Day 8: I'm not trolling

.. I get the logic of this but I think a lot of people, like myself just pretty much fapped once a day when we did do it, so I don't really see the point of it?

I suppose making it a conscious choice changes something, and sure it's not like just spending hours edging, so there are a number of variables here. But then it's like what about any number of self improvement things to test in a similar way? Someone could be like "I'm going to eat a donut a day!" ...

You used the phrase 're-evaluate your loyalty to NoFap' - this assumes it is a question of loyalty in the first place. For many no doubt it is, but while I think it is a factor in healthy living I don't think of it as "loyalty" in the first place.

Also, frankly I don't have the time to test one variable at a time. I am interested in maximizing health so I'll do all the things I'm reasonably sure would support that and would support each other, it would take way too long to test each one individually and all the possible combinations. Call me unscientific but I just don't see the point of it unless someone thought NoFap is the only variable that matters.

 

In my mind, you seem to be creating extremes in regards to the benefits of no PMO. Surely, there are other means of getting a dopamine "hit" to your brain. This site, for example. The alerts one gets. The perusing for that interesting article you feel you want to share in, troll in, whatever in. In the way I think of no PMO, one has to have either a serious addiction to porn, in which case you'd consider it a disaster to voluntarily resign yourself back to your previous addiction if you had it. So you likely don't. Or you'd have to have yourself invested in a monogamous relationship of some weight/time, and you'd be wanting to do things to bring back the energy, vigor, and lust of the "honeymoon" days. I'm in the latter situation. And it's had benefits in just shy of two weeks for me regarding my wife, no doubt.

If neither applies to you, there's still significance to no PMO. It's that you'd be working toward better self-confidence by not putting your unrealistic ideals/fantasies on a pedestal and weakly pulling taffy in front of a screen. Thereby killing time, desire for the real, and depersonalization of those creatures you consider the ideal in walking/daily life. Not to mention, you're still sparing up some dopamine "hits" and better calibrating your brain. In my opinion, this experiment is a waste of time, and will tell you nothing, really. Please don't be angry about me being frank.

 

Meeting a goal can lead to more confidence. More confidence, to more energy. More of both, to people wanting to be around you. More connection to others, to more enunciation/eye contact. It's really in the power of you believing in what you're doing. I believe that one small piece of the "brain fog" puzzle would be in indulging in too much social media/porn/internet in general, really. The dopamine hits, as it were.

The only outcome is that you'll need to work through what you've learned, about having more confidence from the previous experience and hold onto it as you continue old behaviors. And the dominoes may continue to fall for you with those other things. Essentially, I think it's the goal that's 400 pieces of that 500 piece puzzle. The other 100, are the dopamine sparing in the brain. Because it's not all just "mental." Epigenetics and neuroplasticity tell us that behaviors/thoughts have lasting effects on how our brain process and thinks/body moves. Just my .02. Good luck in your experiment, keep us posted if ya will!

 

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