So i am almost at a week of NoFap but a couple of times i have looked at hot girls in tight clothes on Instagram, looking at clothes porn stars on google images, hot girls dancing on YouTube etc. Although none of these girls have been naked and none of it has been porn, i was wondering if this counts as a relapse. Will all the benefits i gain from not watching porn vanish/not be obtained if i have or continue to do this? Apart from this i am proud of my efforts but just was curious Let me know! Thanks!
Hey, thanks for being open and honest about this. Let me just say, my whole month of March was pretty much just like this, except I used MO with non-naked girls and tried to justify it in my mind as okay. I would not entirely count what you have done as a relapse if you didn't masturbate also. However, if your desire is not to lust either, then I believe you probably would need to reset your counter. This will more than likely slow down the benefits because you are allowing quite a bit of dopamine to still be released in your brain by checking out even non-naked girls and ogling over these pictures. Lastly, be careful with pride in oneself as it can tout / puff oneself up into thinking you are good and no longer have a struggle. Being on here and encouraging others is one way you could help yourself instead of looking at those google images.
You should make efforts until when you encountered an image or girls, for example they are walking in front of you. They appear in your vision and that's all. Just like a bird flies above a lake and there is a reflection on the water surface. When the bird flies away, the reflection is also gone.
That kinda stuff will just lead to relapse if you ask me. Better not test yourself. Its like "ill just stick my toe in the fire, but dont worry, its only my toe not my whole leg". Keep strength!
In my honest opinion that's a relapse. Your brain is tricking you: despite you're not watching porn in the true sense of the word, you're still feeding your brain with dopamine the same way you do when you watch videos on porn sites. Your purpose is cutting down the paths to this debilitating addiction, so cut down every path.
There are different stages that lead to a full relapse. I think you will find this video useful: In short, the kind of behaviour like looking up girls on instagram etc, isnt conducive to what you are trying to achieve, and is one step towards a full relapse.
Wow, this is soo helpful! Thank you very much man! I think I will keep a link to this video in my signature.