Hi everyone,
I stopped viewing porn and masturbating roughly four years ago. About one week after quitting, I went into a deep flatline. Symptoms were severe; I felt depressed pretty much all of the time, couldn't have sex and felt no motivation to do anything at all. After a few months, I would occassionally masturbate, just to see if that would kickstart my libido. It sometime felt as if my libido would come back straight after I had an orgasm, but then it would fade again a few days later. A couple of months later, I would fall into a routine: after 2-3 weeks of not masturbating, I would feel my libido slowly coming back again. I would then masturbate. This in turn would lead to my flatline returning, along with all the depression symptoms. This went on and on for months, and I did not feel very hopeful of ever being healed again.
About two months ago, I started informing myself about the role of dopamine. I always knew that dopamine played a key role in porn addiction/flatline symptoms, but I never really understood it properly. I will try to lay out my understanding of it, but keep in mind that I am not a neuroscientist. Dopamine is of course released in anticipation of a reward. I strongly believe that flatline symptoms occure because your brain no longer rewards sexual arousal in the form of an orgasm. When I realized this, I started to try and rewire my brain in a certain way. I would fantasize about sex in such a way that I would anticipate an orgasm. Slowly I realized I could trick my brain this way into releasing dopamine. Then I would orgasm. I repeated this cycle a few times, always making sure that I was sufficiently aroused before orgasming. After a couple of days I felt my libido improving significantly, it was as if I was back to being my old self. Two months in, and I am feeling great, have a strong libido and have no performance issues during sex.
I hope this was somewhat understandable, and that you can gain something from my experience.
All the best.
P.S. Kegel exercises also help. Not with your libido, but with the quality of your erections.
I stopped viewing porn and masturbating roughly four years ago. About one week after quitting, I went into a deep flatline. Symptoms were severe; I felt depressed pretty much all of the time, couldn't have sex and felt no motivation to do anything at all. After a few months, I would occassionally masturbate, just to see if that would kickstart my libido. It sometime felt as if my libido would come back straight after I had an orgasm, but then it would fade again a few days later. A couple of months later, I would fall into a routine: after 2-3 weeks of not masturbating, I would feel my libido slowly coming back again. I would then masturbate. This in turn would lead to my flatline returning, along with all the depression symptoms. This went on and on for months, and I did not feel very hopeful of ever being healed again.
About two months ago, I started informing myself about the role of dopamine. I always knew that dopamine played a key role in porn addiction/flatline symptoms, but I never really understood it properly. I will try to lay out my understanding of it, but keep in mind that I am not a neuroscientist. Dopamine is of course released in anticipation of a reward. I strongly believe that flatline symptoms occure because your brain no longer rewards sexual arousal in the form of an orgasm. When I realized this, I started to try and rewire my brain in a certain way. I would fantasize about sex in such a way that I would anticipate an orgasm. Slowly I realized I could trick my brain this way into releasing dopamine. Then I would orgasm. I repeated this cycle a few times, always making sure that I was sufficiently aroused before orgasming. After a couple of days I felt my libido improving significantly, it was as if I was back to being my old self. Two months in, and I am feeling great, have a strong libido and have no performance issues during sex.
I hope this was somewhat understandable, and that you can gain something from my experience.
All the best.
P.S. Kegel exercises also help. Not with your libido, but with the quality of your erections.