10 confirmed symptoms of Nofap flatlines
Nofap flatline is the worst.
This emotionless phase can be stressful if we don’t know we are in the nofap flatline.
So, I have accumulated 10 confirmed symptoms of nofap flatline, which most of us experienced during our nofap journey.
1. Productivity goes down.
Productivity is the only reason for which I started my nofap journey.
The joy and excitement I felt inside through the first few weeks of my nofap journey were disappeared in the nofap flatline.
You will find that there will be no intrinsic motivation to work on your tasks.
You will find things boring which you found interesting before.
If you don’t know about nofap flatline, a common symptom, you may start worrying that nofap is not working and ruins your happiness.
You might go back to pornography to feel that rush and excitement again.
But, this phase is temporary, and soon you will start finding joy in your activities.
There will come a time when even the air or birds flying in the blue sky will be interesting to watch.
So, don’t worry if your productivity goes down during your nofap flatline.
Your brain is rewiring, and it may take longer than you may expect.
The most common mistake we make in our nofap journey is that, once a nofap flatline is over, we think our struggle is over, and from now on, everything will be rose and petal.
But, the nofap flatline will come multiple times in your journey.
Though, the duration of the nofap flatline will differ.
It may take up to 18 months just to balance back your dopamine level.
It may take years to free yourself entirely from pornography addiction.
2. No urges
The urge to watch pornography or masturbate will not be there.
People who are unaware of nofap flatline can get scared of this sudden change and can get back to pornography just to check if they still get arousal from porn or not.
In this phase, you need to remember that this flatline is temporary, and you go back to your usual self once the phase is over.
Some people consider this a good thing as they don’t have to fight with their urges, but this comes with a price.
You will also not feel motivated to eat healthily, talk with someone, or go out for a run.
You may lie all day in bed and curse your miserable life for not being able to do something.
This is what nofap flatline does; your emotions and urges go flat for a period.
Various neurochemicals caused the excitement we felt during our pornography days.
One of the essential neurochemicals is dopamine.
It gives you the excitement or a rush of extrinsic happiness before receiving a reward.
But, the release of this chemical in our brain varies depending on the reward.
If the reward is close to our survival, the release of this chemical will be more.
Therefore, pornography releases an unnatural amount of dopamine because of various factors like novelty, fantasy, etc.
Once you stop this spike of dopamine, you face this flatline for a period.
3. Brain Fog
It will be difficult to process anything in your brain.
You will find yourself struggling just to understand a simple sentence from a paragraph.
Your concentration and memory power will decline in this phase of your nofap journey.
While focusing on your work, a minor distraction like the sound of a koel bird can be very distracting.
This may increase your stress and anger level because of the inability to do simple tasks.
But, we only need to remember that this phase is temporary, and soon your brainpower will return.
Despite losing your reasoning and logical understanding, losing your focus, and despite looking the future dark, you must hold onto your journey.
Because your brain is changing, and change is scary to your subconscious brain.
But, everyone may not experience this nofap flatline symptom.
It depends on the history of your pornography addiction.
If you have been regularly watching pornography for ten to fifteen years, there will be severe nofap flatline symptoms.
The neural pathways for pornography are very strong in your brain, and it will take some time to shrink them.
In other words, your brain will take time to rewire.
4. Fatigue
Fatigue in nofap flatline is the most common symptom of all.
Your body will ache for no reason, and once you wake up, you may not find the energy to get out of bed.
You may not feel like doing anything during the day and just lay on the bed thinking you messed up your life.
The fatigue is not only physical but mental as well.
Concentration or thinking something simple would become a back-breaking task, but this fatigue is not as bad as it seems.
Because you always know that you are recovering, which is a good thing, a necessary step for your rewiring.
This idea of recovery will keep you moving forward on your journey.
5. Low self-esteem
Your self-esteem will be affected in the nofap flatline.
There are two key components for self-esteem: self-efficacy and self-respect.
Self-efficacy is the confidence in oneself that one can complete a task despite hurdles and setbacks.
Again, self-respect is the belief that one is worthy of happiness and happiness is one’s birthright.
A person cannot have a happy life if he lacks one of these two components.
A person will find it challenging to complete tasks whenever there is a small or big setback if he lacks self-efficacy.
A person cannot be disciplined or happy if he doesn’t have respect for himself.
Therefore, these two essential components are crucial for a person’s success and happiness.
When you are in nofap flatline, your ability to complete your works is affected, and if you don’t know what is going on, it may also hamper your self-respect.
The only thing you need to do in nofap flatline is to accept this phase and wait patiently to get it over.
Once your flatline is over, your confidence and happiness will return.
Moreover, your self-efficacy and self-respect will improve because you are doing something consciously, which is extremely difficult for many.
6. Stress and worry
Your brain always looks for its survival.
So, it registers those activities as important that are close to survival and tries to repeat them over and over again.
But, our subconscious brain doesn’t know which activity is good or bad.
Though our conscious brain may decide the good and bad in activities, we can take actions according to our will.
Still, the subconscious brain only prefers those activities which produce more happy hormones.
Happiness is the key indicator for survival, so our subconscious brain assumes that those activities which produce more happy hormones are important for our survival.
