How long does it take to recover and function normally with real women?

I hadn?t watched porn or masturbated at all in a several months (less than a year but at least 4 months). However, yesterday I had the same problem I always have when I?m with real women. Namely, soft erection and inability to come. I thought me having been this long away from porn and masturbation should have solved the problem, but now I?m starting to get scared and would like a more realistic prognosis (estimate).

Another thing I have noticed is that the upper part of my penis looks thinner when semi-aroused. And there is a dull temporary pain after sex or masturbation. The skin also becomes somewhat puffy (irritated) especially around the foreskin.

Additional information: I?m 29 years old. I watched porn regularly for more than 10 years since I was 15 or 16 until two years ago. I had sex for the first time when I was 27 and no intimate contact with real women before that.

P.S. I apologize if I have been to graphic in some of my descriptions. I?m really worried about this issue.

Hi 305guy. Your problems may be due to anxiety causing adrenaline/epinephrine release and sympathetic nerve changes to the blood flow in your penis which could account for the thinner appearance, pain and reactionary puffiness around the foreskin. It's not unusual for men who have masturbated in the past and then, like you in the last two years, started sex with women. My advice: Relax. Take it slow and gentle during sex and masturbation. See a doctor if the pain is getting worse. Don't worry, enjoy the sex and all the best.

You will never recover from PIED if you masturbate. If you stay on nofap though, it can take around a year up to maximum of 2 years of nofap. Year is more realistic than 2 years but there maybe some really hard cases. In most cases, 4 months is nothing for PIED. Again, if you masturbate, its gonna take infinity. Masturbation is like a porn substitute and its not gonna work for your PIED recovery. From now on, you can only have sex and be intimate with women, never lonely and by yourself. Isn't that awesome when you imagine it?

Hah!  Nonsense.  I recovered from Porn addiction a few years back, and I did NOT quit masturbating.  Actually I take that back, I tried both ways.  No PMO for a month KILLED my libido.  I mean destroyed it.  But quitting just the porn and MO'ing a couple times a week, after... 3 or 4 months I was back in the game!  I had GREAT erections even with a few very average girls.

Unfortunately I fell back into the porn trap and I'm here quitting again - this time with the help of this group instead of quietly by myself.

If quitting all 3 - PMO is what worked for you - great!  But don't tell him it's the only way to do it.  that is simply not true.

mattoondah said:

Hah!  Nonsense.  I recovered from Porn addiction a few years back, and I did NOT quit masturbating.  Actually I take that back, I tried both ways.  No PMO for a month KILLED my libido.  I mean destroyed it.  But quitting just the porn and MO'ing a couple times a week, after... 3 or 4 months I was back in the game!  I had GREAT erections even with a few very average girls.

Unfortunately I fell back into the porn trap and I'm here quitting again - this time with the help of this group instead of quietly by myself.

If quitting all 3 - PMO is what worked for you - great!  But don't tell him it's the only way to do it.  that is simply not true.

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Well, looks like MO really worked for you... quitting again though... MO can get you stuck for life in the relapse cycle because it can act as a porn substitute and prolong the reboot and relapse cycle way too long. And I cant believe MOing couple times a week cured your PIED...  never heard of such case with PIED and masturbation.

You said you recovered from porn addiction, it does not mean PIED? Great erections after 3-4 months does not mean you had none before quitting?... Did you had PIED and recovered from PIED by masturbating couple of times per week? If so, find me a success PIED story on YBOP with people who did that? Who masturbates couple of times per week during reboot and recovers from PIED?

Also KILLED libido is part of reboot. Its like saying quitting alcohol caused shaking. Its required for reboot. If you dont get into flatline, you are still overstimulating your brain and its not gonna work in the long run... You seem to experience it.

You're wrong bro. 100%.  Masturbating is normal.  PORN is the extreme supra-stimulus.  There are tons of guys who have recovered just qutting porn.  Look how frustrated and worked up you are.  Sounds like you need to MO yourself.  ;D

Look man I respect your method, respect mine.  You're telling this guy YOUR way is the only way. That is not true.  Have an open mind. Masturbating is practical, because of life. You're not going to always have someone available for sex every time you want it.  I am HAPPY doing it this way. You want to completely kill your sex drive by never using it... be my guest!

