NoFap thread srs - Finally breaking this

[Cleveland33]

Dear Diary,

My life is a goddamn mess

[artdecade]

Day 60 (continued) - Feeling unbelievably horny this evening. I want to phuck so badly. True sexual frustration. It's the sorta overpowering feeling that can leave a man despairing. Just want to clap some cheeks smh.

But need to remember: this is the feeling I've been chasing. It's this exact feeling that will fuel my pursuit of a better life. For it to be a positive boost to my life I need to untie this feeling from self-pleasure and channel it into other avenues. My mindset needs to be: feel horny > do something increases my odds of sex. This obviously could be direct, go somewhere that girls are at. It can be the fuel to look good, take care of my appearance and pride in my clothes etc. Or it could be a bit more separated from sex, for example it could be used to fuel work ethic, via the logic that making money or increasing status will lead to sex etc.

This is sexual transmutation, at least how I understand it, and it is basically the secret to any successful man. Can you channel this energy into something other than immediate pleasure? Since puberty I've never let this energy build up and so I'm not used to it. It's relatively uncomfortable, especially if you drive yourself crazy by dwelling on the fact that there's no biches around, but I imagine once you start using it as fuel for other activities one's perception of it changes.

To wish it away would be missing the point. This is what I've been chasing.

The benefits come from the reversal of addiction related brain changes, that I firmly believe. I'm not particularly interested in new agey chit like semen retention. But I do believe that horniness is potent energy that can be channeled into other areas. That seems undeniable

[shmobin]

It is undeniable that you're an incel.

[artdecade]

It is undeniable that you're an incel.

Lmao you clearly don't know what that word means

[PatchouliMusk]

It happens mane, don't be too harsh on yourself. Why don't you try focusing on just quitting pron and allowing masturbation at the moment? I really think that would be a good strategy for you

nothx

im more of a porn addict than a fap addict

it's just as easy for me to quit both than do just fapping

[shmobin]

Lmao you clearly don't know what that word means

Weird. You describe it perfectly.

[artdecade]

nothx

im more of a porn addict than a fap addict

it's just as easy for me to quit both than do just fapping

Yeah that's what I'm saying, pron is the issue so focus on that and leave masturbation at the moment. It will be more manageable.

But fair enough it's your call

Weird. You describe it perfectly.

Lol ok bro maybe read up on words before using them

[artdecade]

Day 61 - First things first I need to note that I engaged in masturbation twice last night, probably for a total of three minutes. The first time was when I was in the shower and the second after I got out and was laying on my bed. It likely comes as little surprise to people here as I said I was feeling extremely horny anyway.

But it does tell me I'm not as far along the recovery process as I thought I was. The urges felt pretty overpowering. I was eventually able to put the brakes on but there was definitely a tug of war going on - one that I could tell was straining my willpower. Fact it's now happened twice in the last few days is worrying.

I could have easily busted too. I was so pent up that I was close to the edge straight away. Busting would have really knocked the wind out of the reboot's sails and would have been a massive challenge to recover from. Took a major risk there.

So I need a plan to address this. One thing I can do is to not be naked so freely. After the shower I was just chilling nude for a while and I think that is a mistake, it definitely heightens urges. It’s such a cue for me to be naked on my bed in the evening that it shouldn’t be a surprise that the relevant pathways light up.

Another is the boredom factor. That's an issue that I’ve already spoken about this week and not done anything to address. I'm leaving my job tomorrow so I think this will be both easier and harder to combat. More free time so clearly there will be more boredom but I also think the freedom will allow me to pursue other activities. Worth being well aware of this either way.

The third factor, I'm sorry to say again, is dating apps. They were triggering me thanks to getting some matches. I matched with a 47-year-old milf (always a fantasy of mine) and this definitely made me horny. If I'm not ready to scrap the use of these apps completely then I at least need to implement some further control over them. To be fair, I am not compulsively using them as much but could still do with some discipline.

Hate writing about this here, it really cheapens the streak. But I do think it's a normal part of the recovery process and something any rebooter should be aware of. One of the unique aspects of pron addiction is that it overlaps with a basic need. With substance addiction there is never any real reason to engage in any of the core parts of your addiction. For pron addicts it is basically unavoidable, you are going to get horny and engage in some sort of sexual behaviour. Carefully disassociating sex with pron is an essential part of recovery, but it has to happen gradually

[artdecade]

Day 61 (ii) - Anyway, I'm feeling pretty good this morning. Despite being tired af (chit night’s sleep + had to be up early) I’m feeling a sense of vitality that is like a long lost friend returning. This has to be the sexual energy fueling me, making me feel more manly.

