hi guys so I wanted to ramble a bit about a concept a subreddit because I have a lot of different feelings on it and I'm very curious as to what you guys think and I could have easily written this out as a text post but I feel like I convey my thoughts better on this kind of topic by using my voice so I want to give it a shot so bear in mind I'm a little tired today because I was very productive and got a lot done so I'm kind of beat so my thoughts may not be the most coherent and I might have to reiterate things I say in a more clear concise manner so if I repeat things I'm sorry in advance but here goes nothing so I don't know how many of you are familiar with the subreddit or the concept of nofap so for those of you that don't know because I'm sure there's some of you out there who aren't aware of what it is I only became aware of it like a little while ago so I'm still kind of new to the whole thing myself nofap the concept it's pretty much what it says on the tin you abstain from masturbation for however long is kind of up to you but they recommend 30 or 90 days which is a little bit too much I don't think I could do that personally but uh it's something I want to try and I'll explain in a minute but the thing about nofap not only do you abstain from masturbation a lot of the people on there also try to abstain from porn or orgasms so some of them choose to masturbate but they just don't do it to orgasm they stop they deny themselves or they look at porn but they don't masturbate or they totally abstain from anything sexually related which is totally fine too it's their choice but I'm having very conflicted feelings about the idea of me doing a week of nofap so I wanted to try to do a week of nofap because I'm a very compulsive masturbator it is my way of dealing with stress frustration depression you name it it's my way of dealing with it scared as fuck before doing something really important I will force a super fast quickie and then it's like I'm on to take the world if I'm depressed and empty I orgasm just to feel things if I'm happy I orgasm to celebrate if I'm angry I do it to let off steam you know masturbation is very important to me but I don't like to believe in the idea of sex addiction or masturbation addiction but I'm a very compulsive masturbator and lately it's kind of to the point where time I could be spending with friends and family has been taken up by me making myself get off over and over and over again and it can be fun for a while but I've been doing stuff like this my whole life and understandably and like you know in the puberty years it's understandable because it's like you know hormones are going crazy all that fun stuff and hell you know I hear apparently you develop well into your 20s or until you're 21 or something like that can some of you clarify what that whole deal is because I kind of forgot the fact off the top of my head that I know the thing so I'm still going through development as I speak which is pretty spooky well not really spooky but it's like I'm going through puberty level 2 in a weird way you know so maybe hormones are just still going crazy I don't know but regardless my compulsive tendency of masturbation it's making me very upset lately like it it doesn't even feel that fun for me anymore it's like it's almost like a contest with myself how many times can I come to night instead of doing it because it genuinely feels good you know it's pretty frustrating and I thought maybe a week of nofap might be a good idea but you know yes you know yesterday night I was doing poking around on the nofap subreddit to kind of get a feel for what to expect from nofap the different terminologies in the community things like that I was looking into nofap because I was very curious about it you know it kind of scares me I mean I commend the concept but the community behind it seems very scary you know masturbation and self love is a very natural human tendency you know and like anything you can do a little bit too much of it you know you can eat a little bit too much exercise a little bit too much you know there's always a too much but of course that too much will vary widely depending on the individual at the heart of it when you live in a society which you know American society it's getting better about being accepting of alternative lifestyles and sexualities and things like that it still has a long way to go there's still a lot to deal with in the garbage heap and you know the thought of there being a concept like sex addiction masturbation addiction you know to make people feel guilt and shame for something that is totally natural and is part of the human experience for some for most I shouldn't say some but I know that there's people that don't want sex or don't desire it and that's totally okay too you know for a lot of humans sex is very important or not very important but it is a part of their life experience so you know the thought that there's a community that you know not even a community but the fact that sex addiction masturbation addiction you know addiction is a very negative connotation you know and I feel like if you put that kind of negativity on an activity or a concept that already has kind of a negative stigma it only serves to worsen that stigma not only that but the community of no fappers in general seems like a very unhealthy community regardless of how commendable their concept is you know the fact that when I read all these different posts from all these no fappers the fact that they feel such guilt and shame for what they're doing despite it being totally natural you know I hate to be blunt but that's pretty fucked up at least in my opinion you know I feel like people shouldn't necessarily feel guilty for their pleasure might they want to cut back on how much they masturbate or consume porn sure but a lot of the attitudes the people have in no fap scare me a bit excuse me for a sec here okay excuse me again but like I was saying the attitude of no fap is very concerning because if you know the person is to relapse or whatever of course they understandably get very upset but it's like they show a level of guilt and shame that it's very uncomfortable to see and even then when I see the goals of people that are beginning no fap like it's very concerning to see that they're coming in very much compulsive masturbators very habitual porn watchers and then next thing you know they want to eradicate it totally from their lives to where they don't even do it anymore and it's just like you know if that's the choice they want to make that's okay and I'm not going to say that it's fucked