I think you young guys have it twisted, because you never masturbated without porn.  Every single time I did in high school AND college was without porn.  Often!  Every day.  And guess what?  When I got my first girlfriend my dick worked just fine.  MO ain't the problem. It's porn. Gary says as much in his presentations on yourbrainonporn.com  He says many guys also quit MO because they can't do it without porn.  If that's what you need to do, then do it that way.  But porn is clearly the problem.

Again no mention of PIED. Im stricticly saying for PIED, I never heard someone recovered in 3 months by masturbating couple of times per week. That is non sense.

Masturbating is practical, because of life. You're not going to always have someone available for sex every time you want it.

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What you mean by this, you should always have someone available for sex whenever you want it? That is real life? That sounds more like porn life.

You want to completely kill your sex drive by never using it... be my guest!

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Who said anything about not being intimate with a girl?

Just keep jacking off, you will see after couple of years the cycle. I did 8 months without MO and single MO session killed all my progress (PIED back again) and left me with craving for more and more MO until eventually craving PMO again and ending up like you now. I was not cured though, maybe after couple of years you can allow yourself some MO here and there but to jack off since day 1 is almost impossible to quit or recover from PIED (long term).

WHAT are you even arguing about??  lol.  I said..... Masturbation is practical, because you're NOT always going to have someone available for sex.  You're agreeing with me!

And to be clear - Yes, I 100% recovered from PIED by quitting porn and continuing to masturbate. That's exactly what I'm saying.

I'm done arguing. You don't want to MO? then don't! Do whatever you feel is best.  Peace.

Are you recalling past porn images when you MO? If so, then that is the danger -- you may be reinforcing those bad neural pathways. I submit that the imagined or recalled image is no different than the real image.

While MO may have worked for you, I would recommend against it for anyone who is rebooting.

> You want to completely kill your sex drive by never using it... be my guest!

Do you have any evidence that not using your sex drive kills it?

mattoondah said:

WHAT are you even arguing about??  lol.  I said..... Masturbation is practical, because you're NOT always going to have someone available for sex.  You're agreeing with me!

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Says it all, you are not even aware of the topic. The topic is masturbation, so me agreeing that you will not always have someone available for sex does not mean you are supposed to masturbate whenever you are without a partner. Not being able to fulfill all your sexual desires is the real life situation. Porn messed us up to the point of believing that every time we wanna have sex we should jack off or have sex, period. That is porn life not real life. In real life you dont get to enjoy sex easily and effortlessly whenever you want. No risk and no effort with high reward is porn life not real life and any activity that gets your sexual satisfied without having to engagement, without confidence, without possibility of rejection etc. Is contributing to porn pathways in the brain more than real sexual pathways that we are supposed to engage in.

You probably straight up lying about your PIED, it took you 3 posts to give an answer  ;D Just kidding but I never heard of people masturbating during reboot and recovering from PIED. 90 days have always been a minimum period, even for older guys... What you talk just makes no sense in any way shape or form so I understand you not wanting to talk about it any more

You probably not gonna get this but someone will.

Mattoandah is right! Masturbation is practical because you're NOT always going to have someone available for sex!!
Ask even married people. Their spouses are not always available to have sex with them. What would you do if you craving to have sex and your significant other is sick at that moment?  Go cheat on them?? Of course NOT!! Masturbating without porn is the key.
Porn is evil BUT masturbation can be very helpful in life if doing it right way. 

Wow you people really believe humans must ejaculate whenever they wish... Good luck quitting porn. You are not only addicted to porn you are addicted to porn life. If your spouse is sick and you want to have sex, you wait for her to get better?? Seems like its not even an option in your minds. For me, that would be the behavior of a RECOVERED porn addict. No quick fixes and effortless dopamine highs that got you fucked up in the first place. Life does not works like that. In life, sometimes you have to wait, plan, fail, get rejected etc.

@Dave the Chemist, do you miss the topic of recovering from PIED while masturbating though? Did you ever heard of such case? Where? Is there a success story on YBOP where someone recovered from PIED by jerking off few times a week during reboot?

foo said:

Are you recalling past porn images when you MO? If so, then that is the danger -- you may be reinforcing those bad neural pathways. I submit that the imagined or recalled image is no different than the real image.

