I’m one of the veterans of this subreddit as I discovered it almost 4 years ago. My longest streak was 11 months and a lot of 3-4 months in between relapses. This is a huge progress for someone who was addicted to masturbation since the age of 14 (I’m in my early 30s).
Since I discovered Nofap, my life has never been the same basically. With the new knowledge of how PMO was affecting me and having a taste of what it feels like to live without it, I felt there was hope.
Ofcourse, years of PMO addiction cannot be overcome over night, but i consider myself a success despite my relapses between long streaks. I think people like me who are addicted will never be able to watch porn or masturbate in moderation because we are simply addicts just like an alcoholic who cannot drink in moderation.
I’ll be celebrating my 90 day streak in 4 days and make it a special occassion which it is TBH.
Just wanted to share this with you and confirm that it’s WORTH IT. The attraction from women, the decreased social anxiety, enjoying the little things in life and socialising and interacting with people with ease are the benefits that keep me going. Do whatever you can to NOT relapse and you will get the reward eventually. Stay strong.
The sysmptoms [that caused me to try nofap] were social anxiety/awkwardness, lack of motivation, feeling like “something is off ” with me. Feeling shy (I [had been] very outgoing and never shy), unable to maintain eye contact, feeling lethargic and life was really dark.
The other benefits i’ve noticed are confidence obviously, ability to control my facial expressions. This one is really not mentioned that much here. For example, if i had an argument or i disagreed with someone my face used to show the negative reactions even if the thing we were arguing over was trivial because PMO made me very weak and sensitive and i took things personally. Now i can control that and don’t react to that extent.
This applies to my negative emotional reactions in general too. For example, i would take any negative experience (a heated argument with someone) home and would ruminate over the incident over and over again. Now i can shrug it off very quickly. I think this is to do with the decreased shame due to stopping a shameful habit like PMO imo.
LINK – In 4 days, I’ll reach 90 days.
UPDATE: Reached 100 days.
Feeling extremely happy.
Some of you have asked about the benefits – here they are:
- Confidence is just skyrocketing.
- Very calm and collected around women which is the opposite of what I used to be.
- Increased motivation.
- I’m attracting women and have been successful with some in the past 3 months.
- Not over thinking things anymore. I used to over think a lot with trivial stuff.
- People respect me more.
- I sleep better.
- I look much healthier.
- My energy levels are ridiculously high now.
- I want to get things done. I used to procrastinate a lot. Not anymore.
- Not bothered about what people think of me anymore.
- Depression has lifted.
- My anxiety decreased a lot and I no longer experience bouts of sudden anxiety like I used to.
- Increased desire to socialise and connect with others. I also