up if that's what makes them happy but I mean to eradicate masturbation completely from one's life sounds pretty unrealistic and quite impossible to me and maybe that's just to me and the reason I always end my sentences with to me or I feel or I think or whatever is because I understand that a lot of you are probably gonna think a little differently but I wanted to share my view on this I want to do a week of no fap because not because I want to get involved with the community or anything like that the people in the community scare the fuck out of me I'm gonna be totally honest the overall overwhelming attitude of sex negativity is very toxic and unhealthy and it's very hard as somebody who is relatively sex positive it's a very scary place to be for me you know I'm all about that positivity ain't nothing wrong with sex and masturbation and all that and you know I'm still learning my way around things but you know I generally consider myself very sex positive so being in an environment where it's such a guilty shamey place about you know you know about the detriments of having too much sex or masturbating too much I understand what they're trying to achieve but I can't help but feel like there could be a better way to execute it you know and of course you know on the subreddit they don't claim that they believe that porn or masturbation is the devil or anything which is very comforting that you know to keep in mind but it still doesn't help to swayed me from feeling positively towards the community itself because even if nofap itself might not believe that porn or masturbation are bad things the overall sex negativity within the community is very concerning to me that said I feel like my compulsive masturbation is also very negative and very not good either with how often I do it you know these past couple nights I've been very lonely and instead of like hopping into the team speak to talk to people instead of going on and talking with close friends in real life instead I've been locked up in my room masturbating over and over and over compulsively and it's not even because I want to or it feels good it's just a very natural thing like sometimes I'm just sitting listening to music and next thing I know my hand is in my pants it's not a big deal like oh baby I'm gonna masturbate no normally I don't even think about it it's just kind of happening it's like a reflex you know it's like a reflex to stress to any negative feeling I'm like masturbating you know and you know that's it's not it's not the most unhealthy way to cope I will say that like I'm very proud that I haven't had to like turn to drugs or anything to cope with my bad feelings it's always been masturbation for me but the fact that it is so compulsive and so ingrained in me I can't help but feel a bit of guilt and shame myself you know because it's like I understand masturbation is totally healthy and natural and all that stuff but like I can't help but feel guilty and bad because it's like all this time that I spend orgasming and working myself up into a sweat could be used to call a friend on the phone to head out for a bit and just kind of get some fresh air you know but no one said I'm just busy you know fapping my ass off literally and figuratively but like you know I'm curious what will happen if I decide not to masturbate for this whole week you know will it be torture will it be good I don't know and that's why I kind of want to find out I want to try it and see what happens try to cut back on my compulsive tendency to masturbate but I don't know what do you guys think about the general concept of nofap what do you think for those of you that have actually looked around on the subreddit and the different sites for it and whatnot what what what do you have to say about the community to you like what what what do you think of it you know I'm very curious because though I feel all these negative things towards nofap I still feel like it's a pretty helpful concept for people that might need it but I can't help but feel like it needs to be executed a bit differently but I'm not sure you know and you know another question I'll throw out there for you to answer or not answer this can be rhetorical if you want I don't care you know if you are not a compulsive masturbator you know feel free to not answer this but you know try to try to imagine yourself as a compulsive masturbator if need be if you want to try and answer this one but to other compulsive masturbators out there because I'm sure it's not just me I'm sure there's others too let me ask you this how do you deal with all that excess energy within your system how besides masturbating what are other things that you do to kind of try to not masturbate as much do you how do you manage it if it gets to feel like it's too much actually that's not even a question for compulsive masturbators is it I guess that's a question for everyone I fucked up I'm sorry no but yeah everybody yeah how do you manage your masturbation habits and and what what's a good way to kind of lessen the frequency without going totally dead you know because I don't want to omit masturbation and porn from my life I can't do that because that's a lot of like how I'm coming to feel more confident within myself no pun intended you know you know masturbation and self-love it's a very therapeutic thing for me it's very important to me but at the same time I don't like doing it as frequently as I do and I don't know what to do I don't want to stop dead turkey but you know for me usually one orgasm isn't enough and I find that I just keep going after one and I don't know it's very frustrating you know I just you know and I know none of you are like you know none of you are like allowed to give like medical advice and I'm not asking for medical advice or anything like that if I were to be looking for that I would be talking to a doctor but I'm just looking for advice like just practical advice you know so yeah I don't know I just needed to get this out there because it's it's really tough you know and I'm kind of tired of feeling alone you know I just I want to reach out to you guys you know so thank you for listening and I can't wait to see what you have to say you know I look forward to your responses and you know let's get a little discussion going I wanna I want to see what can spiral out from this I'm very curious because this topic is very fascinating to me and human sexuality is really fascinating to me and it's it's just it's something that I love to look into so let's chat let's see what happens you know so yeah thank you for listening and discuss away