100 days PMO free for the first time. My Experience so far.

Hello everybody. I hope that everybody is doing well. I would like to to start off this article by thanking this wonderful community. Without you guys I would not have gotten as for as I have currently. I just wanted to vent my thoughts on my 100 day journey doing no PMO Hardmode so excuse this thread if I ramble alot.

My Background:
Like many on here I began my habit of PMO at very young age around some time in middle school. It was something I would do on a daily basis and I really didn't think much about it at the time as it really didn't effect that much I believe. It was around my senior year of high school that I actually discovered the NoFap community by accident and was interested in giving it a try. To be honest I did not take Nofap very seriously at first as I was in denial that PMO was even a problem to begin with so I went through vicious cycle of relapses over and over again and not really caring. It was when I started college that I began to wake up to the fact that this habit is destroying my life. College was a very stressful time in my life and I would literally medicate all that stress with PMO just to get through school. There would be days where I would be so unmotivated to go to college that I would have to PMO just to have the motivation to study and take tests. Most of my college was life I was a walking zombie cause I was so depleted most of the time. Luckily I did well in school by basically riding PMO dopamine highs to get me through it which looking back on it disgusts me. After I graduated is when things took a turn for the worst when I hit the lowest point in my life. To my misfortune I graduated at the start of pandemic when everything started shutting down and everyone was required to stay in their homes. I had a job offer taken away from me since businesses were shutting down and scaling back on hiring so that really shattered my confidence. I spent months apon months looking for work without any responses from any employers, so I basically sat in my house doing nothing all day feeling bad about myself being unemployed and stressing out over student loans and other nonsense. During this time I got majorly depressed and I would just PMO all day to alleviate all that pain. To my demise that just made things worst in my life when I started hitting rock bottom as I started to lose interest in literally all the activities that use to bring me joy in life. All I wanted to do was just sit at home and PMO all day. Luckily I landed a full time job that I am currently at that gives me some purpose but I realized that I needed to stop this habit when I started having suicidal thoughts on the regular. If I didn't do something to improve my life I knew deep down in my soul that I would regret it or do the unthinkable. That background basically leads to start of my journey and to where I am today, 100 days PMO free on hardmode.

My 100 Day Hardmode Journey:
Like I said before I attempted NoFap before countless times with countless relapses. I never really took it seriously until I hit the low point in my life described above. I am going to start off by saying that the current 100 day journey has been the hardest thing I have ever done but it is not impossible. The first couple weeks were really difficult with extreme urges to PMO. After that the first month wasn't to bad as I hit a flatline that lasted accouple weeks then I felt really good for a week. After the week of feeling good I hit another flatline that that lasted for about a month. This flatline was brutal and crushed my motivation to really do anything. Its good in the sense that no urges have appeared what so ever but It can be a struggle to really do anything at all. I had to really dig deep to find the motivation to get through the flatline as going back to PMO was not an option. Days 70 to 100+ I am in a much better state in my life as my mental state has improved quite abit and previous problems have improved such as my anxiety has decreased alot, social interactions have increased, and have alot more energy than I use to have. I would be lying if said that 100 days of hardmode has completely reverted me back to my previous self before this habit as that is not the case. I still struggle with flatlines but they aren't as severe as they use to be and they dont last as long as they use to. I am currently experimenting with Kegel exercises to combat a problem of leakage constantly. My libido is completely non existent but I know this a temporary affliction that will fixed in due time. I know that I need alot more time to fully recover from this habit but these 100 days of hardmode have proven to me that the benefits of NoFap are very real and the struggle is well worth the effort.

My 100 day Hard Mode Benefits:

• A lot more energy than before
• Skin complexion has improved a lot. Less oily and rarely get acne anymore.
• Hair is noticeably shinier and less oily.
• Dark circles under eyes are less noticeable. Not completely gone yet.
• Motivation to get tasks done has gone up.
• Have noticed more stares in my direction. Easier to converse and hold eye contact with people.
• Anxiety has decreased a lot. Not fully gone but has diminished immensely.
• Gym recovery time has gotten better.
• Depression has decreased a lot. Still there, but way more manageable.
• More present in life. I have noticed that before I basically lived life in a daze. But now I am more aware and present in life. Its amazing all the things you notice if you just stop everything your doing and just look around your surroundings.

