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My 30 Day Dopamine Detox

Discussion in 'Rebooting - Porn Addiction Recovery' started by mentorr, Nov 1, 2021.

  1. mentorr

    mentorr Fapstronaut

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    Hi Guys,

    I have been in recovery from PIED for the past 27 months and in that time I have made A LOT of progress.

    In the past 2+ years I have managed to:

    • Stop all forms of PMO
    • Cut out all junk food and sugar
    • Cut caffeine, energy and sugary drinks
    • Delete all Social Media platforms (Instagram/Twitter/Facebook/Tinder/Hinge)
    • Diminish alcohol consumption to once every few months
    • Cut out video games
    • Start reading daily
    Let me just say that I don't believe any of the above is necessary for recovery, but for me I have been addicted to some of the above for a very long time (10+ years) and it has really hampered my quality of life.

    At 833 total days of recovery, I still can't seem to get anything close to a strong erection. 50% of me believes that it's down to being a severe case and needing more recovery time. The other 50% of me thinks it is down to my final and most strongest addiction; my Internet addiction.

    After 7 months of recovery, I felt I had beat my original PMO addiction but gradually we went into lockdown (due to COVID) and I found myself binging for hours at a time on the Internet. I use it for hours before bed, while brushing my teeth, on the train to work. It is literally my SO at the moment and I just hate the feeling of needing it to get through the day. More importantly, I am convinced that it is subtly having a negative effect on my reboot.

    At this point I think the only way to confirm just how much my Internet addiction is affecting my reboot (or if it is at all) is to abstain for 30 days and make a journal of my experience. I have seen many accounts talk about undertaking a dopamine-esque reboot but have never seen or heard the results.

    The rules are as follows:
    • No casual internet browsing (unless work-related).
    • No social media use entirely (this extends to both laptop and mobile phone)
    • No clicking on random YouTube videos.
    • 90 minutes maximum per day for "leisurely" internet use
    Progress to follow..
     
  2. hillmountain

    hillmountain Fapstronaut

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    Bro please update? Have you recovered now? Did you fall off the dopamine detox bandwagon or still it isn't speeding up the recovery?
     
  3. mentorr

    mentorr Fapstronaut

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    After multiple attempts, the longest streak I was able to reach was 7 days. After trying to abstain from digital stimulation for the past 6 or so weeks, I realised that there are both pros and cons to a dopamine detox.

    To understand the benefit of a dopamine detox I think it helps to understand how exactly it fits in with NoFap.

    The day after I cut out digital stimulation I went into physical and emotional withdrawal. Physically I was fatigued and tired with a throbbing headache. Emotionally I was irritable, bored, lonely and depressed. Pretty much the staple flatline symptoms.

    What I finally understood is that these are my feelings without digital stimulation. Without YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Netflix. Starting a dopamine detox had basically lifted the lid on all the negative emotions I had been hiding from through PMO and digital stimulation. PMO really is no different and simply another way to suppress unwanted emotions.

    By performing a dopamine detox, you are allowing the suppressed emotions to rise to the surface. You are revealing to yourself your emotions (without PMO). It has to be understood that years/months of PMO is you trying to escape negative emotions. The dopamine detox opens you up to those feelings.

    The main emotion I experienced when trying to complete the dopamine detox was loneliness. Instead of constantly succumbing to the pull of social media and the internet, I decided to go home for a week. 1 day after being surrounded by family and friends, my flatline symptoms slowly began to lift. Brainfog improved, and I began to get some of my emotions back.

    To summarise, will a dopamine detox fix you and get you your manhood back. No, not on it’s own. But it will definitely set you on the correct path to get your emotional, physical and specifically sexual health back. You simply have to start addressing the feelings hidden beneath your addiction. For some people, stopping PMO is enough for the emotions to rise to the surface and for their libido, sexual prowess etc to return. For others who have been addicted for longer (like me), we have grown so accustomed to repressing our emotions that it has become automatic. We then have to unlearn these habits so that the emotions can lift, and we can regain ‘ourselves’.

