What is usually the reasoning for people not feeling better after a 5-6 month streak?

It’s not a cure all. It fixes one aspect of your life, but you need to take the steps to fix all the other aspects of your life that have gotten out of wack.

 

It's because flatlines can go on for months, especially if you PMO'ed for a while. I did it for 2.5 years and my flatline has been going for the past 44 days so...

 

Basically what scubasteve said. NoFap will help you a lot, but it is not a miracle cure for all aspects of life. Whether or not you feel good at 5-6 months clean depends entirely on what you are doing to try and improve your life in every way possible

 

Not improving your daily habits and using this ''energy'' for something positive. The streak is not the magic pill that is gonna change your life. It are all these habits that you discover and you do everyday.

 

Some have simply been more damaged by this than others, so those with only mild afflictions won't understand and will think that there must be more to it.

The other day for example I relapsed by watching a cam girl for 5-10 minutes, I didn't M or O, just watched. That night I go to bed and within an hour I'm wide awake feeling totally spaced out, my head is whirling and pounding. Getting back to sleep was impossible, as if my brain had lost that capacity to turn off so I was basically sat up all night feeling absolutely horrible. Most will read this and think no way man, porn can't do that, you've got other issues going on but this correlation is now too consistent for me to ignore.

5-6 months is probably going to be enough for 95% of people to feel better but for others it will just take longer, likewise there are many who will feel great after 5-6 weeks. Everyone is different.

 

Yeah that’s not true bro. Changing other habits amplifies benefits but there are countless benefits to making this change, flatlines will occur but when the benefits hit you will absolutely feel them

 

Thinking about the idea that I'm not improving is probably the biggest reason for thinking about watching porn again. The thing is though, is it better to go back to PMO? The problem is, there are a lot of videos and guides out there which say that quitting PMO gives you these 'super powers' and when you don't feel like you have attained this magic cure, the mind quickly starts thinking things like "well, it's made no difference; I might as well just watch porn again". You are better off without porn, end of. Just keep going on without it. The alternative is bleak.

My personal experience is that at the moment the urges are quite bad and I'm in a bit of a 'rut' mentally. I'm on a 5 month streak with no porn, masturbation or orgasm. Previous to that I had a girlfriend and I had done a 6 month streak without porn or masturbation. This was the longest streak I achieved. Anyway, I split up with her (I was reading the book The Rational Male which lead me to end it) and on the day I decided it was over, I relapsed because I felt I could do what I wanted. I felt terrible after that and it was made even worse by the break up. So now I'm telling myself no matter how I feel, I am not going back to porn. Up until maybe 3 weeks ago, I was having regular wet dreams (a few per week for maybe 3 weeks). These have stopped but I still feel like I'm in a 'flatline'. I have been doing more exercise over the past 6 months and trying to spend more time doing what I feel are worthwhile things (reading, drawing) and less time on things I feel are a waste of my time (watching TV and playing video games). I have not been meditating though, which is something I did for a long time and I believe that was something that helped a lot. I go through periods of trying to maintain good habits but sometimes I get distracted and go down a path of watching too much youtube or getting too embroiled in irrational thoughts as a consequence of anxiety. My anxiety has been worse over the past few months and I think that is because I haven't really pushed myself, using the covid-19 thing as an excuse.

In conclusion, It is easy to become bogged down by thoughts like "is NoFap just a placebo?". But I just go back to the thought that nofap has lead me to stop spending my weekends watching Netflix and drinking alcohol, get fitter, start learning a new skill (drawing), reading more and in turn discovering many new things. The breakup was a major event in my nofap 'journey' as I decided wasn't going to accept staying with someone who wasn't right for me just for sex or for fear of loneliness. It is also a way of realising I had to go through a difficult period to be better in the future. I guess this is what nofap is too. Exposing yourself to a difficult challenge to get better in the future. It's like being shipwrecked on the other side of the world and then trying to get back home. You have no idea if you will get there but you just keep trying no matter how difficult it gets.

 

Keep going man. There is no way you're not gonna get better with time. I'd disagree with the people saying that it's probably because you were slacking off or not building enough positive habits. PAWS are a very real thing and I can speak from experience that when I start off a streak I go through hell for a period of time like intense anxiety, suicidal thoughts etc. and then gradually it passes and I'm like "What the hell? I wasn't that person." So please wait it out man, don't do any drugs whatsoever and just wait and suffer because that's the only way. If you need motivation, look at the PAWS thread by fenix rising on here.

 

it sounds to me like things are going great. Keep it up. But what you have not said is why you think things are not good? What is your goal? How do you measure your success? If you don’t have a particular end in sight then there is no way to gauge your progress towards said end. If you do have a goal, or multiple goals, and you are making progress towards those goals, then I would say steady as she goes.

 

Brother in any addiction there are two types of withdrawals :
1. Short term withdrawals - these are short term in which you feel better after some days of depression or torment.

2. Post Acute Withdrawals or PAW - these are prolonged withdrawals, this is the real stage of recovery, the more addicted you are, the more time they'll stay.
Emotions are being balanced and your body is healing, also relapsing at this stage may hinder the recovery and you may have to wait additional months before reaching that step again so why to do it.

There is a guy on youtube, he said in the worst scenarios person may take upto 2 years and he took almost 2 years.
His channel is PMO Addiction Warfare https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj5GO2QS99xgC_8u6OjdSlQ

Meditate and have faith in God.

Stay safe.

 

In these we experience headaches, mood swings, (in my case I feel numbness).

God showed us this path, our task is to walk on it and hate wicked.
Stay safe buddy.