Hey @all, I'm new to the NoFap Community, and am not sure if this has already been posted. If it has, apologies! I'd love to read the thread! What's the hardest part in getting over PMO? I assume it's different for everyone, but if there are common themes I thought it would help start a health discussion. For me, I was so numb to bad feelings, I would go to PMO to self-medicate. It was hard to identify those bad feelings, and then just sit with them. THEN figuring out how to work through them in healthy sustainable ways. Whew. Boy-o. Would love to hear if there were any tips/tricks around this one, and other challenges in PMO that I might not be thinking about. Trying to be more proactive about this now.
The constant build up of semen which causes long lasting erections. Sometimes I can’t concentrate on an activity because I’m sexually aroused. That and having a higher sex drive but not being able to use it with a woman (at this point in time) makes it difficult.
Hey @devstudent89, Sex and nudity has been exploited by so many industries such as media, cosmetics, porn, magazines, movies, advertisement (car advertisement with attractive girls) etc. The biggest challenge will be to decide what to do when you come across a trigger (it will come in forms unimaginable, sometimes as advertisement, sometimes as instagram post, fb post, sometime as the girl next door, sometimes looking at some of the things, eg lingerie and many other weird things). You must say NO and not indulge in triggering thoughts. Because what starts as a spark soon turns into to a fire, eventually leading to relapse. So staying vigilant and responding differently is the biggest every day challenge in the recovery process. Be ready for that. Learning from your own mistakes, avoiding being alone, would be some other tips. Wish you all the best, keep fighting!
The hardest part of NoFap is flatline. It's very had emotionally to handle it. You are at the lowest point in recovery at the time.
I have been on NOFAP over 3 years and the hardest part is to just kill off that old version of yourself and to become the man that you desire to be.
Honestly, the hardest part for me was dealing with the constant memories of my favorite content. As time went on, I found myself obsessing over thoughts of my old “go to” stuff, especially stuff that I discovered shortly before quitting (because it was still new and novel to me). I’m not sure what your goals are regarding sex. But at least for me, my goal was to quit porn to recover from PIED and be able to have a satisfying sex life with my girlfriend. At the time I was first quitting, it was exceptionally difficult because we were still in a long-distance relationship. We live together now, which makes it much easier to achieve that next step of reshaping my mind to basically be “addicted” to making love to her (which is my goal anyways.... haha).
I agree. I have yet felt the feeling of uncontrollable erections I have no idea what to do with. I have gone from enjoying life (supposedly) to having no joy in anything I used to. Fishing, lifting weights, working on rental properties, owning multiple businesses, my wife, my son, etc. you name it. Flatline is more than not getting aroused by women. The brain and body shuts down. That’s my experience. I feel I’m coming out slowly after 20 days or so. Gonna probably be a lot longer to get my mind and heart right. Just suck it up and stop watching crap is about all I can give anybody.
Im on my third time on nofap. The first and second time i fall with 7-10 days, because i was decided to count each day. Now i stop couting the days. It becomes "easier". I had some glimpse of Flatline. Now i'm facing headache period, rage. I'm pissed off with everything, can't think clearly in some days and also some laziness.