Long-term PMO: Sexual Exhaustion/Chronic Fatigue?

About a year and a half ago I came down with a case of what I believe to be exercise-induced overtraining, that has resulted in considerable fatigue and medical ailments. In my desperate effort to reclaim my health, I've been in-tune with some of my faults, and one of those that I see as likely compounding the problem is my long history of PMO.

I've been PMO'ing for 22 years now; for the better part of that time, it was more or less daily, sometimes twice a day. Over the last 3-4 years I've worked to control it and strictly limited it to once a day and to abstain a day or two a week, but the problems have continued. The longest that I have gone without PMO in that 22-year span might be 6-7 days.

Over the last few years, I've noticed myself having to mentally invest myself more in what I was watching to reach orgasm. My skin would sometimes feel raw and be desensitized. I would PMO on days when I wasn't physically up to it, but my mind told me I needed to. I have, for I would estimate 18-19 years, edged for at least an hour every single time.

During my ongoing bout with fatigue (which again, I don't think is directly caused by PMO) I have, despite cutting my PMO back to the lowest levels of my life, reached a point where both mentally and physically I am not aroused or sexually motivated. I have now abstained entirely for 8 days as of this writing. I have opened porn websites and feel no desire. My testicles have a dull ache/soreness, my flaccid member seems smaller. The last time I had sex with my wife, I could not even reach orgasm, and that's when I knew something was really amiss. I realize it's only been 8 days, but the aching and the lack of desire has actually increased each day, instead of improving, which is concerning.

My question is: can the effects of this act/addiction continue to worsen even when you have cut back? And how long has it taken some of you to notice any change in your body/mind once you stopped?

My scenario is challenging because my wife and I are TTC, so I cannot abstain from orgasm entirely, but I'm motivated enough by my fatigue to fully stop PMO at this point. I'm just hopeful/looking for assurance that fighting this urge off over time will actually result in positive effects.

 

No one at all?

 

PMO can definitely lead to a level of exhaustion.
Lets do some math:
22 years = 8030 days
8030 x 2 = 16060 ejaculations

Take in mind that these ejaculations were with porn where your body and mind get super excited.

If we were talking about vanilla sex it would be totally different. Different kind of chemical reactions occur when you are with your partner!

If you abstain from PM for one year you would have saved 730 ejaculations! 730 less abnormal dopamine spikes, 730 less iron grip, 730 less overstimulation of your brain.

All your O's will be from vanilla sex.

This will allow your body and mind to adjust.

It may take up to 2 years to completely level out.

But having a wife is in your advance!

I myself did 200+ days hardmode with only a couple of times of sex.

Since then I mastrubate every 1 or 2 weeks to memories.

Try the 90 day challenge. No PM!

 

4 weeks ago I edged for over an hour, my dick went flaccid and still I continued. Got it up again and O’ed really hard, woke up the next morning with numbness down there, freaked out cause I thought I had really ruined it for good this time! Needless to say the next weeks was suicidal!
I decided to do nofap hardmode, combined with kegel, meditation and body weight training. 21 days clean now, can get hard whenever, horny most of the day.
No doubt we are different and respond differently to nofap, but one thing is clear: it will work given enough time amd energy. You just have to believe in it and stay positive!
I would suggest visiting an urologist to get your nether region checked for anything wrong anatomically!

 

Thanks, fellas. As noted in my OP, I've had some other health issues that are ongoing (presumably hormone and neurotransmitter imbalances from overdoing it with exercise but undiagnosed). But I've noticed in the last 4-5 months it's a harder struggle to mentally and physically "get up" (not get it up) for PMO. A few weeks back I began to have semen leakage almost immediately when I would start to PMO, and then my balls began to get sore. It was then I knew something wasn't right.

I'm not suggesting I don't have an unhealthy addiction to porn, but I don't know if the sexual exhaustion is a result of itself or a result of brain chemicals already out of balance from other things.

Does the depth of the addiction generally give some clues as to how long it takes to reboot? Since I've wanted to stop and can't, that automatically qualifies it as an addiction, but unlike others, it never ruled my life, isn't on my mind when I'm not PMO'ing, hasn't affected my real sex life, and hasn't resulted in any strange fetishes or increasing need for hardcore material.

