Flatline question

Im pretty new to this recovery process, but I believe that the flatline comes as much or more from not masturbating, than not looking at porn. If you are still masturbating, even with just mental imagery, you are still likely getting the dopamine hit which will prevent a flatline. This being said, most think that flatlines are crucial to recovery as they are a BIG part of the rewiring process that goes on in your brain.

 

Way to go on quitting porn!

My guess is no flatline means one of three things:

- Your brain wasn't super screwed up, so after you quit, it didn't have to re-sensitize itself too much. Big urges are what it feels like when your brain is going "wait, fuck, where'd my dopamine go?" and the flatline is what it feels like a while later when your brain goes "alright, this is the new normal - shut it all down, and we'll start renovations."

- Your problems were a mix of porn and masturbation and fantasy. Everyone's in nofap for their own reasons, but for what it's worth: if everything's working right, you ought to be able to cum from the feeling alone - no porn, no fantasy. Maybe not quite as quickly, but easily enough. If you can't, could be time to quit masturbating. If you can, and you're doing ok in bed, and you're not like, compulsively jerkin' it when you should be doing other stuff, you might just be a normal healthy dude.

- Your main problem was porn, but the masturbation/fantasy gave you enough dopamine hits on the way that your brain never panicked, and never shut it all down for renovations.

 

From what I've learned, if you were addicted to porn but you're still masturbating to fantasies, your brain receptors are still connecting from the same pleasure sources as porn. You won't experience a flatline until you've stopped using those pleasure sources.