And I'm still flatlining. I feel less shitty than I did several months ago, but I'm extremely frustrated and impatient because my libido is still non-existent. Overall, I things have definitely improved since the start of nofap, but I don't feel like they've improved "enough". What I mean is: I'm slowly filling up my glass with water (positivity), but I haven't broken that threshold where the water starts spilling over the rim of the glass and I really start to notice how much water there is. I've been feeling flat for months now. I'm not sure if I feel any better than I did around 4/5 months. The most noticeable (yet still insignificant) changes took place over the first few months. Everything is flat, nothing is enjoyable, my focus is still shit, I'm still irritable, and I still have these awful shameful flashbacks from events that shouldn't bother me anymore, but they're slightly less potent and less frequent than they used to be. At this point I take absolutely anything out of the ordinary as a "sign" that my flatline is finally coming to an end. These include headaches, any physical tingling sensation, feeling weak and woozy, finding it hard to breathe, slipping back into depression, losing a small amount of weight with minimal effort, etc.. Every time I feel like shit again I think "it gets darkest before the dawn!", but it doesn't. I just go back to this shit. At times I feel so fucking hopeless, yet deep down, I have juuuust enough hope to keep me going through with the nofap and my meditation (which I've been doing for over 5 months now without results). I have no plans on quitting the nofap. This is my ticket out and I know it. I won't let this opportunity pass me by. Even my absolute lowest moments I've experienced over the course of my streak are NOTHING compared to how I felt pre-nofap. /ramble
Keep going man! you don't have a choice I watch this all the time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vj-ZmYTGAw it helps
Hi endlessnofap, I agree that you have to keep going. Do you think the long flatline & reboot are associated with how long P was part of your life? I'm mid 30s & expect my reboot to take much longer than most because P was part of my life for so long. Stay strong
8 1/2 months is a great streak. dont destroy it. maybe you are a person who is thinking more negative. try to change that try to be positive. i know that is very hard. i lived in depressions for many years mostly because of my shitty jobs. maybe a whole new hobby can help you.
I started watching porn with videos at about 9/10, started PMOing at 11/12, and stopped at 19. I fapped on average twice a day, at most 6 times a day, and at least once per day during that time. I strongly believe my flatline lasting so long has much more to do with the fact that I rapidly progressed my porn use because everything was so dull. By 13 I had already started using some fucked up porn. By 14 I was into even more fucked up shit. As the years went by I would get bored faster and faster despite continually escalating. I can't force it. Sometimes I'll feel more "positive", but most of the time I feel negative regardless of what I tell myself. For the most part, my thoughts are much more positive than they were pre-nofap. Despite the fact that I feel awful, I just continually tell myself that I'll eventually beat it. This doesn't seem to affect my mood at all, unfortunately. Oh, and as for hobbies, literally nothing is interesting to me, even if it's completely new to me. I'm extremely burnt out.
dude, 8 months!! you're a fuckin hero!!! i've relapsed so many times that i almost lost faith but when i see someones made it to 8 months, it kinda keeps me going.. n believe me, i know about the depression n the whole "zombie" feeling; but u've said it yourself u DO feel better than pre-nofap. n i know we're all in this programme to better our lives but we must realise that its not entirely the solution to all our problems. its a step towards better living, but some shit stays the same: your environment is the same, friends n enemies are the same, obstacles never leave your chosen path e.t.c. then again some shit's changed too: obviously you've tested ua resolve n in turn boosted ua confidence to the point u've become an inspiration to the likes of us. basically, sorry to be preachey but if you ever feel down or in a rut remember that your past n current accomplishments r enough to influence change in guys like me. at least that's something, right?..