One minor experience to note that illustrates this. I was on the train this morning and a cute girl got on. She was a blue-haired, punky-looking bich probably in her early 20s. Not really my normal type but definitely sexy. She sat down opposite me. I was on my phone but I kept getting the sense that she was looking at me. Out of the corner of my eye I could see a lot of hair touching and had the feeling that her attention was on me.

This is not the first time I’ve had this experience. I don’t know why considering my self-esteem is usually pretty low but I do normally believe that random girls are attracted to me. Normally in a situation like this I would keep my head down. Why? I don’t know, really, anxiety mainly. Something terrifying about locking eyes with a stranger, something very vulnerable.

But this morning I looked over at her and we made eye contact. Nothing ridiculous but at least one or two seconds before she looked away, too long for the accidental eye contact that happens between strangers.That was it really, I went back to using my phone and left it. Didn’t want to overdo it. I actually considered going over and speaking to her, not a particularly serious consideration but an actual thought that would never cross my mind normally. She ended up getting off at the next stop anyway (inb4 she left because she was creeped out haha).

I actually had a similar experience yesterday evening too. As I was walking through the city on my way home I locked eyes with a girl coming the other way. Again, very minor, hardly worth discussing, but suggests a general trend rather than a one-off incident.

Probably sound like a psycho recounting these experiences but take it as a really encouraging sign. Whether she actually was interested or not is not really relevant, the fact that I was comfortable enough to do it is what counts for me. It definitely shows an improvement in social anxiety and confidence. Feeling a sense of freedom and fun in encounters like these rather than pressure is definitely one of my hopes for the reboot and my experience today (and yesterday) suggests it’s coming to fruition

[artdecade]

Day 61 (iii) - The above experience transitions nicely into a couple of thoughts I had last night. I’ve been watching Curb Your Enthusiasm for the last week or so, replacing YouTube watching with bingeing episodes instead (not the best change but still a slight improvement). Last night I was watching the episode where Larry goes on a date with a doctor (also the episode where he keeps saying the n-word just as a black person walks by haha). It sparked a couple of thoughts for me that I wanted to share.

One, the sense of fun that Larry gets from just talking. I know it’s a TV show but the way he gets humour and enjoyment out of small talk could not contrast more heavily with the way I typically feel about conversing. For me, it’s like walking through a minefield. The minute someone initiates a conversation with me, I am on edge. Pressured and threatened.

But this was not always the case with me (nor is it always the case now, there are moments/periods of the opposite). I remember times where I’ve found a similar level of pleasure just chatting chit with people. I have the capability of being a pretty funny guy and I love doing that. This ability has definitely been strained over the years, to the extent that I seriously thought I had completely lost it, but there are signs now that it’s been dormant rather than dead.

To link it with pron addiction, loyal readers of my journal (all two of you) will know what I’m about to say next. The reason socialising became scary rather than fun for me? Dopamine.

Quick rundown for newbies: Dopamine is the ‘go get it’ chemical in your brain. It’s what makes you ‘want’ to do something, being released at the moments when pleasure is anticipated (important - dopamine is not the actual pleasure molecule, that’s things like opioids or serotonin). All potentially addictive behaviours/substances are related to dopamine and their ability to stimulate the brain with more dopamine than normal. Addiction causes desensitisation (lowering of dopamine production and reduced dopamine receptors) meaning you experience less dopamine for every area apart from your addiction.

Desensitisation explains why socialising loses its fun when you’re an addict. The amount of dopamine being released (as well as your ability to feel whatever dopamine is in your system) has crashed. The ‘want’ to socialise has gone, or at least it’s too subtle for your overstimulated brain to register it. This leaves you unable to strive, unable to persist, unable to make effort because the mechanism for you to do so is not working properly. Think of some of the experiments they’ve done with rats. A rat that has had it’s dopamine blocked will not move. You put food, water or even a willing mate a few inches away from him and he will not make any effort to get them. If you ‘force’ the pleasure on him by placing the food in his mouth etc he can still experience pleasure but his ability to ‘desire’ or act upon that desire is gone. We’ve all heard of the carrot and the stick analogy but what happens when your desire for the carrot is gone? You’re left with nothing but the stick. Should come as no surprise that low dopamine is heavily linked with social anxiety and depression.

