***DISCLAIMER*** Copied with some modification from a post of reddit. Do you think a 90-day reboot at NoFap means struggling with being unbelievably horny for three months straight? Fitful sleep solved by pouring ice on your crotch and thinking of Betty White naked? Well, that's only half the struggle. The other half is quieter, but just as deadly. The other half is spoken about much less here at NoFap.com, but is just as intent on bringing you down. Of course, I speak of the flatline -- the death bringer. Are you about to start NoFap for the first time? Be forewarned! Somewhere in your cerebral gray matter it is waiting to descend and consume you. For some, going without porn for just a week can rise it from its sleep. For us who have used PMO since our earliest sexuality, it takes bit longer because our problem is deeper. For myself, 3 weeks into this streak I lost the wonderful powerful sexual energy that I love about myself. I became like an old man. An invalid. And it terrified me. What is the flatline? The flatline is your body wanting porn back. The flatline is the part of your brain that has enjoyed bathing in delicious dopamine for years on end. It's the part of your brain that is parasitic. It takes and never gives. And it loves this arrangement. The flatline doesn't give a shit about you. The flatline cares about one thing and one thing only: relapse. It wants you to freak out, to feel afraid, to run back into the arms of visual pornography, to check and make sure your dick still works, to end this horrible discomfort at any cost. And in the relapse, to take up the addiction again. The flatline is devilishly smart. It says this new NoFap practice is fundamentally scary (and it is). It wants the old you back, so it punishes you by giving you the sex drive of a 90-year old (and it will). And interestingly, the flatline is half right. If you run back into the dopamine-drenched arms of PMO, you will feel good again. Your brain will feel that good fire again. You will feel "normal" again. But the flatline is a liar. What it doesn't tell you is this: a significantly better you waits on the other side of this discomfort. And by willfully entering into this struggle, you will come out of the other end feeling whole again, but as a new person who is far sharper, stronger, and more emotionally connected to the world than you have ever known. Believe this: unbelievable riches await you beyond the flatline. You must not fear the flatline. The flatline is the mind-killer. The flatline is the little-death that brings total obliteration. We will face our flatline. We will permit it to pass over us and through us. And when it has gone past we will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the flatline has gone there will be nothing. Only we will remain. Stay strong and courageous.
