Does Nofap really work?

I'm not sure all the so called superpowers come to everyone, I know I've felt a lot better for not doing it though, not engaging in this twisted thing that had taken over my life and ruined my sex life, so for me I know it works. It's got its ups and downs, but ultimately I think it's just about commiting fully to it. I don't know what your situation is but, doing nofap for three years is good, I've done it the past four, but it's not just about doing it, its about never doing it again and spending significant amounts of time to forever away from porn and maturation. I know I feel happier after a good amount of time, but like in all aspects of life you're gonna feel down somedays, happiness isn't the standard emotion or way of being, it's all just existence and living in the moment whether it's happy or not.

 

Ferns, what do you expect NoFap to do for you? It’s hard to evaluate if it works without knowing what results you are looking for. People vary widely in their expectations and their personal circumstances, which makes it more difficult to generalize.

For me, NoFap got me away from porn. It also was a factor in significant changes to my attitude, self-image, physical fitness, relationship and sex life. It wasn’t the whole story though. It was a piece of a larger puzzle. But since I had successes overall, I would say it worked.

Good luck!

 

I have been in the same situation. The problem with nofap is that it's not really a well-researched field. You will definitely not find a lot of AAA science backing it up. There's a bunch of studies and a few "gurus" like Gary Wilson who make it all sound like it makes sense. And maybe they are right.
But the lack of scientific credibility is what made me relapse for years. It's always been a very convenient backdoor for my brain when the urges became too strong.

To top it all off, the nofap community mostly seems to be a bunch of fanatic zealots. Very hard to take seriously. This forum is better, but the subreddit... oh boy. Makes it even easier to see nofap as complete BS.

HOWEVER, after over 5 years of trying (and failing) nofap, I came to realize that nofap IS real. That some benefits ARE real.
I have documented all my nofap attempts in my personal diary over the past few years. Documented every small detail of every nofap day.
It's crazy how many things always seem to go the same way, even years later under totally different cirumstances.

I don't want to brag, but to put things into perspective: I absolultely don't need nofap for confidence, to get girls or to be successful at my job. When it comes to these things, I already have superpowers, even when I fap my soul out 3 times a day.

But here are the benefits I ALWAYS have when on nofap, no matter the circumstances:

• FAR better sleep (usually after around 10 days). I easily can fall asleep at 11pm and consistently wake up before the alarm at 7am.
• My brain works like on steroids: I have a laser focus, I can focus on things for hours without drifting away, I remember things much better which also leads to much better conversation skills (because I can talk without breaks without losing focus or needing to remember what I am trying to say)
  
• My "off screen" time (i.e. time spent doing things that DON'T involve any type of screen) increases dramatically
• I get my emotions back. Without nofap I don't even realize how numb I am. But on nofap it's a different story. I cry about sad movies or music. I can laugh a lot more about funny things. I can feel compassion about people around me, be happy or sad for others. Really, I feel much more like a human being.
• I feel much more in charge of my life. This one is subjective and hard to explain. At the same time, it's the most glorious benefit of nofap.

Once I needed science.
But now I can trust my personal experiences that nofap IS the real deal. I no longer doubt it ever, not even in my times of horrible urges.

 

Depends

 

yes, for the 1% of the people who's able to complete at least a 90 days reboot it does.

If you expect for it to work by doing 7 days streak no, it won't.

 

I would say that low self-esteem and lack of confidence are some of the causes of porn addiction in the first place. It's an escape from those problems. So if you cut out that escape, you'll need to find healthier and more appropriate solutions to your problems, otherwise you'll just go back to it eventually.

In that sense, when you do NoFap you make actually feel worse or more stressed out because you've taken away the thing that was suppressing your emotions and problems out of consciousness.

I think this trips up a lot of people. They think if you remove porn it will make you a better person. When in reality, removing porn just gives you the opportunity to become a better person. You can still be a jerk off, even if you no longer jerk off. Changing yourself is on you.

 

It most definitely works but it depend on how bad your addiction was to PMO

 

From experience I say it definitely works and is a really huge piece of the puzzle of improving your life but it's not everything!

According to Gabor Mate, in the realm of hungry ghosts. People do not become addicts and then ruin their lives. They become addicted because they needed to escape from an already hard existence.

Seemingly simple thing such as emotional neglect in childhood can make one grow up feeling unloved and needing to compensate.

The less you do P the better. I can say with certainty that P is a drug. If you ever relapsed after a long streak you know what I mean. This dopamine addiction and the rush you get is for real.

