EDGING

Yeah edging is really bad. You can get a dopamine rush for ages just edging which hinders the reboot.

Apart from taken a piss or washing dont touch your pecker mate

 

Completely agree there. Do not, do not, DO NOT touch. Do whatever you have to do but make sure you keep yourself from edging. It's not worth it in the end

 

This is a common assumption. In truth the situation is much worse than merely "not helping your situation". It makes it even worse! The scientist, Gary Wilson, makes this point on his personal website. I have copied an excerpt below:

Some men attempting the rebooting process believe that as long as they avoid ejaculation, they are successfully rebooting. This twisted logic leads them to endorse an unhelpful practice common to Internet porn users, called edging. This is masturbating up to the edge of orgasm, then stopping to cool things down, then revving up again. Three common versions of edging:

1. Watching porn without masturbating
2. Masturbating while viewing porn, but not ejaculating
3. Masturbating without porn and without ejaculating

Since a reboot is defined as no porn or porn substitutes 1 & 2 make no sense. For those trying to overcome problematic porn use, edging while viewing porn (or fantasizing about porn) is far worse than simply having an orgasm and getting it over with. Why is that? It all comes down to dopamine.

Addiction-related brain changes and sexual (Pavlovian) conditioning are initiated by:

1. Dopamine levels which are higher than levels attained through natural means (drugs, for example)
2. Moderate dopamine levels that remain elevated for long periods
3. Combo of 1 & 2

If you are edging to porn you are combining naturally high dopamine levels of masturbation with the dopamine raising abilities of 1) exciting, novel visuals 2) searching the net for porn 3) finding surprising or shocking genres. Edging can keep dopamine levels elevated for hours, and train the brain to require constant visual stimulation, rapid-fire novelty, clicking from scene to scene, particular fetishes, and the pressure of your own hand. None of this matches real sex.

High dopamine tells the reward circuit that “This activity is really, really important, and you should do it again and again.” Forget the (very real) possibility of addiction-related brain changes. Chronically high dopamine is conditioning your sexual arousal to everything associated Internet porn use. You are now training for the wrong sport. It’s like spending your time hitting golf balls in order to become great basketball player.

Worse than training for the wrong sport, you may be taking yourself out of the game all together. Dopamine is odd. It really shoots up when something is better than expected, but drops when expectations are not met. Rewiring your sexuality to Internet porn means you unconsciously expect to be a voyeur controlling your dopamine with a mouse. When real sex doesn’t match porn, dopamine plummets – along with your excitement and erections. Streaming porn use appears to be causing an unprecedented rise in youthful sexual dysfunctions: Research confirms sharp rise in youthful sexual dysfunctions.

What about edging without using porn? Depends on your goals I guess. Keep in mind that YBOP is about Internet porn, not masturbation (hello nofap/reddit). Is it similar to simply staying close to the edge with a partner? Not exactly, because you are wiring your sexual response to your own hand. Having sex means you are wiring your sexual response to another person. This may be significant for visitors who are are dealing with sexual dysfunctions and need to rewire to real partners. See Studies linking porn use/addiction to sexual dysfunctions, lower arousal, and lower sexual & relationship satisfaction

It’s important to realize that sexual stimulation is by far the highest level of dopamine naturally produced. Dopamine is at its peak when on the verge of orgasming (edging). In the pre-internet days, guys would usually masturbate, orgasm and be done with it – it might take 10 minutes or so. At orgasm, prolactin rises, which drops dopamine to baseline levels and inhibits its release. That normally spells some relief.

Placing your foot on the dopamine gas, without ever hitting the brake (prolactin) results in a continuous state of cravings without satisfaction. This practice of edging calls to mind the earliest experiments on the reward circuitry of the brain in which animals would stimulate themselves over and over, braving electrical shocks and ignoring willing mates.

In the end, chronically high levels of dopamine (in conjunction with a specific stimulus) are the trigger for the brain changes that can lead to full blown addiction, as over-stimulation of the reward circuit leads to the accumulation of DeltaFosB, activation of genes, and specific brain changes. As the sustained molecular switch for addiction, DeltaFosB initiates both behavioral and chemical addictions. Yet one of its evolutionary purposes is sexual conditioning. It rewires the reward circuit to sexual cues in the environment and makes “sex” even more enticing. If your sexual environment is Internet porn, that’s what your reward circuit expects….and craves.

https://www.yourbrainonporn.com/reb...-masturbate-edge-or-watch-porn-without-orgasm

 

Edging is the biggest problem IMO - you are training yourself to respond sexually in the wrong way outside the proper context again but this time it's subtle and easy to justify. You have to stay on top of it once sexual energy builds - don't edge or browse around it will invariably lead to relapse.

 

Edging few times a day to cure porn addiction is like injecting heroin few times per day thinking you are healing your addiction.

Does it make sense?

 

I read a artical the other day that reccmends edging for couples to spice up their sex lives.
Anyway do edgers still reap the rewards of semen retention as long as they dont O?

 

Experience will teach you no. I'm on day 101 but around 87 I had a bout of edging that almost led to relapse - for the next two days I felt severely "off" emotionally. I didn't benefit in the least.

 

A bout of edging IS a relapse as the scientist Gary Wilson explains:

"Some men attempting the rebooting process believe that as long as they avoid ejaculation, they are successfully rebooting. This twisted logic leads them to endorse an unhelpful practice common to Internet porn users, called edging. This is masturbating up to the edge of orgasm, then stopping to cool things down, then revving up again."

https://www.yourbrainonporn.com/reb...-masturbate-edge-or-watch-porn-without-orgasm

 

That article gives a really stupid suggestion. Don't do that, ever, never edge, never watch porn.

 

I wouldn't really call it edging because I was simply browsing, there was no physical stimulation but I turned the computer off and went to sleep, so I would consider it a win.

 

Well, I guess it depends what you were browsing. Anyway, you have made your call.

I just wonder if some of the streaks people have or claim are really porn, masturbation and orgasm free.

 

No "porn" was involved but I was definitely looking at women, and it was definitely stimulating me but like I said I shut it off and went to sleep. No PMO was involved. But the browsing and artificial stimulation was there.

 

And I guess it is what the definition of porn is; is allowing yourself to be visually stimulated by normal women pornography? It's not ideal but I don't think it's the same - I had a browsing session, lets just put it that way -- I probably had one other episode during the span and the other I shut down quick. This was a little more prolonged and I seriously wanted to give in. Afterwards I could feel it had an effect on me that lasted a couple of days.

 

It sounds like a p/sub. That is usually scantily clothed images of women in underwear, bikinis or revealing garments. So, they are not porn. But if you find yourself stimulated by them, they're p/subs. Some reset for them, others don't. Your call.

 

Agree.

I started using a dating app in these days, and i think it's really bad. I find myself browsing and browsing women, i think some dopamine is released, because i'm starting to do that unconsciously, watching profile after profile...

I think i have to cut it...

 

Actually this woman I was fantasizing about was a tall volleyball player so it was even less evocative than that - I wouldn't even consider the clothing revealing but lust, yes. No PMO was involved but I definitely visually stimulated myself to the point of dopamine release but I shut it down and went to sleep. No physical stimulation involved. Not ideal, but for me not grounds for reset...