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    NoFap – Can’t Stop Binging (How To Do it)

    By BobPosted on

    NoFap Can't Stop Binging

    Have you ever been riding on a good NoFap streak and things were going well?

    You were feeling some nice benefits, were optimistic about the future and very motivated to keep going, only to have a slip…

    …that turned into a relapse – that turned into several relapses…

    Suddenly you found yourself stuck in a relapse binge cycle, seemingly impossible to get out of.

    Sound familiar?

    Well, believe it or not, but this is an extremely common phenomenon in the rebooting community. And if you recognize yourself in the small intro there, I recommend yo bookmark this page so that you can come back to it several times. Because in this article you will discover some seriously helpful tips on how to stop this, nasty, binge phenomenon.

    Why NoFap Binges Happen…

    Let's start by talking a bit about why it's so easy to fall into a binging cycle after a relapse. Because if you understand the resons, it's going to be so much easier for you to come up with clever strategies on how to navigate your reboot in a way that helps prevent those binges.

    Reason 1: The chaser effect…

    The chaser effect is a term that has been used to describe a state of a sudden increase of urges and craving after an orgasm. This ‘chaser' period sometimes hit the very same day as you had your orgasm. It can also happen the second or even third day after the orgasm.

    The chaser effect is a natural phenomenon, but seem to be particularly noticeable, or even strengthened, by people who have a porn addiction.

    How it could play into you binging after a slip:

    If an orgasm can heighten the cravings, then naturally that means that some guys have an increased risk of relapsing a second time -within a day or two- after the initial relapse.

    This can then repeat itself for days, and sometimes even weeks, in a row.

    Reson 2: Your mindset (most important)

    Let's face it, it's so much easier to keep going, with everything in life, when things are going well. NoFap is no different.

    If you're riding on a good streak and if you on top of that are feeling some nice benefits, it's not that hard to be fueled by motivation. But when you then fall off the horse, things tend to quickly take a turn for the worse.

    How it could play into you binging after a slip:

    This is not so much because one relapse would be that devastating for your brain, because it isn't. Especially not if it is a very mild relapse. Just like one single evening of moderate alcohol isn't the end of the world either, but when it comes to your mindset here, it's more your interpretation of the event.

    If you have a tendency to go “oh man, I blew it – I destroyed everything”, then obviously you're setting yourself up for a date with the disappointment monster.

    And disappointment is one of the biggest emotional triggers there is, because of two things…

    1. It significantly drops your dopamine levels – making your brain want a quick dopamine fix.
      (And what faster and beter way for the brain to get that, than to use its well know drug of choice… porn!)
    2. The negative emotions your having after the relapse are in and of themselves a trigger for further relapses as you want to do everything in your power to NOT feel them.
      (And so you escape into what ever comfort behavior your used to runt to whenever life is treating you badly)

    Reson 3: The drop in dopamine…

    If your relapse is one of the nastier sorts, where your session lasts for several hours, than the immediate effects are that your dopamine levels are going to be lower the following day or two. This is regardless of your thouguths or mindset.

    It looks like this…

    During your fapping session (A-process) your dopamine levels are high. But no matter whether you're addicted or not, there will always be a counter process (B-process), where your dopamine levels drop below your baseline levels.

    In the case of a porn addict the B-process can vary in length between individuals. For non addicts it passes pretty quickly, but for a porn addict it can linger for many days.

    How it could play into you binging after a slip:

    During this drop in dopamine you're very likely to feel strong urges to seek out some form of instant gratification in order to get those levels back up (even though you're not consciously thinking that way).

    Those instant gratification cravings can be pretty much anything from…

    • Junk food
    • Alcohol
    • Weed
    • Cigarettes
    • Porn
    • Gambling
    • Etc.

    …however, the most common form will be the very activity that caused that spike and crash to begin with, I.e. fapping to porn.

    Naturally, this makes it much more likely to relapse a second, third or several times after your initial fall off.

    Interesting fact: The “B-process” becomes deeper and longer for those who are addicted, while the A-process becomes weaker and shorter (as seen in the image below). This means that relapses affect people differently depending on whether they have developed addiction related brain changes from porn or not. However, as stated a few lines up, that crash still happens in non addicts. It's just that it hits harder and lingers longer for those who are addicted.

