The NoFap Challenge

saucers82 · 30-01-2014 03:07PM

90 days = 3 months

BradClark · 30-01-2014 03:13PM

I think many years ago from memory I almost made one week. No days married, my wife wouldn't let me go a day without.

saucers82 · 30-01-2014 03:16PM

Cydoniac wrote: »

That's more a psychological lacking than an 'addiction', to be honest. I won't argue the toss anyway. I've no problem with taking breaks or whatever, but this thing about going 9 months...seems pointless.

Edit: just referring in general. Some people go this long.

If you're masturbating so much that it's affecting your life and relationships, the problem isn't masturbation - it's you.

one of my earlier posts:

if you read up on it , nofappers are not doing it because **** is bad (which is isn't) it's about porn addiction

youtube: Your brain on porn

laugh · 30-01-2014 03:50PM

Cydoniac wrote: »

That's more a psychological lacking.

People develop behaviours that they can be helped to or help themselves change, what's a "psychological lacking" in your opinion, that these are just lesser people?

Friend Computer · 30-01-2014 03:51PM

saucers82 wrote: »

nofappers are not doing it because **** is bad

Going by some of the discussions I've seen you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise. Very weird, almost Christian fundamentalist attitude about 'giving in to temptation' and having to maintain pure thoughts and such.

burnhardlanger · 30-01-2014 03:54PM

Cydoniac wrote: »

That's more a psychological lacking than an 'addiction', to be honest. I won't argue the toss anyway. I've no problem with taking breaks or whatever, but this thing about going 9 months...seems pointless.

Edit: just referring in general. Some people go this long.

If you're masturbating so much that it's affecting your life and relationships, the problem isn't masturbation - it's you.

saucers82 · 30-01-2014 03:59PM

Friend Computer wrote: »

Going by some of the discussions I've seen you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise. Very weird, almost Christian fundamentalist attitude about 'giving in to temptation' and having to maintain pure thoughts and such.

well I think God is a prick

Liger vs Tigon · 30-01-2014 04:15PM

Cydoniac wrote: »

That's more a psychological lacking than an 'addiction', to be honest. I won't argue the toss anyway. I've no problem with taking breaks or whatever, but this thing about going 9 months...seems pointless.

Edit: just referring in general. Some people go this long.

If you're masturbating so much that it's affecting your life and relationships, the problem isn't masturbation - it's you.

Yes just like alcohol isn't the problem to an alcoholic, it's the addiction.

Liger vs Tigon · 30-01-2014 04:18PM

Friend Computer wrote: »

Going by some of the discussions I've seen you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise. Very weird, almost Christian fundamentalist attitude about 'giving in to temptation' and having to maintain pure thoughts and such.

I've never heard of a nofapper say that **** is wrong.

I advocate the nofap challenge and I love ****. When you go a few weeks without **** your focus becomes stronger, you become more motivated, life is just generally more enjoyable assuming you've been **** regularly.

30-01-2014 05:30PM

Liger vs Tigon wrote: »

When you go a few weeks without **** your focus becomes stronger, you become more motivated, life is just generally more enjoyable assuming you've been **** regularly.

See thats the part I generally am not buying on the whole thread. Apart from a couple of anecdotal testimonies I am not seeing any reason to believe the above at all.

And anecdotal testimony in small numbers is always suspect because people who focus on one life change - such as not **** - generally do not do that in isolation. They tend to change more about their life than just one thing at a time. And the resulting benefits - real or imagined - they simply credit to the single thing they were focused on.

saucers82 · 30-01-2014 05:49PM

Deleted User wrote: »

See thats the part I generally am not buying on the whole thread. Apart from a couple of anecdotal testimonies I am not seeing any reason to believe the above at all.

And anecdotal testimony in small numbers is always suspect because people who focus on one life change - such as not **** - generally do not do that in isolation. They tend to change more about their life than just one thing at a time. And the resulting benefits - real or imagined - they simply credit to the single thing they were focused on.

so when someone gives up smoking are you suspect of the benefits they talk about?

nofap community have found that by taking up the challenge people get into meditation, gym, learning instruments - read more etc. no one is saying its all about ****

the benefits are credited to the decision to begin nofap and how this decision has had the domino effect you speak of. They are real.

30-01-2014 05:51PM

saucers82 wrote: »

so when someone gives up smoking are you suspect of the benefits they talk about?

nofap community have found that by taking up the challenge people get into meditation, gym, learning instruments - read more etc. no one is saying its all about ****

the benefits are credited to the decision to begin nofap and how this decision has had the domino effect you speak of. They are real.

