Flatline during NoFap can be dangerous. This is the period during which you’re most likely to relapse(break your NoFap streak). In this article, I’m gonna explain what is NoFap Flatline, How to deal with it, and everything else you need to know about it.
What is NoFap Flatline?
Flatline is a period during your NoFap journey where you stop seeing NoFap benefits and start feeling depressed, anxious, sad, less motivated, etc.
Flatline is part of the NoFap journey. It is the period during which your brain actually starts rewiring and healing and those bad feelings and bad mood are just withdrawal symptoms.
Reason Behind NoFap Flatline
If you are like most guys, you’ve probably been watching porn and masturbating since 10-12 years old. During all those years you’ve supplied your brain with an unnaturally high level of dopamine and your brain has become accustomed to getting a high amount of dopamine without doing any work.
After giving up porn and masturbation for some time, the dopamine level in your brain gets low and your brain starts craving dopamine.
Due to this low level of dopamine, you feel less motivated, depressed and don’t want to do anything productive.
Flatline is a period during which your brain starts adjusting itself to not getting a high level of dopamine.
Symptoms of NoFap Flatline
Following are the symptoms people feel while going through NoFap Flatline:-
- Low motivation
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Weakness/Muscle weakness
- Not wanting to get out of bed
- Not wanting to talk to anyone
- Not wanting to leave the house
- Laziness
- Insomnia/Sleeping more
- Screwed up sleeping schedule
- problem concentrating
- Brain fog
- Craving junk food
- Difficulty in expressing views
- Anger issues
- Feeling tired and exhausted all the time
If you’re going through most of these symptoms during your NoFap journey, most probably you’re going through a flatline
Basically, you start feeling how a heavily PMO(Porn, masturbation, orgasm) addict feels during addiction. But, it’s temporary and it’s your brain’s way to adjust itself to the NoFap lifestyle.
Challenges During NoFap Flatline
During Flatline, it’s easy to think that NoFap is not working and you begin to question the authenticity of NoFap. You feel like going back to your PMO(Porn, masturbation, orgasm) lifestyle to find pleasure.
But remember NoFap is a lifestyle and a journey and you’re gonna face difficulties on this journey. But, they will be temporary, not permanent.
You’re more likely to give up NoFap and relapse during a flatline, so you need to be more cautious during it.
When Will You Experience it?
It depends on how addicted you were to porn and masturbation and it differs from person to person.
Some people have reported going through flatline on around 14-15 days, some have reported on around 30-40 days, some on 60-70 days, and others on around 200-250 days.
You can experience NoFap flatline anywhere between 15-250 days of your NoFap journey.
The more addicted you were to porn and masturbation, the earlier you will experience NoFap flatline.
How Long Will It Last?
Again, it depends on how addicted you were to porn and masturbation and it differs from individual to individual.
For some people, it lasts for a week, for some 2-3 weeks, some a month and for other 2 months. In some rare and extreme cases, people have reported that their NoFap flatline lasted for years.
You should be expecting to last it for a month. That way, you are mentally prepared to fight it for a long time.
A month is still a lot, but your brain needs at least that amount of time to rewire itself to not getting an unnaturally high amount of dopamine for doing nothing.
How to Deal With NoFap Flatline?
Dealing with NoFap is hard, but possible. Here are the ways which have helped me and many other people deal with NoFap flatline:-
1) Remember Why You Started NoFap
Getting yourself reminded why you started NoFap is a great way to deal with NoFap flatline.
Porn and masturbation damage your brain and it has a lot of other harmful side-effects.
If you want to know how porn and masturbation damage your brain, read my THIS ARTICLE, and if you want to know the harmful side-effects of excessive PMO, read my THIS ARTICLE.
If you’re on NoFap, you’ve most probably experienced the harmful and damaging side-effects of porn and masturbation yourself and made a conscious decision to quit this habit.
Reminding yourself of the harmful and damaging effects of porn and masturbation and how you felt like while indulging in PMO, will motivate you to fight flatline and not relapse.
2) Take Long Walks
During flatline, it is difficult to convince or motivate yourself to go to the gym and workout.
But convincing yourself of going for a walk is relatively easy. You should get off the house and take a walk outside. It’ll take your mind off flatline and will lighten your mood.
Go for a walk outside or just sit in a park and try to enjoy the greenery.
3) Meditate
Meditation is another great way to deal with NoFap flatline.
It calms your mind and reduces brain fog. It helps you think clearly and take control of your thoughts.
Meditation won’t magically snap you out of flatline, but it’ll make going through flatline easier.
4) Trust the Process
Keep reminding yourself that NoFap is a lifestyle and flatline is part of the process to live that lifestyle.
If you’ve been addicted to porn and masturbation for 8-10 years or more, you’re not gonna completely recover from it without going through a flatline.
Remind yourself that all the depression and anxiety symptoms or low motivation you are feeling right now, are only temporary and it does get better with time.
Check out my article about 5 things which you can do during nofap flatline to not relapse by clicking here.
If you’re trying to quit porn and masturbation, I recommend reading the book “Your Brain on Porn” by Gary Wilson. It’s the best book I’ve read on the topic. It is available on Amazon.
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Conclusion
Flatline is part of the NoFap journey. You must go through it to completely recover from porn and masturbation addiction and quit porn and masturbation for once and all.
During Flatline remind yourself of the consequences of going back to the PMO lifestyle and also remind yourself of all the amazing benefits of NoFap you’re gonna get, once you get past this flatline.
