Recommendations Regarding Masturbation Cessation
- Reduced dopamine levels: Stopping can lead to a decrease in dopamine, impacting mood and motivation. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5455504/
- Increased testosterone: May result in higher serum testosterone, affecting libido and muscle mass.
- Improved sleep quality: Some experience better sleep with less frequent masturbation, due to reduced arousal.
- Enhanced focus & productivity: A decrease in sexual thoughts & urges can boost mental clarity.
- Improved emotional regulation: Some report less mood swings and better emotional control with abstinence.
- Potential for sexual dysfunction: In some cases, cessation can temporarily increase urges & potentially lead to erectile dysfunction. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26440143/
- Consider underlying issues: Masturbation cessation should be coupled with healthy coping mechanisms for underlying issues like stress or anxiety.
Source: 123rf
Stop masturbating: what happens to the body
It is the starting point of sexuality, an indispensable stage for adolescents, a pleasurable habit for adults as well, albeit in pairs. Masturbation is a moment of intimacy and awareness, of knowing one’s body and pleasure points. A time to experience individually or to share with a partner. It is pleasure, fantasy and experimentation; yet it sometimes results in a kind of unhealthy addiction and becomes a problem for those who practice it. How to recognize when one has moved beyond seeking a moment of disengaged pleasure? How to stop? And what happens to the body when you take a break from masturbation?
The benefits of masturbation
That sexual practice brings benefits to body and mind we know. Stimulation and then orgasm are natural anti-stress, facilitate sleep and increase self-esteem. Hormones produced by the body drive pleasure and well-being. They are the dopamine, one of the happiness hormones, responsible for the feeling of gratification and fulfillment; the endorphins, a natural painkiller in the body, with antidepressant and mood-boosting effects. Then the body produces oxytocin, the love hormone, which reduces stress and anxiety; and the testosterone, the hormone of arousal, desire and pleasure. The brain and body turn on in the same way whether the stimulation is from intercourse with a partner or from masturbation. This sensation of pleasure, however, can go as far as giving addiction (dopamine is the neurotransmitter that regulates pleasure, the same one that is produced in response to certain foods or substances such as coffee, chocolate or nicotine for example), and this is one of the main problems perceived by those who want to take a break from bulimic and uncontrolled masturbation.
An entire community
Masturbating is not bad for you, it does not make you blind, and indeed autoeroticism is often recommended in therapies for the resolution of certain sex-related problems and discomforts. But it is important to understand the true role of masturbation, and especially to recognize when it touches the pathology. A more widespread problem than you might imagine, so much so that on the web in 2011 the community NoFap, a collection of forums, blogs and social platforms created by and for those who wish to stop masturbating. So many people from all corners of the world who, often anonymously, daily exchange advice and reflections, testimonies and curiosities, observations on how stopping this practice affects the body. Without shame and without worrying about the judgment others. Another all-Italian case is that of the blog A Year Without Masturbating. The author opened it because he felt sorry for himself every time he needed photos or videos to experience pleasure. The virtual and shared diary became a place to note progress and benefits of this therapy, but also, within a few months, a space for exchange and comparison open and without taboos.
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Masturbation to escape from problems
There are many reasons why men and women, even of young age, stop masturbating. One only has to read on various blogs and social media to find some of them. Meanwhile, there is masturbation to escape from far more serious problems: when people resort to autoeroticism to escape from a discomfort or infinitely greater pain. There are many boys and girls in communities who abuse it, completely losing control over healthy and pleasurable stimulation. It is true that masturbation is a stress reliever, but it is equally true that it cannot resolve or dissolve issues that deserve other spaces and resolutions. In this case, masturbation should certainly be scaled back. Then there is the addiction to a pleasurable sensation, however, which reaches truly disarming levels. Some of the people who have chosen to take a break from masturbation have confided that they urge themselves more than ten times a day; to be totally addicted to the great sense of pleasure, followed by fulfillment, fatigue and then landing feet first after the orgasmic flight. A rhythm that definitely goes beyond the desire to discover one’s body and caress it pleasantly, and that in the long run can be perceived as a problem even by those who practice it.