Jesus how much time do they spend on it?

saucers82 · 30-01-2014 05:54PM

Deleted User wrote: »

Jesus how much time do they spend on it?

why does this concern you so much? read up on it
people have varying degrees of addiction.

Check out the TedTalks series about it too. In years to come there will be bigger studies about all this I am sure. It's a draw back on the internet age.

31-01-2014 10:04AM

saucers82 wrote: »

so when someone gives up smoking are you suspect of the benefits they talk about?

No - because the benefits of smoking are evidenced by more than just a handful of personal testimony.

saucers82 wrote: »

nofap community have found that by taking up the challenge people get into meditation, gym, learning instruments - read more etc. no one is saying its all about ****

My point exactly. This is something we see often in study of diet fads. Some dodgy fad comes up like Cayenne Pepper eating - and many people testify to the efficacy of the fad. On closer inspection however you find that their adoption of Cayenne into their diet was done in conjunction with a vast array of other life style changes too.

So it is not really "no one is saying its all about ****" that I am skeptical about. It is that it has _anything at all_ to do with the **** I am skeptical about in general.

Meditation - gym - further learning - reading - and more are all things that have a great effect on people. So the great effects of their life style change they are describing likely have their roots there. I see nothing to suggest that lack of masturbation has had any effect at all. They just focus their explanations around that one thing.

They are all things that can be done entirely without "nofap". At best - "nofap" is just a focal point around which they construct their life style change. It has nothing whatsoever to do with "nofap" or masturbation per se. It is the life style change itself that had the effects. You could just as easily replace "nofap" with anything else at all - like buying a pink alarm clock.

The only people I can imagine "nofap" directly benefiting in any way would be people who are mastrubating to an excess that it quite literally is impacting on their day to day lives. But is that extreme anything but rare at most? I have not seen any figures to suggest that. But anyone doing _anything_ to excess - whatever it might be - is clearly going to benefit from cessation or near cessation of said activity.

roro1990 · 31-01-2014 10:50AM

Deleted User wrote: »

No - because the benefits of smoking are evidenced by more than just a handful of personal testimony.

My point exactly. This is something we see often in study of diet fads. Some dodgy fad comes up like Cayenne Pepper eating - and many people testify to the efficacy of the fad. On closer inspection however you find that their adoption of Cayenne into their diet was done in conjunction with a vast array of other life style changes too.

So it is not really "no one is saying its all about ****" that I am skeptical about. It is that it has _anything at all_ to do with the **** I am skeptical about in general.

Meditation - gym - further learning - reading - and more are all things that have a great effect on people. So the great effects of their life style change they are describing likely have their roots there. I see nothing to suggest that lack of masturbation has had any effect at all. They just focus their explanations around that one thing.

They are all things that can be done entirely without "nofap". At best - "nofap" is just a focal point around which they construct their life style change. It has nothing whatsoever to do with "nofap" or masturbation per se. It is the life style change itself that had the effects. You could just as easily replace "nofap" with anything else at all - like buying a pink alarm clock.

The only people I can imagine "nofap" directly benefiting in any way would be people who are mastrubating to an excess that it quite literally is impacting on their day to day lives. But is that extreme anything but rare at most? I have not seen any figures to suggest that. But anyone doing _anything_ to excess - whatever it might be - is clearly going to benefit from cessation or near cessation of said activity.

Fair enough that you're skeptical. But I'm on day 18 and since I've began I've chatted up a girl at the bus stop for the first time in my entire life (previous relationships always started with a drunken nightclub shift!), I've attended a job interview without my voice cracking (which has happened to me in literally any other interview in my life). I've got out of a rut socially by attending at least 5 meetup events in the 18 days (all my friends are in relationships and I barely see them so I needed to make new friends). I never would've done this before due to shyness. So yeah, I'm defo gonna stick with it.

31-01-2014 10:52AM

So as I pointed out - what you are describing is a sequence of lifestyle changes. Great - but that does not really link it to masturbation. Rather it links it to your own desire to change your life and mastrubation is just one on a list of things you have changed. All credit for that goes to you. Not lack of masturbation. All I can say to that is "Keep up the good work!" - but it in no way addresses my skeptical feelings on the matter.

roro1990 · 31-01-2014 10:55AM

Deleted User wrote: »

So as I pointed out - what you are describing is a sequence of lifestyle changes. Great - but that does not really link it to masturbation. Rather it links it to your own desire to change your life and mastrubation is just one on a list of things you have changed. All credit for that goes to you. Not lack of masturbation. All I can say to that is "Keep up the good work!" - but it in no way addresses my skeptical feelings on the matter.

