I am a 33-year old healthy male, athletic build. My first exposure to porn started at the age of 14, around the time when the internet was still in its infant stages. Slowly over the years, I graduated from viewing pictures – videos – internet porn. I began having sex at age 28 ( mixed success)
. I continued to PMO until April 2013 when I realized I was having difficulty getting aroused by my new girlfriend. Since that time, I have remained PMO free and have noticed amazing results. This is not a research paper; I just want to give an account of my experiences in the hope it helps and inspires others. I don’t recommend for or against my methods. I just want to summarize my results and methods
Symptoms
Ages 13-19
Porn use: 1-2 times a week
Porn medium: Pictures (softcore)
Masturbation frequency: several times a day
Could masturbate to sensation
Spontaneous erections
Easly aroused by women
Morning wood present
Ages 19-23
Porn use : 3- 5 times a week
Porn medium: (VHS/DVD) (straight sex)
Masturbation frequency: 8 times a week
Needed increasing fantasy for masturbation without porn
Spontaneous erections present
Could get hard by thought of sex
Ages 23-28
Porn use: 7-10 times a week (15 min sessions)
Porn medium: internet porn (increasing novelty, hardcore porn, gangbang, group sex)
Masturbation habits: only with internet porn
Could still masturbate to porn fantasy
No desire to approach women
Morning wood disappeared
Attempted sex at 28 (could not get hard even with oral orgasmed at 30% erect)
Ages 30-32 (first girlfriend)
Porn use: 3 times a week
Porn medium: internet porn (hardcore straight sex)
Masturbation habits: 3 times a week (50%PMO 50% fantasy)
No morning wood
Had sex 2x a week but needed 20-30 mg cialis and oral sex to get and maintain erection
Occasional delayed ejaculation
Theory/Hypothesis
1. I was experiencing weak dopamine signaling from excessive porn use
2. I had sensitized porn arousal pathways. Desensitized natural arousal mechanisms
3. Rebooted with a girlfriend. Could not do an orgasm reboot because she would probably have left me.
4. Felt orgasm reboot was not critical and that ultimately my brain would readjust to normal arousal pathways over time
5. Decided to orgasm during sex. Gave up porn and masturbation to see if erection quality improved.
6. As a side note. I noticed that orgasms during sex were not as intense as with porn. Felt that because porn orgasms were more intense and released more dopamine this resulted in release of increased Delta Fos-B and created a porn sensitized pathway
Methods
1. Continue having sex with girlfriend using Cialis
2. Start with 30 mg of Cialis and gradually taper down dosage
3. Ultimately get off ED medication
4. Bond with girlfriend emotionally. Felt that this was important to view sex as an intimate experience between loving individuals
5.Had as much sex as possible. Felt that this would train my brain to view my girlfriend as my sole sexual outlet.
Results
Month 1+2
Sex: 5 times a week
Cialis dose: 30 mg (effects lasted only 1day)
Still needed physical stimmulation to get erect
Libido: volatile fluctuations
Return of morning wood
Anxiety with sex
PMO craving for first month
Month 3
Sex: 7-10 times a week
Cialis dose: 20 mg (effects lasted 2 days)
Libido: 3/10
Morning wood daily
Reduced anxiety for sex
Month 4
Sex: 7-10 times a week
Cialis dose: 10 mg (effects lasted 2 days)
Arousal from sexual cues ( no physical stimm needed)
Daily morning wood
Libido: 3/10
Month 5
Sex: 5 times a week
Cialis dose: 10 mg (effects lasted 2 days)
Arousal from sexual cues
70% sex with cialis
30% sex off cialis
When off cialis, needed physical stimmulation to get erect. Also had difficulty maintaining erection during sex.
60% of time would fail to maintain erection while off cialis. This could have been because of weak dopamine signaling. To have successful sex off ED medication, I needed to masturbate to a pleasure threshold ( near orgasm) to maintain erection during sex.
Libido: 4/10
Daily morning wood
Month 6
Sex: 5 times a week
Cialis dose: 7 mg ( lasted 3 days)
Daily morning wood
Noticed partial erections while kissing and increased spontaneous erections off cialis.
Only used cialis 2x a month
60% success rate maintaining erection off cialis
Libido: 4.5/10
Month 7
Sex: 5 times a week
Cialis dose: 7 mg (lasted 3 days, sexual cues only needed)
Daily morning wood
Cialis used only 2x a month
75% success for maintaining erection
Libido 5/10
Month 8
Sex: 6 + times a week (multiple times a day)
Cialis dose : 7 mg ( effects lasted 3.5 days)
Used cialis only 1x a month
When off cialis need little physical stimmulation ( approx 50% of time) to get erect
100% success rate with maintaining erection during sex
No anxiety with sex
Libido: 6/10
Discussion
The fact that I saw improvemt after changing one variable ( giving up PMO), gives credence to PIED theory. I went from not being able to have sex with a woman to successful sex without ED drugs in 8 months. I am also still seeing improvements and plan to remain PMO free.
Things that I noticed was that I regained my morning wood after the first month of my reboot, but it took me another 7 months to have stable normal sex..drug free. This leads me to believe that my problem was not low T levels but a weakened dopamine signaling for my natural arousal pathway and to the artificial PMO pathway. The reason I believe this is because I never had any issue obtaining/ maintaining/ and orgasming with porn but I had issues with a real partner. I also noticed that I had more intense orgasms with porn than during normal sex. This is probably due to the endless novality that porn offers. The more intense orgasm during porn could have resulted in release of delta fos B and sensitized the PMO pathway. This could explain why some individuals who had normal sex lives developed ED after as little as 1 year of PMOing.
I also experienced periods where my libido crashed. In the beginning, when I PMOed, I always had intense urges to masturbate. When I gave up porn, I experienced withdraw symptoms for the first month and a variable libido. It has only been recently that I have experienced the return of my normal libido and normal sex.
Conclusion
Im still seeing improvements with my arousal and erection quality which leads me to believe that I’m not fully recovered. I also realized that this recovery process can take a lot more time than 3 months. You may be able to have successful sex after 3 months, but the PMO pathways are still well established. This is especially true if you started young and escalated your porn use and frequency.
For those who believe in sexual exhaustion or performance anxiety, I have a few comments. First, about PA, I was having sex with the same girl for 8 months. After the third month I was no longer anxious, but still had trouble maintaining my erection off cialis. It was like I had no gas in my tank. As for sexual exhaustion, I never had any issue obtaining/ maintaining/ and orgasming with porn, but would continuously have issues with a partner!
So in summation, don’t be discouraged if it takes longer than 3 months to improve. This is a healing process and takes time, but ultimately you will heal! The brain is plastic and will adapt to change. I am proff that this works.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope this helps you.
LINK – Essentially Cured!!! My Methods, Results, and Conclusions
by WILLPOWER
Update – 1 YEAR
a new man
Hey guys.. it’s been one year since I last looked at porn and I can definitely say that I have seen amazing results.. I have sex all the time and very rarely have any issue with performance.. it’s been a wild journey but worth it.. I went through the process while I was involved with my girlfriend.. at first I needed drugs and I had issues with DE. Now I have no such issue..
This past weekend I went out of town for my friends wedding.. I hooked up with one of the bridesmaid and had sex with her atleast 5 times.. no issues :).. she was 22 years old and a yoga instructor.. then the next day I flew back into town.. and had sex with my gf another 2 times.. I feel great.
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