It's official. No more anxiety. No more ED. No more sweating and panicking. I haven't seen or read more severe cases on here than mine. I still remember I got so bad that I couldnt get hard BY ANYTHING. Not even porn, girls, or myself. I masturbated with 20% erections back in the day. It has taken me since November of 2011 with zero porn to finally get over this. Masturbated maybe 3-4 times in the last 3 years, and had lots of rewiring. LOTS. I didn't believe I would actually be over this but I've had no problems since July so I feel like it's time to say I'm over the hump. And this took a long time of SOLID recovery. I don't bull crap things in my life and have unwavering discipline and it still took my years to be comfortable with sex again. Most of you are in better situations so know you'll heal quicker. Gentlemen, stick with it. It works. Don't expect raging boners by seeing outlines of butts through girls jeans. It will work when it needs to and that's the actual test. Libido, I've found, is a quiet hum that drives you towards women and people. It's not this sexual desire of lust. It's a passive strength. Stay hard, keep busy, and stay away from artificial stimuli. I do best when I stay immersed in the real world (talking to people, reading books, exercising) and avoid facebook, Internet, TV, movies etc. stay strong and motivated, this stuff works. Thanks to Gary. And everyone who reads this. We are a community. We struggle together and succeed together. Continue to encourage one another. We need more success stories on here and every single one of you can be writing one. Best of luck all. I already don't come on here much (this place can eat you alive sometimes) and I will only be here a little bit to answer questions.
Nice one man on zero porn since then. Rewiring is pretty crucial it seems. How old are you and how do you perform now with a girl? Was it gradual improvement?
Wow. Amazing! Could you please post a brief summary of your reboot and progress? Thanks for keeping us motivated to fight this fucked up situation.
Wow, this is a fucking awesome post and story! Congrats, man. And that's interesting what you say about libido, about how true libido is passive and is not lust. For me, when I have libido, it's this very subtle, constantly present drive or life force that makes me want to engage with people and the real world. It's not just about sex. Although on days where my libido is really high, I can constantly feel it in my lower abdomen. feels pretty good. Question, how many times did you orgasm with girls, if at all?
I'm 26. I had issues develop at 20 with not being able to achieve an erection with a girl. Problems continued until 23 when I stopped watching porn and masturbating. I am now able to have sex successfully, different positions and the duration has been getting better. It was a very gradual process. There were a lot of times when it seemed like things weren't working and getting worse, even with me doing the right things, but I stuck with it because I knew PMO was the culprit. I actually didn't feel like things were normal until July this year. That was nearly 2.5 years of struggling while doing the right things. I want to emphasize that I was a severe case, so I don't want to discourage anyone from looking at how long it took me to recover. Be encouraged that you will get to normal eventually and every step in the right direction brings us closer to our goals.
I went cold turkey on porn in Nov 2011. I had three streaks of absolutely no PMO, each being between 80-90 days. While I never looked at porn, I had orgasms with girlfriend (hands) every month or so. Erection quality slowly got better, but hands seemed to be detrimental as it brought back anxiety and brain fog etc. It took a while for me to eliminate brain fog, anxiety, sweats, and low confidence levels. I noticed after each orgasm, these symptoms would return for two weeks at a time. It wasn't until July when these hang over durations would decrease, first to a week, then half, now none. Orgasms through sex actually leave me feeling enhanced, not depleted. I think it's good to avoid orgasms completely for a short time, but I think if 90 days can weaken pathways to porn, it would also weaken pathways towards real girls.
I've been in a relationship with an amazing girl. I told her this a couple of months into our relationship and she was very understanding and patient. Besides a few streaks of no PMO, I orgasmed about every month. The frequency slowly increasing in the last year to once every two weeks and then weekly. Currently (I haven't tried more) I am able to have sex two-three times when I see my girlfriend on the weekends. It was a very slow and gradual increase in the frequency. I would recommend listening to your body and not your mind. My mind wants it all the time, but my body just can't handle it (or couldn't in the past).
I can relate with you Axiomatic. Been a year and a half, no PMO or masturbation. Still dealing with lethargy, PIED, depression symptoms, no drive, motivation, etc....No libido for two years now either. Long, long road it's been. Glad you finally made it through.
