Well, folks, it’s “No Nut November,” and you know what that means. (Or maybe you don’t know; in which case, I envy you).
Similar to “No Shave November,” where you stop shaving your beard for a whole month, this month-long challenge asks you to give up masturbating for the full 30 days.
But one man didn’t stop there.
YouTuber Pierre Dalati claims he did “NoFap” for a whole year. (By the way, I’m really hating these trend names. Can we just call it what it is?)
Essentially, the YouTuber claimed to have given up masturbation for an entire year. Yes, 365 days.
I will say, his intention was pretty pure. He noted that watching porn gets you “used to an unrealistic approach.” So, this challenge for him was more about giving up porn than giving up “fapping.”
“It’s not the actual fapping that’s bad,” he noted. “It’s the porn.”
Maybe he’s onto something. I mean, according to the National Library of Medicine, recent research has found that “the growing consumption of Internet pornography mainly in [the] male population becomes an increasing problem, which is closely linked to compulsive sexual behavior.
Additionally, the findings “show that stressful experiences, anxiety, and depression are strongly related to pornography consumption.”
“By constantly watching this, you’re training your mind to get used to such an unrealistic situation,” Dalati said, adding that it often takes a while to settle on which porn “situation” to watch in a given session.
“Within 20 seconds, you’re switching through five to eight different sexual performances, and that is the messed up part of it because you’re giving yourself such a dopamine rush every single day in such a short period of time,” he explained.
Dalati added that this can affect how you show up in your personal life, including how you approach prospective partners. But giving up porn—and masturbation as a whole—for an entire year helped him in other ways, too.
“I did notice a benefit of increased focus,” he said. “So instead of constantly being distracted and having [porn/masturbating] on my mind, I was able to put my full attention and energy into it.”
He also felt more confident in how he was leading his life—more authentically and realistically.
“I think it’s definitely a good experience for everyone to try [giving up fapping],” he said. “It gives you a new perspective on a day-to-day basis, and with the benefits of increased energy, mental clarity, increased productivity, you’ll find that you’re actually doing a lot more in your day that you weren’t doing before.”
I’m glad that giving up porn and masturbation worked for him, but I do wish he’d abstain from using the word “fapping” going forward.
The post This Man Did ‘No Nut November’ for an Entire Year appeared first on VICE.
The post This Man Did ‘No Nut November’ for an Entire Year appeared first on VICE.
