Dopamine

Im on day 177 and I feel the same thing as you. I think it can be the flatline, in some cases it can lasts months. I feel I can have sex but I dont want it, no morning wood, low energy and motivation, little brainfog... Maybe these are the signs of flatline. Others? what do you think?

 

It depends on how long and how much we PMO. I started to M at age 13, and now im 23, so 10 years... And the last 5 years I became a hard addict, I used to PMO 3-4-5 times per day. Its very much, and I played a lot of pc games too, so I think we need more time to recover. It depends on the addiction level.

 

You should exercise and try new things , because for 10 years you relied on PMO to keep you happy and excited , meaning only 5 minutes of PMO gave you the reward of dopamine , next year I'm gonna start a 18 months National Computer Programming course and it is keeping me busy ,this Friday I'm taking 3 weeks leaf from work and I am going on a adventure vacation for a week , and surprisingly I'm excited about it , sometimes I get depressed but I know I'm not depressed because of depression ,but I'm depressed because of the withdrawal symptoms of PMO , its just temporary and I know in a few months life would be awesome again , it is all up to you ,and this is all coming from a guy who quit PMO , weed and alcohol and I lost my 21 old brother because of cancer last week , so guys come on , I know this road isn't easy but why do you think nofap wad created ? To post "yeah day 12 bitches I'm doing it YOLO " no , hell no it is created for guys like you and me that struggle mentally , but your brain is rewiring , don't expect a 10 year addiction to be fixed in one month , you don't run up a mountain to get to the top guys , you climb and scratch

 

yes, you are absolutely right. Im very sorry for your brother You, me and everybody must be strong! We need time

 

Thanks man and yes time heals all wounds , and I'm no expert with this , the fact that I relapsed a couple of times but I stand up ,dust myself of and get back in the game , and also a thing you guys must remember is that nofap ain't that hard , yes it is hard , but really really think about this one , you quit a addiction , nothing changes in your life really , yeah there is withdrawal symptoms but after a few months you become a master , your brain becomes clear , like really clear you have so much extra energy , it is really awesome .And the next time when that thought of " I'm bored ,nothing is awesome , my life sucks " pop up in your head , remember the fact that in 1945 18 year old guys was dropped in the middle of Normandy ready for battle and for 5 years , without seeing home they saw there best friends getting killed brutally , and here we are struggling with some minor withdrawal symptoms that would probably only last no longer then a year , I mean come on guys

 

you should not lose hope my friend. Porn is the root of this problem, so even after 7 YEARS if you are not pleased with the results keep going. One does not simply heal a life long addiction in 7 months, simply because your brain was literally wired to porn in the first place. It'll take a long time to reboot, but eventually it'll be all fine.
My advice is to rewire with a real partner too.

 

Dopamine is part of the brain's reward system... you do something that demonstrably moves you closer to a valued goal, you get a hit, you're happy for a time.
Since we're all sexual beings and are designed to procreate, that extends to spreading seed, which is why dopamine is released during sex.

But take that away.... and what goals do you have that you are working towards other than avoiding dopamine release via PMO?

Do you by any chance play a lot of video games or social media? They tend to squeeze the dopamine sponge the same way as edging. Not that that's a bad thing if you're broke, can't afford to go out, etc. But that's often where a lot of feel good hormones get eaten up.

 

Thats because not everybody is the same as I wrote. If you masturbated 3-4-5 times per day, your reward system in your brain had too much dopamine which it couldn control, so i desensetized. More time you masturbated, more time you need to heal your brain. The flatline is the sigh that your brain switched off, than it can heal itself. If you get an injury at a sport like football, you wont go back to play on the other day, you will be at home and heal. Brain need time, depends how long and how much you PMO-d in the past. I used PMO for about 8-9 years long, of course I wont be healed in months, I need for about 1 year or more. Im in a huge flatline during my whole reboot, it shows that I am (was) a hard addict. I know its hard to accept this, but hope is the most important, sometimes I lose hope too.... I have a hard family and university and girlfriend situation, and if I have bad days, very very bad days, then I lose hope, but never give up. I know I must go through "hell", really, HELL! to achieve LIFE.

 

Because the brain's reward system isn't exclusive to sexual endeavor. It's perfectly possible to burn your reward systems out in other ways, too.

Judging by time stamps, you didn't see my edit.

 

Out of curiosity, do you try to avoid things that might "trigger" you in daily life, or that there's no triggers left for you sort of thing?

 

Give it 9-12 months. After that, if you are not healed, go and see a doctor.

Maybe you should invest in L-tyrosine powder to help produce dopamine..

 

After being on a 8 month streak you have to realize there are gonna be bumps in the road this morning I had a wet dream and still continue to have them my brain wants me to upset and feel bad for myself but when stay present and practice deep breathing my true egoless self tells me to stick with anything is better than pmo at this point it's not even option anymore

 

Maybe you could try The Wim Hof Method. I've been doing it for a while and it has really made life feel amazing! Heres a link to the website if you're interested wimhofmethod.com