How to Survive the First 7 Days of Nofap — a No-Nonsense Guide

Getting started is always the hardest. If you’ve been accustomed to busting one or more nuts every day, there will be pain. But one thought should help you: it gets easier. Prepare with the mindset that while the first days are going to be rough, it doesn’t stay that way. Take the attitude of a soldier; just soldier on the first days, and rest assured the storm will pass.

I, too, struggled a lot before. It was especially difficult for me to get back on track after I fell off the wagon and went back to bingeing. But after countless such pouts, failures, and successes, a pattern started emerging for me; I started to realize what works and what doesn’t. I’m here to give you a blueprint for success so you don’t have to go through what I did. As the saying goes, a smart man learns from his own mistakes, but a wise man also learns from the mistakes of others. Be a wise man. Let’s get started. Step by step. You can do this.

a smart man learns from his own mistakes, but a wise man also learns from the mistakes of others.

1. Prepare Your Mindset

As said before, the first days will be the hardest. Preparing for pain will make you resistant to failure when the pain eventually comes. We are going to do this “cold turkey”, because cold turkey works. It’s like ripping off the bandage; there’s no reason to prolong the pain; just get it over with. Sounds logical? Let’s continue.

2. Mornings Matter

How you start the day is how you’ll finish it. So try to start it as well as you can. You should know better than anyone what a good morning is for you, but allow me to give you some tips from my own experience. Don’t stay in bed any longer than you need to. Especially using a smart phone in bed or hopping to mindlessly use the internet after getting up is perilous. At first, you’ll be accustomed to the dopamine hit and crave it, so getting up without it will be painful. I suggest facing the pain head-on instead of avoiding it. You’ll be rewarded. Take a cold shower and get some exercise. Go outside and get some fresh air and sunlight. Journal instead of consuming content if you can. But the most important thing is to get your body moving and wake up those natural dopamine pathways.

3. Your Superpowers: Exercise and Meditation

Exercise and meditation will both help you get the dopamine you crave the natural way. You’ll feel better, so getting an artificial hit of dopamine is less likely to cross your mind. Exercise as often as you can. Ideally, at least every day. Don’t worry about overdoing it. Think about how good you will feel after vigorous exercise or even just taking a walk around the block.

In addition to exercise, meditation will work a bit differently. It will train your focus, but in a deeper way. Set a timer and stick to it. It will grow that discipline muscle in you for the times that you can’t go for a run or do a workout to escape your cravings. Mindfulness meditation has been shown to strengthen the frontal lobe; that’s exactly the part that addiction weakens, so in essence, you are repairing the damage done by addictive behavior every time you meditate — great! Meditation once a day is good, but at the beginning, you might as well do it twice a day for an even better head start on repairing the addiction pathways. That’s what I did when I finally made this thing work. Come to think of it, for me, in the past, stopping meditation for some reason, perhaps hubris, was a prelude to a relapse. So, don’t stop meditating, even if it seems like you’ve hit a plateau!

the most important thing is to get your body moving and wake up those natural dopamine pathways.

4. Journaling is Your Friend

I don’t want to overwhelm you with too many new habits. If you’re already journaling, you know it’s beneficial. If you’d like to try, now might be a good time to slowly get started. You want to build better new habits, not just forget the old bad ones. Kind of like formatting a hard disk, it’s not enough to simply delete the old data; you need to rewrite new data on top of the old. But if you feel overwhelmed, it’s okay. The key is to focus on one or two key changes at a time and focus on them well. If you haven’t done much consistent exercise before, I’d focus on that first and add journaling later. Maybe start with journaling about your exercise and how nofap/abstinence is going.

Only by taking this seriously and making it your priority will you guarantee your success.

5. Let’s Do This!

I don’t know if it needs to be repeated, but be super vigilant this first week. Only by taking this seriously and making it your priority will you guarantee your success. If you have to forgo some pleasures in life to achieve success, make that sacrifice. I recommend forgoing alcohol and being careful of any situations or activities that might be risky. Better safe than sorry. You might want to journal about this. Some suggestions on what to avoid: alcohol, movies, series, magazines, or games with nudity or sex, needless social media, and dating apps. Think of things that might be triggering for you; don’t do them. Don’t worry; you don’t have to become a monk. Find healthier alternatives. Walks in nature, reading, talking to friends, or doing something productive or creative, such as art. It’s time to start building your new life. You want to quit porn and masturbation, don’t you? It starts now. You can do this. Just put your mind into it, and I guarantee you will succeed!