“What about porn use and masturbation? Could you please talk about this topic?” This legitimate request crops up sometimes in our private online community survey.
That’s probably because masturbation is a sensitive topic, and our faith communities rarely talk about this except behind closed doors.
Why You Should Consider Stopping: 3 Benefits of Not Masturbating
1. Physical Benefits of Not Masturbating to Porn
Many will argue and ask if it is healthy not to masturbate. However, there are some hidden physical risks to masturbation, like decreased sexual satisfaction, that don’t get much press.
Another key problem? Health care professionals are reluctant to honestly address potential links between porn use, masturbation, and ED, so the research is limited.
However, a growing number of younger men report experiencing early onset erectile dysfunction.
A study by the Kinsey Institute first noted this back in 2007. Unsurprisingly, that’s when porn use in young men escalated thanks to the smartphone.
An international survey conducted by multiple researchers links Problematic Porn Consumption (PPC) with a 24.4% rate of erectile dysfunction.
“This prevalence of ED in young men is alarmingly high, and the results of this study suggest a significant association with PPC.”
On the positive side, many young men report physical benefits of not masturbating to porn! Their ED improves after giving up porn use!
You can find their stories regularly posted in huge online forums with over a million members.
So according to NoFap warriors, what happens when you quit masturbating to porn?
- Improved ability to be sexually aroused by a real life partner instead of porn
- Increased physical energy
- Healing from “the death grip”
- Overcoming masturbation addiction (notes from an infertility specialist)
2. Spiritual and Mental Benefits
Porn use is almost always coupled with masturbation, partly because porn use has become so normalized in the past 20 years. It’s a quick, easy dopamine high.
Porn addiction coach Timothy Reigle says, “I know of very few men who only enjoyed watching porn and not also masturbating to it.”
Again, in spite of any studies promoting the benefits of masturbation, the harms of porn and masturbation far outweigh any benefits.
Over the past few years especially, porn use is being linked to anxiety, depression, body dysmorphia, and sexual performance anxiety.
That’s why the mental health benefits of quitting porn assume that masturbation is also involved. These benefits include:
- Improved motivation to reach for goals
- Less depression and anxiety
- Better self-image
After quitting porn, Cole says,
“I found a reason to live again.
I no longer wanted to rid myself of the world’s struggles.
With my better, stronger emotional and mental health,
I now had the motivation to go to the gym regularly.
My sleep schedule improved.
I even had an increased determination to go back to school.”
Catholic and Protestant denominations alike share this view:
“Theologically, masturbation and pornography directly violate the religious virtue of chastity, undermining one’s prayer life and the motivation to develop a spiritual life.”
If you’re a person of faith, quitting porn really matters to your relationship to God and with others.
Spiritual benefits of quitting pornography include:
- Freedom from guilt and shame – clean conscience
- Improved spiritual focus and connection to God
- Renewed ability to love and respect people instead of seeing them as objects of lust and pleasure
- Recovery of personal integrity
- Not supporting human sex trafficking fueled by porn
Jonathan wrestled with his inner guilt over porn use until he finally found the courage to face his struggle head-on.
“As a Christian, I knew I wasn’t supposed to lust, so viewing porn was not allowed.
But if your only reason to not watch porn is because of a rule, you’ll eventually break it.”
3. Relationship Benefits
“Quitting porn helped my marriage by teaching me to be a healthier person in general. Now I know how to have deep, vulnerable, satisfying relationships with others.” – Ken
Since porn and masturbation is a very self-focused activity, quitting is a powerful way to motivate yourself to become a high value person to others.
The relationship benefits of not masturbating could massively improve your life in these ways:
- Break up with loneliness
- Invest time and energy in others
- Love your spouse, friends, and family more deeply
And the “icing on the cake?” You can become a wholehearted Lover, able to emotionally and sexually connect in real life to your spouse.
The Most Effective Way to Stop Masturbating
Avoiding pornography use altogether is the most effective way to stop masturbating as an adult.
If your brain’s pleasure pathways have been wired to pornography use from your teen years, this is going to take time and patience with yourself.
“Being kind and gentle towards myself not only massively helped in the process of quitting porn, it also helped my marriage a ton. I have learned over the years that when we are kind and gentle with ourselves, it helps us be kind and gentle with others.” – Ken
You may not realize how deeply rooted this habit is until you try to quit porn and can’t.
Here’s what we know from helping thousands of people succeed in quitting porn. You have to bring this habit out of secrecy and hiding.
You need to hold yourself accountable for your actions.
Not only that, you need effective boundaries against porn, or you will likely never quit. Why?
As Jourdan from @ThatsNotLove says, porn is the only addictive “substance” that is free and always in your back pocket.
Choose accountability for long-lasting success.
For example, many major name brand weight loss programs ask you to track all your daily meals and snacks. Sometimes it’s a rude awakening to see all the carbs and junk food that have snuck into your daily diet. But it’s not that simple or easy to just quit eating things you love, right?
Accountability software makes you aware of your daily viewing habits.
Just like tracking your food intake is the first weight loss success step, you need to accurately document where you visit online to change your viewing habits.
That’s where good online accountability software comes in. It silently shares everywhere you visit online. Not only that, it sends a report of your online activity to a trusted partner that you choose.
But, here’s where accountability software is BETTER than simply tracking your “junk food” or your porn intake.
Accountability software informs your partner if you’re meeting your goals or not.
Knowing someone will see if you’ve been viewing online porn is a powerful motivational tool to actually quit!
Just think about it. If you’ve had this great conversation with your trusted partner, shared your goals to be porn and masturbation free, and then you’re back at it? You’re going to have another hard conversation.
After all, you gave them permission to be your “coach” and help you meet your goals.
Accountability celebrates actual progress.
When you start seeing real success, accountability software also proves you’ve been doing the hard work.
In fact 95% of Ever Accountable accountability software users report an immediate drastic reduction in porn use, and 63% say their porn use drops to zero.
Here’s the truth. Porn is high-tech, and your smartphone is fueling your addiction, so you need to “fight fire with fire.”
Conclusion
Even though a deeply rooted porn and masturbation habit can be tough to break, you can succeed with support and the right tech tools.
Remind yourself daily of your WHY. The long-term benefits of quitting masturbation to porn far outweigh any benefits to yourself and others.
*Ever Accountable’s blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or therapy, though we often link to medically reviewed studies.
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