"Club Dopamine"

Be Normal · Sep 1, 2017

Bravo

Weberchip0622 · Sep 1, 2017

I had my old lady read this because I thought this would make her understand more and she did!!! Great great great analogy!!!

Admonius · Sep 2, 2017

I love this!

seaguy44 · Sep 2, 2017

sparkywantsnoPMO said: ↑

Trying out an analogy. Let me know how bad this is.

Here's an analogy. The goal is to explain why flatlines are necessary (and a good thing).

In town (your brain) is a place where pleasurable experiences occur due to dopamine. We'll call it "Club D - The place for all happiness." Your limbic system (the part that controls urges) is management, and your conscious willpower is like the bouncer. Club D Is built for say 250 people (representing the dopamine) who enjoy clubbing. Any given day, 150-300 people show up, when you have good times. Everything's good.

Mr. P shows up one day, and he brings along 5000 of his friends. Management freaks out with excitement! This is incredible! Management hurries up and tears down walls, hires bartenders, DJs, etc. Management doesn't know how long this trend will continue, so it builds space for 7500.

So now, when just your "150-300 regulars" show up, it's so dead and empty that there's no fun at all. And because there's space for 7500, even 5000 is lacking. So management asks Mr. P to help out, and he brings in more extreme fun. Process repeats, and before you know it, you have a facility that houses 250 000 people.

At this point, you're at the limit of what can be found. Mr P's friends simply can't get any more extreme. Also, remember, club D is the place for ALL happiness, not just sexual excitement, so all those things you normally find enjoyable just don't measure up.

So your willpower (the bouncer) decides to take charge. Bouncer pulls a Gandalf and says "You shall not pass!" A couple days go by and Limbic system management starts flipping out. Where is everyone? Only the 150-300 regulars are showing up. So management puts out some ads to get Mr. P back and yells at the bouncer (urges). Bouncer doesn't budge. Now the staff gets ticked off and starts complaining (this is where blue balls and other withdrawal symptoms come in.) If the bouncer gives in, everything goes back to normal.

But the bouncer doesn't give in, because the bouncer knows things were better when Club D was only taking care of regulars. So finally management has to close Club D for a little while to renovate. They have to rebuild the walls they tore down, and they can't do it with Club D open. (This is the flatline). Since there's nowhere to have happiness, the whole town is depressed.

A few weeks later, they reopen. Turns out management still was hoping Mr. P is around, so Club D can still hold 100 000 people. Upon reopening, it again sends out advertising again, bouncer goes Gandalf again, and the cycle repeats. This will continue until either the bouncer gives in or until the 150-300 regulars are enough to make Club D a happy place again.
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Beautiful analogy! Can someone please pin this analogy. Very appropriate on how PM0 struggles are like. During the process: pre-addiction, addiction, healing, flatline, recovery..... all of that beautifully explained in this analogy. Love it!

HappyDaysAreHereAgain · Sep 2, 2017

sparkywantsnoPMO said: ↑

Thank you all for the kind words. I will add this to my database of resources.
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I like the analogy on a couple of levels, but I would suggest tweaking it a bit to include PIED condition, porn overload and burnout.

Hard gainer · Sep 2, 2017

Fantastic man. I really love this one

seaguy44 · Sep 2, 2017

HappyDaysAreHereAgain said: ↑

I like the analogy on a couple of levels, but I would suggest tweaking it a bit to include PIED condition, porn overload and burnout.
Click to expand...

I agree. This is a good idea and also expand this analogy to cover all aspects what we see frequently in this website.

I'm not an artist, but if someone could draw the analogy and have the creator of the analogy narrate it (with captions/subtitles so everyone can access to it from all over the world). That would be a great idea!

Powerful way describing in how many of us are going through right now and this would also be a powerful educational tool to help explain our loved ones (especially girlfriends and wives) on what this is all about.

Just a suggestion.

sparkywantsnoPMO · Sep 2, 2017

Thank you all for the support. Do any of you have some articles on PIED, porn overload and burnout I can take a look at (overviews) to consider what to include.

Deleted Account · May 3, 2018

Hey @sparkywantsnoPMO, I know it's an old thread, but I love this analogy!

SnakeAndApple · May 3, 2018

This is a very helpful analogy, thank you.

I haven't experienced flatlining yet. I have been finding I've been feeling pretty awful lately though. Hanging with friends, doing enjoyable, interesting things, but I'm not enjoying them and I feel just resentful, like I want to do only nothing.

I don't mean to conflate everything to nofap reasoning, but I guess I suspect it's connected.

glitchblaster19 · May 4, 2018

sparkywantsnoPMO said: ↑

Trying out an analogy. Let me know how bad this is.

Here's an analogy. The goal is to explain why flatlines are necessary (and a good thing).

In town (your brain) is a place where pleasurable experiences occur due to dopamine. We'll call it "Club D - The place for all happiness." Your limbic system (the part that controls urges) is management, and your conscious willpower is like the bouncer. Club D Is built for say 250 people (representing the dopamine) who enjoy clubbing. Any given day, 150-300 people show up, when you have good times. Everything's good.

