Does Quitting Porn Increase Your Libido? (Answer Found)

By BobPosted on March 24, 2022March 16, 2023

Does Quitting Porn Increase Your Libido?

So, you're having a bit of a libido problem and now you're wondering if giving up porn could be something worth trying?

Well, you've come to the right place, because in this article we are going to take a deeper dive into how quitting porn affects your libido.

We are also going to look at a few other ways of improving your libido, in addition to giving up porn.

Can quitting porn improve libido?
Poll results from a sample of guys who tried giving it up…

Let's start by presenting a poll I made on my YouTube channel ‘Project Stronger Self'.

This was a natural question to ask my subscribers, because a big part of the videos I make on my channel is about, NoFap, how to overcome porn addiction or just a bad porn habit in general.

The question I asked was…

Did you find that giving up porn increased your libido and drive for real life people?

More than 2400 people voted, and these are the results…

Yes, definitely: 69%
I think it might perhaps have done so: 19%
Hmm…I don't really think so: 8%
No, I'm sure quitting didn't help my libido: 4%

As you can see, only 12% did not find think quitting porn helped improve their libido. And of those 12% only 4% were absolutely sure it didn't help.

An astonishing 88% of all the people who participated found that quitting porn did indeed improve their libido. And out of those, 69% had absolutely no doubt whatsoever that giving up porn did indeed increase their libdio.

So, according to this poll, the answer to the question can quitting porn increase libido? is a resounding yes!

If a clear majority of guys find that quitting porn helps their libido, then the next obvious question becomes…

…just exactly HOW does giving up porn increase your libido?

Well, here's the answer…

Too much porn is dialing down your pleasure response, making you less responsive to real life people

Watching too much porn will numb your pleasure response in your brain. In the world of neuroscience, this is called desensitization.

A lot of people don't think of it, but it's quite simple really…

…here's an analogy….

You have probably experienced the following…

You go outside on a sunny day and perhaps you even look towards the sun for a few seconds. If you then go inside right away, everything looks very dark in there, even though it's in the middle of the day.

This is because the sun was so powerful so your eyes dialed down their sensitivity to light.

Well, the same can happen with today's online porn. It's so stimulating for your brains reward system that it dials down your sensitivity to dopamine.

Your brain stops responding to real life women…

What happened there, in the sun example, is that the light inside seemed very weak in comparison to the bright light outside. Likevise, your reaction to girls in real life pales in comparison to the endless novelty of online babes.

Think about it, during one single session you can see more hot babes than your ancestors could see in several lifetimes. This is more dopamine stimulation than your reward system came equipped with being able to handle.

If dopamine stays elevated for a long time, your brain can start dialing down its sensitivity…

What happens on a biological level is that, whenever you have sex or watch porn, your dopamine levels shoot up.

So far so good, nothing inherently wrong with dopamine. In fact, we need it in order to survive. Dopamine is there to promote behaviors that makes us motivated to do things that help us survive and reproduce.

But here's the deal…

What happens online is that you can override your natural satiation mechanism.

Think about it, how often do you use porn in a way that you do not fast forward or click to other video clips? Almost never, I would be willing to bet.

Now, ask yourself, why are you doing that?

Well, it's because after watching porn for a few minutes, it loses a bit of its allure, and you start to feel a bit less excited, so you immediately start chasing the next video clip.

In order to keep the excitement going, you click to a new video, perhaps with another porn actress having sex in another position. You watch that one for a few seconds only to, again, click to something new. Click..search…click…click. By doing that you are overriding your natural satiation mechanism. Think about it, you can't keep switching partners with the click of a button with a real life partner. This is why your dopamine system can handle real sex, but it can start suffering with online porn.

Porn can cause a disrupted dopamine system – and a disrupted dopamine system means lower libido…

When you override your satiation mechanism, your brain starts to feel that its flooded with too much dopamine.

As a defense mechanism it then starts reducing the number of dopamine D2 receptors.

Dopamine receptors are small slots that dopamine itself has to lock onto in order for it to do its job, and with fewer of those receptors you are now left with a disrupted dopamine system.

Here are the most common symptoms of a disrupted dopamine system…

Lack of motivation, energy and drive
Low libido / sex drive
Poor concentration
Low mood
Difficulties feeling pleasure
Anxiety
Feelings of fear and shame

Any of those sound familiar?

How about the low libido?

So, now that we talked about how overusing porn can desensitize your dopamine system and thus reduce your libido, let's take a look at some other important questions.

