Recovery thread get94

Hi all,

First off let me introduce myself. I am a 26 year old guy from England.
I've been on nofap for approximately 9 years, had a few long streaks 90+ days where I felt immense benefits. However, in recent years I have found my streaks to only last a few weeks at a time and then I end up giving in the to the addiction and binge for a week or so.

With these binges I noticed my mood and attitude declines in the immediate days after. For example I will feel much more social anxiety and lack of motivation following the binge. Obviously I want to avoid these feelings and have more free time to study and work on myself e.g. Gym and socialise (although socialising is limited in these times of Covid-19).

The intention of this thread is to update my daily progress and log any changes in my day to day life that I believe can be at least partly attributed to nofap.

Best,
Get94

 

Day 6:

The last few days I have been trying to avoid any easy dopamine fixes. The reason for this is if I do an activity that releases lots of dopamine, like drinking alcohol or video games, I then end up craving more of this type of activity until I end up watching....well you know what.

I exercise most days (weights and running) this helps to remove any excess energy and I end up sleeping a lot better. I also find that by avoiding these easy dopamine releases I am more motivated to work harder in my job (analytics) and also work harder to study things I like in my spare time.

Peace.

 

Day 8:

Recently because I've been cutting down on easy dopamine fixes e.g. Netflix, random YT videos, I have found myself a lot more motivated to do things that are beneficial for me like Yoga every morning.

This is also probably down to not watching P, I normally start to feel better after several days.
Brain fog is already starting to go away and I'm feeling less anxious.

Most of this journey I believe is about forming healthy habits which encourage healthy behaviors and therefore reduce the risk of you slipping back in to what can almost be described as a P routine, whereby you end up watching P everyday.

When I mention healthy behaviors, I mean activities that don't provide easy hits of dopamine, as once you start doing these your brain craves for more and more easy hits until you find yourself once again in a weak enough state to give in to watching P.
I believe that by being disciplined in your day to day life you will stop yourself craving all these easy dopamine hits, that for me personally end up in eventual relapse.

Best.

 

Day 12:

Been keeping very busy which has kept me on the straight on narrow.
I have also avoided my phone as much as possible, this was my main trigger as I would normally start sexting someone I knew or using dating apps which always lead to P.

I was super tired on day 11 so that might have been a bit of a flatline. In order to help combat the flatline I have been going bed early in order to get as much high quality sleep as possible to help with the recovery.

I highly recommend using something that allows you to plan each day e.g. a whiteboard or a journal. This will allow you a sense of accomplishment when you tick of one of your daily tasks e.g. to exercise or read etc.
This will also ensure you know what to be doing whenever you have some spare time, so you can carry out the tasks you need to instead of ending up procrastinating and ending up watching P.

Best,

 

Day 15:

Since I last updated, the last few days were a bit tougher. I think I was hitting a flatline. The reason I think that is because I was feeling very flat, however, yesterday I started to feel better.
I'm starting to feel slightly more confident but I know when in and out of a flatline,this can quickly turn to extreme anxiety as your brain chemistry is really out of equilibrium.
I'm keeping up with my healthy habbits which is making this journey feel more enjoyable and giving me better discipline.

Best,

 

Day 19:

Things are starting to improve in terms of my overall mood, it does swing throughout the day. For example I can feel amazing at one point and totally flat the next, but as an overall trend I'm starting to feel better and better. Social anxiety is also decreasing and my concentration is much better than it would be if I was still watching P.

As a bit of backstory to my nofap history, I have known about nofap for around 8 years and had a couple of 50+ streaks. However, In recent times I kept relapsing every few weeks and that relapse would be quite a severe binge for a few days.

I feel like because my binges could be a few hours at a time I will still need a good time to heal despite being on nofap for so long. Hopefully though because I haven't been using P anywhere near as much as I could have been over these last 8 years that I won't need as much time to heal in comparison to the potential worst case scenario.

I'm keeping to a very healthy routine and that seems to mean I have very few urges. I really believe you must have a disciplined lifestyle in order to successfully navigate a nofap lifestyle.

Best,

 

Day 24:

Been keeping very busy and starting to have a more consistent mood, not so much changing from one moment to the next. Also my anxiety is way down, in the first couple of weeks of a streak i would get very anxious at certain times, probably because my brain was in a constant flux with it not getting its normal dopamine fix.

Trying to not focus on the days so much but keep to my healthy routine.

Best,

 

Day 28:

Hi all. Still in a flatline. Hopefully that will start to subside as I am feeling a bit low.
Need to keep up the good habits and ride it out.

Best,

 

Nice one man keep going strong!

 

Day 30:

Pleased to hit day 30. Keeping up my healthy routines, my mood is still all over the place.
Sometimes wake up feeling terrible but by lunch time feeling good, so in general I have much stronger emotions but obviously its not pleasant when the feelings are negative.

Keep strong everyone!

 

Day 1:

Unfortunately I broke my streak last night, got in to a conversation with a girl I've been on a couple of dates with.
Ended up fapping, luckily there wasn't much edging and I didn't watch any P, however, still disapointing.
Talking to girls via my phone is my trigger point and therefore I know now not to talk to any girls via text whilst abstaining.

Stay strong everyone

 

Day 1: Went over a month no P but ended up relapsing yesterday.

Am going to be super strict and not engage in anything sexual, also looking to cut down on sugar and live as healthy as I possibly can.

Let's do this!

 

Day 1:

Really messed up last night, binged on two occasions.

This really is it, no more using stress as an excuse to relapse.
I have deleted all dating apps which tend to lead me to sexting and then PMO.

I am going to stick to a very healthy routine and never PMO again, its not worth it.

All the best everyone. Will try check in everyday.