(Got bored and wanted to see if anyone else on reddit feels this way, sorry for this long post, I had some time to kill. )

This entire notion has been developing slowly from just a random forum, to something that has almost become normalised a little, I think. I could just tell my close buddies, “Yeah, I’m on that nofap/no nut november/porn detox right now” as a passing comment and it would be just that. A passing comment. But consider this: this whole movement revolves around mostly men. Women or couples watching porn is somehow considered healthy by these group of people, but not single men doing something pretty natural?

I’m starting to feel like this normalisation has started to cause the origins of this entire movement (being started by one random dude with pseudoscientific claims and then gaining traction from traditionalist support) to be swept under the rug a little.

There are, in my mind, a lot of wrong reasons and ‘hidden reasons’ behind this movement. Besides the religious guilt that I believe plagued the first few proponents of this whole thing, there’s a bit of toxic masculinity too. I think there is a group of guys who feel masturbation=unable to get a girl=unmanly, and that men are wired different and are hyper-sexual.

Secondly, the people who claim they feel more alive, more energetic, more confident: our brains have evolved over millennia to get sex, denying oneself that is obviously going to send your body into overdrive, trying to look for the next nut. Sure you sort of get a high, but it’s no different from denying yourself sugar for a year and then gulping down a can of pepsi after. If this is a high you need, I think there are other problems, maybe self esteem for example.

Lastly, for those that say it ‘cures’ their ‘masturbation/porn problem’ my opinion is, this problem is just a symptom for some actual issue in your life, maybe marital/financial issues for eg, that you’re using to distract yourself from. Killing the symptom may make you feel good, but in reality the problem still persists.

I think quitting masturbation is complete nonsense. As for porn, what I agree on, is maybe male entitlement or implied ethnic discrimination one buys into, but that varies from person to person and type of porn too, but I don’t think a 2d video can make you perform worse unless there are other issues as well.