Damn buddy, I know that feeling, too! I am in a severe depressed emotional state for over 90 days now. This is getting unbearable. My mood swings go from severe depression and suicidal thoughts to feel shit to irritablable to severe depression again. I think I am starting to lose my fucking mind. There's no end in sight. Besides morning wood, my penis is dead all the day, not to mention the non-existing libido. Damn, I feel so hopeless sometimes. My life is/was actually pretty good before NoFap, now I think that everything I do is just pointless. I have to take it day by day. And when there's a sign of dawn, I get hope that from now on everything gets better, just to wake up the next morning and feeling like shit again. What's unbearable is the fact that we don't know how long it takes. It could be 4-5 months, it could be 2 years. I don't know if I can handle this that long. PMO is not an option, but FUCK, this is getting UNBEARABLE! Fuck the benefits, I just want to be a normal 22yo guy again or at least like I was before NoFap just without the porn. I have never ever had depression before NoFap. I have always been the funny and social guy. I have changed so much over the last 3 months, now I just want to isolate myself and wait until the storm is over. P.s.: My porn taste escalated as well over the last years. Maybe that's the problem. I don't know. I just don't fucking know.
Hey endless, Who knows maybe you r close to success. Maybe another 4 months and you might get cured. This is a brain thing takes time. Take this advice from a guy who just started his reboot Lol but seriously I have very little will power but back then when I used to meditate everyday, I managed a 70 day streak and I saw a lot of improvements from meditation. A lot. You don't realize but meditation has helped you in one way or the other. I think it even helped my reboot speed up. And I tried mindfulness meditation and focused on the feeling of my penis, like acknowledging its presence (it was completely dead from as long as I remember and I was wondering why I was still in flatline) and I could feel a tingling warm life sensation in my penis I shit you not and I slowly regained life in my penis.but somewhere my mindset changed and I stopped meditationand started being lazy and got into porn again. But those days when I used to meditate those were the best days of my life. Trust me you will improve you have to just believe in it and it ll take time. You r the guy who abstained for 8 months. You r my hero Before my pmo days I loved getting on the stage and do public speaking and after I got into porn, I started getting scared and I had lost my magic and I couldn't not be scared. But now I do just fine and better than before. No, I didn't wait for any superpowers or those magic to come back and hit me. I meditated, tried to relax as much as I could and got on the stage several times despite being scared as fuck and after a few times I got over it. So I think there should be active participation on your side too. Which you r by the looks of it. It definitely will take time but you would rather live without porn than live with it right.
Your effort is admirable indeed, and you should think about how great you have been dealing with your addiction, because 8 1/2 months without fapping or watching porn is something that not many fapstronauts achieve easily. About depression, I feel you, I've been sad and hopeless for a long time, but I understood with the time (more or less February of this year) that feeling continuously sad wouldn' t take me anywhere, so I started by changing my mindset and attitude towards life: everyday I wake up and think about what to do next, getting things done as well as I can. I am tending to smile often, even about little things, such as a sunset or a dawn, and it makes me feel good, I am appreciating the presence of my beloved people (family, friends) more than ever. This didn' t start automatically, but it came from my need to stop sadness depression, so you just have to find little things to appreciate. Hope this scene from Patch Adams helps you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCMlrDMaYh0 (may Robin' s soul have peace)
If you're WAITING for something to happen, you're in for a long winter! Life doesn't improve merely by stopping one thing. You have to actively fight and claw to become stronger and more driven. Boosted testosterone and energy help. But if you stay complacent you'll still be in the same rut regardless of time spent doing this challenge.
Hey endlessnofap -- really sorry to hear that, but man 8 1/2 months is DEFINITELY an achievement. besides nofap, maybe there are other areas in your life you can work on improving? Food intake affects mood too. Quit the fast food stuff and try cooking/making the healthy stuff yourself. Exercise helps with depression too (not to mention sexual health) I've found. Maybe challenge yourself to do even better than you already do in these other things also? you're a hero to us all here! keep it up. EDIT: oh yeah, proper amounts of sleep, at the proper time. be awake when there is sunlight, and asleep when the moon is up. doing otherwise is against our evolution and has long-term consequences, including with psychological well-being. sleep by 11 PM in general if you can, and be up no more than 8 hours later. (oversleeping is bad too) the media you expose yourself to also affects your mood. bad news about murder about how bad the world is makes you feel bad (in the same way that porn makes you horny) so try to be mindful of what you watch. I'm not saying be a complete ignoramus about news, but know the point where watching more news won't really help you contribute to solving the world's problems. Ditto for movies like chainsaw massacre; or songs that say life doesn't matter; limit your exposure to such. expose yourself to the good, inspirational stuff instead. hope this helps!
