1. Welcome to NoFap! We have disabled new forum accounts from being registered for the time being. In the meantime, you can join our weekly accountability groups.
    Dismiss Notice

Is there any info of a link between PMO and depression?

Discussion in 'Compulsive Sexual Behavior' started by MasterRoshi, Jan 8, 2019.

Tags:
  1. MasterRoshi

    MasterRoshi Fapstronaut

    538
    972
    93
    hi guys, so I suffer from depression and anxiety and go to therapy. I felt like I was getting better but since my PMO relapse I feel like I’m back on that foggy, clouded world of introversion that I know so well.

    I’m wondering if anyone has any resources they could share about the link between depression And PMO.

    I’m trying to put my finger in how to solve my problem and it seems like i was doing lots of healthy stuff when trying to stay PMO free and I’m not doing that now. Like journaling, meditation, wake up early, sleep schedule etc...

    (Btw, I’m still exercising regularly and eating super healthy, so those weren’t the only key to beating this depression. Since it’s now back and I’m still doing those things)

    So I’m curious if simply having a regular chemical release due to PMO that my depression is worse, or if it is something else.

    Anyone have any articles talking about depression and how PMO makes it flair up?
     
    LuisGuev and sakeen like this.
  2. litew8

    litew8 Fapstronaut

    39
    61
    18
    Master Roshi, its a complex one and one i am life long sufferer with, dopamine reward pathway activation is at the heart of many types of depression and addiction.

    I dont have any links at hand but there are many good videos on the tube, some by a guy called Dr John Bergman, he explains the sympathetic and para sympathetic nervous system from a chiropractic view and how they interact with your hormones and your neurotransmitters. The gut and your hormones are major factors with depression and anxiety, many many hormones are released when we orgasm along with a cascade of neuro transmitters.

    Tell me do you suffer with any form of addiction other than PMO?
     
  3. ultrafabber

    ultrafabber Fapstronaut

    1,339
    1,633
    143
    There is at least one i can think of and it's extremely relevant

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5459278/

    Lessons learned from the study of masturbation and its comorbidity with psychiatric disorders in children: The first analytic study

    [...]

    Results
    Of the children who participated in this study (most of whom were boys), 31.6% suffered from masturbation. The phobias (p=0.002), separation anxiety disorder (p=0.044), generalized anxiety disorder (p=0.037), motor tics (p=0.033), stress disorder (p=0.005), oppositional defiant disorder (p=0.044), thumb sucking (p=0.000) and conduct disorder (p=0.001) were associated with masturbation.

    Conclusion
    Masturbation was common in children referred to psychiatric clinic, and may be more associated with oppositional defiant disorder, or conduct disorder, some anxiety disorders, motor tics and other stereotypical behavior. Authors recommended more probing for psychiatric disorders in children with unusual sexual behavior.
     
    Rehab101 likes this.
  4. MasterRoshi

    MasterRoshi Fapstronaut

    538
    972
    93
    Yea. I am a recovered drug and alcohol addict. I have a very addictive personality. I realized recently that I use external substances including PMO to cope with my depression and anxiety.
     
    Buddhabro likes this.
  5. Clarke

    Clarke Fapstronaut

    176
    143
    43
    Pmo might have a causal link to depression because you're tricking your brain into thinking you're passing on your genes when you know you're not.

    However I have no evidence for that and think the most likely explanation is that pmo is being used to self medicate. The calming effect of orgasm can temporarily relieve the symptoms of many psychiatric disorders. The ease of access would make it a top choice for people.
     
    Buddhabro and Deleted Account like this.
  6. ghengis_naan

    ghengis_naan Fapstronaut

    90
    116
    33
  7. countitjoy5

    countitjoy5 Fapstronaut

    456
    393
    63
    PMO will cause depression and make any depression you suffer from much worse.
     
  8. MasterRoshi

    MasterRoshi Fapstronaut

    538
    972
    93
    Thanks guys. i seem to be someone who suffers from depression and also someone who’s depression gets worse when I PMO even as little as once ever 3-4 days.

    I get lethargic and don’t want to get out of bed and fight against the world.

    Any other articles someone knows of that talk about it?

