P- Porn
M- Masturbation
O- Orgasm
PMO stands for Porn, masturbation, orgasm. An individual is said to be indulged in PMO, when he/she watches porn, masturbates and reaches orgasm in one session.
One can also indulge in one of the three activities without indulging in the other two, but, watching porn is generally followed by masturbation and reaching orgasm, so, we are gonna talk about PMO as one activity.
The no. of people indulging in PMO, especially young men has been growing due to high-speed internet and the easy availability of porn.
In this article, I’m gonna talk about the harmful side effects of excessive PMO based on my experience and the experiences of a lot of people all around the world. These side effects have also been confirmed through various studies by researchers.
How much is Excessive?
There is no one answer to it, it differs from individual to individual. What is excessive for one individual may not be excessive for another. An individual can start feeling the side effects after indulging in PMO twice a week, whereas some other individuals might feel the same side effects after indulging 3-4 times a week.
When you start feeling below mentioned symptoms, know you are doing it excessively and need to stop.
1) Social Anxiety
It has been reported that individuals who engage in excessive PMO suffer from social anxiety. They don’t feel like going out and socialising, they isolate themselves. They feel awkward at social gatherings and try to avoid every possible human contact.
They’d rather spend time alone in their room than go out and they find excuses of not going out and to avoid social gatherings.
Whenever they are in public, they feel their heartbeat going up and keep thinking about going home as soon as possible.
Of course, excessive PMO is not the only reason for social anxiety, but it is one of the reasons.
If you were once not a socially awkward person and were a social person and suddenly start feeling awkward at social gatherings or start feeling different symptoms of social anxiety, PMO could be the reason. Try giving up PMO for a month and notice the difference. It is around that one month period that people who quit PMO start seeing a decrease in their social anxiety symptoms.
If, even after giving up PMO for a month, you don’t see any difference, consider consulting with a mental health professional.
If you want to know more about the relation between nofap and social anxiety, check out my detailed article on the topic by clicking HERE.
I asked this question to my followers on my Instagram page(@the_fapstronaut). My page is about nofap and porn addiction recovery, so it’s safe to assume that people following that page have experienced the harmful side effects of PMO and are trying to quit it. Let’s look at what they say.
91% of people said that porn and masturbation made them socially anxious, while 9% said it didn’t.
2) Depression
People who indulge in excessive PMO also reported having depression or symptoms of depression.
When you watch porn and ejaculate, your brain thinks you just had sex with a real partner and passed on your genes, so it releases a “feel good” chemical known as dopamine to reward you as your brain can’t differentiate between having real sex with a partner and watching virtual sex(porn).
As a result of a huge rush of dopamine, your dopamine receptors get desensitized and will now need a relatively more amount of dopamine to give you the same level of pleasure. As a result, activities that don’t give you that huge rush of dopamine, don’t excite you anymore and you don’t feel like doing them. To know more about dopamine, and how porn and masturbation damage your brain, read THIS ARTICLE.
Since normal day-to-day activities can’t give you the same level of dopamine as porn, you don’t feel like doing them and keep going back to porn to satisfy your high level of dopamine need. As a result, you start losing interest in normal day-to-day activities and start feeling sad and unmotivated all the time, which is one of the symptoms of depression.
Low dopamine levels have been linked to depression and various symptoms of depression.
If you’ve been feeling depressed or some symptoms of depression, PMO could be the reason. Again, PMO is not the only reason of depression but it is definitely one of the reasons.
Try refraining from PMO for at least a month and you should start seeing your depression symptoms slowly go away.
If, even after a month, you don’t feel any improvement, consult a mental health professional and get help.
I asked this question on my Instagram page(@the_fapstronaut). Let’s look at what they say.
96% of people said that porn and masturbation gave them depressive symptoms, while 4% said it didn’t.
3) Low Self Esteem
People who indulge in excessive PMO, have been reported to have low self- esteem. They don’t think highly of themselves, they feel worthless and think they are not good enough for society
As a result, they miss out on a lot of opportunities in life. They feel like they are not worthy of anything good in life. They have an inferiority complex and think other people are always superior to them. This results in them not realising their potential and wasting it.
If you indulge in PMO and suffer from low self-esteem, consider quitting it and notice the difference. A lot of people have reported high self-esteem and an increase in self-worth after quitting PMO.
I asked this question on my Instagram page. Let’s look at what people say.
95% of people said that they experienced low self-esteem when they were masturbating excessively, while 5% said they didn’t.
4) Lack of Motivation
As mentioned earlier, When you indulge in PMO, your brain releases a huge amount of dopamine which gives you pleasure and desensitises your dopamine receptors. Activities which can’t provide that huge rush of dopamine, don’t excite you anymore and you don’t feel like doing them.
You feel a lack of motivation to do the things which are necessary because your dopamine receptors have now become desensitised to the dopamine released by those activities, after receiving a huge amount of dopamine released by indulging in PMO.
In some extreme cases, individuals have reported a lack of motivation to do the basic daily things like taking a shower, brushing their teeth, combing their hair etc. These are the symptoms of depression and if you feel like this, you should talk to your family members and consult a psychiatrist immediately.
Individuals also reported a lack of motivation to engage with their hobbies which they once enjoyed.
If you’ve been feeling a lack of motivation to do the necessary things or things which you once enjoyed doing, try giving up PMO and notice the results. people have reported an increase in motivation after abstaining from PMO for a month.
I asked this question on my Instagram page. Let’s look at what people say.
95% of people say that they experienced low motivation when they were indulging in PMO excessively, while 5% said they didn’t.