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Totally agree.  And no I'm not.  I'm usually thinking of someone I met / saw/ talked to recently in real life. I'd still say recall is 10X less destructive than porn. because eventually you'll run out of images.  You don't have the endless novelty hook.

foo said:

Do you have any evidence that not using your sex drive kills it?

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Well common sense first off.  If I stopped going to the gym, I wouldn't expect to stay strong.  And if I stopped masturbating and didn't currently have a partner, I wouldn't expect to keep my sex drive.

Just look in this thread!  Johnny boy here who thinks MO one time killed his libido, and not the fact that he hadn't used his dick in 8 months. lol. 

My own experience with a dead libido from stopping all PMO in the past.

Or how about the endless threads where guys are in "flatline" for 6+ months.  Dude.  COME ON.  Have some common sense.  That's NOT a flatline!  That's a dead libido from total lack of use.

Or how about any of the threads where a guy is like, "it's been 5 months, I was with a real girl and had a terrible erection."  Well no shit dummy!  You haven't used it in 5 months!

Do you guys seriously not see this?

I totally get that especially for young guys they just can't seperate HEALTHY masturbation from porn.  And may need to quit all of it for a while.  Fine.  Reboot for a month.  But then for God's sake, bring in some healthy masturbation so that when you're with an actual woman you have a chance of performing!  FFS.

I don't doubt the phenonmenon of it getting harder before it gets easier.  I'm sober.  When I quit alcohol, it was HARD.  For the first 2 weeks I didn't go to bars.  And then for another month and a half, it was extremely hard to talk to women, to get on the dancefloor. Because I didn't have my crutch.  But after 2 months it was about the same!  I was back to my outgoing self.

Alcohol is another addiction.  With the same brain changes as any addiction.  And in that anaolgy I "rebooted" (by avoiding bars) for exactly TWO WEEKS.  And then I returned to MO withoutout P (going to bars sober.) for about a month and a half until I was back to normal. 

I didn't sit at home and do nothing for 6 months, and then expect to magically be back to my normal outgoing self after some mysterious "flatline" passed, at some point in the future.

And that's exactly what you guys are doing.  NEUTERING your libido by not using it at all, and then when your dick fails with a real woman, blaming it on a "flatline" MONTHS after that should have passed.

Johnny Trailer said:

Again no mention of PIED. Im stricticly saying for PIED, I never heard someone recovered in 3 months by masturbating couple of times per week. That is non sense.

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First post....just reading over this thread.

In response to the above: IME, ED caused by performance anxiety (not necessarily porn) *could possibly* be helped by building confidence that one can get a solid erection through masturbation.  If you can't get it up by yourself, what chance do you have of getting it up with a partner? 

Again IMO, there's a psychological element here and not everyone is going to react the same way or need the same thing.  If that were not true then we could easily tell anyone visiting the site that you need to stop watching porn for X amount of days and stop masturbating for X more days and you'll be cured.  That's obviously not the case.

Johnny boy here who thinks MO one time killed his libido, and not the fact that he hadn't used his dick in 8 months. lol.

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MOing after 8 months KILLED my progress and I was back to full blown PIED. What is the progress with PIED if you dont use your dick? If you actually think about it though... ;D How do you gauge it? I was not fucking every day but few times a month as a way to rewire. Lots of failures but after 8 months I was doing 80% better than day 1 and with reintroduction of MO 80% quickly became -80% progress. So Johnny boy actually meant what he said, MO killed his PIED progress  ;D ;D ;D and you lil boy still cant come up with a success story on YBOP of people who masturbated couple of times per week and recovered from PIED in 3 months!  ;D ;D ;D Not a single case in thousands of stories, lol. So go for it people, it was masturbation you was missing. 2 weeks of hardmode and then jack off to recovery, LOL.

Im not too familiar with alcohol addiction but going to bars after 2 weeks of sobriety really loosens up your credit when you are talking about any addiction. People should not be listening to your advice about any addiction. You barely got through physical withdrawal symptoms and went right back in bars? Were you even addicted to alcohol or just had a problem with alcohol? Can you tell a difference? Plenty of people have a problem with porn, not everyone (it may be even minority of those) is having PIED. Try to stay on topic ;D