Why masturbation is giving me withdrawal symptoms?

[DODOINUAE]

Hi guys ,

This is my first post on reboot nation , what a wonderful job everyone is doing here. I was addicted to porn for 9 years when i finally found this awsome website & the videos i stopped porn & masturbation in August 2015 , i felt really good after quitting for 3 weeks but then i decided that i will masturbate without porn because i had a slight urge to do so , the moment i was done i felt terrible again & new symptoms appeared similar to withdrawal in which i never had before, most of them disappeare after a while , so i stopped it & when i did it again in jan 2017 because of intense urges , the symptoms reappeared again. my question is, is it possible for masturbation to cause withdrawal symptoms? My symptoms are very similar to withdrawal symptoms & they keep appearing evey time i MO but i'm confused wither it's MO symptoms or withdrawal. I had suicidal thoughts , social anxiety, low self esteem, anxiety , irritability & anger. I really need your insight on this guys as i'm still having some of the symptoms but thankfully much of them are gone, thanks.

 

[Fappy]

Hi,
It could be that youve just replaced one addiction with another.
How many times a week do you [masturbate] ? Do you [masturbate] to porn fantasies?
If you get a similar hit of dopamine from [masturbating] that you did with porn, it could be that that you are addicted to.
Anyway hte only way to find out is to stop [masturbating] it for a while and see if the symptoms get any better

[Mod's note: For Christ's sake, RF, what's your deal? I had to remove 4 different juvenile variations of masturbation in this one short post. Just use masturbation. That's the clinical term for what you are referring to. There's no need to jazz it up to titillate and amuse people. Have some self-control, please. You're skating on thin ice - and I'm getting complaints again.]

 

[DODOINUAE]

I stopped it completely since January of 2017 , i only did it three times , once in September 2015 & twice in January 2017 only after quitting in August of 2015. I'm free of it although judging my cravings just to masturbate i might be addicted to it but when i did it in September it triggered withdrawal symptoms, i want to know how this is possible. Maybe because i separated it from porn.

 

[TheGreenWizard]

[Mod's note: For Christ's sake, RF, what's your deal? I had to remove 4 different juvenile variations of masturbation in this one short post. Just use masturbation. That's the clinical term for what you are referring to. There's no need to jazz it up to titillate and amuse people. Have some self-control, please. You're skating on thin ice - and I'm getting complaints again.]

Personally I find it whimsical.

 

[malando]

[Mod's note: For Christ's sake, RF, what's your deal? I had to remove 4 different juvenile variations of masturbation in this one short post. Just use masturbation. That's the clinical term for what you are referring to. There's no need to jazz it up to titillate and amuse people. Have some self-control, please. You're skating on thin ice - and I'm getting complaints again.]

Personally I find it whimsical.

You haven't seen the half of it. I've redacted the worst of them. And what's whimsical about speaking about porn addiction using actual pornographic terminology? Isn't that being at cross purposes? If it's so harmless, why am I getting complaints, and why doesn't everybody else use the same terminology? Maybe because it's actually not good for people to speak this way when they are trying to de-porn their lives? Some things to ponder...

 

[TheGreenWizard]

Hi guys ,

This is my first post on reboot nation , what a wonderful job everyone is doing here. I was addicted to porn for 9 years when i finally found this awsome website & the videos i stopped porn & masturbation in August 2015 , i felt really good after quitting for 3 weeks but then i decided that i will masturbate without porn because i had a slight urge to do so , the moment i was done i felt terrible again when the new symptoms appeared,  so i stopped it & when i did it again in jan 2017 the symptoms reappeared again. my question is, is it possible for masturbation to cause withdrawal symptoms? My symptoms are very similar to withdrawal symptoms & they keep appearing evey time i MO but i'm confused wither it's MO or withdrawal. I had suicidal thoughts , social anxiety, low self esteem, anxiety , irritability & & anger. I really need your insight on this guys as i'm still having some of the symptoms but thankfully much of them are gone, thanks.

At the core of all of this is dopamine addiction. MO releases dopamine no matter if you use porn or not so it could be that hit is retriggering that addiction. From what I read though(not necessarily on this site but in general), the brain tends to want more dopamine post-original hit in both people with our problem and those without. So maybe it's not so much withdrawal but that normal cool down period yet because you are more sensitive to the consequences it having had a porn addiction, anxiety is making you over think it out of fear of relapsing.