I stopped **** -> My life got better

The point is if I hadn't stopped fapping, I know myself the above things wouldn't have happened.

Liger vs Tigon · 31-01-2014 11:03AM

[Deleted User] wrote: »

So as I pointed out - what you are describing is a sequence of lifestyle changes. Great - but that does not really link it to masturbation. Rather it links it to your own desire to change your life and mastrubation is just one on a list of things you have changed. All credit for that goes to you. Not lack of masturbation. All I can say to that is "Keep up the good work!" - but it in no way addresses my skeptical feelings on the matter.

When I stop **** I can physically feel a positive change in my body and a renewed enthusiasm for life without making any other changes.

Try it yourself and see how you feel after a couple of weeks.

31-01-2014 11:14AM

roro1990 wrote: »

I stopped **** -> My life got better

Liger vs Tigon wrote: »

Try it yourself and see how you feel after a couple of weeks.

Correlation / causation. As I said already minoritiy testimony is at best suspect. You are convinced - and I have no wish to change that. I am just explaining why *I* am not. Minority testimony is not enough to make the causal link to the correlation.

As for trying it myself - it is not something I do anyway so it is not something I need to give up. Not for any personal reason or choice or motivation. It is just not something I do or even have time to do.

But I CAN tell you that I noticed no changes at all between the period of my life when I was doing it - and the period when I was not. So the "try it yourself" thing appears to fail on me.

Liger vs Tigon · 31-01-2014 11:50AM

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Correlation / causation. As I said already minoritiy testimony is at best suspect. You are convinced - and I have no wish to change that. I am just explaining why *I* am not. Minority testimony is not enough to make the causal link to the correlation.

As for trying it myself - it is not something I do anyway so it is not something I need to give up. Not for any personal reason or choice or motivation. It is just not something I do or even have time to do.

But I CAN tell you that I noticed no changes at all between the period of my life when I was doing it - and the period when I was not. So the "try it yourself" thing appears to fail on me.

There is a definite causal link for me as after a week of abstaining I feel fantastic without any other changes.

31-01-2014 12:25PM

Again - if you say so - but minority anecdote is not all that convincing. I know nothing about your case or what other factors might be involved that you are not including or not thinking of. Perhaps it is my training in epidemiology but I have to simply dimiss this on the face of it.

There is also the placebo effect to consider. You did this expecting a positive result - that alone is enough to construct a placebo positive effect. In fact this makes me less convinced because there are few life style changes that would have such a dramatic effect in only a week except a placebo effect.

Again - if this is for you then that is great for you - I am not knocking it or you. I am just explaining why I find the claims being made here to be entirely unconvincing to me.

You should feel fantastic. Forget ****. Giving up ANYTHING that there is strong temptation to do - and manging to stick to it - takes committment and discipline. So if you engage in giving something like that up - and succeed - you have every right to feel good about it as well you should.

Liger vs Tigon · 31-01-2014 12:34PM

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Again - if you say so - but minority anecdote is not all that convincing. I know nothing about your case or what other factors might be involved that you are not including or not thinking of. Perhaps it is my training in epidemiology but I have to simply dimiss this on the face of it.

There is also the placebo effect to consider. You did this expecting a positive result - that alone is enough to construct a placebo positive effect. In fact this makes me less convinced because there are few life style changes that would have such a dramatic effect in only a week except a placebo effect.

Again - if this is for you then that is great for you - I am not knocking it or you. I am just explaining why I find the claims being made here to be entirely unconvincing to me.

You should feel fantastic. Forget ****. Giving up ANYTHING that there is strong temptation to do - and manging to stick to it - takes committment and discipline. So if you engage in giving something like that up - and succeed - you have every right to feel good about it as well you should.

After **** I feel like sh1t and have no motivation, it's actually quite similar to binging on junk food. Then there's the fact that my orgasms are far more enjoyable . I even get headaches after too much ****, it's a horrible addiction.

Porkpie · 31-01-2014 12:53PM

I don't know why you'd want to abstain from something that's totally natural, as far as I can see has no proven undesirable side-effects and in many senses is good for you (helps you last longer in the sack, gets rid of sexual frustration

).

Whether you do it to porn is a different matter by the way, some of us can still use our imagination!

