Some people can’t stop relapsing on nofap. They’ll go 3-4 days or maybe a week and then relapse, they can’t seem to go past a week on nofap. If that sounds like you, this article is for you.
Relapses are part of the nofap journey but if you can’t get past a week on nofap and keep relapsing again and again, there are some things that you need to fix.
Going on a binge after a relapse is common among nofappers(people who do nofap). If you also often go into “binge mode” after a relapse, check out my THIS ARTICLE.
Why People Can’t Stop Relapsing on NoFap?
Before we discuss how to stop relapsing again and again on nofap, we need to discuss why people can’t stop relapsing on nofap.
1. They’re Not Serious About NoFap
If you’re not serious about nofap and do it half-heartedly, you’ll probably relapse again and again.
NoFap is hard even if you give it your best and it’s nearly impossible if you do it half-heartedly.
Some people do nofap just to check whether they can do it or not, they are not serious about it and if you’re not serious about it, it’s nearly impossible to do it. If you did nofap just to check whether you can do it or not or to check whether it has benefits or not and you keep relapsing again and again, this means you have a problem with porn and masturbation and you should get serious about it.
2. Wrong Mindset
The goal of nofap should be to kick porn and masturbation out of your life permanently, not to get “nofap benefits“. Those nofap benefits are just rewards for kicking porn and masturbation out of your life.
Porn and masturbation have a lot of harmful side effects and giving up porn and masturbation can reverse those damages. To know about the harmful side effects of porn and masturbation, check out my THIS ARTICLE.
If someone does nofap just to get the so-called nofap benefits then they’ll be disappointed and it’ll become harder for them to continue their nofap journey. Treating nofap as a challenge is a wrong mindset, nofap is a lifestyle. You should strive for living a PMO-free life(PMO=porn, masturbation, orgasm). NoFap should be your default mode, it shouldn’t be something that you do just to get the benefits.
3. Not Replacing PMO With Something Else
You cannot stop a habit, you can only replace it with something else.
If you watched porn or masturbated on a regular basis, you can’t just stop doing it without replacing it with something else. The time and energy you wasted on PMO need to be applied to some other thing. If you stop PMO without replacing it with something else, you’re more likely to fail.
Build a new habit, learn a new skill, start reading, do something to divert that energy you wasted on PMO.
What to Do if You Can’t Stop Relapsing on NoFap
Here are the 5 things you need to do if you can’t stop relapsing on nofap:-
1. Dopamine Detox
Dopamine detox is an excellent way to get rid of all the distractions that can cause you to relapse.
Dopamine is a feel-good chemical that gives us the sensation of pleasure. It is released whenever you do something pleasurable. Eating tasty/junk foods, scrolling through social media, listening to music, watching porn, masturbating, having sex, doing drugs, all these things releases dopamine, that’s why they feel pleasurable.
In order to do dopamine detox, you not only need to quit watching porn and jerking off, but you need to quit all pleasurable activities. If you quit porn and masturbation but keep eating junk foods and keep scrolling through social media for hours, you keep getting doses of dopamine which desensitizes your dopamine receptors and it becomes harder to resist the temptation of watching porn and jerking off.
In order to get your dopamine receptors back to normal levels, you need to quit all dopamine-releasing pleasurable activities for at least a week.
To know about dopamine detox in detail, check out my THIS ARTICLE.
2. Make a Schedule
Not having a schedule is one of the biggest factors behind relapsing again and again. Eating, sleeping, working whenever you want is not only bad for your nofap streak but also your mental health. Doing whatever you feel like doing whenever you feel like doing is a recipe for disaster.
You need to have a fixed schedule of doing things. You should go to sleep at the same time, wake up at the same time, eat, work, exercise at the same time.
Having a schedule gives your day a structure and you know in advance what you’ll be doing later in the day. Being free and not having to do something is the biggest trigger behind relapse, so always keep yourself busy.
3. Change Your Environment
Changing your environment can be a great way to break the cycle of relapsing again and again.
If you indulge in PMO(porn, masturbation, orgasm) at the same time and at the same location, say in your room, then your mind starts associating that time and place with pleasure, so every time you are in the same place at the same time, you’ll get urges to indulge in PMO.
For example, some people have a habit of indulging in PMO at night when they go to sleep on their bed, so their brain starts associating nighttime and their bed with pleasure. As a result, whenever they go to their bed at night, they get urges to watch porn and masturbate. You need to break this cycle.
Go live with your relatives in their house for a few days, or sleep in a different room, or go on a vacation, do whatever feels necessary to break that chain.
If you find that you relapse under the same circumstance, again and again, do everything possible to get out of that circumstance. If you find that you relapse again and again due to hot content on social media, get off social media.
4. Change Your Mindset
Having a “streak mindset” on nofap where you focus too much on the no. of days can be detrimental to your nofap journey.
If you focus all day on what day of nofap you’re on, then your chances of relapsing are high. You need to get your mind off nofap and focus on something else. Don’t think too much about nofap.
Just remember the starting date of nofap and then forget about it, don’t think about it every day. The best way to do it is to keep yourself busy. Learn a new skill in your free time or build a new habit. If you’re free and have nothing to do, then your mind will go towards nofap and whenever you’re thinking about nofap, you’re indirectly thinking about fapping.
5. Include Exercise And Meditation in Your Daily Routine
You can’t make nofap your lifestyle without including exercise and meditation in your daily routine, period. You can do 30 days or 90 days of nofap without them but you can’t make it your lifestyle. You must include exercise and meditation in your daily routine.
Sexual energy is a very powerful form of energy and by doing nofap you’re preserving that energy. That sexual energy needs to be transmuted and exercising and meditating are the best ways to transmute that sexual energy into something positive.
If you don’t exercise and meditate, that sexual energy gets built up inside your body, and start looking for a way to get out, as a result, you start getting urges. Urges are nothing but built-up sexual energy inside your body looking for a way out.
If you exercise and meditate daily, you’ll notice that you’re getting way fewer urges and you’re able to control your urges better.
Relapses Are Not Failures
In addition to doing all the above-mentioned things, you need to understand that relapses are not failures, they are part of the nofap journey. Stop thinking that relapses are the end of the world.
Relapses are something that you need to learn from. After every relapse, ask yourself what was the reason behind the relapse and try to eliminate those reasons, and make sure you don’t relapse twice due to the same reason.
If you got triggered due to social media, quit social media and make sure you don’t relapse again due to it. If you find that you relapse whenever you’re alone in your room, try to spend less time in your room alone. There’s a lesson to be learned from every relapse.
