Loneliness: A Withdrawal Symptom?

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Early on in my NoFap journey I never thought I would be posting in the section on loneliness. I thought I was the sort of person that was confident and introverted enough that this would not be a problem - I've lived alone almost all of my adult life, including now, and I thought it was great.

This is my second attempt at NoFap. I am now on Day 47. I only relapsed once after 33 days on my first attempt, so I doubt that it set me all the way back to square one. I have been experiencing painful feelings of loneliness and sadness over the past 3 days or so - to the point that I have struggled to get much sleep. Has anyone else experienced this on their NoFap journey, somewhere between Days 45-80? If so, is it only temporary? Have I reached the point where the enemy has upgraded its arsenal since regular urges by themselves have proven to be ineffective?

Or, has PMO had such a grip on me, that I've been suppressing feelings that I had for years, using PMO as a crutch, and I really do crave relationships, both sexual and platonic? I am 26 and I have PMO'd since I was 15, about 2-3 times per week (I thought PMO was normal for so long).

What mitigation strategies are recommended for this loneliness? I am currently involved in an intense nuclear power operations training program at work, and I can't actively pursue any type of relationship for about 5 months. Giving up on NoFap temporarily is also out of the question. When I relapsed after 33 days, I was unproductive for 4 days. I can't afford that either.
 
Pure Energy said:
If so, is it only temporary?
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You are realtivily early in your reboot (less than 90 days) what you are feeling is impossible for us to assess due to the many neurological changes your brain is going through. Yes it probably is due to the suppressed emotions that PMOing has done to you. Now that you are just getting off porn/masturbation your emotions are now flooding you, at least that's what happened to me.

I use to be like what you said, alone. After I fully rebooted (I consider myself rebooted now) I started socializing with people and actually enjoyed talking to other people and realized I was an extrovert and loved going outside.

Unfortunately now I don't have many friends and am alone and very bored and I have many emotions I want to cry sometimes for all the things I have done in the past. I hate being alone unless I'm high or drunk.

Pure Energy said:
What mitigation strategies are recommended for this loneliness?
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Only you can determine that. After all you know yourself far better than we know you from a brief post on NoFap. The only thing I would recommend is stuff that works for me, such as drinking. Some may see drinking alone as negative, but there's nothing wrong with it unless you have alcoholic tendencies.

Hope that helps
 
What you may not have yet realized is the time you thought you were alone and enjoying it, you were not alone. You had PMO keeping you company and you were probably high on dopamine releases so your energy levels were always overinflated due to dopamine releases.

Now that you have stopped, the "company" you had (porn) is now gone and in addition to that you are not amped up on drugs (continual dopamine releases) so yes, you've always needed relationships with of some sort.

Until you have the ability to seek social relationships with the general public, create them with those with whom you are training as well as with those on NoFap. These relationships may sustain you temporarily while you are in training. Afterwards, begin to seek social interaction.

I would caution against seeking physical intimacy first as that may cause you to use that as a porn substitute in which you may use the person to have sex with the same way you used porn. If you choose to have physical intimacy with someone, I would suggest delaying that until you have established platonic relationships with men and women.
 
I've been okay with being myself and such since I was born. I picked up NoFap at the end of 2016 and have been on and off all year. Currently I'm on a streak of 13 days and I feel strong. During all my streaks, I never felt negative about being lonely or by myself. Those thoughts just aren't part of my daily life. Even with PMO in my life I feel the same about being lonely as I am on NoFap. That's just my experience. But you hang in there and you'll be fine. I'm sure it's only temporary. I suggest you keep focusing on yourself and improving yourself before searching for a partner.
 
Yes, amen brother. That's definitely something I've been experiencing as of late. Weekends are especially tough because my days are long and I get home from work and for some reason the loneliness is especially present so I've been making plans and making sure I have things to do till I'm so tired I just want to sleep ahah. Also I'm in college so my mind likes to tell me I'm a loser if I'm not out getting shit faced and hitting on hot chicks like the rest of the dudes on campus.
 
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