Why does fapping/porn increase anxiety levels?

I think this is because of the "highs" that porn makes you experience. It's like a drug in the sense where it's a constant wave of using (up) and craving (down) this is why quitting makes you so anxious, your body is telling you that you NEED porn, you NEED that rush again because dopamine is related to survival and the dopamine rush you got from porn was higher than anything you would get in regular life.

 

Whats "in your head" is physical. We have free choice in terms of decision-making but "how we feel" isn't our choice. What we feel is physical-chemical-hormonal-biological. The physical should always come first: check for underlying conditions, such as with a full spectrum blood panel (hormones, thyroid, etc.); lose or gain weight and muscle; do aerobic exercise for cardiovascular health. Even socializing cannot be isolated from the physical well-being it brings, in terms of measurable chemical balances and interaction.

Meditation also changes the physical brain, but it doesn't have the power to rewire a brain that is being actively damaged by addiction. No medicine in the world can counter that. All you can do is stop the addicting behaviors that are creating the damage and then adopt new behaviors to support healing.

I know this doesn't answer your question directly, but I am sure you could browse YourBrainOnPorn and find more resources about anxiety. I just wanted to put this in context because Motivational Talk is a big problem in NoFap and literally does nothing. All that heals you is time spent away from PMO and engaging in healing, healthy lifestyles as a replacement.

Meditation is a wonderful practice to support healing. However it cannot counter-act PMO addiction alone. If you are actively doing PMO, you will lose a lot of your gains from meditation. It's like eating healthy but also injecting drugs. The drugs will win everytime. You have to stop all destructive addictive practices.

Health is like this overall. It's more about what you shouldn't do: don't smoke, don't drink, don't be obese, don't skip sleep, don't skip drinking water, etc. Don't PMO. If you can manage the basics, you are way ahead of the general population.