And I totally agree with "when all light dies" post.

But it's not a magic solution to everything, it's one of the steps. An important one.
But keep in mind even before the internet or P, people had problems and they needed to work them out and not everything or everyone was happy and rosy.

Looking into yourself, your character, how you were brought up, and the society we live in are all part of a never ending process,

 

Like you said, there are always special interests that gets in the way of real studies or the publication of unpopular results.

Take the example of how few years ago it was widely popular and recognized that a glass of wine was Good for your health. They forgot to mention that you can get the same minor benefit from grape juice and being an alcoholic really negates any minor benefits but it was good for the wine industry, and if they tell you drinking is good for you who is gonna say no. There is also a lot of manipulation in the numbers and how you interpret them. A lot of the things experts say and mainstream news outlets repeat like parrots are usually based off weak anecdotal evidence but no one bothers to check and you can't go against the current because you will be a heretic!

On NoFap studies. One great difficulty would be to find people who never used p, it's also very very difficult to find people who have not done PMO for a long time and have them all be in the same city and volunteer for the study. And who will fund this? Do you think a government would grant them money? Or a a big pharma company?

Generally I am very careful when it comes to taking experts advice seriously. A lot of doctors who are supposed to be experts in health are actually not very healthy themselves we have a saying in our culture: " ask someone who tried it and not someone who is an expert."

 

I'm at almost 90 days. Im very lonely. I don't have any women in my life. I feel the urge to watch porn, it is almost as strong as during my last binge. I used to think it worked. I don't know if it actually does.

 

Well you need to engage yourself in socializing too. Doing nothing isn´t the key. Nofap is part of a bigger puzzle as mentioned before

 

Dude Don't! Just Don't!
You are now coming face to face with your underlying problem which is loneliness which is the cause of you seeking addictions to soothe the pain in the first place. Reality is tough. Your brain just wants any thing to escape. Try to see if you can go out or socialize in anyway possible.

 

What do you mean by this last statement? Just that when you are recovered you needn't have to feel the need to use the forums and their ways of recovery or simply that you are strong enough to stay away from pmo without the strength of others? Or something else?

 

I've done two separate, well documented, forays into it and am convinced NoFap is a waste of time. However, I think there is benefit to not watching porn. Porn does nothing but multiply the frequency of masturbation, and, from what I can tell has no noticeable benefit.

I think many people confuse the benefits of actively seeking alternative behavior with results from NoFap itself. People talk about better sleep, getting healthier, better focus, etc. All of these things stem from your focus on alternative activities as a result of avoiding masturbation. All that semen retention nonsense has no scientific backing as anyone with a browser can discover.

Having a multiplier (porn) for masturbation seems destructive as it takes away from activities that will actually benefit you. Masturbation itself seems healthy (and there is evidence backing that claim), once the multiplier is removed I tend to masturbate once every 3~ days and have a more fulfilling life.

 

According to the NoFap dogma, yes. Looking at studies of Humans, I am average or of slightly higher frequency than average. Looking at studies of Chimpanzees, which a large part of our DNA is shared with, no actually I masturbate less.

The idea NoFap tries to sell is that it is actually beneficial to not masturbate, when not only do we have scientific articles claiming the opposite, but we have other species (many) that masturbate as well. Our closest relatives do it 2 times a day for instance.

Fact of the matter is, NoFap is flat out wrong. They have sold a dogma and profited quite generously off of it. Unfortunately when you are convinced of what they spew, you will start telling yourself stories to confirm it. Stories like "Wow not masturbating is actually making me sleep on time."

Edit---
I should point out the simple ignorance behind NoFap's concept of addiction to masturbation. Masturbation is a biological function, thus the appearance in other species and the reference of that in this post.

To masturbate on a biological time clock is not addiction, that is like saying someone who eats daily is addicted to eating. The addiction some might have in these activities is the inflation of the behavior in some way. Perhaps they over indulge when eating, or they masturbate repeatedly.

NoFap is just not well thought out, plain and simple.

 

Thanks for the insight, I fully understand where you're coming from, but in doing so you can sometimes forget where you began and why you wanted to get to where you are. I agree that taking a step back from recovery groups can be a good way to move along with recovery, but in abandoning them entirely maybe not so. I think maybe NoFap is one to get away from, but in doing so finding one either with a small group of people, say from nofap or in recovery groups such as the SAA. Places centered around people you know to be like minded in recovery, but can still question your choices and your decisions in recovery to gain new insight for yourself.