What has improved first during your NoFap journey?

Here is a sequence of events that happen to me pretty much in the same order, every time I try to reboot:

1. Guilt, self loathing, brain fog, desire for isolation + engage in other addictive behaviours (ie fast food, video games, alcohol..)
   
2. Brain fog worsens, but the rest of the above goes away. Lack of inspiration, interest, passion. No motivation to do anything. Overall numbness in the body and mind.
   
3. As the brain fog slowly dissipates, anger takes place because I realize how much time I've wasted doing nothing productive or satisfying, and how much I neglected my mental, physical, financial health and my social life.
4. House/Life cleanup. In a burst of angry motivation, I clean up everything from top to bottom in my house, and in my mind. I find myself in a hurry to get back on track. I go to the gym. I do groceries. I book social activities in my calendar. Once everything is back where it should be, physically, mentally and socially, I start to feel better about myself.
5. The brain fog dissipates further. If I find myself home alone, without much to do, I'm in the danger zone. At this point, either one of two things happen:
   • I slip and reset my counter to day 0
   • I find myself something constructive to do. Something. Anything. Preferably in a public place or in a social setting. Which completely removes risk of relapsing. Until I find myself home alone again.

From this point on, step 5 loops until the end of the reboot, or the next reset. If I can maintain the reboot long enough past this point, positive changes start to happen:

1. Brain fog dissipates further
2. I find myself becoming more emotional. This is a good thing. I'd rather let out the pain than being numb and dead to the world.
3. I find myself wanting to do activities / hobbies that I used to like, but had lost interest in over the years of addiction.
4. I find myself thinking about friends and loved ones that I miss. I want to reconnect with them after too much isolation.
5. I have brilliant ideas for projects, businesses, art and activities.
6. I find motivation to organize events, meet new people, start flirting again.
7. I begin to feel more and more attractive to the opposite sex. I start to have a normal dating life again.
8. Brain fog is completely gone. I feel clarity of mind, of heart and soul. I want to do all the things and find myself back to my normal self.

Hope this helps. I can only speak from my own personal experience. I hope you get to the level of reboot you want to achieve.
Peace, brother.

 

I reached 90 days this year, been relapsing lately. Before NoFap I preferred cartoon porn over real porn. Now I'm disgusted at cartoons and I crave real porn like mad.

I guess this is good? Less deviant, I guess?

I'm so drenched in guilt I don't know if my former advantages were just a thing of my mind or they were real. Some long term rebooters say it's all in your mind. Check aanghel's YouTube channel.

 

Jeez, I don't even know..
My sleeping habits were improved and overall, I feel great about myself
(knowing the fact that I'm clean from MO for 24 days)

 

• Getting better sleep.
• Panic attacks subsiding.

I was having worsening episodes of insomnia and panic attacks before I quitted PMO. Since I quitted I am experiencing an improvement, although not linear. Still healing on day 85.

 

• Mental focus once the flatline/fog finally lifts for the first time
• Confidence seems to come more easily in myself
• Social Anxiety has seemed to decrease quite a bit, especially when I'm in a comfortable state. I can now do small talk and initiate/maintain conversations with people more easily.

Of course there are days where these benefits are much more obvious than other days. The important thing is to appreciate the good days and remember them for when urges hit me hard and/or off-guard.

The most important and best benefit is that I don't feel enslaved by PMO. I'm not planning my day around it, or letting it take the reins from me. I'm taking the reins for myself and that's empowering.

 

Good morning! Peace of mind is my number one. I have been struggling with my thinking the last couple of days but overall I don’t have that monkey on my back. I am more focused and relaxed.

Great question!

 

I think my longest streak was 70-something days. It's been years since I have made it past 50 days. Same struggle, every day, all the time. It's crazy. In a split second, I can shift from one state to another:

State #1: I am fully aware of all the things I've missed out because I was stuck for so long with a dick in my hand. I am full of positivism, full of ideas, full of energy and motivation to get everything done.
State #2: I am hypnotized in front of the screen, and none of the consequences matter.

It can happen within seconds. Blows my mind. It's like some sort of mind control power some invisible demon has over me. I don't know why I'm writing this right now. I should be taking care of a bazillion stuff at home. I'm obviously in a very disturbed state of mind because I just spent hours edging and the aftermath is me being angry at myself and disoriented in my priorities.