                                      This is how the graph looks for an addict…

    Interesting fact #2: That graphs you can see above is widely known as Richard Solomon's opponent process theory of emotions. And while it reflects all addictions, it can also be applied to other from of stimuli. Even reversed. E.g. you expose your body to a cold shower and you feel pain in the moment (A-process) only to feel very good after the shower is done (B-process).

    Reson 4: The sheer loss of momentum…

    Everything in life works better with momentum. So, it's not only a mental thing, but it's true down to a pure biological an cellular level as well. This is just how life works on every plane.

    When we are “up and running” it's easier to keep it going. This is one of the the laws of nature in work, making sure energy is being used in an efficient manner.

    Some examples of this…

    • It's hard to keep balance on a bicycle that is standing still – but when it moves it's much easier (it want's to keep balance then)
    • Nervcells that fire together wire together – a habit is formed in order to save energy for the brain by reducing the need for using conscious effort every single time the task is performed
    • A bote with enough speed starts planing – it rides on the surface saving a lot of energy – slow down and it it loses the surface riding effect

    How it could play into you binging after a slip:

    Natural laws work on everything. That's why they are called ‘natural laws' and we can't escape being governed or effected by them…

    …no matter how much we'd like to!

    And since losing momentum in general tends to make it harder to “get going” again, this is definitely also something you can see after a relapse on your NoFap journey.

    How To Stop Binging On NoFap

    If you can't stop binging then do consider the above 4 cause, that I just shared with you carefully.

    The best plan for how to stop binging after a NoFap relapse is a plan that takes every of those 4 causes into account, and deals with them, one by one.

    Stay with me here and I'll give you a few examples…

    Reduce your risk for NoFap binging by dealing with…
    Cause #1: The chaser affect

    This one is the hardest one to actually do anything about. Meaning, should you be a person that get hit by a strong “chaser”, there are no real actionable steps you can take to NOT feel it.

    Don't resist!

    In fact, the more you try to not feel it, the more likely it'll be that the urges grow. This is a phenomenon often called “the ironic rebound effect”.

    It simple means, whenever you try to resist or repress a strong thought, or emotion, it often returns after a while, now being even stronger than before you pushed it away.

    Surf the urges…

    Don't resist the chaser. Instead, try to ride on the feeling. Notice how it washes over you like a wave and then just let it slowly fade away. This is called surfing the urges, precisely because it's very similar to how a surfer surfs on a wave in the ocean.

    So, don't fight it. There's this saying that goes something along the lines of…”fight the ocean, and you will drown”. Well, it's the same with your NoFap urges. Don't fight them…surf them!

    Reduce your risk for NoFap binging by dealing with…
    Cause #2: Your mindset

    This one is also hugely important to keep working on, because your mindset is one of the biggest factors behind just ‘giving in' and allowing yourself to participate in a wild binging fest.

    Think about it, not even urges or low dopamine, or whatever reason or “cause” you have, can touch you if you were to have an indestructible mindset.

    This in a perfect world, though, as the truth is that it's much easier said than done and that the best way would be to eliminate he source of your reason for wanting to escape into porn the first place… more on that further down.

    A few months ago I made a video on my YouTube channel, Project Stronger Self, talking about how to fix your mindset in order to get out of a NoFap relapse cycle…

    …take a look right now, to discover how to finetune your mindset…

    How to fix your mindset in order to get out of the relapsing cycle

    I hope you found the video informative…

    …let's move on to the next cause…

    Reduce you risk for NoFap binging by dealing with…
    Cause #3: Low dopamine

    As I already mentioned, after a big NoFap relapse your dopamine levels will drop for a while. No matter if they were high or already low to begin with, they will take a dive.

    The bad news is that having low dopamine levels can really make you feel totally unmotivated and really feel like crap.

    The good news is that here we actually have a few actions we can take to instantly raise our dopamine levels and thus weakening our cravings, while strengthening the motivation and drive side of things.

