No PMO And Video Games -Does Gaming Affect Your Reboot?
No PMO And Video Games
Since today's online adult entertainment is a supernormal stimuli that skyrockets dopamine levels during your fapping sessions, and today's video games also are powerful enough to dictate your dopamine levels, the next logical question becomes…
…“does playing video games affect my PMO reboot?”
Well, the short answer is that no one knows for sure, and while more and more studies are coming out about the negative effects of today's internet porn on the brain, so far there are no specific studies that have investigated the speed of porn recovery in relation to different activities.
I will give my take on it…
However, as a guy ho has read a lot about addictions and the brain in general, in this article I'm going to speculate a bit and we are going to take a closer look. As long as you remember that this is purely me speculating and that it may or may NOT be what future research will show…
…I hope you understand that?
Ok, good!
So let's jump in and take a look…
Does Gaming Affect Your Reboot?
I would suspect that gaming can indeed affect your PMO reboot depending on what kind of games we are talking about AND what kind of goals you are wanting to achieve with your no PMO journey…
…however, I do believe that the effects range from very mild to only moderate.
It may depend on your reboot goals…
I believe gaming may affect your reboot a bit differently when between the following goals…
- You are doing no PMO to fix your libido and erections
- You are doing no PMO to get less depression symptoms and to fix anhedonia
- You are doing no PMO to get more confidence, drive, energy and focus
Sluggish erections…
Fixing your PIED (porn induced erectile dysfunction) can be a very long and rocky road, but I don't think that video games will hold you back that much when it comes to this one.
It may hold you back a little, and I'll get into more details about that further down, but unlike the other porn addiction symptoms, PIED is not only caused by desensitization, but also because you have been rewiring your sexual center to become more aroused by pixels on a screen than by real life women, or men, depending on your orientation.
By the way, if you are having problems with weak erections caused by porn use, take a look at this article right here, because over there I talk about something that was really helpful for my erections, back when I was doing my own reboot a few years ago.
Low energy, drive and mood…
However, I do think that playing a lot of video games will hold you back more when it comes to the other goals, like fixing your depression, energy and drive.
You see, many of the PMO symptoms, like lack of lack of motivation, low drive and mood are a direct cause of dopamine receptors downregulation in your reward system. You basically get a numb pleasure response. This is known as desensitization and hours and hours of fapping to online porn will definitely cause some degree of desensitization.
The good news is that ones you start rebooting and you stop using porn, those receptors will grow back and you reverse your desensitization, unless, you keep doing other extremely high stimulating activities, like for example…
…hours upon hours of video games!
Excessive Gaming May Prevent Reversal Of Your Desensitization
Today's video games are indeed powerful enough to raise your dopamine levels quite significantly. Now they are probably nowhere near the levels of what online porn can do, but they are still pretty potent…
…so, what does this mean for you?
Well, this means that if you are playing games for several hours every day, while you are rebooting your brain from porn, your dopamine receptors will probably not going to grow back nearly as quickly as if you were to cut down on your gaming.
NoFap And Gaming – How Much Gaming is Too much?
- If you are rebooting from porn or doing NoFap in order to get more energy, reduced anxiety and to improve your mood, you should really consider not spending too much time on video games.
- If you are doing no PMO in order to rewire your sexual responses to real life people, and thus fix your libido and erections problems, you will probably not have to reduce your gaming that much (unless you are playing for 4-7 hours a day) , but you should still consider limiting your use because, even though the gaming does not hinder your rewiring, per se, it's still time away from other healthy activities you could do that really are shown to speed up our recovery.
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So what are the limits exactly…how many hours?
Again, there are no studies on this so I can only tell you what I would do today and then you can take that for what you think it's worth…
- If I were to reboot now in order to fix my libido and erections I would limit my gaming to max 2-3 hours per day.
- If I were to reboot today in order to fix my depression, anxiety and anhedonia I would limit my use of video games to max 90 minutes per day.
See, you have to remember that the dopamine aside, if you are depressed, it would be great to spend a lot of time outside in the sunshine, doing physical exercise and hiking in nature and so on as all of those are indeed proven by research to significantly help depression. If you then spending most of your time locked inside your house, hunched over your computer, well, let's just say it will be difficult getting out of your depression like that…
Let's continue on the same line…
How To Speed Up Your Recovery
It's not just the big increase in dopamine levels during gaming that could negatively affect your healing, but we are talking about time itself, as well, since time away from your video games can instead be spent on speeding up your recovery…
…for example socializing is a very important thing to do when trying to recover from PIED, since you need to rewire your brain to respond to real flesh and blood people again…
….so that's another reason why I think you use during a PMO reboot is a good idea, simply because you need that time to do other healthy stuff.
Take a look at this video I made a while back, on my channel “Project Stronger Self”,
It's a video with 7 tips on how to speed up your PMO recovery.
You can do so by clicking this link right here
So Are Some Video Games Worse Than Others?
This is a good question and logically we have to assume that, yes, there is probably a difference.
For example, playing checkers would not be a problem. However, online gaming where there are A LOT of high speed activity and a lot of input / stimuli going on and you constantly keep chasing something in order to”level up” and getting rewards, well, during those kind of games you are probably keeping your dopamine levels elevate to pretty abnormal levels for quite a long time…
…now again, I don't think it's a problem if you limit your use, like I talked about earlier, but I think it's good to be aware of this so you can cut down a bit if you feel it might be a problem.
NoFap And Video Games
Final Words
Video games can probably slow down your PMO recovery process. That said, if you really love your games, I don't think there is a need to completely stop playing…
…just be mindful about it and try not to spend too many hours a day in front of your computer or game console.
Another thing to keep in mind is that, if you do a lot of other healthy activities, like I talked about in the video above, your brain can probably handle more gaming during your reboot then if you just lie on the coach watching Netflix and eating potato chips all day.
At the end of the day, moderation has always been your friend and still is to this very day.
Thanks for reading!
-Scandinavian Bob-
Discover >>a good online course for quitting porn<< right here…
P.S. Are you struggling? Click here to go to my contact page to discover what kind of help I’m currently offering.
P.P.S. You might find some of these articles interesting as well…
Does NoFap Help delayed ejaculation
FAQ's About No PMO Recovery
Q: Will playing online poker with real money affect my PMO recovery?
A: It depends on if you are addicted to it, or if you find it very exhilarating. In moderation, however, it should not be a problem. Professional poker players are probably also safe, even though they spend a lot of time on it, just because it's actually hard work with fast calculations and takes a lot of cognitive effort. However, if you are an amateur that get's all excited about the gambling, and you spend many hours a week on it, I think it could hold you back. Moderation my friend…everything in moderation.
Q: Can I recover from PIED if I smoke cigarettes?
A: Although I obviously don't recommend smoking; yes, you can still recover from PIED if you smoke cigarettes. Thousands of men have done it. Reboot and rewire and you'll recover…and if you want to be more healthy, you ditch the smoking…but you'll recover even if you don't.
Q: Will meditation speed up NoFap benefits?
A: No real brain studies have been done to examine how we can speed things up, but from all the other studies made on meditation and the brain, I'd say it's highly likely!
Q: What is more important for fixing PIED, avoiding porn or avoiding masturbation?
A: Avoiding porn!!! Masturbation in and of itself does not cause ED. It's today's high speed internet porn that mess you up.