My 100 Day Hardmode Cons/Struggles:

• Like I said before my libido is non existent currently. I attribute this to being in a less severe flatline. Deep down I know this temporary so it doesn't bother me.
• I am currently struggling with leakage problems. Whenever i sit for long time or use the bathroom i notice some leakage sometimes. Trying to combat this with Kegel exercises so we'll see if that helps.
• Struggle with joint pain and my joints cracking constantly. I also attribute this to being in a flatline but this really hurts my gym performance.
• Main issue I have is insomnia. For the past month or so I have not gotten a single night of consistent good sleep and really effects my motivation and work performance through out the day. I have taken many sleeps aids for this but nothing has helped. Hopefully time will alleviate this.
• Constant barrage of negative thoughts. I find myself constantly in a negative thought pattern. Being aware has helped this but I still struggle every now and then.

My Tips/Tricks That have Helped Me to 100 Days Hardmode
I will get the basic stuff out of the way first that everybody says as I feel that it is important to reinforce these ideas and to say they actually work.

• Cold showers are a must on this journey. They are great way to build discipline, kill urges when you have them, and are a healthy source of dopamine. Also, cold water is better for your skin health so that's a plus
• Meditation daily. I know everybody says this but meditating daily really does help with urges, flatlines, and discipline. I emphasize doing it daily because it reinforces disciplinary habit in your brain. Even if you just meditate for literally 2 mins a day that in my opinion is better than meditating 1-2 times a week for longer sessions. I will go into this further below about a book that really helped in my journey but I believe that small habits done daily no matter how small/short they are trump doing something inconsistently for longer periods.
• Please learn to forgive yourself and not be so harsh to yourself. I know I preached above about doing habits daily but there even days where my routine falls apart and don't get to do the habits I should do and that's ok. Looking back at my previous attempts a big mistake I made was whenever my routine fell apart or if I would relapse, I would beat myself up and make myself feel even worse perpetuating a violent cycle that was hard to break free from. Sorry I can't really say how I learned to do this but I guess it just comes with constantly failing and experience.
• If you are going to embark on this journey you must discover your strong why/purpose for doing no PMO. This is absolutely crucial that this purpose is something not surface level but something deep within your soul that by quitting PMO you will achieve this purpose/goal. I know this is not easy to discover and it literally took me years to discover my purpose for doing Nofap, but it crucial that you discover what that purpose is and write it down and carry it on you at all times. I literally carry a small pocket book with the reasons of why I am doing Nofap and I pull it out daily or when I am feeling down to remind myself of why I am doing this. I assure you this will get you through the rough times of flatlines and when your mind plays tricks on you saying this is not worth it. It is worth it, I assure you.
• During my early days like around days 20-50 I would take supplements that would help me cope when the flatlines were real bad. I know some people are mixed about taking supplements on NoFap but I had to function at my job. The main thing I took was ProVanax which is mental calmer/mood booster. I only took it during the lowest lows of my flatlines to function enough to get through my days. I don't take it anymore as the flatlines do get better over time and I didn't want to become dependent on drugs to feel better all the time. If you need something to get you through those lows ProVanax helped alot.
• Turn off all screens atleast 1 hour before bed, preferably 2 hours before bed if you can. This will help you sleep a lot better when you are not bombarding your eyes with blue light right before bed. Also, for me atleast I feel like my anxiety went down when I wasn't looking at my phone right before bed. To combat the boredom of not using screens before bed I usually read a book before bed to ease into sleeping. Even when I don't have the motivation to read a book I usually turn to reading comics and manga to help fall asleep. A lot better than starting at your phone.
• This is one of the most important points that I must emphasize, but during this journey you have to stay busy constantly. I'm not saying that every waking moment should be filled with doing busy tasks, you can have some free time doing nothing here and there. But a majority of your time should spent doing something. I can make the argument that the activities you do don't even have to be productive such as playing video games or watching tv just so as long as they are better than PMO. Now you should replace even these activities with better ones but I understand all to well how hard it can be to motivate yourself to do anything while on NoFap so that's why I think they are good way to spend your time early in your journey. I never understood the saying "Idles hands are the devil's workshop" until I committed to my no PMO journey but it is so true. When you cut out this bad habit you are left with all this free time on your hands. If you don't fill your time with anything else you are just going to go back to the 1 thing thing that gave you pleasure out of shear boredom. So please find something to fill your free time that you enjoy or remotely enjoy. Just so long as it is better than PMO.
• I do recommend going to the gym consistently. One mistake I was making was going to hard at the gym and over exerting myself. This was doing this during my really bad flatline periods and it actually had the effect of making my flatlines worse as was taxing my body and I didn't have the necessary resources to recover properly. So you just got to find the right balance between challenging yourself to improve at the gym but not so much so that you destroy your body making your withdrawal symptoms worse.
• Lastly, One book I recommend highly is atomic habits by James Clear. This book completely changed the way I approached my no PMO journey. In my previous streaks I would go into them with this all or nothing mindset of if don't beat this habit its all over for me and I would try to change to many things at once like cutting out sugar, video games, tv, etc. All this would ever do would just burn me out and crush my motivation which eventually lead to a relapse. To highlight the main points the book emphasizes being 1% better daily and practicing consistency over quantity and celebrating small wins. You don't have to be hot out of the gate with improving yourself just start with small things and be consistent about them. At the start of my journey I literally meditated for 1 min and went to the gym for 10 mins daily. That might sound dumb as you probably think that meditating for 1 min and going to the gym for 10 mins doesn't do anything but the point is to be 1% better every day. You are doing habits are so easy at first that they are impossible to not do and that actively rewires your mind slowly with good disciplinary habits. Being consistent no matter how small/little you do something is far superior than inconsistently performing tasks in larger quantities every time. If you follow this rule I promise you it will make your life easier. The point book emphasizes is celebrating small wins. I literally celebrate the wins I get whenever I make my bed, make food, brush my teeth, and other seemingly meaningless tasks I do daily but doing this keeps my motivation up for other task such as no PMO. I don't care how litte the win is I celebrate it. If you find wins in the task you do no matter how small they are your motivation will increase drastically I promise you.

