NoFap is a movement where men abstain from pornography and masturbation, which seems to have primarily grown from Reddit (see the /r/nofap subreddit here) over the past few years. Now, there are thousands of men committed to NoFap, and many of them swear by it. During the time NoFap was taking off, there was also significant coverage on the dangers of pornography and how excessive pornography can have numerous adverse effects on young men — one such book and website is Your Brain On Porn, which has published a great amount of information on this topic (see here).
For those curious about NoFap and who may be contemplating quitting pornography and masturbation, this article is a list of the benefits people have reported from NoFap. Here’s the query I put out:
What are the tangible benefits of nofap, where you abstain from masturbation and pornography? Personal stories welcome, and arguments backed by science especially appreciated.
So far I’ve received 7 great submissions to that question, and I’ve listed them below. To summarize (and taken from this great submission by Ermo Egberts), here are the main benefits that come from NoFap that people have reported:
- More focus and mental clarity
- Increased creativity
- Enhanced motivation and drive
- Boost of physical energy (good for those who suffer from fatigue)
- More assertiveness and confidence
- Improved mood
- Greater ability to manifest change
- Heightened self-awareness
- Intensified spiritual experiences
I would also add increased confidence and improved relationships. You may be wondering how NoFap can help with these things, so please read the comments below in their entirety for elaborations. And if you have input you’d like to share on this topic, whether it’s your own personal story of quitting pornography or scientific arguments on how NoFap can be beneficial, please make a submission here. I’ll be continuing to add to this article as more comments come in.
UPDATE August 2020: We have just published a new piece on how to quit pornography, which is strongly recommended reading (there is some fantastic input there from people who have actually treated people on porn addiction). And of course, regardless of how beneficial NoFap may be as we’ve listed in this piece, you still need the willpower to actually overcome the urge to watch pornography — and that’s what this new article should help you with.
|
I don’t know how long nofap started but I’ve tried it about 8 years ago when it was starting to become a trend. It was fairly new and people were skeptical about its benefits. I was too but the people whom I’ve worked with vouched on its effectiveness and I gave it a try myself. After trying nofap for a month I started to see these so-called “benefits”. I had more energy to do my work and it gave me a major confidence boost on what I could do. This helped me think of a plan to get out of the 9-5 rat race and I used that extra energy to hustle my own side hustle. Fast forward to 2018, and I quit my job and started my own company. Now I don’t do nofap 365 days a year but I’ve been using it as a natural productivity boost for working. When I’m about to deal with a stressful and difficult project, I don’t fap for a month in advance to give me that extra energy boost as well as the confidence that I could tackle that situation. Overall, nofap is a useful tool for me to help me with work but it can also be used to help give yourself that needed boost to make your life better. And in my case, it was to escape the 9-5. --Kenny Trinh, Netbooknews PERMALINK: https://outwittrade.com/the-benefits-of-nofap-and-quitting-porn#kenny |
|
The most noticeable is the regaining of strength and vitality. Constantly expending your sexual energy zaps your strength, both physically and mentally, and leaves you feeling depleted and weak throughout the day. When you start to work with and control your sexual energy, it gives you back that sense of energy. Another benefit is what we might call inner peace, or being grounded. It's the opposite of running around like a zombie or a hungry dog all day. When all you care about and think about is sex, you lose touch with your power. I don't mean this in a woo-woo way. But you can literally feel the difference in your energy level. When you stop masturbating to porn, when you stop feeding your mind with the addictive junk food imagery, you gain clarity back. People will often report that they feel more confidence in social settings, less anxiety and worry. If you stick with it long enough, your relationships with people improve, because you're no longer going into interactions just because you want to get into someone's pants. If this all feels a little New Agey, don't worry, it's also supported by modern neuroscience. What happens when you're constantly watching porn or masturbating is that you're like a little junkie, sitting on top of a big dopamine button. Every new video or image you see, it's giving you a little dopamine dump. Over time you get addicted (and build up a tolerance) to that dump, and you need more and more exciting things to give you the same hit. After an intense porn watching session, the reason you feel depleted is that you're going through a sort of dopamine withdrawal. What we need to do is to retrain the brain to not be so dopamine needy. There's a saying in neuroscience, neurons that fire together, wire together. When you're constantly watching porn, you're hardwiring lust into your brain. In order to feel grounded, and have more vitality, you need to rewire your brain. --Jeremy Lipkowitz, jeremylipkowitz.com PERMALINK: https://outwittrade.com/the-benefits-of-nofap-and-quitting-porn#jeremy |
|
I’ve coached more than 250 Men on Nofap, Semen retention, Celibacy, Sexuality and Relationships for several years.. In my Coaching Business, I’ve been helping guys to break free of porn, sexual compulsion and understand the art of sexual transmutation. This all started in 2017 when I found out about a book that took about 20 years to make, and it compiled together a collection of interviews among 500 of the wealthiest people. What if I also told you there's a chapter in that very book called: The mystery of sex transmutation. This book think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. When I first began to study about sex transmutation from think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, I was probably just as intrigued as you are right now, you might have heard of this book, since it's pretty much the founding father of all current entrepreneur books out there today. On chapter 11, the mystery of sex transmutation caught me by surprise, just by looking at the title of the chapter. After reading this I started my own Nofap and Semen Retention journey with trial and error, I learned that only abstaining is not enough. Transmutation is often a missing piece to succeed. Think of a river that may be damned, and it's water controlled for a time, but eventually, it will force an outlet. The same is with your sexual energy. And I have to admit, I found some very similar patterns together with the men I coach. People who understand the art of sexual transmutation found to be to have testified on how they have seen improvements in their overall lifestyle. I've did an 11-month long semen-retention and transmutation journey. Sex and Orgasms, other than being a source of pleasure, can also be channeled into any form of creation – from writing that book you’ve been meaning to pen to mastering the art of intuition. As sexual energy is creative energy, it makes sense to make the most of its innate benefits. Just look at the likes of:
