Help me get out of Flatline...

Just have little dopamine breaks and continue on this path for at least 6 months to see changes. Man I can only say this as I am having this flatline symptoms for a year now and I keep relapsing every 3 days. I'm completely numb and don't know how I'll make it.

 

BRUH

 

Pick up a bottle of Uridine. If you really want to wake your brain up, add Alpha-GPC to the mix. Take one of each in the morning with some water. No more, no less. All the best on your exams.

 

1. 90 day hard mode reboot
2. zero sugar
3. quit coffee
4. lights out before 9 pm

 

dont worry brother --- here i am on day 139 hard-mode ( with literally only 1 legit nightfall) and still in flatline
But trsut me -- symptoms ease out as days progress.
Earlier i had panic attacks ( 1st time ever in my life due to faltline withdrawals) - now they are totally gone
Insomnia is 80-90% cured
i battle anxiety and depression each day but they are more manageable than before
Just keep sticking and dont ever ever ever relapse

 

Have a read - it helps with rewiring

https://www.slideshare.net/DannyFries/the-uridine-supplement-stacks-help-repair-dopamine-receptors

 

Let's be a little careful here with blaming a flatline for 100% of this. What you've described of your life already sounds immensely taxing. "The most important exam of your life," "working medicine," "crashing and withdrawal." Honestly, this doesn't much sound like a flatline as it does symptoms of depression and anxiety. I say this with all respect and acknowledgement that I'm not a mental health professional. This is NoFap's forum sure, but not everything harmful in your life is related to PMO. Sure, a flatline doesn't help, but if everything you've stated doesn't work, there's something deeper going on here.

You feel like you're "in a mental prison and you can't get out." You're studying. You "can't go on walks, read a (fun) book, or pursue hobbies." That sounds extremely depressing. You have no outlet except this one perceived thing that is 'PMO' and since it's a hyperstimuli that jacks dopamine, of course your brain will hanker for it. Medical school is stressful. It's okay to admit that. You have what could be considered immense responsibility, as depending on what it is you'll do, people's very lives could be in your hands. If you try and quit PMO without any of the above, whether it's for fear of COVID or whatever else it is, and you have absolutely nothing to replace it with - it's going to pan out exactly how you think it will. Our willpower is limited.

Honestly, if you can, schedule some time with a professional. It might do you some good and will come from a qualified individual who will know how to work with you. I'm not sure there's much we can say that will help you, truly. Supplements won't fix it, especially if the core issues are what cause you to constantly seek and use.

 

Not a popular answer, but in your situation given said "dire" flatine, a little fap may not be a bad idea especially to help you through this specific time (exams, studying, deadlines, etc...) -- you don't have to "binge" or anything like that.

What's happening during flatline is you've simply reached an "over-deflation" of your dopamine. You can think of dopamine almost as a form of "sexual currency" here, with the "market cap" generally represented by your sex drive. IMO, NoFap does not "raise" your sex-drive ---> it merely deflates your dopamine "currency", but you still have to have this currency value within a certain healthy range!!

Someone who often faps/PMO's/etc... may tend to have a lot of dopamine-inflation. In other words, they will sure have a lot of it in their system, but it would all be worthless!! Also phrased differently, you could say "a given parcel of dopamine" will just not have a whole lot of value at all! This is also sometimes characteristic of guys who are "shy" with women as well -- they don't "approach" or "flirt", etc... because the responses from women, let's say if a given certain female response "X" shall be worth some parcel of dopamine "Y", will just therefore not be worth that much to the guy anyway!! (Why bother to receive some initial female response 'X', when it so happens the associated parcel 'Y' of dopamine related to that is worth *nothing* to him??)

Likewise, being in flatline is also problematic and gives a lot of dopamine-deflation. Now, some folks might say "deflation" would sound like a good thing! Well, not so much actually -- if a given parcel of dopamine "Y" is over-deflated, you will actually *lose* the motivation and/or drive to get!!! It will just be so hard, and onerous, and difficult to obtain that parcel of dopamine that you will simply..... just not really feel like doing it! As the feeling goes, "Ugh!! It's, just not worth it. This all sucks!!!" Aka, welcome to flatline........

So, in summary, while this is a forum presumably dedicated to the former crowd (aka "high-PMO-ing" or so), and so suggesting fap may be construed as encouraging "playing with fire", I'd still say there is value towards actually putting in the (additional) effort to keep your motivation/sexual currency within a healthy range!

Your most productive state -- is when the dopamine currency is, exactly, spot on!! (So, don't over-inflate it. Nor, over-deflate it!)

 

Alright, we gotta be careful here. "Just a little fap" is almost never "a little fap." And here's why -

Abouttime has likely already tried this. The issue comes from this being a very easy slippery-slide down to previous habits and a full-on relapse binge. These things happen, I'm not saying there should be any shame felt here, especially in this case. But what I'm also saying is that due to the way neurochemicals tend to fire off and the pathways associated with PMO / MO, this is a very, very dangerous method of controlling things and one that may not work and lead to an even worse outcome in the long run. He's already noticed he feels worse after these sessions, despite a minor amount of relief at first. The problem isn't a lack of MO, it's the P-related pathways in the brain. Those are often activated when newer or recently-reset individuals try and do the deed. The reason is that fantasy often becomes involved, and even if it doesn't, there's likely a large degree of difficulty in the act itself thanks to the very way our brains are programmed to seek pleasure. It will override the rationality of the frontal lobe and snowball - this is a good reason many people choose to abstain from MO for a period. I'm not anti-MO by any means, but in a situation like this it can easily backfire and repeat the cycle. Now, obviously this is a difficult situation. None of us can give 'the right option' because there's dynamics to the situation we won't be privy to, and we don't know what is the absolute best way for this particular person to go forward.

I'll say it again - I don't think the only culprit here is flatline. There's a lot going on that our guy here is struggling with. Sure, flatline makes absolutely nothing better, but with the information given and what we know about the body and mind; the immense stress and pressure are taking their toll and would've been with a full compliment of 'superpowers' regardless. They don't bulletproof our mental health, and occupational stress and immense tasks like these will still weigh a hefty amount on us. That's why when suggesting things, we need to be careful and take these other dynamics into account. Whatever helps your conventional flatline may not be effective here because it doesn't address the actual struggles at play that are causing this. I could take as much pre-workout as I want and step into the gym to get through a workout, but it doesn't help if I'm not even sleeping in the first place, for example.

As for the point on dopamine: That tends to be why many people who successfully abstain from PMO or any unhealthy activity recommend a healthy activity to replace that in the first place. You need to replace the 'hit' with something. It could be as little as fifteen-twenty minutes of exercise a day. This can be done literally anywhere, and can be anything in which you are not sitting, laying down, or sleeping that gets you somewhat moving. It's not a gym membership, but it'll work for what its intended. (This information comes from the course given on willpower and mental health by Stanford University psychologist Kelly McGonigal. Don't take my word for it, she's the professional.) But in this case, I do think it is dangerous to recommend fapping.

That said I understand this is coming from a good place, and none of this is intended to attack or belittle or any of that in any way.