I will end it there for now. I could go on longer but I don't want to bore you people with an entire novel lol. I just had to write this to show my appreciation for this community and to emphasize that benefits of NoFap are very real. If this thread helps 1 person even a little bit then I will consider this worth while writing. If you have questions please feel free to ask I will be happy to respond when I get the time. Thank you for reading

 

It is my absolute pleasure. Same to you man. Keep up the hard work. In the end it will be worth it I am sure of it. Thanks for reading my post.

 

Thank you for your kind words and taking the time to read my post. I hope it was helpful/inspiring in any way. Yes I am 4 months clean and doing much better. Not perfect but all in due time Best of luck to you my friend.

 

Thank you for taking the time to read my post. Hope it helps

 

Thank you, that means a lot to me. I am glad you found something useful in my ramble of a post lol. Hope it helps. Good luck my friend

 

Thanks for reading my post. That is an excellent question. I have had days where my libido will high for a couple hours and then go back to nothing. During those times I just take a cold shower and if I can't do that just meditate on it. Atleast for me meditation has made me more aware that high libido is natural and normal. I admit I get a uphoric feeling when I initially get spurts of high libido but just sitting with that feeling and becoming aware of it makes it eventually go away. I hope that helps. Sorry my libido hasn't fully come back yet so I don't honestly have a plan for that. When a make 6 month report maybe I'll have an answer for you. Good luck

 

Thank you for reading my post. This is going to sound strange but I don't do rest days. I do something daily in terms of weight training or cardio but I don't go 100% at the gym. I go about like 60-70% my max at the gym. I watched this Joe rogan video that highlights this point better than I can explain but I basically follow this. In terms of recovery I do yoga daily. Nothing to crazy like 5-10 mins daily but it helps alot. Yoga is also great for stretching your groan and relieving tension downstairs so there's that aspect as well. So basically don't do you max at the gym and do yoga afterwards and that's how I've kept exhaustion at bay. Hope that helps. Good luck my friend

 

Your welcome. This is just what I found that works for me. Whatever you find that works for you stick with it bro. I just like to fall back onto the philosophy of consistency. I used to kill myself at the gym and then be exhausted for a couple days and that killed my motivation so opt for doing less weight but more gym days. Progress is alittle slower but that's fine, I know I'm getting better and that's all that matters. Best of luck to you.

 

Lol that's awesome man. I'll definitely check out fully later. Thanks for replies it means alot. Best of luck