I have been off porn and masturbation for about 3 weeks now. Cutting out porn has not been difficult as I used it as a coping mechanism before and was looking at it because my fiancé also encouraged me to use it to get myself aroused. I do believe years of porn and masturbation has messed with my arousal. I am doing everything I can to rewire my brain (meditation, therapist, talking with a urologist) but as of yet I haven’t felt much of any sexual desire. Perhaps I am in a flatline period. Has anyone else been through this and can offer some advice? I am hopeful that over the next couple of weeks I will notice something. I am also taking 10mg of tadalafil daily. My urologist said I haven’t noticed anything from that because I likely do not have a blood flow issue rather it likely is in my head which I am trying to address. I am also 32 and very fit. Trying to reset my dopamine triggers and get to a normal sex life which has escaped me for pretty much my entire adult life.
Careful! You should not stop masturbating indefinitely. Doing this will most certainly make you less horny overall, especially when you can not get sexual release with your partner.
Masturbation can be a helpful tool to connect with your sexuality. Choose fantasies that make you feel good afterwards, are realistic and ideally involve your partner. You can even carefully watch some porn again (in reasonable amounts). Just be mindful, it is a fine line between too much and too little masturbation/porn. You have to find the balance for yourself.
Thanks for the feedback! Did you go through something similar? I’ve seen opinions going both ways but my therapist also recommended trying to ease into it. I will likely try without even using porn to try to get my libido back up
It sounds like you’re in the dreaded flatline period. I’ve been through it myself and it’s not fun. I wouldn’t watch porn. It doesn’t fix it and just postpones that dopamine reset. However I would encourage you to do the masturbation and sensate touch activities on here as a way of revving up your libido and actually rewiring the brain to get back to normal mind/stimulus/body pathways. At first you may find you’re not getting aroused quickly enough and you may even want to give up, but that’s because your brain is used to unnatural jolts of stimulus and dopamine from porn. It’s tough for sure, but you’ve got this, man!
Great point! I have no intention of going to porn but may try some of those techniques. I know it won’t be easy but I really want to try to give myself a boost and feel I have been taking all the right steps but just haven’t had any sex drive yet. Hoping I can fix this soon.
You certainly dont have to watch porn. I just watch porn from time to time and it seems to not have a negative impact. Nofap is just crap in my opinion. Its just way too hard and most people experience a massive drop in libidio. I did it for a few weeks many years ago, before I was with my wife, and I had a horrible flatline. It only got better once I started fapping again.
The only situation where I can see it working is if you have sex regularly and thats kind of the ideal situation, but nofap makes it harder getting there, at least for me. On the other hand, what works for you works. Everyone is different.
Well I just tried the mindful masturbation and didn’t really get too much but I listen to about 5 minutes of an erotic story at was rock hard. Gentle touching and lube for no friction. I think the big difference is no stress or anxiety alone and I am working on fixing that while I resensitize my body
I used to use masturbation and porn as a way to make myself feel good when I was feeling lonely and I think that’s created a dangerous relationship and dependence.
Since giving up porn I’ve found it hard to get and erection or get aroused with my partner and often have to revert back to fantasies about porn I’ve watched in the past.
I’m hoping that with time and this app that I can rewire my brain to find arousal and pleasure with my girlfriend and just enjoy what’s real and in front of me.
I feel like I’m in that flatline period.
After giving up porn and masturbation I’ve found it hard to get aroused or to get an erection.
I’ve slowly started to come back to masturbation to see if I can make myself hard again (not specifically to cum, I think i was too focused on trying to reach the finish line before that I’d forget to enjoy the actual act and sensation of sex).
Any tips on what might help with libido and erections? Or any activities on here specifically that you found worked?
I can’t do the mindful masturbation as well. Touch itself just doesnt do it for me. I need at least some kind of fantasy playing in my head. It took some practice, but now I can get hard and reach orgasm relatively easily using just fantasy, without external input. The nice thing is, once you are trained in this, you can actually recall those fantasies during sex to boost your arousal.
Erotic stories (and also erotica) are great and I use them also when I feel that I need some external input.
Well, you certainly shouldnt be dependent on porn to get aroused or hard. If that is the case, it is indeed best to stop it for some time.
While porn addiction is 100% a thing, I wouldnt think of masturbation as an addiction necessarily. Maybe one is doing it to relieve stress or deal with certain issues without being horny at all. In that case, it is probably better to find alternative ways of coping. But when youre horny, youre horny, and thats ok. Just fap away, unless you got date night coming up 
Try masturbating while thinking about your girlfriend. I have some recorded videos of me and my wife having sex that I watch regularly. I also like to look at normal pictures of her while thinking of some dirty fantasies involving her. In this way I can direct my arousal towards my wife and it really does work to some extent.
Hi all, I too am in a no porn and nofap phase for a few weeks and have also noticed my libido flatline.
I am going to follow the advice of several guys here and slowly start masturbating again. 