Difference between reset and relapse

Quote taken from here - https://www.reddit.com/r/NoFap/comments/76ngec/difference_between_reset_vs_relapse/


Reset vs. Relapse

It’s important to understand the difference between a reset and a relapse. While a reset means you have failed the parameters of a challenge and need to reset your count to day one, a relapse is a more serious issue. Relapse is when a member of the community who had been improving their lives slips back into old bad habits.

Regarding relapse, mental health professionals draw a fine distinction. For someone who has been diagnosed as addicted to masturbation or sex, a single instance of masturbating or having sex does not necessarily constitute a relapse, since masturbating and sex are both largely considered natural activities. Masturbation or sex can be counted as a relapse if they negatively impact a diagnosed addict’s life. This can mean bingeing (masturbating many times per day to the point where it interferes with life), engaging in risky behavior (e.g. in public or at work), or skipping out on important obligations to do it. However, for pornography addicts, any one instance of masturbating with porn can be considered a relapse, since masturbating with porn is not a natural activity. In fact, for porn addicts, deliberately browsing porn sites without masturbating could be considered a relapse, since exposure to the super-stimulus of pornography is probably harmful.

Regardless of whether you’ve relapsed or not, you need to reset your counter after any single instance of breaking your challenge commitment.

Relapses don’t necessarily happen during a rebooting challenge. Some members who have already rebooted can relapse months or years later. For these people, relapse can be a good opportunity to try rebooting again.

If you do think you’ve relapsed, it is critically important to reach out to your support system at this point, including NoFap’s community. Sometimes we need to reach out for help in order to stave off a destructive spiral.