 

May I ask, do you possibly know how the dick would get flaccid from fapping to porn? Is it similar to flatline? It happened to me.

 

It could be exhaustion, you do it too much, you got tired. Takes a while to go back to normal, couple of days to about a week.
It could be because of your tolerance to porn build up. Now the normal stuff just won’t cut it, and you cant get hard! You proceed to watch increasingly extreme stuff!
Worst case: the death grip and edging for hours have injured your wiener. Something is wrong anatomically (venous leak for example). Needs an urologist to make assessment, recovery is uncertain, lifelong ed is a possibility. Im sure this is still controversial, but there is an increasing number of cases (I used to frequent PEGym and the penisenlargement forum).

 

The death grip bro.. during the first days of my nofap journey i felt my D really beat up and injured.
I dont think it can lead to permanent damage but visit a doctor in any case.

 

It takes much longer than 8 days of PMO abstinence to rewire your brain. I'd advise you to stop watching porn and have sex every second day if your wife is TTC. There's a good study about effects of abstention on sperm quality and it isn't positive. Sperm count substantially increases with duration but it's quality decreases a lot -> https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5714597/
Do full monk mode reboot when your wife gets pregnant for at least 3 months, but from my own experiences (17 years of daily PMO binges), you should aim for +6 months. The middle ground would be 3 months of complete abstinence (monk mode) then start having sex but eliminate P and MB from your life.

Limiting PMO use will not do the trick because your brains are addicted to PMO. There is something called negative delayed gratification effect with addiction. If you'd say I'll limit PMO to once a week, you'll crave 6 days to get your "reward" on the 7th day. This process would only reinforce your compulsive addictive behavior. So don't do it. Moderation is not the way to go if you're addicted.

I hope this helps.

 

I personally never had a death grip, and never got into any extreme porn. It's always been very vanilla/real-life type stuff that was of interest to me.

 

Well then you are probably just exhausted! A couple of weeks should do it.
What I don’t get is why you still wank on porn even tho you can have sex with your wife. I’m still a virgin so maybe there’s something I have not yet understand! Care to share???

 

1) As most married men know, their sex drive and that of their wives do not match, so the void is filled with MO
2) porn is addictive
3) my wife has health issues that don't permit frequent sex, which gives further rise to #1 and #2

 

Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place!
Would definitely recommend you do the 90-day whenever possible! You might start seeing result as early as during the 2nd week!

 

So the worst case can't ever recover? How do i know if I even have a venous leak? Does the penis shrink to a micro size?

I had two semi erections, while standing after my albeit sudden overnight onset of my dick appearing smaller with less bloodflow. I am frequently bored by life (dopamine desensitization?)

I've been to a urologist who just wanted to give me a PCP who actually didn't know what a venous leak was and thought I was physically yhealthy down there.

I still think my problem is PIED. Oh and my libido is gone.

 

Like I said this is still very new, not many studies have been done. All information I could find is unverified, most of them are stories on forums.
Go to an urologist and have your D examined for blood flow (doppler ultrasound scan, I think).
But not before doing the 90-day challenge, which you are, right? It could just be exhaustion, lost libido during a flatline...
Even if it’s permanent, there are still more intrusive solutions. Implants, for example. Cost quite a bit tho.

 

I might even do a longer challenge than just 90 days. I think mine's severe. I just have a feeling it's PIED especially because of how the mental side effects are just bad like brain fog, low motivation, etc.

 

I should add that I recently started an SNRI that is known to decrease libido. I figure that could work to my advantage in reducing my desire to even want porn or MO while my brain heals itself. Usually by 9 days the craving is overwhelming. At this point the desire is still long gone. So we'll see how it goes.

 

Good luck to you and your family man, hope you successfully reboot and quit porn for good!

 

How would one know if they had a deathgrip scenario? Shrinking of the dick and lack of bloodflow or is this still an unknown thing?

 

Those are some symptoms!
Bruising at the base of the tip, deformities, soft gland which you’ll know upon touching...