You could just go full nofap and just focus on sex and sublimation as your only expressions of libido if MO causes you too much distress to be worth such a cheap thrill. Try looking deep and reevaluating what you consider healthy regarding this issue. The ultimate goal of any reboot is to attain normal balance in your life, whatever you consider that to be. If you feel MO stands in the way of that, cut it (I know, easier said than done) or just do it on rare occasions if you think it is okay to be a thing in your life. You'd just have to practice discipline in dealing with post-dopamine feelings. Think on it and think about what is right and in your best interests.

 

[TheGreenWizard]

[Mod's note: For Christ's sake, RF, what's your deal? I had to remove 4 different juvenile variations of masturbation in this one short post. Just use masturbation. That's the clinical term for what you are referring to. There's no need to jazz it up to titillate and amuse people. Have some self-control, please. You're skating on thin ice - and I'm getting complaints again.]

Personally I find it whimsical.

You haven't seen the half of it. I've redacted the worst of them. And what's whimsical about speaking about porn addiction using actual pornographic terminology? Isn't that being at cross purposes? If it's so harmless, why am I getting complaints, and why doesn't everybody else use the same terminology? Maybe because it's actually not good for people to speak this way when they are trying to de-porn their lives? Some things to ponder...

Okay, mod. Quick question though, would "Slinkin the Lincoln" be problematic? Asking for a friend.

 

[mousemat1]

I can't speak for malando but during a reboot it is advisable to avoid all porn and porn substitutes. From my own personal experience, erotic literature is a porn substitute (probably even porn). When I thought I had recovered a couple of years ago, I thought it would be safe to read erotica, but it just led me back to full blown porn use. I've read a few posts recently (not only from Reformed) which have got my pulse racing because they use language which has been associated with the porn I watched in the past. They have been triggers. Now, at some point we have to deal with these triggers, because it's going to be impossible to avoid them forever. That said, I visit this forum because I have in my mind that it's a safe place where I don't need to remain vigilant about triggers. I think I'm at the stage in my reboot where some porn language probably won't trigger me to use again, but I don't know for sure. Again, I can't speak for others.

Your phrase 'Slinkin the Lincoln' does nothing for me personally because I've never heard anyone using this phrase is a porn setting. I don't know if it's a trigger for other people.

 

[malando]

[Mod's note: For Christ's sake, RF, what's your deal? I had to remove 4 different juvenile variations of masturbation in this one short post. Just use masturbation. That's the clinical term for what you are referring to. There's no need to jazz it up to titillate and amuse people. Have some self-control, please. You're skating on thin ice - and I'm getting complaints again.]

Personally I find it whimsical.

You haven't seen the half of it. I've redacted the worst of them. And what's whimsical about speaking about porn addiction using actual pornographic terminology? Isn't that being at cross purposes? If it's so harmless, why am I getting complaints, and why doesn't everybody else use the same terminology? Maybe because it's actually not good for people to speak this way when they are trying to de-porn their lives? Some things to ponder...

Okay, mod. Quick question though, would "Slinkin the Lincoln" be problematic? Asking for a friend.

Problematic? Possibly not. Asinine? Definitely. Tell your friend.

Seriously though man, it's laughable that some people want to show how totally at ease they are with sexual matters, with their risqu? banter and titillating commentary, yet they are on a website for porn addiction which totally belies that ease and confidence. I call it hubris. Anyone who has a porn addiction but is still running at the mouth with sexual innuendo is a relapse waiting to happen.

 

[Fappy]

I stopped it completely since January of 2017 , i only did it three times , once in September 2015 & twice in January 2017 only after quitting in August of 2015. I'm free of it although judging my cravings just to masturbate i might be addicted to it but when i did it in September it triggered withdrawal symptoms, i want to know how this is possible. Maybe because i separated it from porn.

Mmmmm... sounds like an addiction to masturbation then. There could be some residual symptoms of your past porn abuse still hanging around in the back of your mind somewhere. It's different for everyone. The only real way is to do a hard reboot and stop masturbating.