Having fun socialising, therefore, became harder for me because of this. The majority of social interactions take some form of build-up, some aspect where you need to push through. This could be things like engaging in small talk to find areas of shared interest or even asserting one’s boundaries to ensure a healthier relationship. The ability to feel the desire for the carrot (social acceptance/friendship etc) is decreased so you feel nothing but the stick (awkwardness/potential rejection etc).

Another thought I had whilst watching Curb. In the episode, thanks to a convoluted yet hilarious set of events, Larry accidentally takes Oestrogen pills. This results in him losing his ability to get an erection whilst hugging a woman (again, convoluted but hilarious) and sees him moping around, eating ice cream and reminiscing about his ex-wife. I couldn’t help relating to Oestrogen Larry. Him moping about his ex-wife certainly reminded me of how I act about my ex-girlfriend now and over the last two years.

It’s obviously a simplistic understanding of hormones but the idea that testosterone = being a man and Oestrogen = being a woman clearly does have merit.

A common myth thrown around the NoFap ether is that abstaining from pron and masturbation increases testosterone. It does not. Apart from a spike after seven days of abstaining, rates of testosterone do not significantly differ between men who are completely abstinent or regular ejaculators.

However, it is potentially true that the effects of testosterone are muted in pron addicts. I must admit the neurobiology of it is beyond my level but my understanding is that testosterone does it’s job in the body thanks to testosterone receptors in the brain, and those receptors are run on dopamine. Desensitisation of dopamine therefore could impair testosterone regulation resulting in addicts feeling less ‘manly’.

That may explain why my behaviour is more like oestrogen Larry and will be interesting to see how this changes over the coming weeks and months.

[Cleveland33]

Lol ok bro maybe read up on words before using them

nah he's got ya dead to rights - you are blaming porn for your problems but it is misplaced

[artdecade]

nah he's got ya dead to rights - you are blaming porn for your problems but it is misplaced

That's still not an incel bro even if that were true

[Cleveland33]

That's still not an incel bro even if that were true

no but everything you write in your daily journal here is classic incel

[artdecade]

no but everything you write in your daily journal here is classic incel

Lol ok brah

[Cleveland33]

Lol ok brah

lol ok schill

[4Bertuzzi4]

You have one solution to your problems, brah.

Time to Ibby max and pay 4 play. Get it all out.

[YouNeedJesusNow]

I commend everyone who is challenging themselves to be free from this addiction.

I've been on these challenges before counting each day but if you are depending on will power alone, eventually you will break and you will start the cycle again of failure, regret and disappointment.




If you want real freedom, you have to be at the point where days don't matter and don't have to count anymore.

In a few months I'll be roughly at my year mark and I have zero desire to go back to my former life, thanks through key bible verses and help from God through The Lord Jesus Christ.




I'm nobody special, anybody right now has access to this help if they are willing humble themselves, repent, turn to Christ in faith, believe and do his commandments through his word.





1 John 2:17

“And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”

[artdecade]

I commend everyone who is challenging themselves to be free from this addiction.

I've been on these challenges before counting each day but if you are depending on will power alone, eventually you will break and you will start the cycle again of failure, regret and disappointment.




If you want real freedom, you have to be at the point where days don't matter and don't have to count anymore.

In a few months I'll be roughly at my year mark and I have zero desire to go back to my former life, thanks through key bible verses and help from God through The Lord Jesus Christ.




I'm nobody special, anybody right now has access to this help if they are willing humble themselves, repent, turn to Christ in faith, believe and do his commandments through his word.





1 John 2:17

“And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”

Appreciate your comment and congratulations on nearing the one year mark.

Faith is undoubtedly powerful and can be very helpful but I think it's misguided to imply it's necessary to overcome an addiction.

Plenty of atheists and agnostics have beat their addiction issues

[Cleveland33]

Day 61 - First things first I need to note that I engaged in masturbation twice last night, probably for a total of three minutes. The first time was when I was in the shower and the second after I got out and was laying on my bed. It likely comes as little surprise to people here as I said I was feeling extremely horny anyway.

But it does tell me I'm not as far along the recovery process as I thought I was. The urges felt pretty overpowering. I was eventually able to put the brakes on but there was definitely a tug of war going on - one that I could tell was straining my willpower. Fact it's now happened twice in the last few days is worrying.

I could have easily busted too. I was so pent up that I was close to the edge straight away. Busting would have really knocked the wind out of the reboot's sails and would have been a massive challenge to recover from. Took a major risk there.

So I need a plan to address this. One thing I can do is to not be naked so freely. After the shower I was just chilling nude for a while and I think that is a mistake, it definitely heightens urges. It’s such a cue for me to be naked on my bed in the evening that it shouldn’t be a surprise that the relevant pathways light up.