    For me, I’m depressed if I don’t PMO. I just have depression. But it definitly seems to flair up when I PMO
     
  9. ghengis_naan

    ghengis_naan Fapstronaut

    90
    116
    33
    have you tried meditation?
     
  10. Dre4mer

    Dre4mer Fapstronaut

    20
    12
    3
    “The ONE THING that caused me the most pain in my life was lack of motivation and focus.

    If you are just tuning in, up till the age of 23, I was a total failure- a direct result of my porn use.

    You may be able to relate to some of the things that keep me down:

    • Social anxiety: I couldn’t speak to strangers, let alone women. Due to my inability to keep a part-time job, the only thing I could do was a job that took anyone- door to door sales. I failed at that too because one rejection would knock me out emotionally for several days.
    • Inability to concentrate: Do you have issues sticking to a task for long hours? I sucked at this. I couldn’t sit still in a class for more than an hour. After 20 minutes, I was done. All the jobs I took were boring and I dreaded showing up to work because I would hate being there within an hour.
    • Mood Swings: Can you relate? I could go from excited to losing my temper and rolling in anger for hours- replaying an event in my mind over and over again. I’d wake up feeling the same way. As I mentioned earlier, I was frequently depressed and the hopelessness was real.
    • Brain Fog: Simply put, I felt stupid. I mean, I know I’m not a disabled human being, but I really felt that way sometimes. I would decide to complete a college project and it was just so hard! Writing papers was like Frodo’s Journey In Lord of The Rings- epic and full of pitfalls. In all my years of college, there were probably two occasions I can remember where I sat down and knocked out a paper without holding my head in my hands in confusion.
    • Lack of Motivation: I don’t even need to explain this one, do I? Excuse my language, but I didn’t want to do jack shit. Get a job? Nope. Go to class? Zero motivation. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I literally quit going to several classes in college because the first two classes bored me to tears. Pay bills on time? Nah. I’ll pay late fees.
    • Irritability This was my trademark. I don’t even know how I managed to have friends. Maybe the weed I smoked back then made me tolerable. I would complain whenever I was asked to do anything. If something didn’t work out, you can be sure I would be the first person to complain.
    These issues ALL stemmed from my compulsive porn use. I know because, once I quit porn, every single one of them disappeared!

    I am far from perfect, but I have no social anxiety- in fact, I became well known in my company for my cold calling skills. Today, I can sit down and coach clients for ten hours straight with only four 15 minute breaks in between. I am extremely motivated to touch the lives of 1 million men by making them aware of the dangers of pornography and showing them the easy way to quit using the Porn Reboot system.

    Brain fog was probably one of the first things that disappeared when I quit porn.

    Studies have shown that porn affects our memories and focus in two main ways:

    PORN DISRUPTS YOUR WORKING MEMORY
    Pornography’s effect on your working memory: Working memory is basically a cognitive function which helps keep information in our brain readily available. By keeping important information available, you are able to access it quickly, and apply it when working on important tasks. For instance, if you work at a hectic job, or if you study a course that often requires periods of uninterrupted focus, your working memory is often needed. It helps you quickly decide which tasks are important and which can be moved to another time- these actions happen in seconds. This is crucial when eliminating distractions and staying focused on a task. For instance, if you are in college, your working memory helps you:

    • Set plans to study and stick those plans until your exam is passed/ you achieve a passing grade
    • Become a reliable group member and participate in achieving group goals in a structured way
    • Staying focused on lectures from beginning to end.Having the ability to pull your attention back to a lecture even when it is boring.


    When porn erodes your working memory, however, you instead:

    • Often find yourself procrastinating or “cramming” right before exams
    • Find group activities “irrelevant” and never pay attention
    • Zone out by daydreaming or even fall asleep during lectures


    For professionals, or individuals with full-time jobs, your working memory is negatively affected by your problems with porn and sex when:

    • You experience problems breaking projects down into logical smaller steps
    • You constantly underestimate the amount of time required to complete a task
    • You find yourself losing your temper all time with your spouse and kids
    • You are consistently late to work.




    PORN AFFECTS YOUR ABILITY TO DELAY GRATIFICATION

    Delayed gratification is your ability to put off a reward till later in the place of performing a more important task. A simple example would be the decision to eat a sweet dessert before or after your main meal which contains the majority of healthy nutrients you need.

