Masturbating to fantasies?

Hi!
I have been on a huge journey since discovering NoFap, and have already seen huge benefits with confidence, social anxiety, motivation, manly behaviour all increasing, etc.

When I started, over time I reduced porn, struggling but slowly slowly getting better and better and eventually eliminated it completely (took 2 years).

Just very recently I have realised that I may have been masturbating without realising I was doing it! In the mornings, I can fantasise about a girl, and at the same time be face down on my bed simulating sex. I'm not touching myself at all, just treating my bed as though it may be my sexual partner. This gets me hard, and I stop before I get to orgasm (I realised if I quickly get out of bed and stand up it will stop it from happening). The pleasure I get from this process is immense.

It hit me like a truck that I have actually been masturbating, although no porn or orgasm is involved.

It may be a bit coincidental, but there was a period where I went through complete abstinence of any sexual thoughts including the morning fantasies, and my morning wood returned, and I also noticed a sharper increase in the 'benefits' (I see it as a return to how we actually are meant to be) of NoFap.

Anyway, my question is, could this activity be hampering my progress? Have any of you experienced anything, are there any studies or other anecdotal accounts of this?

 

Yes it's definitely edging without porn and orgasm

 

I haven't been able to find anything on edging without porn except articles on the web where it is recommended in order to combat PE but I am not putting much stock in that stuff. They even recommend pornography as a healthy activity in some places!

I think I'm going to stop doing it. Let's see what happens if I do, my prediction is that morning wood will come back strong and the effects of abstinence will become stronger.

On a side note, except for the 4-5 second pleasure of the orgasm in recent months, doing this edging is the first instance I have been able to identify a release of dopamine in a long time. Only recently I was not able to get hard without porn, now I can do it very easily with some physical contact, and I think once I progress a bit more, I will be able to achieve it by thought alone.

A few months ago, I achieved an erection when I held a girl's hand to pull her up (we were mountain climbing). This stuff works people, have faith.

 

Wow I just looked up Prone Masturbation (which describes perfectly what I am doing), and so much bad has shown up Traumatic masturbatory syndrome does not sound pleasant at all. Will stop this practice immediately.

 

And the sensation of the dry rubbing feels amazing - but I read that it's totally opposite to how it is with a girl, and that you won't be able to receive pleasure from actual sex.
!!

 

What's interesting is when I was heavily watching porn and PMOing, I could only get hard from porn. After a bit of a fight & struggle quitting PMO, I was able to get very solid erections from thoughts alone.

Since I have been doing the prone stuff, again it seems like I can only get hard from doing prone stuff (can still get from thoughts but very weak).

It seems like your brain wires you for the actual activity you are doing. Will be curious to see what happens over the next few weeks.