Another is the boredom factor. That's an issue that I’ve already spoken about this week and not done anything to address. I'm leaving my job tomorrow so I think this will be both easier and harder to combat. More free time so clearly there will be more boredom but I also think the freedom will allow me to pursue other activities. Worth being well aware of this either way.

The third factor, I'm sorry to say again, is dating apps. They were triggering me thanks to getting some matches. I matched with a 47-year-old milf (always a fantasy of mine) and this definitely made me horny. If I'm not ready to scrap the use of these apps completely then I at least need to implement some further control over them. To be fair, I am not compulsively using them as much but could still do with some discipline.

Hate writing about this here, it really cheapens the streak. But I do think it's a normal part of the recovery process and something any rebooter should be aware of. One of the unique aspects of pron addiction is that it overlaps with a basic need. With substance addiction there is never any real reason to engage in any of the core parts of your addiction. For pron addicts it is basically unavoidable, you are going to get horny and engage in some sort of sexual behaviour. Carefully disassociating sex with pron is an essential part of recovery, but it has to happen gradually

this is hilarious

[artdecade]

this is hilarious

Damn bro you're obsessed with this thread

[Cleveland33]

Damn bro you're obsessed with this thread

kudos dude, you're clearly writing this fot for attention

[PatchouliMusk]

I commend everyone who is challenging themselves to be free from this addiction.

I've been on these challenges before counting each day but if you are depending on will power alone, eventually you will break and you will start the cycle again of failure, regret and disappointment.




If you want real freedom, you have to be at the point where days don't matter and don't have to count anymore.

In a few months I'll be roughly at my year mark and I have zero desire to go back to my former life, thanks through key bible verses and help from God through The Lord Jesus Christ.




I'm nobody special, anybody right now has access to this help if they are willing humble themselves, repent, turn to Christ in faith, believe and do his commandments through his word.





1 John 2:17

“And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”

Yea this is pretty much why I quit trying so hard to remove addictions and instead plan on letting them go naturally. Half of my porn/fapping was from habit, not lust. So I just fap whenever I'm horny and that alone has cut my addiction by 70%+. Now i'm continuing to find internal reasons to cut down even further, or even quit. But i'm letting it come naturally instead of forcing it

[artdecade]

kudos dude, you're clearly writing this fot for attention

Haha definitely brah

[Cleveland33]

Haha definitely brah

yeah we know - you don't just randomly show up in a dying gay Indian bodybuilding forum to randomly start your no porn diary.

[artdecade]

yeah we know - you don't just randomly show up in a dying gay Indian bodybuilding forum to randomly start your no porn diary.

Lmao why not?

[artdecade]

Day 62 (i) - Sadly I have to start off by, once again, admitting that I did engage in masturbation last night. I was good all evening, didn’t really have any urges, but it suddenly hit me when I was in bed about to go to sleep. I did it for about 30 seconds and then stopped. After I had serious urges to continue but I resisted.

The triggers I spoke of yesterday were still there. The dating apps definitely do put me in a sexual state of mind. When I first started doing it was actually to Bumble but I closed it after 2-3 seconds (even in that state I recognised that this would be significantly worse) and just did it with no stimulation. So many of the pics are suggestive af which, don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about but it really does basically amount to (very) softcore pron sometimes. Then when you get a match it’s basically unavoidable not to imagine phucking them. I know I keep talking about it but I have to be clear about how it seems to be impacting the reboot.

Another trigger though, which I didn’t recognise yesterday, is tiredness. I have had terrible sleep this week, basically getting six hours at most each night, and that has resulted in me feeling really worn out. I believe it has impacted my mindset. Neurobiologically, tiredness weakens the frontal cortex meaning I’m not exerting the same level of self-control and have less ability to delay gratification. By the end of the evening I am knackered but, because I have been getting home later than usual this week, I have felt the desire to stretch out the evening. The cumulative effects of this are certainly taxing my frontal cortex, and therefore my ability to make sensible decisions and resist urges.

That shouldn’t be an issue for long. Today is my last day at work and so there should be no reason why I can’t be well rested from now on.

For those who haven’t read my previous posts, it’s worth reiterating that I am actually not personally too concerned with masturbation. I believe pron is the issue and so, in theory, I don’t have any problem with moderate masturbation. However, I have learnt that for me masturbation is the first domino in eventually relapsing back to pron so I made the decision to completely remove it. There’s also some suggestion that guys who remove masturbation recover quicker from pron addiction than those who don’t.