    Porn users have been found to have serious issues with delayed gratification. Inability to delay gratification leads to impulsive behavior. Impulsive behavior leads to lack of self-discipline.

    My favorite definition of Self Discipline comes from Robert Ringer:

    “ Self- Discipline- a single trait that every human being has the capacity to develop-gives me the power to outperform people who are far more intelligent and talented than I am. Self Discipline is about restraining or regulating, one’s actions- repressing the instinct to act impulsively in favor of taking rational actions that are long-term oriented.”

    A key phrase in that quote is: “Repressing the instinct to act impulsively”. If biologically, porn has negatively affected your ability to control your impulses, you have a snowball’s chance in hell of developing self-discipline until your recover.

    This study, published in Biological Psychiatry: http://www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S0006-3223(17)31005-3/pdf

    The researchers investigated the relationship between dopamine receptors and adults suffering from depression.

    They found that adults who suffered from depression and lowered receptor availability ( which can be caused by overuse of porn) were associated with “worsened episodic verbal memory and poorer executive function.”

    In conclusion, porn not only makes your depressed, but it makes your memory worse AND affects your ability to get tasks done.

    As I finish up this email, I’m going to leave you with a secret about recovery from porn as well as three gifts:

    So many men- young and old want success in their lives. Whether its a thriving business, a job they enjoy, a partner or family to enjoy life with, healthy or feeling mentally balanced, happy and fulfilled most of the time; achieving these things takes work.

    As Will Smith said:

    “You don’t set out to build a wall. You don’t say ‘I’m going to build the biggest, worst, greatest wall that’s ever been built.’ You don’t start there. You say, ‘I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid. You do that every single day. And soon you have a wall.”

    The secret is that the wall never gets built to completion. It was never meant to be so. You build the wall, then you die. The only thing you can do is make sure that the PROCESS is as mindful and fulfilling as possible.

    When I began my recovery at age 23, I was FULL of ambition. Porn nearly took everything away from me. I just wanted to be done with it so that I could move on with my life. Because of my hunger for ambition and my lack of patience in recovery, several times during the past 10 years, I tore down the entire wall in self-sabotage and frustration- but I always picked myself up and painstakingly started again brick by brick. I’m 33 years old now- and I’m still building. The one thing that has made a difference – the one thing that makes waking up every morning worth it is the thought of laying another perfect brick.

    Our time is finite. I know from first-hand experience that some people who read an email of mine or watched one of my videos last week will not open this one -because their time on earth expired over the weekend.

    Begin your recovery today and actually enjoy the process. Enjoy marking a big red “X” on your calendar every night you go to bed because you just won that day. Tell your spouse and kids that you love them , and stay in control of your habits for one more day. You don’t know if you’ll get another.”
    Quote by some guy I know
     
    Last edited: Jan 9, 2019
  11. sakeen

    sakeen Fapstronaut

    220
    995
    93
    Thanks @Dre4mer this is really inspirational. Porn is is the biggest killer of ambition and happiness I have experienced in my life. It makes me impatient and several times, like you, I have torn down entire walls I had been building out of frustration, and I find myself starting again from scratch in an endless cycle. I recognise this, and every time I am more and more committed to living a nofap life, for life.
     
  12. Clarke

    Clarke Fapstronaut

    176
    143
    43
    Quitting porn isn't a panacea. Find a therapist to talk to, it will help.
     
  13. MasterRoshi

    MasterRoshi Fapstronaut

    538
    972
    93
    Yes. So it’s strange when I was first quitting PMO I did way more than just stop. I started eating incredibly healthy (which I still do), I started exercising (which I do, but not as regularly, and also did a bunch of other stuff which I stopped including: rigorous sleep schedule, drink more water, cardio daily, meditate, journaling, and somehow had a positive attitude towards life and hope that everything will get better if I keep trying.

    I have found for me that eating healthy wasn’t the cure, since I still do it. And stopping PMO wasn’t te cure, cuz I still get depressed. I feel like it was a combination of all of the above things. I feel like as long as I’m doing everything from the list I was doing better. And this sucks, cuz i i was spending 2-3 hours a day doing all my daily stuff.

