I know my counter says higher than 60 and it still holds true. I decided to do the challege for 60 days instead of 90 because I figured I had a leg up on other people in this place. I’ll explain.
First of all I have to say that this challenge was not difficult for me at all. I thought it would suck but I had no problem whatsoever avoiding PMO when I got urges, nor did I struggle with it.
Why I did this: I have a history of ED. It is one thing in my life that makes me hesitant to get a girlfriend, among other issues. So I just want to help relieve that issue somewhat.
Here is my history: I’m 39. Before nofap I PMOd about 3-5 times per week (starting 5 years ago). I mostly PMOd out of boredom. Most of the time I wasn’t even horny. I lived with my ex for a long time so PMO was not something I was able to do often, although before I was with her I did get access to high speed online P. Also, for a couple years we were in a long distance relationship. So for me it was just a couple years exposure starting in my mid 20s. P before that was much harder to come by and not frequent.
Another thing: for the past several years, I’ve had an amazing social life. Long story short: before nofap I was and am still happy. I needed to improve a lot, sure, but otherwise I have been having a decent time. Nofap for me was not so much trying to change my entire life as it was an experiment in personal improvement.
I did not do nofap to gain superpowers, and guess what… I didn’t get that much. I spent this time without changing my life in any way, I just stopped PMO. Here is what happened:
- I think I got a little boost in mental clarity, which seemed to come and go.
- I got a small boost in confidence because I knew I was doing something good, but I couldn’t brag about it which sucked. This is not true confidence though, just something that contributes to feeling good. But I do walk with more swagger and it feels nice. I feel “taller” in a sense.
- My general default mood is usually happier.
That was it. There was no extra energy or anything else. Women didn’t fall from the sky, girls didn’t look at me more often. I already had trained in presence and good conversation and social skills with people before I started nofap, and my social ability was still about as good as I had trained myself to be. I have general anxiety and shyness and those things did not reduce at all.
Around 50 days, I started getting turned on by just looking at women, whereas before I was just looking at them and thinking they were pretty. Now I was starting to really hunger for wanting to touch them and be with them, and I took that as a good sign of healing. When I was thinking about sex it would be me personally doing it with all the sensations that I remember in real sex rather than my fantasizing about images I saw in P.
Recently I tried to get hard by physical stimulation alone and not fantasize whatsoever or look at porn (did not O, just wanted to test). First time I ever touched myself down there that wasn’t washing in the shower. As I said, avoiding PMO was super easy for me so it was crazy weird. I succeeded so I think my ED is on the way to clearing up. I think porn gave me a lot of unrealistic ideas in bed. Although if you are suffering in a similar way to me, I do not recommend this ‘testing’ whatsoever until you are ready to stop your challenge. It will strengthen your urges like a mofo.
What I will do now: I was inspired by nofap, so I decided to actually do good things for myself: exercise, meditation, etc. after that. I started a short while ago and have been keeping it up very well and have a plan to keep on, thanks to the theunderdog’s famous post in yourbrainrebalanced. Seriously, that is the only thing you need to read.
http://www.reddit.com/r/NoFap/comments/2jar5a/this_post_is_all_you_need_to_break_porn_addiction/ This post changed my life.
I am going to look into some form of meditative or mindful MO and do that once every few weeks in addition to regular meditation. My urologist did recommend some regular O for my various prostate issues. I don’t want to be off O forever because of my health. My dad had a similar issue so it might even be hereditary and he was given similar advice. But I certainly am not going back to PMO 3-5 times a week like before. If I am going to do it, it will help me heal myself and my brain. I want to make it productive, not just an escape. I’ve realized escape is all it was. I realized while doing this that I do not need PMO nor did I ever. It’s so easy not to PMO that I feel silly that I did it so much and risked ruining my brain with porn.
TLDR – not fapping really didn’t do that much. You need to start being a healthier person in general to enjoy any supposed superpowers. The real power of nofap is it can make it easier to motivate and inspire you to become a healthier person, which it did for me.
Nofap changed my life in an unusual way, but I can’t say any of it was really negative. At the least it inspired me. So I would say to anyone who is skeptical to try it for a while. Hell, if you just want a boost in your general mood I think it’s worth it. It certainly put things in perspective for me.
edit: removed my counter as i said i would in comments. It was at 68
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