5) Erectile Dysfunction
It has been reported that indulging in excessive PMO causes erectile dysfunction. Porn induced erectile dysfunction(PIED) is a very real thing and the no. of people suffering from it has been on the rise due to easy availability and unlimited no. of porn videos available and high speed internet.
Before high speed internet porn, erectile dysfunction(ED) was mostly found in older men, but now, even people in their early 20’s and a lot of teenagers find themselves suffering from it.
Young men have reported difficulty in getting an erection or keeping an erection during sex with a partner.
Some men, especially young, who indulge in excessive PMO, have reported that they have no interest in having sex with a real partner and they find porn more pleasurable.
If you want to know more about porn-induced erectile dysfunction(PIED), check out my detailed article on the topic by clicking HERE
If you’ve been suffering from PIED, there’s no need to worry. People have reported that their erectile dysfunction(ED) has improved after quitting PMO. Quitting PMO can reverse PIED, but it’ll take time.
6)Changed Attitude towards Women
Men, especially young men have reported that excessive PMO changed their attitude towards women for the worst. They started seeing women as sex objects. They were unable to form a genuine connection with women. They felt like they needed women just for sex and nothing else.
They also felt like they were unworthy and undeserving of women and put women on a pedestal that screwed their dating life.
Whenever they saw an attractive woman, they could only think about having sex with her. They also felt awkward and less confident in talking to women. They couldn’t hold eye contact and felt inferior when talking to women.
If you’ve also been experiencing these symptoms, consider quitting PMO. Men have reported being able to form a genuine connection with women and be able to see women as human beings rather than sex objects after quitting PMO.
7) Brain Fog and Concentration problems
Brain fog is the inability to have a sharp memory or to lack a sharp focus. You feel like you are not yourself and you’re unable to think clearly.
Individuals indulging in excessive PMO have reported that they suffer from brain fog and had a hard time concentrating and often find themselves getting lost in unrelated thoughts while doing an activity.
If you’ve been feeling brain fog, loss in memory, and have a hard time concentrating on an activity, consider quitting PMO. People have reported that their brain fog went away and they had a much better concentration after quitting PMO.
I asked this question on my Instagram page. Let’s look at what people say.
95% of people said that excessive usage of porn and masturbation gave them brain fog, while 5% said it didn’t.
8) Insomnia
Individuals indulging in excessive PMO have reported difficulty in sleeping, getting lower quality sleep and a screwed up sleeping pattern.
PMO messes with the duration of your sleep, quality of your sleep and your sleeping schedule/pattern.
Again, PMO is not the only reason of insomnia or a bad sleeping pattern, it is one of the reasons.
If you’ve been experiencing any of the sleep-related problems mentioned, consider quitting PMO for at least 30 days and notice the difference. If, even after quitting PMO, you see no difference, consider consulting with a professional doctor.
9) Hair Loss and Hair Thinning
Men who indulge in excessive PMO have also reported hair loss and hair thinning. When you ejaculate, your body converts testosterone into DHT(Dihydrotestosterone) which causes hair loss and hair thinning.
DHT causes hair follicles to shrink and disrupt the growth cycle of hair. This process is known as miniaturisation.
Now, of course, PMO is not the only reason of hair fall, there are various other reasons, but, PMO is one of the reasons.
Men have reported a reduction in hair loss and noticed thicker hair and beard after quitting PMO. If you indulge in PMO and are facing hair loss, consider quitting PMO for a month and notice the difference. Apart from that, you should also increase your protein intake, drink enough water and massage your scalp. These things help with hair loss
To know more about nofap hair loss and how you can stop hair loss by doing nofap, check out my detailed article on the topic by clicking HERE.
Let’s look at what people say about this:-
56% of people said that they experienced hair loss when they masturbating excessively, while 44% said they didn’t.
10) Chronic Muscle and Joint Pain
People indulging in excessive PMO have reported having lower back pain, knee pain and muscle pain.
Your sperm is composed of many things, one of which is semen. This semen is made in your bone marrow (the material inside your bones, yes, your bones are not entirely solid.)
So when you’re masturbating a lot, 2 things happen. If your bones are weak, or if you’re obese, you will have a lot of back and joints issues, because you’re wasting all your semen. At the age of 33, it will take another day or two to replenish itself. You will end up with osteoarthritis, which, if left untreated, will lead you to bone degeneration. This is a disease in which your bones become hollow and weak, and then start degenerating.
Let’s look at what people say about this:-
59% of people said that they experienced joint/muscle pain when they were masturbating excessively, while 41% said they didn’t.
If you indulge in PMO a lot and are facing muscle and joint pain, quit PMO and notice the difference. Along with quitting PMO you could also go to a doctor and seek professional help.
If you want to know more about how porn damages your brain and how you can quit it, check out the book “Your Brain on Porn” by Gary Wilson on Amazon. It’s the best book I’ve read on the topic.
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Summary
These are the 10 harmful side effects of excessive PMO:-
- Social Anxiety
- Depression
- Low Self Esteem
- Lack of Motivation
- Erectile Dysfunction
- Changed Attitude towards Women
- Brain Fog and Concentration problems
- Insomnia
- Hair Loss and Hair Thinning
- Chronic Muscle and Joint Pain
If you’ve been feeling all or some of these symptoms, you are addicted to PMO and seriously need to quit it. For that, you can take the help of the various nofap forums online where people share their porn addiction and nofap experiences. it’ll give you a morale boost and help you overcome this horrible addiction.
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