Tired of relapsing again and again on your NoFap journey? In this article, I’m gonna list the top 6 reasons why people relapse on NoFap and how to avoid them.
What is NoFap?
NoFap is a lifestyle in which people refrain from watching porn and masturbation. They give up porn and masturbation willingly.
Why would someone do that?
Because porn and masturbation have a lot of side effects, contrary to popular belief. Our society considers porn and masturbation healthy and promotes them, but that is far from the truth.
To know about how porn and masturbation damage your brain from a scientific point of view, read my THIS ARTICLE, and to know the harmful side-effects of porn and masturbation, read my THIS ARTICLE.
What is Relapsing?
Relapsing means breaking your NoFap streak either by watching porn or by masturbating. If you’ve practiced NoFap in the past or are practicing now, you know relapsing can be stressful and it is hard to get back on the NoFap lifestyle after a relapse.
In this article, I’m gonna explain what are the common reasons people relapse and how to avoid them from my own experience of the NoFap lifestyle for the past 3 years.
1) Not Getting Busy
If you’re practicing NoFap lifestyle, you’ve got to keep busy, especially in the early days.
Like any habit, when you are trying to quit porn and masturbation habit, you are gonna face strong urges to go back to your previous lifestyle of watching porn and masturbating.
When you watch porn or masturbate, your brain releases a “feel good” chemical known as dopamine. When you’re trying to quit PMO(Porn, masturbation, orgasm) habit, your brain doesn’t get its regular dose of dopamine and will send you urges to watch porn or masturbate, so that it can get its dose of dopamine and can feel pleasure.
Resisting those urges is hard, especially in the early days of the NoFap lifestyle and the more time you spend doing nothing and being free, the harder it will be to resist those urges.
The best way to deal with urges is to get busy. You’ve got to keep your mind and yourself busy so that your brain doesn’t crave dopamine.
Just quitting porn and masturbation is not enough, you’ve got to replace those habits with new habits which can provide your brain dopamine so that you don’t go back to porn and masturbation to feel pleasure. Activities like exercising, socializing, being close to nature also release dopamine.
If you’re free and have nothing to do, take a course online, build a new habit, learn something new, join some community work. Whatever you do, you’ve got to keep yourself busy.
Summary
Not getting busy, being free and having nothing to do all day is probably gonna make you relapse. You’ve got to find something to keep your mind and yourself busy.
2) Not Exercising
Your semen contains energy and when you don’t ejaculate, all that energy builds up inside your body and keep finding a way to come out.
When you ejaculate, you’re just wasting that energy. Instead, you should exercise and use that energy for building a better body.
When you’re on NoFap for about 2-3 weeks, you can feel all that extra energy accumulating inside your body, and the best way to utilize it is to exercise.
Building a NoFap lifestyle without exercising regularly is not possible. Sure, you can complete a 30-day or 90-day NoFap challenge, but you can’t build a long-term NoFap lifestyle without including exercise in your daily routine.
Summary
You cannot build a long-term NoFap lifestyle without including exercise in your daily routine. Exercise regularly. It could be anything like lifting weights in the gym, going for a run, hiking, cycling, etc. You’ve got to include some form of physical activity in your daily routine.
3) Using too Much Social Media
During the early days of the NoFap lifestyle, you should quit social media altogether. But, if you’ve got to use it, limit the time you spend on it.
Be careful while scrolling through social media, especially Instagram, where you see pics of hot models in their bikinis very often which can trigger your urges to watch porn or masturbate.
Unfollow, dislike all the pages and people on social media which can trigger your urges. Be careful about the posts or videos you see and the content you consume online.
Summary
Be careful about the content you consume. Unfollow, dislike all the pages and people on social media which can trigger your urges.
4) Taking a Sneak Peek at a Hot Pic or a Sexy Video
This is the most common reason why people relapse on their NoFap journey. They think they can’t watch porn but they can just take a look at a hot pic or a sexy video to satisfy their urges. More often than not, they end up relapsing.
When you look at a hot pic or a sexy video, your brain releases dopamine, you feel good and it motivates you to keep looking and keep feeling pleasure. Once you watch one sexy video, you’re gonna want to look at another one and then another one, it’s a never-ending cycle. The more time you spend watching/looking at it, the more likely you’re to relapse.
People think they’ll just watch an ASMR video, then they think they’ll watch one lipstick challenge video, then a kissing video, then a make-out video and they eventually find themselves watching porn.
That’s why you should never look at a hot pic or watch a sexy video to satisfy your urges. Instead of satisfying your urges, it’ll leave you craving more.
Summary
Taking a sneak peek at a hot pic or a sexy video is a sure-shot way of relapsing. They never satisfy your urges and leaves you craving for more. Never look at them.
5) Being Alone When Urges Come
You never wanna be alone in your home when the urges hit you. If you are all alone in your home when urges hit, immediately leave your home and go outside.
This is the best way to deal with urges. If you’re all alone, trying to resist urges, sooner or later you’re gonna give in to temptations. When you are outside, it’ll be easier to resist those urges. First, because you can’t masturbate in public and second, being in public takes your mind off from horny and tempting thoughts.
For some reason, if you can’t go outside, start doing push-ups or meditation. Push-ups and meditation are the best “urge-killers“.
If you want to know more about how to avoid urges, check out my detailed article on the topic by clicking HERE.
Summary
Never be alone in your home when the urges hit, leave your home immediately and return back when the urges are gone. You can also start doing push-ups or meditation, they are the best “urge-killers”.
6) Edging
Edging is the practice of rubbing your penis and stopping just before ejaculating. people get a kick out of it and it feels good. It is the practice of feeling an orgasm without ejaculating.
The problem is, edging is a sure-shot way to relapse. You might do it successfully once, twice, or thrice but you’ll eventually fail and ejaculate.
That’s why you should also consider edging as relapsing.
To know more about nofap edging, how it affects your progress on nofap and how you can stop it, check out my detailed post on the topic by clicking HERE.
If you’re on nofap, I highly recommend reading the book “Your Brain on Porn” by Gary Wilson. This book is available on Amazon. It’s the best book I’ve read on the topic.
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Summary
Edging is guaranteed to make you relapse, sooner or later. Consider edging as relapsing.
Conclusion
Here are the top 6 reasons why people relapse on NoFap:-
- Not Getting Busy
- Not Exercising
- Using too Much Social Media
- Taking a Sneak Peek at a Hot Pic or a Sexy Video
- Being Alone When Urges Come
- Edging
Understand that relapsing is not a failure, it’s part of the process. Don’t get discouraged by it. Find out the reasons for your relapse and try to avoid them. Treat NoFap as a lifestyle, not as a challenge.