    My view on a dopamine detox is that cutting out all stimulation for more than 7 days is impractical. If you can do it I would say go ahead, but the point is to balance digital stimulating activities like YouTube and Netflix with other physical and social activities. A dopamine detox is not a ‘fix-all’ solution unfortunately. It will not magically heal/fix your symptoms. It will however put you face to face with your inner demon(s). If PIED/ED is the question, a dopamine detox will give you the answer, in the form of what makes you PMO in the first place. For me I mostly PMO’d because I was lonely. Now that I know that my core issue was/is loneliness, I can take steps to fix that by putting myself out there and meeting new and old friends/family. After putting myself out there, I have started to get that emotional buzz, my libido has started to return and erection quality has gradually started to get better. However if I go back to isolating myself from everybody, my progress seems to stunt.

    To summarise, a dopamine detox is a tool. After 30 months of recovery it has become clear to me that NoFap on its own is just not enough for some of us. As scary as it might be, some of us have to start addressing the feelings beneath the PMO addiction. Not the answer you were hoping to hear I know but the reality is that the physical symptoms are just side effects of the emotional symptoms.
     
    hillmountain likes this.
  4. hillmountain

    hillmountain Fapstronaut

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    Very helpful answer bro... Better to see what the underlying issues are, and for that, a dopamine detox is helpful.. the underlying issues might be either 1. Emotional trauma, some complex or baggage that has been covered up and not confronted or 2. Just a simple dopamine overstimulation or 3. Lack of essential REAL LIFE physical, mental and social skills and habits that have been eroded and neglected from years of pmo abuse
     
  5. hillmountain

    hillmountain Fapstronaut

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    How is your erection department now? If strong ones have returned, what do you think was the important contribution factor/s? And if you still have ed, what do you think might be the thing holding you back/hampering your progress? And, to someone with a moderate to severe addiction and ed, who has gone about 4 months or so without pmo, but still is in flatline, what are the things that you would strongly advise to do/not to do in order to speed up the overall recovery process, and recovery from ed in general?
     
  6. mentorr

    mentorr Fapstronaut

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    The strong erections aren't back for me yet, but for me the point is that when I am aroused I get a reaction. In other words, the erections are sign that things are moving in the correct direction.

    The answer is Time. Following the basic rules of PMO and being patient will move you in the right direction. You have to understand that there isn't really a magic pill or potion to speed things up. Many of us on here have searched far and wide in hope of finding a secret method to plough through a reboot.

    What makes a reboot so difficult is the doubt. Recovery simply isn't linear. As a result you begin to doubt that you are making any progress at all. You doubt that things are going to work as they should, which is normal.

    As long as you avoid PMO your brain will recover. While eating junk food and binging Netflix doesn't help, it won't deter your entire recovery. It will exaggerate the symptoms you are trying to recover from.

    If you really really want to speed the process up, get yourself out of your comfort zone. Start small and work your way up. Go out, meet new people, travel, start a business, really start putting yourself out there. I think for a lot of us who are recovering, we can find it hard to put ourselves back out there. The risk is high but the reward is higher. Many of us have spent this period of our lives recovering in lockdown and being isolated. Throughout recovery I have found that the more I put myself out there, the better I tend to feel. Its ironic because this is the advice I read in my first few months of rebooting and ignored it. The point is that it really does work and speed up recovery.

    To summarise, avoid PMO (obviously), get as much sleep as you can. Avoid alcohol and drugs. Try and spend time with friends and family, even if its for 30 minutes at a time. The more you spend being with people and focusing on putting yourself out there the easier things will become.
     
  7. hillmountain

    hillmountain Fapstronaut

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    But why do you think for you, even after 27 months of no porn, no masturbation, still your sexual health hasn't fully recovered? Not to discourage you, but I wanna know how to avoid a long flatline..
    Do you think the reason in your case is 1. Very severe addiction? How many hours of pmo did you use per day in the past 2. Maybe you are using some kind of p- substitute like fantasizing about pmo related stuff, or some other thing that is hampering your recovery? 3. Maybe you need to move past porn related ways of thinking?
     