    The following are all healthy and good ways to instantly raise your dopamine levels…

    • Go for a walk in the nature
    • Take a 2-3 minute ice cold shower
    • Lift weights
    • Go for a run
    • Work on your goals
    • Meditate

    The physical exercise and the cold showers are probably your best weapons here. Working on your goals can be challenging -although not impossible- to do if you're suffering from a really big dopamine drop.

    Self reward the effort…

    However, if you do mange to still keep working on your goals you should know that when pushing through that initial hurdle you're brain actually releases a bit of dopamine. It's like the neuroscientist professor Andrew Huberman says.. “we can learn how to ‘self reward' the effort”.

    Meaning, it is possible to dive deep down in effort, all while knowing it's good for you, that just by knowing that it will in and of itself further elevate your dopamine. If there is one human on the planet that has mastered the art of doing this it's the former Navy SEAL David Goggins.

    Now, I know I know, things like taking a cold shower, going for a run, or forcing yourself to work on your life goals are not at all easy to do, when all your brain is screaming for is a juicy fapping session to your favorite porn…

    …so here's a shortcut for you…

    A shortcut for boosting dopamine…

    There is this natural product called AlphaViril, that is especially designed for increasing both dopamine as well as testosterone. I've found it to significantly raise my own dopamine and it really works for testosterone as well.

    However, it is also designed for increasing your libido, so if you already are in danger of relapse, it might not be the best for you.

    That said, low dopamine can actually come disguised as libido. Meaning, more often than not, a porn addicts so called ‘libido' is just the brain shouting for a quick dopamine fix and it's not real horniness…

    …something to consider for you, right there.

    You need to learn how to distinguish between craving for a dopamine fix and real libido.

    Reduce risk for NoFap binging by dealing with…
    Cause #4: Losing momentum

    Okay so we are down to the last cause here, the problem with losing momentum after you have fallen of the horse.

    Well, since this is one of those nature laws -an object in motion wants to stay in motion- we really can't do much to escape it now, can we?

    No, we can't. But that doesn't mean we can't put strategies in place to help us

    Use self binding strategies…

    ‘Self binding' is a term used for when people make it harder for themselves to use something that they know they shouldn't be using.

    What I often recommend my coaching clients, if they happen to severely stuck in a relapse cycle, is to cut off their access to internet for the first 4-7 days or so.

    This is precisely to help them gain momentum again.

    Now, in order to do this you will have to be a bit creative, as it may take some figuring out, in order to prevent yourself from having access to porn for a few days.

    Some examples to utilize…

    • Porn blockers / website blockers (there are many good ones out there)…
    • Internet blockers (even better during this period of time)…
    • Visiting friends or relatives for a few days, not brining your phone…
    • Visiting some other place without internet access…
    • Doing a partial internet cut off (e.g using internet only from 7-11:30 am for work, then unplugging your router, taking it out  and leaving it in the car for the rest of the day along with your phone)
    • Etc. With a little creativity, the possibilities are endless…

    Consider trying Dopamine Discipline…

    As I alluded to earlier, the absolute best way to stop relapsing forever on NoFap would be to get to the very source of why you're fapping to porn in the first place.

    Find the core motivation or ‘need' you're trying to fill with your porn sessions, and then replace them with an alternative, healthier, way of meeting that need.

    Now, if you think that horniness is the only reason guys use porn, you are sorely mistaken. More often than not there are underlying reasons e.g. trying to escape from loneliness, anxiety, low self esteem etc. Very often guys are just longing for connection.

    Dopamine Discipline specializes in finding the root cause – and eliminating it…

    Dopamine Discipline is an online course for quitting porn, that specializes in helping people find the root cause behind their relapses, and even more importantly, helping them get rid of the underlying issue. This leads to a complete stop of wanting to escape into porn and the relapses stop.

    To learn more about this, I recommend you sign up for a free webinar here, where Josh Hudson, the therapist and creator of the program, talks about exactly how and why it works.

    I have personally examined the course very carefully, to know if this something I could recommend to my subscribers of my YouTube channel Project Stronger Self, and I really have to say that I'm impressed with the course. It produces very impressive results.

    If interested, you can click here now to check it out for yourself.

     

    Need to contact me for questions about your reboot?

    If you have anything to ask or would like to jump on a coaching call with me, you can find my contact page right here

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