I.e. how to get your libido back, how long does it take and what are there other things you can do to help increase it.

How long does it take to get your libido back after quitting porn?

How long it takes to get a boost in libido after quitting porn is highly individual.

There are many factors at play, but perhaps the biggest factor is whether or not or not the individual has formed addiction related brain changes or not. In other words, If you have some form of porn addiction, then the recovery of your libido will most likely take a lot longer.

This is generally how long it takes…

After quitting porn you could se a jump in libido…

Those with no addiction related brain changes => Within a month
Those with mild addiction related brain changes => Within 8-13 weeks
Those with more severe addiction related brain changes => Within 13-52 weeks

Here we also need to point out that those who started using online porn very early in life typically take longer to recover. Also, there are some lucky few who need more than a year to fully recover. But they are in the minority.

Real life experience is a good thing…

On the other hand, if you've had some experience with the opposite sex before you started, heavily using online porn, then you will most likely recover a bit faster after giving it up.

This is simply because the brain is highly plastic in younger years and whatever we are experiencing when we are young gets ingrained in the brain on a much deeper level.

So, starting out on porn very early in life will unfortunately rewire the brain to respond to pixels on a screen in a more severe way…

…in essence, the libido gets “hijcaked” by pixels on a screen.

How do I know if I have addiction related brain changes?

After learning all the above, the next logical question then becomes…

…“how do I know if I have addiction related brain changes?”

Well, I have created a porn addiction test that you can take by watching the video below…

I hope you found the video informative. If you did, consider checking out my YouTube channel at Project Stronger Self.

Important: You need to know about the flatline
I.e. your libido may DROP even further for a while, before it gets better

One very important thing for you to know is that a lot of guys who are giving up porn will actually see a drop in libido in the beginning. In the rebooting community this phenomenon is called the flatline.

This is perhaps one reason for why 12% of the voters at the top of the page didn't think giving up porn helped their libido. I personally suspect that a few of those votes may just have been influenced by the flatline.

The flatline is characterized by…

Lower mood
Less energy
A complete loss of libido

Sounds scary, but the flatline is actually a sign of healing.

It's something that, if you happen to face it, you just have to push through. Once the flatline is over, your libido will come back stronger than ever…

…way stronger than it was when you were using porn.

When does the flatline start?

The flatline typically starts somewhere in the second week after quitting porn, but this is very individual. Some descend into a flatline in the very first week, and others a bit later.

How long does the flatline last?

It's different for everyone, but the flatline typically lasts anywhere between 10-70 days.

Another thing to note is that it is possible to have several flatlines during a porn reboot. I.e. it can come and go.

However, if you do experience another, or a third flatline, then know that those are most often much shorter than the first one.

Not Everyone will experience the flatline…

Important to note is also that, not everyone will face the flatline. If you're not addicted to porn you will most likely not have one, but even if you are addicted, it's not a certainty.

I asked my subscribers to participate in a poll, where I asked how many of them experienced the dreaded flatline after they gave up porn, and here's the results…

Important: NoFap is slang for solo sex, but what it really means is giving up porn (almost no one watches porn without masturbating). It is not abstinence from masturbation that activates the flatline. The flatline is a symptom that too much porn as altered the brain.

As you can see, more than 1300 people answered…

I have: 59%
I have not: 13%
I'm not sure: 28%

If you want to learn more about what he flatline is, then take a look at the following posts…

Comments from guys who gave up porn to regain libido…

Let's take a look at what a few guys have commented about their experiences with getting their libido back after quitting porn.

These are comments that some of my subscribers commented in the community section under my poll about how quitting porn affects libido.

“As I have gone from a porn addict to now rarely watching porn, my attraction to real life woman has increased immensely. Improvement in libido has been slow, though.” -Fitness Enthusiast-

“If a man goes more than 2 weeks no fap no porn at all his passion level usually goes through the roof.” -Will Robb-

“On day 11 now and Im still more attracted to pornstar proportions than normal human proprotions. Think I'm gonna need some more time” -halflifeguitarist-

“Going without porn increases my libido like crazy!” -chosen one”

“I used to only like curvy women. Now i love all women. I crave them like i crave food. It is never been like that before.” -zakarayaful-

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Other things you can do to improve your libido
RIGHT NOW

Let's take a look at a few things you can do besides quitting porn, or in tandem with quitting porn, to help improve your libido right away.

