men who have been using Internet porn since they began masturbating are requiring a longer recovery period. See the following links:

In other words, older men who spent years climaxing before delving into highspeed Internet porn recover faster. The older men used their imaginations to wire to real girls. By contrast, younger guys have spent years wiring to computer screens and whatever. When it comes to porn-induced ED, waiting and waiting may not be sufficient. As mentioned above, young guys may need to rewire their sexual circuits to flesh and blood humans. This FAQ has many suggestions for those who reboots are taking a long time – Started on Internet porn and my reboot (Erectile Dysfunction) is taking too long.

Disappearing  libido

Some men who have experienced a decline in their sexual responsiveness (without realizing its true cause) are afraid that avoiding masturbation and porn will make their libido disappear completely. It may disappear at first. The process of returning to full erectile strength often involves a decline before it gets better. See HELP! I quit porn, but my potency, genital size, and/or libido are decreasing (Flat-Line)

However, as their brains come back into balance, people tend to become more sensitive and sexually responsive, not less. People also notice that little things turn them on, such as a mere smile from a real woman. Older blog posts which address this phenomenon:

What is understandably confusing is that guys can get an itch to masturbate while they are experiencing erectile problems. The urge to jerk off is similar as the urge to eat junk food when you are obese. It may be addiction response to 1) reduced dopamine signaling which leaves you unsatisfied, plus 2) sensitized addiction pathways bombarding the reward circuit with “do it” messages. In a guy with porn-induced ED, this buzzing of your reward circuit isn’t true libido; it’s a cue-induced, drug-like craving. For years,  have simply ignored their true libido (when it signaled, “Enough!”). The urge to use was an urge triggered by cues revving up sensitized porn pathways.

Discover true libido

Is an obese person who finished a large meal 2 hours ago truly hungry? No. But they still have room for dessert. Would a severely overweight person eat as many calories if she had only a hunter-gather diet of wild game, nuts and occasional berries? Of course not. When porn users remove the superstimulus (Internet porn) and go through a full reboot, they eventually discover their true libido,

For first-hand accounts of erectile dysfunction recovery see the links here. See Rebooting Accounts Page for  many longer recovery stories. The “Benefits” PDF document contains many mini-self-reports, and we update it periodically. Here’s a pep talk from a guy who recovered to another guy who, 15 days into recovery, had “absolutely no sex drive or erections”:

This is normal. Hang in there. You probably are getting night erections (and morning erections) you just don’t realise. If you wake up to an alarm, try waking up naturally. This will make sure you wake up just after the REM cycle and you’ll still have your nocturnal wood. This might restore some faith in your penis. Best thing you can do though is give it time. Your body is amazingly adaptable and will restore balance eventually.

What’s normal?

Porn-related erectile dysfunction, copulatory impotence (can get erect with today’s porn, but not with partner) and delayed ejaculation are becoming more and more common, probably due to the extreme stimulation of the brain inherent in Internet porn. (See: He’s Just Not That Into Anyone.) Yet these conditions are certainly not “normal” in young men.

Here are signs that you are coming back to normal. Said one guy,

I think a sign that your equipment will start to work right, is when you see sexual images or semi-sexual images of folks on TV, and you feel tinglings in your brain, that’s a sign you are starting to re-sensitize yourself to normal.

Please note: People here often recover their erectile health and can have healthy sex with a partner. However, recovery does not mean you will be able to go back to using porn without desensitizing your brain anew. As one forum member said:

My story began with porn-related ED: going soft inside a woman or after changing positions. Once I hit 3-4 weeks, my morning and random erections became very hard and frequent. I thought I must “test” myself to make sure everything is working. Trust me when I say, “There is no need to test; it is indeed working.” I tested myself and ended up relapsing. First it was MO, then PMO… then the vicious cycle began all over again.

Also of possible interest:

Response to those who doubt the existence of PIED
Studies linking porn use/porn addiction to sexual problems and lower arousal
Is Masturbation the Cause of PIED? No!

A few pro-porn PhD’s concocted an astonishing talking point to counter the reality that porn use can lead to sexual problems. With no support, they claim that regular masturbation causes chronic ED in healthy young men. YBOP wrote an article to counter this: Sexologists Deny Porn-induced ED by Claiming Masturbation Is the Problem (2016)