Hey man - As people have said, it totally blows to have no progress for 8+ months, but you really just have to trust the system and stick to it. I've had a coupe relapses, but have basically been on the nofap train for 9 months now (started in mid-December), and of that time I was mostly in hard mode. I saw virtually ZERO sustained improvement until the past week. So, I'm right there with you and I can say that improvement has FINALLY come for me (I'm talking complete flatline, ED, etc., to being basically normal). A few things you might consider: 1) Are you really cracking down on yourself with eliminating all electronic stimulation? Movies, facebook, twitter, etc? 2) Same thing goes with touching yourself at all. 3) Same thing goes with fantasy. As I went along on my reboot, I gradually got better at shutting down basically everything sexual. Each time I retrenched, it felt like my dick was frozen and about to fall off for about a week, but then things started improving a bit. Hope this helps!
I can identify with the low moods, but I also know that PMO was making the low moods so I believe by not PMO I will get better.
NoFap is not a magical cure to our problems. But ridding our lives of it can only help in our constant improvement. It is perfectly NATURAL to feel down at times, even for things which we think we should NOT feel down about. My advice is to keep P out of your life, and continue finding positives to improve yourself as a person. Another thing I find helps me is to help others, however you can, to feel good about themselves, which will in turn help you feel better about yourself too. Also, exercise. Does wonder for self-esteem / libido.
Sometimes losing all desire to do things is a sign of depression, maybe talk to a mental health professional. Are you in school? all schools, high school, college provide some sort of service for free and the people are very kind and helpful. If you're not in school, try to find some community counseling program, anything. Fapping is not necessarily a cause of depression, nor is nofap a cure, try to look at the big picture and talk to someone who wants to help.
I don't have boosted testosterone or energy, though. A few months back I decided to quit absolutely everything stimulating. I quit using the computer, my phone, TV, etc.. That lasted for just over two months. I don't do anything sexual. My diet is very good. I don't eat much (or any) junk food. As for exercise, it just makes me extremely frustrated because I don't improve at all. I used to be an athlete, but I started to really lag behind my teammates because I couldn't make any strength gains, I was constantly tired and felt horribly weak all the time. I started lifting at 14 and I couldn't make any gains past 16, despite my continued efforts. This wasn't a motivation or work ethic problem: I would never allow myself to miss workouts even if I was horribly sick and I always gave it my all (which was never that great). At this point I've decided that I have no intention of lifting again until I'm healed. I don't have any problem getting into shape and running fairly quickly, but again, I don't improve. I know that all this waiting seems very passive and ineffective, but I really do believe that it's the best option I have.
Well actually I think there's a healthy level of patience and relaxation we all need. From what i can read it sounds as though you may have actually been too hard on yourself and pushed too much. Don't work out when sick! Hmm im thinking maybe you are now doing the other extreme? Find a balance in the center where you're not too intense but not to lax? I'd say keep resting for now then gradually get back to where you were. Sounds too that you're either in high school or college haha trust me as you get to thirty your body will just naturally be less fit than it was so don't worry we're all facing the same challenges you are. Don't let what others have frustrate you too much. It's inspiring to have people to look up to but envy can just waste your energy unnecessarily. I don't mean to preach here or force you into anything, but just to share, spirituality has helped me a lot. (I'm catholic). There's also going out there to help others. Volunteer for something where you're serving others just because it's good, not because you're given a salary or want to feel good. Ironically you may find yourself feeling better. Either way, hope things get better.
You'll get there eventually. In the meantime, you might try getting involved with a few new things - volunteer, coed soccer league, whatever. Imagine accepting your life as a eunich and just take it from there! The libido will come.
