Depression, anxiety, erectile problems: the harms of “Nofap”, aimed at stopping masturbating | The USA Print

If porn addiction has its perverse inclinations and side effects, stopping male masturbation abruptly wouldn’t be a good idea either. This is at least what researchers indicate in a scientific news, published on February 22 in the journal Sexualities (Source 1).

Two scientists looked at the community NoFapincluding forums praise the virtues of abstinence from masturbation to end with pornography addiction. First, they point out that pornography addiction is not clinically recognized, and that most people on these forums would most likely self-diagnose themselves as porn addicts, without medical advice. The two researchers also specify that the forum they screened would be conservative in nature, made up of 99% men, promoting misogyny, anti-Semitism and homophobia. This type of forum would also be a white supremacist recruitment tooldue to false information that the porn industry is controlled by Jews to promote racial mixing.

In their survey of 587 men engaged in a NoFap approach, the researchers report that nearly 30% of respondents said they had had suicidal thoughts after finishing their “rehab”. The men who adhered the most to the approach tended to feel even worse afterwards. As for erectile dysfunction, it would have worsened. Participating in this “zero masturbation” challenge actually led to increased levels of depression and anxiety with many forum members.

“ We conclude that therapists who recommend NoFap are most likely harming their patients. Abstinence approaches and these “support” groups seem extraordinarily harmful and do not merit further development. Don’t refer to it », warns Dr. Nicole Prause, co-author of the study, on Twitter. The researcher and her colleague believe that these practices resemble the conversion therapies and anti-LGBT, which aim to change the gender identity of LGBT +.

The two scientists point out that alternative therapies aimed above all at reducing the guilt and the feeling of shame that can arise following the viewing of pornographic content have much more success, and much less harm to the health of patients.