I need to draw a line under this now. This week has been poor, three slip-ups with masturbation. It’s a worrying sign. There’s definitely a clear pathway for me now that results in me losing control of this habit and eventually (probably relatively quickly) falling back into the pron hole. I must ensure that I pursue a different one

[Cleveland33]

Yea this is pretty much why I quit trying so hard to remove addictions and instead plan on letting them go naturally. Half of my porn/fapping was from habit, not lust. So I just fap whenever I'm horny and that alone has cut my addiction by 70%+. Now i'm continuing to find internal reasons to cut down even further, or even quit. But i'm letting it come naturally instead of forcing it

the key is fapping even if you don't want to. It's discipline just like lifting.

[artdecade]

Day 62 (ii) - My last day at work started with a ****ing nightmare morning. I lost my wallet on the train, a wallet that held more than £100 of my birthday money in it. Absolutely gutting. It meant I was stranded with no money at all needing to get a bus. I was able to get emergency cash out from my bank but the whole morning was insanely stressful and painful.

One small silver lining is that I actually felt pretty good despite (or maybe even because of) the stressful situation I was in. I guess the adrenaline rocketed my testosterone up because I was feeling assertive. The best word to describe it would be that I felt more manly.

For example, I was standing waiting for the bus. Normally I feel ridiculously self-conscious. I feel people are looking at me (even if I logically know they aren’t) and I do not feel comfortable in my body, I sorta stand there meekly with my head down. Today, after all the stress, I could not give less of a ****. I stood there with my chin up and felt like the man tbh. In this state I caught glimpses of myself in the reflections of cars passing and I realised that I’m actually a good looking man. It could not have been clearer to me. It was a nice feeling within the midst of the chaos of it all.

It told me, once again, how my typical mood and view of myself is not based in reality. It is clearly malfunctioning in some way. There can be debate about what’s causing it, obviously my stipulation is pron addiction but others may say it’s a wider mental illness etc, but there can be no debate whether it’s actually legitimate. The reality is I’m an attractive guy with loads going for him. That has to give me a lot of hope, recognising that if I can get my internal hormones and brain chemistry to modulate itself properly then I will have absolutely nothing to worry about.

The experience has also piqued my interest in the potential role of testosterone in my overall mood. I’ve never considered it in too much depth before. As soon as I heard that the “quitting pron boosts testosterone” thing was a myth I basically dropped any interest in the hormone.

Yet there is a potential link, albeit far less direct than the typical understanding. Testosterone works in the body by attaching to testosterone receptors in the brain, signalling to the relevant area that testosterone should be released. The interesting thing is that these receptors rely on dopamine - and the mere use of this word should tell you exactly where I’m going to go next.

Since addiction causes desensitisation (low dopamine and low dopamine receptors) it is certainly plausible that testosterone is also impacted. If this is the case, it wouldn’t be that pron addicts have lower testosterone, it’s that the effects of the testosterone may be muted due to there not being enough dopamine production for the receptors.

It certainly would explain a lot of my behaviour over the years. Despite having no physical symptoms of low testosterone (the opposite actually), I often act timid, afraid of confrontation, depressed and ruminative (think oestrogen Larry from yesterday) etc. I do seem to lack some of the inherent ‘manly’ qualities that should come naturally, though I’ve had occasions and periods where I do (such as today).

Pron addiction’s unique potential (among other addictions) to impact the hypothalamus may be another factor. Due to pron addiction hijacking and rewiring innate sexual circuits, it does pose the question whether it affects the hypothalamus - a very primitive part of the brain responsible for basic functions such as sleep, hunger, body temperature etc as well as, importantly, sex. That would explain why so many guys go through the ‘flatline’, a unique symptom to pron addiction. It could be possible that an impacted hypothalamus would lead to testosterone dysregulation as this is one of the parts of the brain that controls the release of the hormone..

Or it may simply be all related to dopamine. Dopamine plays its part in typical ‘testosterone’ behaviours too so there’s no reason any other molecule or hormone needs to be involved (though, unavoidably, it is all related).

I want to note again though that I know jack chit about neurobiology really, basing my understanding on chit I’ve read over the last few weeks. I’m just trying to understand it myself rather than present my ideas as facts. It’s very likely I am misunderstanding, or at the very least drastically oversimplifying, complex concepts here. So don’t (not that any of you do haha) take my word for any of this. I’d actually appreciate it if anyone reading this with a better understanding of neurobiology could jump in and point out any chit I’m spouting, plus would love to learn more myself.