However, befor we jump into that, let me just say that if your dopamine system is desensitized by all the porn you've been watching, just like we talked about earlier in this post, then the real fix for your libido is always going to be to quit, or at least drastically reduce your porn consumption.

By doing so, your brain will regain sensitivity to dopamine and thus your libido will come back.

I do realize I might come across as being “anti porn”, but I'm actually not. It's just that I suffered from the negative effects of porn addiction for so many years myself, that I decided to start talking about it on my YouTube channel and here on my blog…

…and yes, low libido and sluggish erections were two of those problems.

So, I'm not anti porn, I'm pro information.

Try any of these two supplements…

During my own porn reboot I tried every libido boosting supplement I could get my hands on.

Most of them did nothing for me, but I finally found two that actually worked really well…

Even though I was pretty desensitized by all the porn, both of those did make me much hornier as well as give me harder erections.

Which one to try?…

Now, if you want to give them a try, I think you sould start with VigRx and see how that one works for you, as AlphaViril is more potent and needs to be used in cycles.

So, if you start with VigRx and it works for you, great, stick to that one. But if it doesn't, then you could try going for the more potent one, AlphaViril.

How do they work?

Both of these libido supplements work by targeting several areas of your sexual mechanism…

They…

Stimulate the arousal center in the brain – waking up your libido…
Boost dopamine levels a bit
Increases nitric oxide levels making the cavernosa relax letting more blood in, resulting in harder erections. The “cavernosa” is the name or the 2 long cylindrical tubes in your penis…
Significantly increase blood flow to your nether regions…
Increase sensitivity – making you more sensitive down there, but without making you climax too quickly. This makes sex much more pleasurable as well.

In addiction to the above, AlphaViril is also a testosterone booster. A pretty potent one as well, I might add.

In fact, I have even done before and after blood samples to test if it actually did anything to my testosterone levels. If interested, you can read more about that in my detailed AlphaViril review right here.

However, as I said, the AlphaViril is so potent that it needs to be taken in cycles, so I do recommend you try the VigRx first and see if you can get away with that.

You can click here to check current pricing for Alphaviril
You can click here to check current pricing for VigRx

Do heavy squats…

If I could only pick one form of exercise for boosting libido it would be squats.

There are several reasons for this…

They help increase blood flow to your nether regions…
They help up-regulate your dopamine system…
They increase your natural testosterone production…
The help keep your pelvic muscles strong and flexible…

Given the above, I think most people can see just how libido boosting squats can truly be.

Remember, a big part of the reason porn can cause problems in the first place is because down-regulation of your dopamine system. Since really intense exercise can help up-regulate your dopamine receptors, this means that squats can actually help speed up the brains recovery from years of porn use, as well.

In addition, the increased blood flow and increased testosterone that squats can provide will for sure help boost libido as well.

A word of warning, though: if you're not used to squatting, make sure to get a good gym instructor showing you how to perform them properly…

…and also, start slowly and don't try to go heavy your very first month.

Take cold showers…

Cold showers are amazing!

Just like physical exercise, cold showers will also help with up-regulation of your dopamine receptors.

Getting your dopamine system to work more effectively again can take quite a lot of time, but cold showers could significantly shorten the process.

I personally saw my fastest stretch of recovery happen when I increased the length of my own cold showers from 1 minute to 3 minutes, every single morning. Within 10 days, or so of doing that, I could definitely see an improvement in my dopamine sensitivity.

By ‘dopamine sensitivity' I simply mean that I started feeling more enjoyment out of day everyday normal life activities, like eating food, listening to music, socializing and so on.

Now, that does by no means it will only take you 10 days to heal your brain from all the years of porn use. Most definitely not, but it is a good indicator of how powerful cold showers can be…

…and that they will most likely help speed thing up.

Does Giving Up Porn Improve Your Libido?
Final Words…

In conclusion, quitting porn can definitely help improve your libido, simply because of the fact that watching too much porn will desensitize your dopamine system, and dopamine along with testosterone, as you know by now, are the key drivers of your libido.

In fact, I would be willing to go so far as to say that, I think the majority of young guys who have libido problems in today's world have caused it by being a little too “porn happy” in front of their lap top.

The good thing is, quitting porn will definitely help restore your libido.

And if giving it up forever just sounds too damn daunting, then you could always do it on a trial basis….

…why not give it a shot for 90 day and see what happens?

Thanks for reading,

-Scandinavian Bob-

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