I am going through a flatline, and I am freaking out!

Consider this.... it will be worth it! Whether the flatline lasts for 20 days, 3 months, or 18 months... it will be worth it. One last note of motivation... the more reboots you attempt the longer the reboot flatline lasts. My first reboot lasted 30 days. I'm on my 3rd reboot attempt and it now takes more than 60 days of flatline... if not longer. The brain's response to a change in stimulus gets "confused" when the process gets interrupted with the old stimuli. Future reboots cause the brain to keep the "old" and non desired neuron connections active longer because in previous attempts to extinguish those neuron pathways it turn out that they were needed again when the person fell off the wagon and went back to PMO. The most effective way to fully extinguish those unwanted PMO response pathways is to not use them at all anymore... ever. Using those pathways again by a relapse makes them harder to extinguish in the next reboot.

 

This site tends to fixate a lot on neurological problems (when your only tool is a hammer...) but your cardiovascular health also plays a part. There's no blood pumping down there.

Exercise. Hydrate. There's a reason rehab programs encourage patients to do manual labor. This will provide you some of the endorphins and dopamine you're craving, *and* ensure your junk doesn't atrophy. Win-win for you!

 

I agree with paragun. Exercising, especially weight training will boost your testosterone levels. When you do this consistently over time, your levels will go up. Stronger morning erections and such. I have not done the best job at this, but you will be fine.

I think a problem for a lot of us is we are very much in isolation. Relax, you're going to be okay.

One day at a time, buddy. Refocus your time to improvement and keeping busy.

 

I've been in a flatline for over four years now and my experience tallies with what @Don't Do It! said above.

Every relapse makes the following reboot take even longer, you don't just go back to zero, you go below that. I should add though that every time I relapsed it would always be a one or two day binge followed up by a couple of shorter streaks whilst trying to get back on track, had those relapses just been more of the "slip" variety then there's a good chance they wouldn't have had such a drastic effect on recovery time.

For reference, when I first started, I managed a two month streak and by the end I was out of the flatline, sexually at least. Morning wood was there every day, libido returned and erections were 100%, that lasted about a week until I relapsed. Since then I've been on tons of 30-45 day streaks, a 4 month streak and now a 5 month streak and I'm still not anywhere near recovered. There have been a few signs of improvement recently so I think I'm past the deepest point of the flatline but still expect it to take a few more months yet at least. It's not even so much the sexual side of the flatline that bothers me, it's the flat feeling in general that is hard to deal with on a day-to-day basis.

 

Did that which I've bolded, ever alleviate during any of your later streaks?

 

To clarify, you have been clean - no pmo for 4 years straight and are in a flatline?

 

No, that's just how long I've been in it. My longest streak in that time is the one I'm on now which is 5 months but I've also had a 4 month streak, a 2 month streak and countless 1 month streaks. The only time I came out of the flatline was on the 2 month streak but that was 3 years ago now and was one of my first real attempts at reboot, now it takes much longer.

 

Only slightly, like going from 0/10 to 2/10. It's like I can see the desire in the distance now but it's not reachable yet. When I relapse it disappears completely.

 

So let me ask you. Are you OCD? Are you obsessing about it all the time like me? Do you think maybe reading about the flatline made this "flatline" worse? How old are you and what are you flatline symptoms?

 

32.

Of course I think about it a lot, it's difficult not to when you know there is something deeply wrong with you, that plus battling an ongoing addiction which is difficult enough as it is.

My symptoms are all the typical ones. Low mood, low energy, low drive, no joy, no libido and so on. With respect, if you're going to start going down the road of telling me that it's all in my head or that the flatline isn't real then I'm not going to get drawn into that. This all happened to me literally overnight, before I even knew anything about nofap or the long-term effects of porn. I know how I feel post relapse and I know how I feel now, I know I'm slowly getting better and one day the flatline will lift - at which point I will post back here. I recovered sexual functioning once before so I know what works and what doesn't. My brain has been neurochemically altered due to years of blasting it with a supernormal stimulus and the only healer for that is time.

 

I'm sorry if I made you think I am going to say it's in your head. My problem is, I have lost 30lbs the past year as a result of trying to quit in 2020. I am 34. I am at a constant conflict with myself and quite honestly, I have had testosterone checked, been to a psychiatrist, porn addiction therapist, sex therapist. All of which I sometimes think has made things feel worse for me than it actually is. I really do not know.

I've over analyzed everything, and I have seen my own life change over time. It is very very scary and I think that is why I contact you. I too have felt depression and anxiety. I am anxious every single day and somehow am still alive. I have had TMS therapy to bring me out of my rut. But, maybe its my age. I worry I am permanently scarred and won't ever recover or be normal again.

 

And yet, do you have any thoughts why we are being pushed so far back in recovery time after good streaks? After all, in theory, long strips should have a cumulative effect. But with every relapse on a long streak, we fall even worse than before

 

I like what you said there from Dopamine Nation. It follows/matches my experience through several reboot. I'm doing my 4th reboot and this WILL BE MY LAST because I'm Not Going Backwards... EVER.... AGAIN.

 

Yes, that's really the case. It takes longer amount of time in total, and the flatline is also longer with each Reboot attempted. It's a bummer this is the case, but it is. The neurological pathways in the brain that get newly established when we begin using Porn as the inbound stimuli are different pathways from the normal way we are wired to receive stimuli from physical touch alone, experiences with a real partner, etc. When we go through the first reboot, it doesn't take much time for those newest Porn pathways in the brain to reduce in significance and return to using the ones we were born with. The more we go back to re-use those porn pathways, the stronger they get and the more confused the brain gets on which ones to listed to for producing an erection and normal sexual response. That confusion makes it take longer and longer in time to reboot.

 

18 days, getting slight thoughts of 'having a look'. Thinking about my fav ladies on the internet. But my brain and attention is in demand at the moment. I need my mind to be in good working order. No physical arousal, just thinking it would be pleasurable to view, and we all know what that leads to.