They understood the Art of Sex Transmutation. When motivated by sexual desire, we develop a vaster imagination, deeper courage, firmer willpower, more tenacious persistence, and flourishing creativity that we weren’t even aware of. The most commonly noted benefits include:
If the sexual energy within humanity can become so strong that it moves us to hurt others or risk imprisonment to satiate it, imagine what could happen if we harnessed this energy and directed it toward a greater purpose? --Ermo Egberts, ermoegberts.com PERMALINK: https://outwittrade.com/the-benefits-of-nofap-and-quitting-porn#ermo |
|
I have abstained from pornography for the past 2 1/2 months. I tell you what, it was the hardest thing I have EVER done! I went through serious withdrawals. I felt irritated, depressed, anxious, and simply out of it. Like a mental disorder! This lasted about a 2 months. But the last two months, I have felt as good as I did as a kid, before I discovered porn. I barely crave it at all. I also haven't masturbated in 2 weeks. I haven't needed it! At the same time, my sex drive has been very high. It is a more pure high though. The people I am attracted to, and the girls I am talking to, I am only doing so through pure intentions. Dating to marry. Instead of seeing them as a sexual outlet. I know, because of how I feel, I will never go back to porn again. I kicked the habit. All those struggling out there to quit porn, be patient, and keep going, you can make it! --Chris Cucchiara, https://personaldevelopfit.com/affirmations-for-happiness PERMALINK: https://outwittrade.com/the-benefits-of-nofap-and-quitting-porn#chris |
|
I work with numerous clients from executives wanting to up their game, creatives wanting to level up, and individuals looking to deepen their connection to their higher potential. Oftentimes my clients are surprised to hear that I recommend abstaining not only from drugs and alcohol as a way to better manage their energy, so that they can achieve and produce more, but also to abstain from porn and masturbation. Its common to think that abstaining from porn, masturbation, or excess sexual activity is a religious practice, but its actually a way to better manage brain health and personal energy. When we watch porn, our brain receives a dopamine hit, similar to participating in any other kind of addictive behavior. What makes a behavior addictive is the intensity of dopamine it produces, the reliability of the dopamine hit, and the efficiency thereof. When an orgasm comes along with all of the visual stimulation of porn, the dopamine hit is amplified that much more. The brain and body want to get that dopamine hit. Its nature's way of rewarding us, but nature hasn't adjusted to technology. The brain and body don't realize that we haven't worked for that hit, so the reward isn't actually earned. Imagine a job well done, or that feeling after coming home to rest after a hard day's work. We get a natural dose of dopamine as a reward for accomplishment, but porn gives a false reward, causing us to become more lethargic, lazy, and withdrawn. Meditation is one of the best ways we can begin to rewire the brain out of addictive behavior patterns. Relaxing the body and breathing through those temptations as they arise will interrupt the automatic behavior pattern found in addictive behaviors. Benefits of no pmo (porn, masturbation, orgasm) include a more balanced brain and body chemistry, access to greater personal creativity, improved mental clarity, increased energy, and better sleep. There are also social benefits. The chemical rewards of orgasm are really not nature's intention in and of themselves, they have a powerful bonding component to them. So casual sex and masturbation actually causes a misfiring of that natural bonding, which often leaves people with a low-grade fever of depression and anxiety. --Benjamin W. Decker, author of Practical Meditation for Beginners PERMALINK: https://outwittrade.com/the-benefits-of-nofap-and-quitting-porn#benjamin |
|
Having tried nofap for more than a month beginning of the year, whole January and a bit later, it allowed me to be more attractive to ladies - or at least, that's how I felt it. With nofap, I have been more in need of finding a partner, and more aggressive in terms of looking for a potential partner, with a higher internal pressure to find somebody, compared to other periods in which I didn't feel so much the urge to find a partner. Ultimately, the time spent looking for someone instead of focusing on more personal occupations helped me finding somebody, whereas without the nofap effect I might not have been so eager to find her. --Yoann, Male Raffine PERMALINK: https://outwittrade.com/the-benefits-of-nofap-and-quitting-porn#yoann |
|
I am a personal development coach and a longtime practitioner of NoFap who has researched and written extensively about the benefits of NoFap. Of the purported benefits I highlight in my article the 30 PLAUSIBLE NOFAP BENEFITS [1], I can personally attest to four of them. First, NoFap saves time. Watching porn and doing the deed is simply a waste of time, with some guys admitting to me that it sometimes takes hours out of their day. Second, it helps conserve energy. Like me, many men report that masturbating clouds their thinking and makes them feel lethargic for hours, undermining their productivity for the day. Third, several studies [2] have found that abstaining from ejaculation for up to seven days can increase testosterone by as much as 145%. Testosterone plays an important role in many executive functions in the human body, explaining why practitioners often claim to feel more energetic and vibrant after quitting porn and masturbation. However, the biggest reason why I practice NoFap has to do with the strong sense of shame and worthlessness masturbation makes me feel. It seriously makes me question what I'm doing with my life. --Kwame Owusu, Too Manly PERMALINK: https://outwittrade.com/the-benefits-of-nofap-and-quitting-porn#kwame |