Because of this, we watch pornography repeatedly, despite knowing the consequences of our actions.
Once you are in nofap, your happy or pleasure hormone are stopped from releasing.
Once the happy hormones are stopped producing, the subconscious brain assumes that there is something wrong.
It tries all kinds of tricks so that you can perform that activity once again to produce those hormones.
One of the tricks is releasing stress hormones.
Stress and worry in nofap are common, but it gets intensified in nofap flatline.
In this phase, you don’t trust your brain, you don’t have the confidence to produce any result, few suffer from depression and anxiety, and your future seems dark.
This creates stress and worries that this nofap is not working, and you may not come out of this phase ever again.
This is just a phase, and soon it will be over.
The only thing you need to remember is, this nofap flatline is temporary.
7. Low libido
Your sex drive will be reduced in nofap flatline.
There will be no morning wood, and sex with your partner also seems boring during this phase.
If your partner is unaware of your nofap journey, this may cause relationship troubles.
The partner may think she is not attractive anymore, or you don’t have any passion for this relationship.
You will not even like to watch pornography in nofap flatline.
Pornography will also seem dull in this phase.
It may last from one week to a few months, depending on your history of pornography consumption.
The exact scientific reason for this is unknown, but this is, of course, is a withdrawal symptom.
Your pleasure hormone is not releasing anymore; the spike which you have been addicted to for 10 to 15 years has stopped.
Once your dopamine hormone is balanced backed to its normal, your sex drive will return.
You will start finding your wife or girlfriend more attractive than before.
Not only your sex drive, but you will start enjoying all the little things in your life.
8. Social Anxiety
Social anxiety is common among those who are already glued to the digital world.
A pornography addict may already suffer from social anxiety.
He avoids public gatherings, hates public speaking, doesn’t attend family functions, and always tries to find his happiness on the screens.
The neural pathways for socializing are never developed for a person who spends his days watching pornography or playing video games.
Moreover, once a person experiences nofap flatline, he also experiences discomfort with meeting people.
He loses interest in talking with others, and low self-confidence and self-doubt fuel the belief that he is good for nothing.
This intensifies the social anxiety he already has.
Though, everyone doesn’t experience social anxiety in nofap flatline.
Some may find it uninteresting to talk to others in nofap flatline, but they still talk without anxiety.
The good thing is, once your nofap flatline is over, your self-confidence will start to return.
You will find conversation with strangers or with anyone rewarding.
The negative energy you have had for such a long time will start to disappear, and people will find joy while talking to you.
9. Depression
A person is not sad or happy in the nofap flatline.
A person is just depressed because he doesn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.
He has stopped believing in himself way long back, and now that he has lost focus, concentration, and the ability to produce any result, he finds his life more depressing than ever.
The core meaning of nofap flatline suggested that your emotions go flat in this period.
You don’t get excited, you don’t feel angry or sad, you just feel bored, and there is nothing you can do except wait for it to go over.
Though, nofap depression is different than nofap flatline because nofap depression can cause negative emotions.
This ‘good for nothing’ state can stay with you for a long time because the journey of nofap is not a direct upward trend.
There will be ups and downs, good days and bad days, and getting completely free from porn addiction may take years.
But, nofap is not a journey to reach a destination; it is a journey to discover yourself everyday.
Everyday, you are improving; despite the emotions, you feel.
The overall curve of nofap is upward.
There will come a time when you will completely trust yourself, find joy in all the small activities, and become emotionally independent.
This is the ultimate goal of nofap.
10. Insomnia
A few people who are in nofap flatline can experience insomnia.
Those sleepless nights where you keep staring at the wall and thinking what is wrong with you at 4 in the morning are common among nofappers.
Though, everyone doesn’t experience insomnia.
I slept like a stone in my nofap flatline.
I woke up at 10 am but failed to get out of bed till noon because I could do nothing.
My body ached, and I was mentally and physically tired all the time.
People suggested that to get over nofap flatline, read books, do meditation, do some exercise, etc.
But, it seemed impossible for me to do anything because there was no intrinsic joy in doing anything.
My nofap flatline lasted 13-14 days, and after that, my interest in works and girls started to return.
I started talking with people more freely and happily, my communication with others improved, my focus improved, and I thought my bad days were over.
But, nofap flatline was not a one-time thing for me; it came back for a shorter period.
I experienced 4-5 flatlines in my first nofap streak.
Therefore, nofap is not a 90 days challenge; it is a lifestyle.
People who assume that, once nofap flatline is over, you can experience all the benefits you have read online are false.
It takes longer than 90 days to make it a lifestyle.
Conclusion
This article is not to discourage you but to let you know that the negative experience during the nofap flatline is common.
Don’t worry how long it will last, or will you ever come out of it.
Just keep in mind that you are doing the right thing at the moment, no matter how difficult and impossible it seems, but you are on the right track to change your life.
Success comes from within and not from external sources.
It is the character of a person that brings happiness and success.
There is no lucky or unlucky; there is only right and wrong.
If your life is a mess, you are responsible for it.
If you want a good life, you have to be responsible for it.
Nobody is coming to help you; if they do, you will never learn and remain there wherever you are.
So, start making decisions from now on, because you are responsible for your own life.
Best
Ahbab
