Hey everyone! Hope you’re all safe and doing alright.
I’m making this thread to know wether the following effects are related to porn addiction and excessive masturbation.
- Increased hair fall
- Receding hairline
- Decreased hair density
- Depression
- Social Anxiety
- Lethargy
- Restricted bowel movement
- Tiredness
- Irresistible urge to seek porn
- Nervousness, like very slight tremors.
I would also like to know if all these signs/symptoms would reduce or disappear upon stoppage? Thanks
1. The mental and sexual symptoms of porn abuse are becoming more evident everyday.
Depression, anxiety, low motivation, drowsiness, and compulsive porn use are extremely common. Check out all these articles for the growing evidence of porn related mental/sexual health issues
Are my sexual problems (ED, DE, low libido) related to my porn use?
Research confirms enormous rise in youthful ED
Studies linking porn use or porn addiction to sexual dysfunctions, lower arousal, and lower sexual & relationship satisfaction
Neuroscience-based studies on porn users and sex addicts
What are the symptoms of excessive Internet porn use?
Studies linking porn use to poorer mental-emotional health & poorer cognitive outcomes
Articles
These effects are most commonly dealt with by doing a reboot (
see rebooting basics page) and then rewiring, which takes 6-10 months on average when done correctly. However, the effects of rebooting can appear in as little as a week and then increase over time.
2. Social anxiety, nervousness around MOPS, and inability to initiate/maintain romantic sexual relationships is also extremely common. There isn't any hard scientific data on this link, but I think it's pretty obvious to see that if you spend all your time watching porn, you aren't going to get comfortable with women. If you spend 8 hours a day playing Madden, you aren't going to get drafted into the NFL; like with Madden and the NFL, porn and sexual activities are just completely different. Your mind subconsciously takes in cues and behaviors around you to help you excel in social/sexual situations; if you're getting all your cues from porn plots, you aren't exactly going to be a social butterfly or ladies man.
Getting your social mojo back is much less data driven and varies among all guys, but many guys who do NoFap after years of social/romantic isolation find themselves almost immediately flooded by the social and romantic interests of those around them. This change is often so sudden and baffling many in the community believe NoFap gives them sexual "superpowers", causing women to suddenly feel attracted to them and men sensing the NoFapper's superiority; this is why the semen retention and more "spiritual" NoFap communities exist. You don't actually gain superpowers from NoFap, but quitting porn turns the social/sexual parts of your brain back on, causing you to subconsciously become more outgoing AND receptive of the advances of others.
3. The physical effects of PMO (hair loss, weight gain, muscle atrophy, advanced aging, penile shrinkage, etc.) are believed to not directly correlate with porn use, and are likely a result of adjoining activities.
Change in penis size is easily attributed to your brain sending less blood to your dick because you've desensitized your neural pathways so much. Your dick isn't getting smaller, it's just less "filled up" with blood. This will go back to normal as you rewire after a reboot.
The other symptoms don't happen directly because of porn use, but because using porn for hours prevents you from eating healthy, getting exercise, and keeping your body generally healthy. It's more of a lifestyle thing than anything, and most porn users have a sedentary, unhealthy lifestyle. Terry Crews was addicted to porn and still struggles, and I don't think the physical effects are getting to him!
I will say this though:
The ultimate goal of any biological organism is to distribute its genetic material as much as possible. This means having frequent sexual activities, especially with NOVEL partners, is basically the most rewarding stimuli in existence that is not a drug. By watching novel internet porn for years, you have convinced your animal brain that you have been astronomically better at distributing your seed than any of your ancestors, and with minimal effort/health. Your animal brain, convinced it doesn't need to try at life to be extremely successful, has not pushed the rest of your body to its optimal or healthiest state. While there will probably never be a physical connection made between porn use and hair loss/atrophy/obesity/etc., I would venture to say you've basically convinced your body not to try at anything, and now you're starting to see the results.
The great thing though is that all the changes to your mind and body are 100% temporary. Learn what's happened with you, make a plan, and execute it. Thousands of guys have already, I'm sure you can too
Evolution has not prepared your brain for today’s porn
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