Mr. P shows up one day, and he brings along 5000 of his friends. Management freaks out with excitement! This is incredible! Management hurries up and tears down walls, hires bartenders, DJs, etc. Management doesn't know how long this trend will continue, so it builds space for 7500.

So now, when just your "150-300 regulars" show up, it's so dead and empty that there's no fun at all. And because there's space for 7500, even 5000 is lacking. So management asks Mr. P to help out, and he brings in more extreme fun. Process repeats, and before you know it, you have a facility that houses 250 000 people.

At this point, you're at the limit of what can be found. Mr P's friends simply can't get any more extreme. Also, remember, club D is the place for ALL happiness, not just sexual excitement, so all those things you normally find enjoyable just don't measure up.

So your willpower (the bouncer) decides to take charge. Bouncer pulls a Gandalf and says "You shall not pass!" A couple days go by and Limbic system management starts flipping out. Where is everyone? Only the 150-300 regulars are showing up. So management puts out some ads to get Mr. P back and yells at the bouncer (urges). Bouncer doesn't budge. Now the staff gets ticked off and starts complaining (this is where blue balls and other withdrawal symptoms come in.) If the bouncer gives in, everything goes back to normal.

But the bouncer doesn't give in, because the bouncer knows things were better when Club D was only taking care of regulars. So finally management has to close Club D for a little while to renovate. They have to rebuild the walls they tore down, and they can't do it with Club D open. (This is the flatline). Since there's nowhere to have happiness, the whole town is depressed.

A few weeks later, they reopen. Turns out management still was hoping Mr. P is around, so Club D can still hold 100 000 people. Upon reopening, it again sends out advertising again, bouncer goes Gandalf again, and the cycle repeats. This will continue until either the bouncer gives in or until the 150-300 regulars are enough to make Club D a happy place again.
Click to expand...

That is really well written and structured. The next time i have an urge i will try to think of this analogy to prevent relapsing. Keep posting more stuff like this, we need this creativity on nofap

P-Free · Jul 11, 2018

sparkywantsnoPMO said: ↑

Trying out an analogy. Let me know how bad this is.

Here's an analogy. The goal is to explain why flatlines are necessary (and a good thing).

In town (your brain) is a place where pleasurable experiences occur due to dopamine. We'll call it "Club D - The place for all happiness." Your limbic system (the part that controls urges) is management, and your conscious willpower is like the bouncer. Club D Is built for say 250 people (representing the dopamine) who enjoy clubbing. Any given day, 150-300 people show up, when you have good times. Everything's good.

Mr. P shows up one day, and he brings along 5000 of his friends. Management freaks out with excitement! This is incredible! Management hurries up and tears down walls, hires bartenders, DJs, etc. Management doesn't know how long this trend will continue, so it builds space for 7500.

So now, when just your "150-300 regulars" show up, it's so dead and empty that there's no fun at all. And because there's space for 7500, even 5000 is lacking. So management asks Mr. P to help out, and he brings in more extreme fun. Process repeats, and before you know it, you have a facility that houses 250 000 people.

At this point, you're at the limit of what can be found. Mr P's friends simply can't get any more extreme. Also, remember, club D is the place for ALL happiness, not just sexual excitement, so all those things you normally find enjoyable just don't measure up.

So your willpower (the bouncer) decides to take charge. Bouncer pulls a Gandalf and says "You shall not pass!" A couple days go by and Limbic system management starts flipping out. Where is everyone? Only the 150-300 regulars are showing up. So management puts out some ads to get Mr. P back and yells at the bouncer (urges). Bouncer doesn't budge. Now the staff gets ticked off and starts complaining (this is where blue balls and other withdrawal symptoms come in.) If the bouncer gives in, everything goes back to normal.

But the bouncer doesn't give in, because the bouncer knows things were better when Club D was only taking care of regulars. So finally management has to close Club D for a little while to renovate. They have to rebuild the walls they tore down, and they can't do it with Club D open. (This is the flatline). Since there's nowhere to have happiness, the whole town is depressed.

A few weeks later, they reopen. Turns out management still was hoping Mr. P is around, so Club D can still hold 100 000 people. Upon reopening, it again sends out advertising again, bouncer goes Gandalf again, and the cycle repeats. This will continue until either the bouncer gives in or until the 150-300 regulars are enough to make Club D a happy place again.
Click to expand...

This is an amazing analogy! Very helpful. I wish I'd seen it in the first two weeks of my first reboot.

seaguy44 · Jul 11, 2018

@Mike Bonanno - read the Club Dopamine

çağla kumeı · Jul 12, 2018

ıslak rüyadan nasıl kurtulabilirim?

çağla kumeı · Jul 12, 2018

how can I get rid of wet dream?

Deleted Account · Aug 9, 2021

This is a very interesting and understandable analogy.

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"Club Dopamine"

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