In relation to the partner
Then there are those who choose to stop with masturbation to respect for their partner. This is not to say that autoeroticism takes anything away from a couple’s relationship; on the contrary, it can often be very pleasurable to share it during a relationship for two; but focusing too much on self-stimulation can have negative implications with each other. “I decided to stop because I want to focus all my sexual energy toward my current girlfriend. I felt she deserved all my attention, while I was distracted and very focused on me,” commented one. “I got tired of relying on porn or autoeroticism to have an orgasm,” wrote one girl. “None of my partners, male or female, ever managed to make me orgasm because I had sort of trained myself to respond to very specific stimuli. I kind of desensitized“. This phenomenon is very common to the community and is called “death grip“, an expression indicating desensitization of the sexual organ due to excessive masturbation or too firm manipulation.
Porn addiction
Masturbation often goes hand in hand with the consumption of porn. Even the pornography can be a tool like any other to play with, alone or in pairs, and to stimulate imagination and arousal. But porn addiction is another affirmed truth. The site Your Brain On Porn collects scientific studies on the porn addiction and its effects. Several researches have confirmed that compulsive porn consumers respond to stimuli of a pornographic nature in exactly the same way as addicts of drugs react to stimuli and drug consumption. On a psychological level, porn addiction limits the instinct to seek out real physical relationships, lowers self-esteem and encourages the pursuit of something false and fictitious. Physically, it appears that high rates of erectile dysfunction and impotence (over 50 percent) have been found among compulsive porn users, which disappears only in the face of pornographic material.
Quitting and the benefits to the body
Can taking a break from autoeroticism then benefit our bodies? Some argue that it can. Web developer Alexander Rhodes, creator of NoFap, confessed that he became more productive and energetic since he stopped masturbating regularly, and that he no longer felt the compelling urge to do so at any time. Writer Ed Smith also confessed that he experienced a similar increase in productivity after he stopped masturbating. The other benefits found by NoFap members were also: weight loss, increased concentration and physical strength, less anxiety and depression. According to the author of A Year Without Masturbating, there are three positive things that this detoxification brings. Meanwhile, the ability to concentration and alertness, lucidity improve after a few weeks, as if you finally get something out from in front of your eyes. It greatly increases theenergy: Masturbating feels good for a few seconds, but then it numbs. To stop masturbating is to live the day “on open gas.” Ultimately it is the awareness of the changing self: liberation from porn and obsessive masturbation enhances real sex life, increases orgasm quality, and enables one to be whole with one’s values and wills.
The initial decline in desire
Among the comments of those who stop masturbating is a very frequent word. “Flatline” indicates a period of decrease in desire and corresponds to one of the most difficult moments of this detoxification. Many fapstronauts (that’s what the community members call themselves) are tempted to retrace their steps to experience arousal, stimulation and pleasure again, risking falling back into the usual compulsive dynamic. To reassure themselves of an arousal not lost, even. Actually, by resisting, everything seems to pass: the detoxification phases are a’initial hyperexcitement, then a period of flatline, and finally the discovery of a new type of excitation, more spontaneous and natural toward partners.
How to resist
Resisting temptation is not as simple as any detoxification and diet. Especially in the beginning. But within the blogs and communities there is plenty of advice and testimonials as well. Meanwhile, one has to identify the time of maximum sensitivity, which usually corresponds to the morning upon waking or the evening before going to sleep. The advice is to distract oneself and find equally pleasurable and satisfying practices. For many and many there is the sports, a disciplined gym program, the meditation to recognize the stages when desire rises and control it. Others recommend lowering the temperature in the shower to reduce the chances of the urge to masturbate. “I realized that if I try to fight the desire, it becomes more difficult to let it pass; so whenever I feel the urge I don’t fight it, but I also don’t do anything to go along with it. I wait for the erection to pass.”