I know if I tried to give it up for longer than about a week I'd be walking around with a big angry head on me, foaming at the mouth!

As Woody Allen said, don't knock masturbation, it's sex with someone I love.

roro1990 · 31-01-2014 12:57PM

Porkpie wrote: »

I don't know why you'd want to abstain from something that's totally natural, as far as I can see has no proven undesirable side-effects and in many senses is good for you (helps you last longer in the sack, gets rid of sexual frustration ).

Whether you do it to porn is a different matter by the way, some of us can still use our imagination!

I know if I tried to give it up for longer than about a week I'd be walking around with a big angry head on me, foaming at the mouth!

As Woody Allen said, don't knock masturbation, it's sex with someone I love.

You'd be surprised. You don't know until you try.

Porkpie · 31-01-2014 01:02PM

roro1990 wrote: »

You'd be surprised. You don't know until you try.

Fair enough but still, I just don't see what the benefit would be. Why deny yourself a bit of pleasure from time to time, life is tough enough!

roro1990 · 31-01-2014 01:07PM

Porkpie wrote: »

Fair enough but still, I just don't see what the benefit would be. Why deny yourself a bit of pleasure from time to time, life is tough enough!

The brief few seconds i get from the pleasure of fapping is nothing compared to the pleasure I get from improving my life in as many ways as I have. It's not always about instant gratification. And plus, I'd rather get my orgasmic pleasures from a woman than my right hand. I'll probably go back to eventually fapping now and then but it definetely helps to reduce it IMO

Liger vs Tigon · 31-01-2014 01:07PM

Porkpie wrote: »

Fair enough but still, I just don't see what the benefit would be. Why deny yourself a bit of pleasure from time to time, life is tough enough!

The same reason a junkie should deny themselves a bit of pleasure.

31-01-2014 01:11PM

Liger vs Tigon wrote: »

After **** I feel like sh1t and have no motivation

I do not think such a feeling is common. Perhaps this is indicative of some other underlying mental or physical issue that has not been addressed. Do you feel the same after sex? If so then you likely have an issue there. If not then given systemically there is not all _that much_ difference between sex and mastrubation - there is likely some underlying issue at work here. Perhaps some kind of hormonal imbalance or some kind of unrecognised psychological issues like guilt or some other social feeling.

All impossible to say with such little information of course - and the above is more a stream of conciousness of _possible_ diagnoses. But as I say - while you might find a few testimonies to match yours - I do not think the feelings you describe are common and it would be well worth exploring why that may be.

That said - nothing to do with masturbation here but a general comment - if you find doing something in life has negative effects then _of course_ ceasing that activity is likely the correct thing to do. That says nothing about the benefits of giving up masturbation per se - at all - but just about the benefits of YOU in particular giving it up. Which still leaves me back at square one of being _entirely_ unconvinced by the _general_ claims being made on this thread about the benefits of abstaining.

strobe · 31-01-2014 01:29PM

Stands to reason that if someone is doing nothing night after night apart from sitting alone watching internet porn and masturbating then diverting some of that time towards actually getting out, mixing with other human beings and diversifying their interests a bit is going to have a positive impact on how they feel.

For people like that I think id absolutely think this no fap thing is a positive and fully recommend it.

For the average person with a full and active social and love life I can't imagine they'd be seeing the same kind of results by just not masturbating.

laugh · 31-01-2014 01:30PM

Deleted User wrote: »

I do not think such a feeling is common. Perhaps this is indicative of some other underlying mental or physical issue that has not been addressed. Do you feel the same after sex? If so then you likely have an issue there. If not then given systemically there is not all _that much_ difference between sex and mastrubation - there is likely some underlying issue at work here. Perhaps some kind of hormonal imbalance or some kind of unrecognised psychological issues like guilt or some other social feeling.

All impossible to say with such little information of course - and the above is more a stream of conciousness of _possible_ diagnoses. But as I say - while you might find a few testimonies to match yours - I do not think the feelings you describe are common and it would be well worth exploring why that may be.

That said - nothing to do with masturbation here but a general comment - if you find doing something in life has negative effects then _of course_ ceasing that activity is likely the correct thing to do. That says nothing about the benefits of giving up masturbation per se - at all - but just about the benefits of YOU in particular giving it up. Which still leaves me back at square one of being _entirely_ unconvinced by the _general_ claims being made on this thread about the benefits of abstaining.

You know there are a pile of porn sites in the top 100 visited websites in Ireland right?

The NoFap Challenge

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