  8. mentorr

    mentorr Fapstronaut

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    I cannot be certain but I think there are 2 key reasons.

    1. my addiction was severe. It spans from the age of 14 to 30. Thats 16 years of masturbation on average for 2-3 times a day.
    2. I have spent a lot of my recovery in isolation, alone and not really interacting with others regularly.
    As I said, I can’t be certain but I think point 1 is the main factor of my super long reboot and point 2 has kept me where I am for longer than needed.

    The key point to make here is: I don’ know how to avoid the flatline. I would go as far as to say; you need to experience the flatline to truly recover. Do not get me wrong the flatline absolutely sucks, but it’s a physical and emotional cycle that needs to happen for your body to recover unfortunately.

    As you recover you will notice a point where you no longer experience the flatline. Almost like you have good days and Ok days instead of bad days. Also if you do slip into a flatline they will be nowhere near as bad as they used to be. You will feel yourself becoming irritable, or notice acne but the symptoms will be lighter. Brainfog won’t be nearly as strong as it once was, and your libido will drop but not as badly as before.

    Once this started to occur for me I realised that I AM healing, but it is considerably slow and gradual. I understood what other long rebooters meant when they said they started to doubt things were working.

    To answer your question, in my personal opinion I think my long reboot is mainly down to being addicted for so long. You do less time in prison for manslaughter, than you do for murder. A 5 year addict should in theory recover quicker than a 15 year addict. Therefore a 3 year reboot simply matches up with the time I spent being addicted. There are obviously other intricate details that affect a reboot but this is the main point in my opinion.

    I think my longest flatline period was around 5-7 months, but again I would say that I am a severe case. Once I stepped out of that flatline period things started to become a lot easier and benefits gradually became noticeable.

    Again my advice would be to surround yourself with as many people as you can during the flatline. I know you likely don’t feel like it, but my biggest jumps in progress was when I put myself out there, attended birthdays, work events and any other social moments I was brave enough to step into. Yes the flatline sucks, but I’m not sure if it can actually be avoided.
     
    Last edited: Jan 8, 2022
    hillmountain likes this.
  9. hillmountain

    hillmountain Fapstronaut

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    Thanks for the interesting insights bro...
    As I understand it, you are getting about 50% erectile strength? Did you have any sexual encounter in the latter phases of your reboot and how did it go? And do you think you are mentally recovered? Feeling joy, emotions, motivation, hopefulness etc strongly again? Being free from the depression which is a hallmark of many reboot phases?
     
  10. mentorr

    mentorr Fapstronaut

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    In the right moment I am now able to get 50% maybe 60% erectile strength. My last sexual experience was maybe 2-3 months ago. (The original post should be on my profile.) Prior to my previous sexual encounter, there hasn't really been many others. Mentally I am a lot better than I was before. I rarely get social anxiety when interacting with others, my mind is a lot clearer than it was and I sleep better. However I wouldn't say that mentally I am fully recovered. I think I still have a ways to go. My thought process, although better than before, is still very slow and sluggish at times. There are many moments where I have to stop and really focus to access a thought or disclose what I want to say.

    The same can be said for emotions. I do feel moments of happiness, joy and hopefulness, but they are still few and far between. The best way to explain it: imagine a lift infront of you. Inside the lift is all of your emotions. As the lift doors gradually open, your emotions gradually begin to spill out. However the process is slow and very gradual. As time passes, I start to realise that my emotions are slowly coming back to me. My ability to feel is becoming deeper, but very gradually. Where I didn't laugh before, I am gradually moving to a place where I do and can. The urge to see friends and family is returning. As well as the urge to write and be creative. It really just takes time and patience.
     
    hillmountain and Musicmad like this.

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