Opinion on people believing NoFap is just a placebo?

Opinions .
What does it matter? Maybe you yourself are not sure and you are hoping for clarity? Clarity is unlikely to come from this forum . I did find some clarity when I found people happily not having to use pm+ for years ( they emphasized that it has been every day in those years because they know how addicts tend to think, they would say "I haven't used pornography, masturbation, etc in x years, including nights weekends and holidays ". I slowly started listening to them and doing what they suggested and that could address the whole "opinion on placebo" thing if I'm willing to trust the answer I get but it may not be a high value discussion on the first place. Do you think it will help to discuss?

 

There are at least three kinds of men on this forum.

1. Guys addicted to internet porn with PIED
2. Guys addicted to sex and/or masturbation, but not pornography
3. Guys without addictions but who want to improve their life

I am in the first category and talk to mostly guys like me. We see benefits from NoFap because we have porn-induced erectile dysfunction and want it to go away. NoFap in terms of hard mode no-PMO scientifically heals the brain and cures PIED (unless there are other underlying health conditions). So its not a placebo for category #1.

For the second group of guys, NoFap is also an important treatment for readjusting to healthy intimacy and removing the power of porn-induced fetishes/kinks. These guys are also heavy porn users, but they also have other issues, like death grip, prone masturbation and other deviant behaviors like exhibitionism, and so on. These guys usually seek in-person support groups and professional counselling (unless they prefer to remain anonymous and get support online). They also need NoFap in order to let their brains heal because they using sex/masturbation as a coping mechanism for childhood trauma, stress, numbing emotions, repressed emotions, etc. So it is not a placebo for category #2.

For the third category, these guys see improvement because they usually have an unhealthy relationship with women and sexuality. They may have Nice Guy Syndrome (see the book by Robert Glover), they might be mysogynist, they might think they are addicted but aren't sure, they might have been molested or abused, etc. These guys see the benefits of abstaining from masturbation/sex/porn for a period of time in order to see what life is like without it.

For category #3, It is like fasting. You need to fast once in a while in order to appreciate food and feel true hunger. Our natural instinct as humans is to take the path of least resistance. Discipline means forcing yourself into uncomfortable things that you know are good for you. NoFap is like that. You might never know you are abusing something until you try to go without it. So for many in category #3, it is not a placebo.

I think it is a placebo from the point-of-view of two people.

1. Addicts who aren't aware or won't admit of their addiction. They will defend themselves and their hedonistic excesses at all costs. Some of us used to be in this category until we hit rock bottom and couldn't lie to ourselves anymore.

2. The rare men and women with healthy sexualities who never experienced any trauma. This was common before the era of widespread pornography. More guys were raised relatively normally didn't have sexual problems like ED in their twenties and thirties. Even today, there are some guys who PMO and have no erection issues and no problems that come from it. These guys will think NoFap is a placebo, but they arr an exception and to say NoFap is only a placebo is a mistake. For the vast majority of guys, NoFap has a real, quantifiably measurable health impact.

 

It's definitely not a placebo. If you overcome an addiction you get mentally, spiritually stronger. You start improving willpower, resistance, you become more stable, less anxiety etc. But it all comes with hard work, not miracle

 

I once thought its a placebo and only known to the nofap community, so I started to ask a few close friends that never heard about NoFap. Here is what I got:

First guy: “ It’s impossible for me to get an erection with my gf just by looking at her naked or cuddling. I always ask her to give me a bj then I quickly procceed to penetrate her before my erection goes off”


Second guy: “ i always need to turn off lights and keep fantasizing and rubbing my penis in order to get an erection”


Third guy: “ whenever I look into P I just can’t get aroused by my SO for a couple of weeks”

These guys have no idea about Nofap and even when I introduced it to them they didn’t seem interested, yet they suffer like most of us. They dont even demonize P like most of us do. It’s definitely not a placebo.