    And while I felt optimistic, I burned out cuz it’s a tall order to do all of that. When I first got PMO sober, I didn’t have a job. Now I do. So it means my entire free time is spent doing my daily practice.

    I was hoping for some type of better balance, but after months of experimenting it seems I can’t have one just yet. That I still need a plethora of daily practices just to function.

    This is so unfortunate, since it limits my ability to make friends and have freedom.

    It all comes down to a perspective and how I see life, positive or negative. And with someone with depression, my default is negative unless I combat that.

    I’m hoping there is a way to get my brain right every day without needing to be so rigorous, so I can spend time enjoying life rather that preparing for it.

    I go to therapy weekly. This alone doesn’t help me. Same as quitting PMO doesn’t help. And eating healthy doesn’t help. I think they all help a little and what’s so unfortunate is needing a cocktail of solutions daily makes my time limited. I’m hoping to have a balance eventually, but it’s tough.
     
  14. ghengis_naan

    ghengis_naan Fapstronaut

    90
    116
    33
    why are you being rigorous? are you forcing yourself to see them as tasks and to do them instead of enjoying it?
     
  15. Rehab101

    Rehab101 Fapstronaut

    243
    224
    43
    Thanks for the share. Imo, I think kids with more mental disorder would display those symptoms more. I am not sure if its the other way around. I also think the cultural impact, in such case Iran, caused a more disorder of masturbation due to its conservative sexual culture. The link between masturbation and psy disorder should be narrowed down by category as the study itself was too broad but defitiely created an interesting topic. Also would be good to see a similar study with bigger sample size and in a different demographic.

    Masteryoshi, aside from your several addictions, how is your social health? Are you seeing any anyone? In any relationship? Also did you masturbate as a kid? I read your posts before and I had some similar addiction like you like young Well developed and good looking girls or urge like lusting other hot girls. Just thought maybe I can relate to you in some way.
     
  16. MasterRoshi

    MasterRoshi Fapstronaut

    538
    972
    93
    I’m wondering if no daily thing helps or if not doing it hurts.

    I seem to have a theory that none of it matters. That it’s a motivation towards positivity in my head. And when iGet in that mental space, then positive things happen and when I lose that mental space, the depression returns.

    It seems that it’s more about doing things to create a positive mental space, then it is about one particular thing making me better.

    I think by rigorous daily practice was about staying in forward momentum and positive progress rather than actually solving my problem. That working on myself and being conscious daily was Probably the real benefit, or at least that’s my theory
     
  17. ultrafabber

    ultrafabber Fapstronaut

    1,339
    1,633
    143
    I consider the study to be way more relevant than you consider it to be but there's no point in going back and forward on it.

    There is a research link dump on this page:
    https://www.yourbrainonporn.com/relevant-research-and-articles-about-the-studies/

    also @MasterRoshi
     
  18. litew8

    litew8 Fapstronaut

    39
    61
    18
    We are alike buddy, im 45 years old and had a life time of it inc taken all sorts of hard drugs, womanising, thrill seeking behaviour, im probably mildy suffering with a personality disorder based around anxiety, most sufferers with anxiety live headonistic life styles using thrill seeking as a way of self medicating.

    When i was younger i had many brushes with the law, ive also been weekend alcoholic all my life and even used the gym and fitness as another way to distract myself. Ive also used nootropics and suppliments and in more recent times of been concentrating my efforts healthy options such as food health, cutting out toxins mental clarity. No PMO has been immense for emotional strength for me, its just another tool in my healthy selfmedications i can use to calm myself down.

    I would highly recommend for anyone interested in PMO to research the activities of the symathetic and para sympathetic nervous system. These are at the centre of our mental and physical well being and how even breathing and stretching techniques can improve your mental health and well being.

    Are you over the drink and drug binging now or just in moderation? I tend to misbehave in the summer months and am currently dry of alcohol last 2months along with no PMO since last August.
     
    MasterRoshi likes this.
  19. ghengis_naan

    ghengis_naan Fapstronaut

    90
    116
    33
    Read Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi . I really think you will find it helpful .
     
  20. Rehab101

    Rehab101 Fapstronaut

    243
    224
    43

Share This Page