After struggling with NoFap/SR for almost a year now I’ve finally got to a point where I can begin to move on from just “retaining” and begin to properly heal all the damage PMO addiction has done (my longest streak ever just ended today).
Although I’ve been able to get over a lot of the smaller issues on my own over time, I still constantly struggle with “brain-fog” no matter what. This is one of the things I regret most about masturbating in the first place since I used to really excel academically and was generally considered quite bright in High School, being able to learn, remember information and think quickly; I’d be so much further ahead in life by now if I hadn’t fallen to PMO.
From what I’ve read online this is one of the most difficult changes to reverse on NoFap as such brain-fog results from several anatomical changes seen in various other addictions known as “Hypofrontality”. What pretty much happens is that, once your limbic dopaminergic system adjusts to greater amounts of more intense stimulus, the prefrontal cortex is starved of blood flow and many neural pathways as the brain seeks to maximise such dopamine rushes, among other changes. Some sources claim this takes 6 - 9 months to reverse completely!
It seems I’m doing everything right so far: I’ve cut out almost all cheap dopamine sources for healthier alternatives, as well as new hobbies; and I’ve also began meditating too. Aside from waiting it out, and retaining for far longer, is there anything else I can do to get back to my pre-PMO brain?
This is where Morphic Fields come in. After trying several different stacks and understanding my addiction better (i.e. Shadow-self, Three Treasures, Ojas and urges, transmutation/microcosmic) I feel like I’ve found the right combination to cover nearly all my bases, and want to do the same for my brain. Before I fell to PMO/masturbation I did use several brain fields for school and had amazing results and now hope to replicate them again - I just don’t know where to start. For example, I have thought of beginning with Energetic Alchemy’s “Brain Booster” but have heard from others around the forum that this isn’t the best starting point for certain reasons (which I may not remember now); I’ve also thought of using other related fields - such as the two brain regeneration fields - but am not sure if they meet my needs yet. I’m interested in using the “Plasma Brain of Youth” but would prefer to keep using mostly free products for now.
What you describe don’t necessarily relate. How much time passed in your school? If you just didn’t focus on studying you could start to lag behind, school complexity progresses, I have seen it times and times as other students, their parents, everyone said that kids were so smart, but now in later school years become dumber, this was constant pattern and mumtifaceted, you should reconsider view that pornography is the main problem, it might be where you put most of your attention, yes, but other people waste their early years on something else with same ease, so you might easily end up missing forest behind trees and start to move into wrong direction once again.
Just focus on studying, your body changed, brain changed too, only these is known to make students who were previously doing great, suddenly struggle, the story is old as time.
Only about a year or so, but I did begin regularly masturbating in that time after I left High School. I’m now at university for context. I definitely feel that this has damaged my brain (or parts of my brain), as I now struggle with my short-term memory as well as my focus and my academic life in general. I do understand your point though.
One year is a lot, especially in school. It’s good that you stopped the behavior that you consider dragged you down, just the point is that might have been partying (I have seen a ton of it affecting people ability to study or video games), main thing is to focus on positive behavior instead and push more effort in studying, resilience, discipline. It’s very likely that the root cause was that you started for one reason or another lose motivation in your school and this leads now to your perceived brain fog, which can be due to lack of your studying capacity.
So in a nutshell, you need to really persevere, put more effort in studies on daily basis. Consider comparing wasting one year of thinking to one year of sitting in house, without exercise, muscle loss will be extreme.
Did you really excel in studies (competitve achievements) or was getting grades easily, these are somewhat different.
White matter + plasma brain of youth and Manhattan method will not only repair your brain but also allow you to see things from a better perspective
You may not even need Manhattan method but the other two will repair your brain and heal all the BS that pmo did to it
Personally after using for a consistent time it feels like you gained your own self back
Use Parkinson Help 3x, if the issue is dopamine related you will feel different most likely. It doesn’t mean that you have Parkinsonism by all means, but you can use it on daily basis 2-3x as suggested in description. Also add Basal Ganglia Massage, this can be used for up to 1hr I think, Temporary Boosted Thinking several times.