The NoFap Challenge

Oranage2 wrote: »

Nah man, I'm really doing it, completed day 3 and a good few hours into day four.

Its getting tough, all I can think about is not fapping, I couldn't sleep last night either and I'm getting blue balls I think its called when your testicles start hurting.

So far to the no fapping challenge I've only suffered negatives, as I said all I think about is "don't fap don't fap, before id fap and move on with my life.
.

Maybe someone can tell me when the benefits start happening, I'll stick with though see how long I can hold out though I'm off work at 7 and I can see me coming home and having a marathon **** session.

Apparently after the first few days or after a week or so, there's a massive lull where you just can't get a hard on at all. It's supposed to be the point where your body begins to reset.

I try this from time to time but never get much beyond a week, and that's with getting action at home. the hornier I get the less str8 my fantasies and desires become, so fapping is a selfless pursuit really.

Just completed day 4,

When I have something to do I'm grand, its my idle time at home when it becomes almost unbearable.

Daveysil15 wrote: »

What about pillow humping?

No I'm aware of the concept, its just Eramen was talking about dopamine levels and all that jazz with relation to ejaculation. I was just pointing out that if you're riding a lot you'll still be ejaculating.

Deleted User wrote: »

That is the bit I still am not getting about the thread. What is the difference really? In terms of any actual harm I mean?

It's about the trigger that causes the release of dopamine. If you're constantly **** to porn, your body/mind becomes attuned to that. You start getting aroused at the thought of porn, but not at the thought of women. Guys who only **** occasionally (even with porn) are not doing it so much that it changes their brains reward response.

Imagine this scenario, a guy **** so much to porn that he tries to have a **** without porn but can barely get it up. That's because the mind has adapted it's reward response to porn rather than the idea of women. If that guy goes without porn for a while, the body resets itself. That's all this is about. It's about porn addiction.
A bit of porn every so often is ok, but if a guy constantly watches it and **** his brain will eventually rewire itself to reward one behavior and not another. Eventually the reward response stops rewarding thoughts of women and only rewards for porn. This is because the brain can't tell the difference between something real and something that isn't.

So screwing a woman every day is ok, that's a natural reward response. But porn/**** every day will eventually move that reward response over to porn. Many guys on nofap suffer from erectile dysfunction, lack of interest in women or other effects of porn addiction. By completing nofap it resets the body/mind back to a more natural state.

Some of them claim it makes other areas of their life rewarding because it gives them discipline etc... just like training for a marathon or eating healthily can. But that's not why they started. They all started because they were **** too much and this was having a detrimental affect on their lives. Many talk about how they've lost wifes/girlfriends because they were unable to have a healthy sex life. This is because normally their bodies should react to the women in their lives, but because their brains had become attuned to porn rather than real life, they were unable to.

None of them believe that **** is wrong (Well, I've seen a couple of religious people on it and they seem to. but besides the odd few).
Think of it like a couple of beers. Having a couple of beers on say a monday and wednesday with friends is ok. But if you start your day with a couple, and then have a couple before you cook dinner. Then a few more when you finish dinner, then a few more before you go to bed. And if you do that every day for years and you do it alone without friends, your an alcoholic. The sex equivalent is having an **** or having sex. It's in moderation (the ****) or it's part of a social gathering (Which would be the equivalent of having sex in this analogy). Drinking at home every night alone is the equivalent of a porn addiction. The only way to stop is to just stop and let your body/brain reset. That's the only way to deal with any addiction. afterwards if you can control it, sure have a beer or two. That's what the guys on nofap are aiming for. They are trying to reset their bodies back to a normal sexual response to women as opposed to the unhealthy sexual response to porn.

Daveysil15 wrote: »

Why not just do it in moderation then? I don't see why a person needs to stop all together. You could also watch porn with your partner

Like our insect overlords state, most of these guys don't have partners. But for the ones that do it doesn't matter, because it's still an addiction.

The chemistry of addiction is both complicated but simple. The simple part of addiction is that our body rewards certain behaviors naturally. These are behaviors that are beneficial. eating certain foods, having sex etc... Addictions occur when we overload the response behavior. Foe example bingeing on food or porn.

We wouldn't advise an alcoholic to cut down. This is because they can't. One drink will lead to another. The same for the guys on nofap. If they tried to moderate it would cause three issues.

1) The addiction chain won't be broken. A smoker who cuts down from 20 a day to 5 a day is still an addict. They're just not indulging their addiction as much.

2) it's easier to relapse.

3) even if they do manage to ween down, say in smoking terms from 20 a day to 10 a day over three months, to 5 a day over the next three months, it's just taking forever. The same job could be done in 1 month by stopping completely.

Unlike smoking, **** is healthy in small doses (Smoking isn't at all) so the best way to get rid of the addiction is to stop completly. Hopefully replace **** with sex by getting a relationship. But if not, to avoid porn. Because they are addicts.

I can understand why masturbating to porn can become potentially unhealthy but I don't see any problem with masturbating in general. I'm sure that a lot of guys who don't have sexual partners aren't actually choosing masturbation over actual sex. It's a release and it's perfectly healthy. Giving up smoking is not comparable as it's been pretty much established that smoking can be very harmful to your health. The higher testosterone theory is a myth. Also it's been reported that regular ejaculations can be healthy for the prostate and reduce the risk of cancer developing in that area.

If abstaining works for an individual then that's great. But to suggest that it's right for everybody is very poor advice IMO.