Whatever the explanation, I took the overall experience as an encouraging sign. There’s been progress this week in my general confidence, sense of wellbeing and overall demeanour. This latest experience seemed like a little sneak peak into the future, one where natural ‘manly’ feelings may become the norm

[Cleveland33]

Day 62 (ii) - My last day at work started with a ****ing nightmare morning. I lost my wallet on the train, a wallet that held more than £100 of my birthday money in it. Absolutely gutting. It meant I was stranded with no money at all needing to get a bus. I was able to get emergency cash out from my bank but the whole morning was insanely stressful and painful.

One small silver lining is that I actually felt pretty good despite (or maybe even because of) the stressful situation I was in. I guess the adrenaline rocketed my testosterone up because I was feeling assertive. The best word to describe it would be that I felt more manly.

For example, I was standing waiting for the bus. Normally I feel ridiculously self-conscious. I feel people are looking at me (even if I logically know they aren’t) and I do not feel comfortable in my body, I sorta stand there meekly with my head down. Today, after all the stress, I could not give less of a ****. I stood there with my chin up and felt like the man tbh. In this state I caught glimpses of myself in the reflections of cars passing and I realised that I’m actually a good looking man. It could not have been clearer to me. It was a nice feeling within the midst of the chaos of it all.

It told me, once again, how my typical mood and view of myself is not based in reality. It is clearly malfunctioning in some way. There can be debate about what’s causing it, obviously my stipulation is pron addiction but others may say it’s a wider mental illness etc, but there can be no debate whether it’s actually legitimate. The reality is I’m an attractive guy with loads going for him. That has to give me a lot of hope, recognising that if I can get my internal hormones and brain chemistry to modulate itself properly then I will have absolutely nothing to worry about.

The experience has also piqued my interest in the potential role of testosterone in my overall mood. I’ve never considered it in too much depth before. As soon as I heard that the “quitting pron boosts testosterone” thing was a myth I basically dropped any interest in the hormone.

Yet there is a potential link, albeit far less direct than the typical understanding. Testosterone works in the body by attaching to testosterone receptors in the brain, signalling to the relevant area that testosterone should be released. The interesting thing is that these receptors rely on dopamine - and the mere use of this word should tell you exactly where I’m going to go next.

Since addiction causes desensitisation (low dopamine and low dopamine receptors) it is certainly plausible that testosterone is also impacted. If this is the case, it wouldn’t be that pron addicts have lower testosterone, it’s that the effects of the testosterone may be muted due to there not being enough dopamine production for the receptors.

It certainly would explain a lot of my behaviour over the years. Despite having no physical symptoms of low testosterone (the opposite actually), I often act timid, afraid of confrontation, depressed and ruminative (think oestrogen Larry from yesterday) etc. I do seem to lack some of the inherent ‘manly’ qualities that should come naturally, though I’ve had occasions and periods where I do (such as today).

Pron addiction’s unique potential (among other addictions) to impact the hypothalamus may be another factor. Due to pron addiction hijacking and rewiring innate sexual circuits, it does pose the question whether it affects the hypothalamus - a very primitive part of the brain responsible for basic functions such as sleep, hunger, body temperature etc as well as, importantly, sex. That would explain why so many guys go through the ‘flatline’, a unique symptom to pron addiction. It could be possible that an impacted hypothalamus would lead to testosterone dysregulation as this is one of the parts of the brain that controls the release of the hormone..

Or it may simply be all related to dopamine. Dopamine plays its part in typical ‘testosterone’ behaviours too so there’s no reason any other molecule or hormone needs to be involved (though, unavoidably, it is all related).

I want to note again though that I know jack chit about neurobiology really, basing my understanding on chit I’ve read over the last few weeks. I’m just trying to understand it myself rather than present my ideas as facts. It’s very likely I am misunderstanding, or at the very least drastically oversimplifying, complex concepts here. So don’t (not that any of you do haha) take my word for any of this. I’d actually appreciate it if anyone reading this with a better understanding of neurobiology could jump in and point out any chit I’m spouting, plus would love to learn more myself.

Whatever the explanation, I took the overall experience as an encouraging sign. There’s been progress this week in my general confidence, sense of wellbeing and overall demeanour. This latest experience seemed like a little sneak peak into the future, one where natural ‘manly’ feelings may become the norm

dude porn isn't even top five of your issues; you're just making it a scapegoat

[artdecade]

dude porn isn't even top five of your issues; you're just making it a scapegoat

Ok brah