How To Recover After a Porn / NoFap Relapse (Recovery Protocol)
This video / blog post is about how to recover after a porn relapse.
Or perhaps more accurate, how to get back on track in a good way and how to recover quicker after a NoFap / porn relapse.
Let's jump in and take a look...
How to recover faster from a porn relapse....
Scandinavian Bob here hi,
Relapses suck, and I know some of you may perhaps not even want to think about them, and that’s ok. But I still want to share something I used to do a couple of years ago, back when I was still struggling with porn relapses.
You see, I created a 3 day porn relapse recovery protocol, and this is something that could potentially help you recover faster from the 'horrible' NoFap relapse, so keep on reading...
...as you don’t want to miss this.
This is not mandatory...
First, I have to point out that this is not something that you HAVE to do in order to recover, no, you will still recover just fine, so don’t freak out.
This is something I personally did if I had a really bad relapse and binged on online porn for a couple of hours and I somehow wanted to mitigate the damage.
Second, you should also know that so far there are no brain studies that show how to recover from a porn relapse specifically.
But there are other brain studies in general and studies on dopamine receptors -that when taken into account- it would not be far fetched at all to say that my NoFap relapse recovery plan could potentially speed the process.
Day 18 turns into day 0...
So, let’s say you are on day 18 and then unfortunately day 18 turns into day 0. Yes, the horrible relapse got you and you binged for 5 hours. You completely fried your brain's reward center and you killed off all kinds of dopamine receptors ;)
Right after the binge I would not eat any food until the next day at 4 p.m. This is because studies show that intermittent fasting actually increases the number of your dopamine receptors.
Ok, now let’s take a look at what I did for the first 3 days after the relapse.
Enter: intermittent fasting...
So, on day 1 after the relapse I would only eat between 4 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Water and coffee is ok to drink during intermittent fasting, but no calories.
Then when I did eat I wanted to eat brain healthy foods. And I tried to include as many as possible of the 10 food items the memory and brain expert Jim Kwik recommends.
Those 10 foods are...
- Avocados
- Blueberries
- Coconut oil
- Broccoli
- Organic eggs
- Salmon
- Green leafy vegetables (spinach)
- Turmeric
- Walnuts
- Dark chocolate
I don’t think I got them all in in one sitting, but I tried to get as many as possible.
Perhaps you can have the same approach.
Turn off internet to recover faster from a NoFap relapse...
Then what I also wanted to do was to turn off my internet connection somewhere around 6 p.m.
You see, I really wanted to give my brain a break from all the high stimulating internet, as I had been completely frying my brain with the porn relapse.
And turning off my smartphone and the internet at 6 p.m. gave me a short dopamine detox. This is something I did every day during my recovery program. Related post: can a dopamine fast speed up NoFap recovery.
During this intermittent dopamine detox I tried to be as mindful as possible and just read books, meditate and engage in physical exercise...
...which brings me to the next point...
Physical exercise to speed up recovery after a porn relapse...
I also made sure to include 30 minutes of cardio during these 3 days, and I liked jogging.
Now, during the jogging sessions I also incorporated a few 20 seconds sprints.
This is because studies have shown that intense interval training can indeed help to upregulate dopamine receptors.
Now, normally I would not do that 3 days in a row, as that feels a bit too much for my body, but after the relapse I made an exception as I really wanted to heal my brain quicker (not good to go too hard long term, though!!!)
Just a quick warning, if you're not used to physical exercise, don’t do this.
Just do normal walking or slow running and if you still want to try the sprints, talk to your doctor first as he might need to clear you for take off.
Feeling stuck? You can transform your life in 13 weeks OR LESS by >>Downloading<< my FREE guide below...
Cold showers may also help you recover from a NoFap relapse...
I also took a cold showers, since here too studies have shown that cold showers make you grow more dopamine receptors.
And I did this once every day, except the last day.
Because I really wanted to make the third day the most effective day, so here I did them two times.
Some days I even took two cold showers...
Once in the morning and once in the evening.
Also, during the last day of my NoFap relapse recovery protocol program I also wanted to fast a bit longer, so I waited until 8 p.m. before eating on day 3.
This gave me a 24 hour fast between day 2 and day 3.During day 2 and 3 I fasted for 20 hours.
Now listen up here, this is important…
It's not ment as punishment...
While the recovery program might seem a bit tough I didn’t do it to punish myself for the relapse.
I simply wanted to do as much good for my brain as possible to mitigate the damage.
It is important to distinguish between those two, as studies have shown that if you are beating yourself up mentally for relapsing, you will actually just start relapsing more often in the future.
The porn relapsing paradox...
I know that may sound like a paradox, but the mind actually works that way.
This is also why studies have shown that trying to scare smokers, or alcoholics, with nasty pictures of liver cancer or lung cancer actually make them use even more.
Because when the addict gets really stressed, he often resorts to the very thing he is addicted to in order to try to cope with that stress.
And it is indeed the same with NoFap and online porn addiction.
Don't beat yourself up after relapsing...
So, when relapsing I see many guys make the mistake of being too hard on themselves...
...making a new strategy like for example…
For 90 days in a row I’m going to run 10 miles every single day and meditate for 2 hours, take 2 cold showers and journal…
Well, it IS understandable, since the relapse made them feel so bad so they REALLY want to change their life. And then they come up with this extreme plan as a compensation, please...
...don’t do this because it won’t work in the long run!
Be kind to yourself, while doing brain healthy things...
Do all those healthy things, for sure, but don’t take it to extreme levels, because for 99% of people that will only backfire...
...unless you are David Goggins, of course :)
Now, here’s another important thing and this is something you should do after a relapse.
Analyze your porn relapse...
After the relapse you should sit down with a pen and a piece of paper and write down how the relapse happened.
What feelings did you have during your day prior to the relapse?
What triggers did you encounter and what do you think led to the relapse?
This is more important than you think because it is by learning from your relapses that you finally will master the art of NoFap
And if you just keep going without analyzing your mistakes, well then you run the risk of repeating them over and over...and over again.
It's ok to make mistakes, but not to not learn from them...
If you remember only one thing from this video, make sure it is the following words...
“It is ok to make mistakes, but it is NOT okay for you to not learn from those mistakes”
Alright, I hope you found the video informative, and as always, if you would like to support my work you can always buy me a cup of coffee.
Thanks for reading,
-Scandinavian Bob
Related posts:
- Stuck in a relapse cycle on NoFap, how to get back on track...
- How to avoid a binge after you have relapsed to porn
- What to do the day after a porn relapse?
- Is edging a relapse on NoFap / during a pmo reboot?
- 3 Mistakes you make after a porn addiction relapse
- How to not relapse back to porn
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