My psychiatrist told me that fapping is healthy and he said studies show that men who MO 21 times a month(or a year? I'm not sure I forgot) are healthy. This made me relapse when I got home. I don't know who to believe anymore. I want to believe him since he's my doctor but deep inside I want to experience NoFap benefits since my longest streak is only 8 days. I need some input on this.
Kevin, Masturbation is healthy in moderation. Most of the science detailed on this site is about the fact that pornography in particular is unhealthy. People choose to abstain from masturbation as well as pornography because masturbation can be a trigger to reach back to porn. In my opinion it is important to remember that sex and masturbation is ok, even healthy, but stopping masturbation for a period of time (like 90 days) can help you free yourself from porn addiction. It's up to you how to reboot. But there is little question as to whether masturbation is healthy. It is. Porn is the main issue.
Well, it's also been shown that semen retention has its own benefits, so there's that for not screwing oneself.
Here's the thing about what doctors/scientists "know" is healthy for you: it changes literally all the time. 50 years ago no one knew smoking or drinking while pregnant caused defects in the baby. In the past 10 years dietitians have swung back and forth between whether egg yolks are healthy or harmful for you. Today there are dozens of foods that certain studies have "proven" cause cancer while other studies "prove" that those exact same foods prevent cancer. The problem is that today every scientist wants to have a TED talk that proves some crazy new thing, and no one wants to take the time/money to have all these studies verified by further studies, and the media loves to sensationalize studies. A study that "suggests X may have a connection to caner" is sensationalized to say that "X causes cancer" but there is a big difference. Today we are just so prideful in our scientific advances that we think we can never be wrong, but scientists are wrong ALL THE TIME. My point is, if your psychiatrist says that masturbation is healthy today, 10 years from now he could say something totally different. Even the studies on the harmful effects of pornography are just BARELY starting to be taken seriously in the science world. Do what makes you feel the best. If quitting PMO entirely makes you life better, the way it has mine, then do it. If you just want to reboot 90 days and go back to MO, then go for it. But rest assured that of all the guys i've seen quitting PMO, none of them have ever reported negative health issues from quitting. Thinking that quitting M is "unhealthy" is a really great excuse for an addicts brain to believe to continue doing it, but I have yet to see any proof for that.
Who cares if MO is healthy for the population as a whole? (I say that to your doctor and others that seem to think it's important to reinforce that point.) The point is that you are here because you feel you need help and have a problem. MO is NOT healthy for you because it's a slippery slope. It may lead to P. At least in this stage, you need to put MO behind you. My daughter has food intolerances. Peppers and squash are good foods, healthy for the general population. But, for her, they make her sick. She's 2 and she woke up screaming one night, convinced there were spiders all over her skin. She cried for hours. It was a skin reaction from peppers. She literally felt something on her skin and at 2 interpreted it as bugs all over her. So peppers, regardless of being a healthy food, are NOT something she can eat! Right now, MO is for you like peppers for her. You gotta avoid it, man. My husband quit watching P 7 years ago, with a small number of short term relapses. But he was still MOing and fantasizing. And you know what? P still had a hold on him. Now, with more than half of a 90 day reboot behind him, he is starting to heal. The real argument people need to focus on here is not whether MO is healthy for the general population. It's the fact that it's not healthy for YOU. You need to stop MO and let the reboot do it's job. Best of luck to you.
apparently there isn't a consensus on this issue. I asked my doctor if there was any health related reason to masturbate. He smiled and said no. I believe him. When I hadn't masturbated for months, I would occasionally have wet dreams, I would have more motivation, etc. The mental health benefits were obvious. My doctor agreed and supported my decision to abstain not only from PMO but from MO.
