I am currently in day 35 of an almost 2 decade addiction. Before this streak I was on many streaks, first it was 3-5 days. Then it was streaks of 1-3 weeks. During my streaks I was able to get out of my PMO loops and had a lot of motivation. I believe it was because I was really proud to be able to start accomplishing Nofap. In this current streak after around day 30 all the benefit of productivity started to fade. The only benefit I have is not being in the PMO loophole. At the moment, after around 30 days my productivity has gotten worse. My scrolling mindlessly has increased. I am starting a new battle to increase better habits and productivity. The way I am doing it is by stacking wins as soon as I wake up. Start by cleaning my house as soon as I wake up. Not looking at my phone. This last days I feel that I was not productive because I convince myself that if I don’t PMO is a win and even if I don’t be productive I am making progresss. It is true but a war has manny fronts of battles. I am planning on doing my first 48 hour fast soon.
I don't know that a flatline ever interfered with my life. The fact that I have less/no libido really just opens up more space to focus on life. I did find that with that newfound space, I had no idea what to do with it, and since we live in the day practically free and actually infinite entertainment, I filled it with junk media. A lot of it educational youtube, but just stuff I never need to learn about. I've always had the notion of any knowledge that you will never put to use is functionally useless. And yet I spend much time learning such things. Not all bad, better than porn for sure. I'm just jealous of those guys who somehow miraculously come to that void and pour themselves into schooling, socializing, starting businesses, artistic projects etc. When ever I come across them it's like they've found the holy grail and are in a new reality. I just don't see that ever happening for me. Anyways, flat lines never really bothered me, just that I don't know what to do with myself. What becomes meddlesome is when the flatline starts to break and I start getting aroused at night and morning. then it starts to occupy my thoughts more and more when I have free time, which is the time I have to do more than my absolute responsibility.
Completely asexual Everything feels pointless Feel irritable, anxious, on-edge Feel like you're genitals are fake strap-ons You might have a big laugh with your friends but the second you're on you're alone, you feel empty again Other than coffee, and being around people you love – everything's meh... It's not so great!
I think you'd want to have a differential diagnosis of sorts with other stuff that might feel like a flatline and not just attribute it to fapping or not. It's kind of like depression, people get into that kind of state for different reasons. I think the only way talking about flatlining in this context makes sense is if peoples lives have no other context and PMO is the only variable, and even then you might be able to influence it with different things. It's easy to say nothing helps, and I'm not saying you're going to get the same high as PMO certainly, but there's a big difference between doing something here and there and not having the motivation to keep doing it vs. continuously for several weeks and then seeing whether it makes a difference.
It used to really bother me and I would zone out and distract myself with replacement behaviors like tv and youtube. Now I recognize that if I don't feel the pain and do actually productive things (get outside, exercise, do my work) I will not return to homeostasis and feel truly good ever again. So I am embracing it. If you feel bad, that is good. It means your body recognizes the imbalance and will try to get you back to normal if you let it.
day 62 everything just feels super blah and boring. Nothing feels really enjoyable. Also ZERO sexual urges and/or interest. Completely lifeless...gotta trust the process supposedly it will get better eventually from what I hear!
