1. Welcome to NoFap! We have disabled new forum accounts from being registered for the time being. In the meantime, you can join our weekly accountability groups.
    Dismiss Notice

Abstinence makes my anxiety & depression better - Anyone else?

Discussion in 'Rebooting - Porn Addiction Recovery' started by ch0sen1, Jun 3, 2018.

  1. ch0sen1

    ch0sen1 Fapstronaut

    22
    12
    3
    I guess this has been discussed to death, but here goes anyway:
    Whenever I abstain for a few days/weeks my anxiety (NOT social anxiety - general anxiety) and depression gets a whole lot better / easier to handle.

    If I'm fapping my life away I always have some kind of dreaded feeling, like I'm scared of something but don't know what, restlessness etc.. All this makes me depressed of course.

    Anyone else in the same boat? I'm a little bit older than most of you by the way - I'm in my late 30s.

    EDIT: Unfortunately I haven't gone more than a week or so yet, so I don't know what happens later on of course. Maybe it comes back twice as bad when you abstain for a long time.

    Cheers guys!
     
    Deleted Account likes this.
  2. This happens to me as well. My anxiety starts to become more controllable after a week or so. It still pops up but it isn’t nearly as bad. I get weird jolts of anxiety right as I’m falling asleep that wake me right back up for a while after a relapse as well. These are horrible and keep me up all night.

    I’ve always suffered from anxiety and had that dreaded feeling. I’m starting to wonder how much was caused by pmo. I’m also starting to question if relapsing is the cause of this or if I’m doing it to myself after relapsing...because of disappointment and guilt.
     
    Deleted Account likes this.
  3. I used to deal with those exact jolts, as you call them. I still deal with them but in a slightly different form. I just know they're caused by PMO. What's weird for me is that sometimes they get worse the moment I start to abstain.
     
  4. Yeah these never happened to me before I started nofap now that I think about it. They started when I decided to quit...then they would fade...then come back hard right after relapse.
     
  5. Honestly, mine may be the same but if I remember correctly, they started when I was most engaged in edging. There was a point in time when they got really, debilitatingly bad for me. It would literally feel as if I was falling right in the moment I'd be falling asleep. And sometimes I'd have this insane panic waking me up, either during the night or in the morning (kind of like what happened to me today actually). So far I've not yet PMO'd in June and I'm bracing myself.
     
  6. Sounds like we are definitely talking about the same thing. Man...I’m sorry this is happening to you but I feel so relieved that it happens to someone else! It’s good to know I’m not some rare case of suffering.

    I really hope these clear up though. When they do come they come on full force for periods of time. So I end up with no sleep for a week or so. I remember at some point last month I had a total of 6 hours of sleep spread throughout 5 days. It was brutal...
     
  7. I get decent durations of sleep for the most part (despite the fact that I usually DON'T sleep until 3 or 4 AM... bad habit). But today, again, was different. I honestly didn't go to sleep until about 5 AM, I was on the computer all night and was experiencing bad anxiety, the kind that keeps me TOTALLY on edge and restless. I was up by 10 AM. Maybe 5 hours, maybe.

    Did you also get the "falling sensation" as you're just dozing off to sleep? Is that the kind of thing that jolts you awake? Also, do you ever wake up in panic? Maybe lightheaded? Maybe in a sweat? And I mean this has nothing to do with a bad dream or anything.
     
  8. I get that and the racing thoughts. Feels like your mind is a washing machine full of anxiety.
     
  9. I have gotten the falling sensation before a few times. The jolt sensation happens way more though. There isn’t a whole lot of difference between the two...but I can tell them apart. I also suffer from waking up in a panic as well. I don’t ever really wake up in a sweat anymore though...I did that a lot during alcohol withdrawal.
     
  10. I get the same thing. From an energetic standpoint many believe we have a physical, mental and emotional body and even spiritual. When we MB alot even without orgasm it stores energy in the second and third chakra which are the store house of power, fear, sex etc. When we allow the energy in the body to expand it wants to go up the body. When we are more "filled" with energy there is more of feeling of expansion - less depression. When we orgasm especially in the midst of P - there is a huge loss of energy - even fap without O the energy leaks and can make us irritable and upset because the energy is congested in the pelvic region. We feel more protected and connected when the energy naturally rises to the heart and head. This can be uncomfortable and bring up old trauma or painful feelings. This is my battle - my ego is threatened the longer I go without MB/O
     
  11. During this back and forth with you, I noticed that a channel on YouTube that I subscribe to uploaded a new video. It seems somehow relevant so maybe you'll take the time to watch it. It's just insane how our bodies and minds react to everything we do, especially these dependencies we have.

     
  12. Yeah, there's gotta be even more to it than that but that's a great basis from which to start to really consider the deeper implications of P/M/O. I'd be interested in learning more about this congestion in the pelvic region, as you put it. I've tortured myself for years but engaging in prolonged edging sessions, sometimes as long as 4 or 5 hours or throughout the course of a day, off and on. And I really think that's what has caused great amounts of my anxiety and depression. I think masturbation and porn and frequent ejaculation are bad enough but coupled with edging, it's all that much more horrible.
     
  13. The edging will amplify the sexual enjoyment but also amplify negative emotions,anger, fear, issues of self image, etc. So we usually give in to orgasm after prolonged edging often because the tension builds up - or we feel like crap, full of anger/fear. The orgasm relieves some of this anxiety but the loss of overall energy from O leads to depression (low energy) and there we start the process over again
     
  14. ch0sen1

    ch0sen1 Fapstronaut

    22
    12
    3

    Sounds a lot like me, The edging stuff I mean.
    What kind of streaks have you done? Noticed that anxiety/depression get a lot easier after a few days/week?
     
  15. Yeah well one thing's for sure and it's that my negative emotions/outlook as well as my fears and issues of self image are DEFINITELY amplified. I'm the kind of person, unfortunately, who routinely makes mountains out of mole hills, as people say. To have to deal with all that on top of debilitating anxiety and panic is almost unbearable.
     
  16. When I first got involved with NoFap, on Reddit, I managed to go about 2 weeks. This was probably about a year ago. Since then, I've had small streaks off and on, often not going over a week. I just had a really bad month during which I PMO'd about once every 2 days and watched porn even more often than that. I've read lots of stories of guys initially going a couple weeks or even a couple months and then not being able to have even that kind of success for a while. I guess that's me.

    I'm trying again. I know that my life won't improve until I'm able to overcome this. It's hard because it's cyclical.
     

Share This Page