Despite the abundance of reported claims of self-improvement by those who adhered to the NoFap..."philosophy" or "lifestyle", there's those who continue to criticize it for...what reason again?
Let's stop with the bullshit. First of all, we know the kind of person the internet "skeptic" is, you know, the kind that you'll find on RationalWiki or skepticism reddit boards. Those people are sad, bitter and in constant need of attention and recognition. There, I fucking said it, sue me.
Secondly, it makes sense that they're bothered by NoFap, because they're probably addicted to porn or masturbation themselves.
It's not like you can OBJECTIVELY quantify the confidence someone has with a "confidentiometer", or the personal awareness of one's own faults with an "self-awareometer". Of course it's mostly a subjective thing.
So for the naysayers, I ask of you to bear the burden of proof to prove that NoFap is harmful, or that claims are purely placebo. It is PROVEN that abstaining from masturbation a few days will increase the levels of testosterone, which will later decrease.
What's the proof that this does not have psychological effects? What's the proof that abstinence is harmful?
priests and monks and shit don't jack off and they seem pretty cool and disciplined
Xavier Thompson
No one gives a shit about your masturbation practices. Everyone on Veeky Forums knows about Nofap, if they were interested they would try it. Please stop posting about it.
Gabriel Scott
Jerking off is a stress reliever. If you want to be an angry asshole, go ahead and fill your balls with your own cum. No one cares, no one likes you anyway.
William Wood
The burden of proof lies with those making the claims. Post your experimental evidence that NoFap CAUSES increases in confidence in well-being. As things are now, we're left with a pile of anecdotes which could easily be placebic. I wouldn't argue that it's harmful, I just don't think the benefits are what they are made out to be. You'll get a bit of extra free time each week and that's it.
Personally, I tried it for 40 days and didn't notice any significant changes.
Noah Clark
imagine being such as a brainlet and slave to memes that not fapping fools you into being a productive human being.
Joshua White
NoFap is misguided and fails to focus on the actual substance of the matter, which is the porn itself, more than the mechanical effect of masturbation and orgasm. Obviously, even with dissociation, you're going to be influenced psychologically by the material you consume, and these underlying changes will accumulate and propagate forward, influencing every self evaluation, perception, and interpretation of your environment. Perception requires contrast. Contrast is the creator of memory, and memory is the creator of reality.
Just look at the majority of mainstream porn. It's violent, formulaic, contains bizarre rituals, and is often all about extremes (meaning greater extremes over time, both in the industry and the individual). Facefucking, obnoxiously fake moaning (repetitive "noise making" is more apt), slapping, cumming on the face, rough anal (unsafe), weird positions, and generally, fucked up degenerate males. Etc. The content is dressed up with attractive women, surreal scenery and lighting, and all the signals of legitimacy and normality. But ultimately it's degenerate, bizarre, garbage. The viewer knows it's watching something that -appears- sexual, might be aroused by the female, the penetration, whatever, and therefore over time, is conditioned to dissociate and accept the whole of the act, for specific parts of the content. The viewer then lacks confidence dealing with real women because it has been conditioned to think of sex and its own sexuality from a certain perspective, but knows it isn't actually in line with its desires or value system. [...]
Sebastian Price
[...] Next time you're watching porn, actually pay attention to what you're seeing. Really think about it. Think if it's what you actually want. Think about yourself as a teenager and if the scenes another person has constructed for you, at all resemble your own natural fantasies.
My mind is pretty fried, but put concisely and simply, people have been masturbating for a long time. Early porn was either drawings or personal fantasy. Later came photography, and then film. Until the latter two (which are easily laced with embedded prompts), people didn't have these problems. And there's a big difference between jerking off with imagination, or to solo stills / masturbation, and other types of porn. I imagine the basis of porn addiction is not the same as other dopaminergic stimuli, but rather a lack of satisfaction. No satisfaction means phenylethylamine and prolactin will not reduce dopamine levels, or increase serotonin and oxytocin signalling, thus the mind will not properly shift out of a state of (pseudo)arousal. Violent stimuli generally inhibits these things. Therefore the viewer will repeatedly engage in the falsely sexual content.
All of the high level manifestations of excessive "porn" use are related. NoFap fails to deconstruct or even remotely approach the core substance of the problem, with much the same shallowness and denial as a porn addict itself.
The mechanical stuff like transient dip in testosterone, and zinc depletion, are trivial.
Source- I jerk off whenever I feel like it, and do just fine. Why? I'm not masturbating to garbage that makes me feel bad.
