Is YBOP (Your Brain on Porn) outdated ?

I'm so glad I never found that kind of stuff appealing. I might be addicted to porn but not to the extent I was willing to put in much effort or spend money.

Absolutely.

I agree with this, perhaps I was too harsh in my initial statement. My point is that many see 90 days as the be all and end all, when in my experience its just the starting point.

 

I don't know if I'm curable or not. I've done pretty much all of the right things in the last 4 years (apart from 5-6 relapses - but I had 3 years no PMO).

Yes, I've been very depressed and so stressed for 10+ years, but I would expect that's actually curable. But for PIED, I don't know.

I suppose the the good signs are that I not experiencing a lot of symptoms (apart from a bum that's getting bigger everday!) and sometimes I lack motivation for the things that don't help in getting a GF (for example, gardening). But it could be because I'm also busy with work, gym and studies (and then I have to rest!), therefore I just don't have time for anything that doesn't contribute to my personal growth.

Also, I first started experiencing a limp dick back in 2014 when I noticed that my dick wasnt as hard - I was 30 at the time. Supposing PIED takes 5 years to get hold of your brain, it means I was probably conditioned on porn starting at 25 (in face, i remember my porn use escalating in 2010 when I was 27. Before that, I was religiouious so it was intermittent and it was mainly on pictures. I realise this could be mean it's worse for me, though) .

That fact that I'm 37 and a virgin is whats worrying me most - because my brain's connection have pruned away which means I missed the crucial period of my brain about learning about sex. Yes i know brains are plastic, but obviously it's still a threat that I missed the boat.

 

The fact you had 3 years of nofap hardmode and still not healed is absolutely crazy. That mean this pmo thing is no joke on the brain and the body.

 

When I relapse after three years, however, the associated side effect of this disappeared within couple of months (well, apart from the weaker erection - this stayed!). When I say associated side effect, I mean the inability to fantasise, hot head, etc.

However, I defiantly feel a need a reboot, in terms of getting close with a real life partner. Sometimes when i fantasise about a potential partner, and it's about intimacy and not sexuality, I feel like an erection comes on easier (except that it still feels week).

We definitely need to be aware of the compounding effect, for sure. I mean, my erections are actually worse than when I started this reboot thing, which was at the start of 2017.

 

How much of it is porn and how much of it is "sexual exhaustion"?

What I'm getting at is, if we take porn out of the picture for a moment and imagine a guy masturbating and orgasming multiple times per day, every day for over a decade. At some point will this guy not simply burn himself out? The same goes for actual sex too - if a guy is lucky enough to be getting that kind of action on such a regular basis. Obviously I think porn by itself is still damaging, I just don't know how much of its impact is direct and how much of it is indirect. When you watch porn you create a cycle of horniness which leads to you jacking off more regularly and for longer periods at any one time but would ED not still happen if you recreate that scenario but take away the screen?

 

because of the relapses to PMO. I had 2-3 during the first year (trial and error, I suppose!). I then went 3 years no PMO. Then, during lockdown, I relapsed 8 months ago and the one more time a month ago.

The 2-3 relapses during the first year did the most damage. The erections became weaker and from there it stayed as it is during the next 3 years of no PMO. The when I relaped during lockdown, after both occasions, the erection got a little bit weaker.

For me, there is no recovery unless its with a girl. If I'm lucky...

 

I've been feeling really down since reading this topic, btw. My baseline mood is more despaired.

 

How long were your pmo session?

 

Or it could mean than prolonged abstinence does not treat sexual dysfunction. There is precisely zero clinically meaningful research to show it does, and hey sorry to tell you guys but random reddit posts do not qualify. And if you are gonna go down the route of anecdotal evidence, hearsay, there are enough posts on here to suggest that very often abstinence does not work.
These are my conclusions after 2 years (with a handful of relapses) hard mode and seeing zero improvements, and my PE getting noticeably worse.

 

During my relapses? Few minutes.