Just fucking wank it, ok? New research in the journal Sexualities discovered that people who engage with anti-masturbation communities tend to feel more suicidal after a perceived “relapse.”
These “Reboot” communities, like the NoFap subreddit, believe abstaining from pornography and masturbation can cure everything from erectile dysfunction to mental health issues. But guess what? Greater involvement in these forums is actually linked to more depressive symptoms, anxiety, and, you guessed it, erectile difficulties.
“If you or someone you know is concerned about their pornography viewing … Reboot communities are not good options for support. Rather, focusing on depression or anxiety that usually underlie such concerns is likely to be more helpful,” one of the researchers told PsyPost.
And this might not be news to readers of this particular blog, but the forums are also riddled with trolling, misogyny, bullying, antisemitism, conspiracy theories, and assorted violent fantasies. “We were very surprised at the volume of homicidal content, with about 1 in 5 visitors to NoFap reporting viewing threats to harm or kill someone,” the researcher explained, noting that violent threats are a real no-no in so-called support groups. The researchers have written another, as yet unpublished, paper on all the violent language.
But hey, correlation doesn’t equal causation, so we can’t say for sure whether these communities cause the harmful outcomes or if people with existing issues are more likely to become NoFappers. It’s probably a bit of both; I know fucked-up people are attracted to these forums, but I can’t imagine this does them any good. Maybe it’s time we stop demonizing something that’s been around since, well, our first ancient primate ancestor accidentally touched his wiener and decided he kind of liked it.
Follow me on Mastodon.
Send tips to dfutrelle at gmail dot com.
We Hunted the Mammoth relies on support from you, its readers, to survive. So please donate here if you can, or at David-Futrelle-1 on Venmo.
This is a pretty universal phenomenon.
Where people set themselves a particular regimen, and then waiver from that, it can bring on feelings of self loathing and depression. That crops up in everyone from academia to athletics. It can often lead to people abandoning the objective completely.
One counter technique, that’s very popular in the gym community, is to apply the “80% Rule”.
Basically you get into the mindset that so long as you’re 80% compliant you’re ok.
So if you aim to train 5 times a week, and one week you miss a session, that’s fine. You’re still on track.
The primary aim is to stop people falling prone to ‘fuck it syndrome’ i.e. giving up completely. The idea is that you acknowledge not achieving perfection is normal, so there’s no reason not to get back on that horse. Like how they always point out relapse is a normal part of recovery.
So whilst I’m not suggesting our NF friends should adopt this, those findings don’t surprise me.
“Why not both?” was my reaction to the headline. As in, it’s a vicious feedback circle (pun not intended).
@Alan: Due to my health and current stresses (plus the near-constant rain), I give myself credit at 50-60% every day. Some days that’s only feeding and medicating me and the cat both.
Sounds similar to religious guilt.
These people ought to ask themselves: Which seems more likely? That the penis is the one part of the human body that is not made healthier and better by regular exercise, or that all of this NoFap and SR stuff is BS that likely originated from religious prudery of some stripe?
Bonobos wank constantly, doesn’t seem to do them any harm.
Why these guys struggle with a binge-purge-binge again-depression spiral with masturbation is because it’s connected with porn addiction. It’s not like they’re just getting in a quickie in the shower in the morning and then going on to live a normal, active day. It’s tied in to their porn addiction of which they spend an inordinate amount of time viewing. Remember, these are incel manosphere peeps so nothing they do is in balance.
I think Gabor Mate would say they were addicted to porn because it gives temporary relief from some emotional pain. If they could deal with the root source of the pain, the addiction would probably sort itself out.
Bonobos aren’t the only animals who wank. The walrus that was off the Yorkshire coast at New Year was caught on camera having a nice time. Dogs hump your leg. I’m sure there are plenty more examples.