Sorry to hear that it's been long for you. How severe were you? And have you recently tried anything sexual? I will say this - I think a big part of recovery here that doesn't get mentioned often enough is the anxiety that develops and really makes PIED seem prolonged when it's just nerves at play.
It started off as masturbation 5-6 times a day at the age of eleven. Porn use was infrequent until about the eight grade. Then it was 3-5 times a day of pmo till a year and six months ago (I'm 26). Pretty severe lol. Oh I have been sexual during tho whole process. This is my third streak of no O. On day 95 I believe, furthest I have gotten. I still can't achieve full on erections (usually around 70-80%), but things are improved. I can't say that the sexual activity has been SUPER consistent, but it' s been present.
Congratulations Axiomatic! That sounds like one of the worst reboot processes ive read yet. I feel like im in a similar position to you when i quit with not being able to get hard to porn anymore either. Im 5 months in with no PMO and do notice improvements though. Im curious, how long after you quit porn did you meet your girlfriend? Because if you could only get 20% hard to porn how long did it take before you could get hard enough for hand jobs with non artificial stimulation?
This is the kind of report that a lot of us needed to hear, so thank you greatly. This shit takes a lot of people a lot of time to "cure", not weeks, not 90 days, many times not even months, but often years. That's the real deal. All you dudes complaining that it doesn't work, hope you're reading this, stop complaining and keep rebooting, you're just not done yet. Once you see a glimpse of the benefits, you'll know that porn is the problem (I knew without a doubt after my first 30 days no PMO in late 2012), unfortunately it takes time to get back to base line and things get much worse before getting better. It's harsh medicine. Personally, I'm in withdrawal again, after relapsing for a long while. It f'ing sucks, but I'm under no illusions.. Don't doubt the process or the results, rebooting works for everyone if you stick it out and if the problem is porn. If you think you have a problem with porn... then it's porn, stop kidding yourself, believe, and put in the work. Blessings.
This is SOO good to hear man! There's all sorts of guys on the forums constantly in fear that "I'll NEVER RECOVER" or " If it takes longer than 6 months, it's gotta be something else!" etc etc.. You've proven it. 2.5 years! I'm just glad to hear another case I can add to the list of long-term rebooters to refute the "something else is the cause" crowd
Great job man. I went ~60 days ~60 days, 87 days, and 188 days no porn for around 430 days now fighting an 8-10 year addiction. I'm now back on day 30-35 but my problem was orgasm too frequently (once a week) in replacement, which has to stop. I've had raccoon crack eyes for 200+ days and still have them. Back on day 5 no MO tomorrow and hoping to go well past two weeks atleast. Getting through the first week of no orgasms is tough, but once past that it's smooth sailing until the wet dreams hit :-\. No backing down.
Couldn't agree more on your thoughts about libido. My libido was shot for months, but lately some kind of sexual desire came back, but it's totally different from pre-reboot. I am not horny 24/7, I don't get any spontaneous erections and when I am making out with a girl, I don't think "penis --> vagina, penis --> vagina, penis --> vagina" anymore, but more like how I want to cuddle, how I want to touch and kiss her entire body, the feeling is much more intense and not superficial anymore.
Checking in again, folks. It's been a little over six months since I last posted my success story. Libido is constantly getting stronger, even after almost a year of no failures. I had one failure in December, but we already had sex that day. I notice my refractory period is still a little slow. I usually don't want sex more than once a day. In a nutshell though, orgasms are not depleting my energy as it used to. I don't feel social anxiety or random spurts of anxiety like I used to, confidence has continually increased, I am much more in tune with this reality and world, and I feel like it's only getting better. Keep it up, guys. I'm almost coming up on a year of consistent sex! By the way - the sex since December has been insanely good. The confidence that comes from this process shows as I feel more masculine having sex, and that naturally brings out more stamina and more fun from the lady. Me and my girlfriend went from crappy sex for two years to very good sex where we can both come during intercourse. Keep having patience and believing in this process. It isn't linear but the trend will be upwards. Don't let your mind trick you into falling back towards porn. There is more satisfaction out there than what a screen will offer. Good luck!
Improvements increasing even after 3 or 4 years of work! Wow man, this is super encouraging for those of us that have been at it for a while and still struggling; it's kind of what I expected but it's nice to hear. Appreciate you coming back and sharing this! - 40
