Is noFap even helping?

Background
I am a 37 year old male, straight, currently single.

I've never been a porn addict. I rarely watch it and even the few times I tried to masturbate to it I could not finnish to it, find it to distracting, at some point I had to put the screen down/turn off and let my mind take over.

I am addited to M&O. Its not that I do lots of it, like multiple times a day, rather that I incorporated masturbation to my daily routine, as something I have to do everyday, like brushing my teeth. So basically I have been doing it once a day for almost all of my adult life.

I always knew it was probably not a very healthy thing to do, mostly because it felt very mechanic, a routine as opposed to a 'healthy' sex life. But I also thought it was the lesser evil, I though that not masturbating was even less healthy. This was reinforced by the feelings and sensations I got whenever I did not masturbate for a few days.

Basically every time I went a few days without P&O (longest time was probably 10 days or so) I got increasingly vivid fantasies all the time, everywhere I go, and I would get preety much aroused all the time. Makes it very dificult to function normally. So whenever this became too much I would have to 'release' the pressure an masturbate, sometimes even in places I should not have done it (like I did it once at work).

This is why, even when I did not really like masturbating every day, I felt it was the lesser evil. I would prefer to just do it once a day instead of risking getting aroused in inapropriate places.

Why noFap
Lately I've been trying to try to fix some of the lacking areas in my life, with some success. I'm doing intermitent fasting and actually got in good shape. I also started to exercise regularly and even started to date again, after a long time of not even trying to find a partner. This last area is what brought me to noFap.

I've always been an anxious guy, so dating, sex and relationships never came easy for me. But now I feel like Its becoming more difficult to get attracted and aroused by the women I date. I fear that having masturbated in such a mechanic way for so much time has disconnected myself from women and the process of getting turned on. Now I dread the moment of intimacy beause I fear that nothing will happen. And this feeds into my anxiousness, so its a spiral... Recently I started dating a girl and we are getting along very well, she seems genuenly interested in me, but I keep delaying having more intimacy because of this fear.

In any case, this is why I'm giving noFap a try. I want to rewire my brain to have a more healthy sexual life. I want to rely less on fantasies and more on 'real' women to get aroused.

Current status
Currently I'm on day 20 without PMO. Like I said at the beginning, cutting porn is not a problem for me, it's just not my thing. I have had very strong urges to masturbate, but so far I have been able to push them off. The problem is that instead of receding, the fantasies and urges are becoming stronger and increasingly more difficult to fight back.

The past couple of days I have been feeling horny all the time. I wake up aroused, and preety much have erections all througout the day, even when walking down the street. And as much as I try to brush off my fantasies, they are getting everyday more elaborate and vivid. This is well past the point where in past I would masturbate to go back to 'normal', but I want to give this noFap a serious try.

This thing is I don't know if I'm doing something wrong, or if this is even helping me. I read many threads on this site but I cant find a relatable story. Most people on this site are fighting pr0n addiction, which is not my case. But also people keep reporting in their experieces things that I havent had so far. For the past 20 days I haven't masturbated in any way (no edging), but other than being horny all the time, I havent experienced any other change.

Do any of you went through a similar experience. Do the fantasies ever wine down?

Thanks, and sorry for the long post.