I started PMO at about 2012-13, and I battled with it until about 2015. I found NoFap in about mid 2014, and for half a year I tried and failed. Now I’ve been free of this addiction for a long time. The only occasional desires I have is to masturbate, but these can be easily tamed – I feel like I’ve entirely lost my addiction to PMO.
It’s hard for me to describe exactly how I feel from since I started, as much has changed.
For one, my mind feels a lot more clearer now as a result of this. I haven’t been placed with worrysome thoughts that PMO normally put in my head, and I definitely feel more confident. I’ve noticed having wet dreams more often since I’m not doing PMO any more,
For those that are struggling in any way, then I should emphasise the steps that I took and how well they worked for me. (Trust me, they worked pretty well in my case if I can last 500 days 😛).
- It is a journey. I failed MANY times, sometimes lasting only a week, two weeks, at most a month. It took a while, but eventually, after trying and failing, I decided to not give up and kept going. My advice is never give up. If you fail, pick yourself up again, and realise where you went wrong. For the beginning urges, I recommend all of the mainly advised ideas of prevention – if browsing this sub helps, I recommend it, and cold showers definitely worked well in killing urges for the first few months. The other thing is trying to preoccupy yourself with something more constructive, be that work or reading books or what-not. Finding less reason to procrastinate will kill urges, since a lot of people resort to PMO as a result of boredom, as I used to.
- If other people have described the way of gaining a natural habit after a few months, that’s pretty much what happened in my case. If you make it through the first few months, congratulations, that’s probably the hardest part! Don’t forget your goal, whatever it may have been, though. Eventually, I just lost desire to watch PMO, and I have occasionally been tempted, but these temptations can be controlled by realization of what I was subjecting myself to.
- My benefits: I have noticed myself become MUCH more confident. I can talk to women and others without feeling lousy, anxious or to only talk in an attempt to satisfy desires. I think the huge objectification in PMO really does do a number on your psyche, and removing myself from it entirely stopped me from treating people, including other women, as objects for sexual desire. When I got over this, I lost even more desire to engage in PMO, and it’s helped me a lot over this past year and a half.
I also feel a LOT less tired and lethargic, and things such as school haven’t felt like such a burden any more. For those wondering, I was pretty compulsive in PMO, and I can remember how lethargic I used to be, so this is another great benefit.
Having a clearer view on life and being more happy has also helped me in stopping procrastination, which has helped me do well in school for the most part.
- On gaming. A lot of people have said they’ve given up playing games since it encouraged these desires. At first, playing games helped me dull the desires because it gave me something to do. However, I think NoFap has done REAL wonders for me, because I still feel like wanting to play games, yet not procrastinate and play limitlessly. I know my limits, and can really organize and balance my time, and I think NoFap has helped with this, since my PMO was an excuse for procrastination in the first place. I certainly play a lot less than I used to, but still have a desire to play games, and I’m more than happy about that outcome. My advice is pursue gaming if it does help, but try not to become reliant on it, because that in itself can form another addiction.
There’s more I could talk about, but this is probably the best advice and list of benefits that I personally faced. I feel and think much more healthier, and can get along better, and I really think NoFap has had a profound impact on my life. For that I truly thank this subreddit and community, and if anyone needs any more advice, please don’t hesitate to talk with me.
TL;DR: I properly engaged in NoFap and abstaining myself of PMO for over 50 0 days now, and I feel MUCH more better and more relieved. I don’t have a cloudy mind, I feel less anxious (and to an extent less depressed), can talk to people much easier, and generally feel much better. I feel that the first few months are the hardest, and I am thankful that it became second nature for me to resist temptations. If you are having trouble, try the techniques mentioned above and FIGHT. You will fail the first couple of times, but you CAN succeed, and in the end it will have been definitely worth it. Good luck!
I’m 17 now, and it was my addiction to PMO that I gained around the age of 13 and through to my mid-to-late 15’s that inspired me to find an alternative. It was seriously messing with the way I thought about life, women, and provided unrealistic expectations and scenarios (such as the large overscaling of dicks and stupid scenarios). On top of that, it was occupying up a lot of my life, as on average I’d resort to using PMO about two or possibly even three times a day. It became tiring and did much more harm than any temporary stress relief or good, and when I discovered NoFap in 2014 I spent a good half a year to a year trying, failing, feeling like I could never properly do it, and now here I am.
LINK – On how I reached 500 days, the great benefits I now face, and how you could too!
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