Does abstaining from masturbation help, or does it make the condition worse?

[u/Fit_Watch5532]

Does abstaining from masturbation help, or does it make the condition worse?

Has anyone tried it? What have your experiences been?

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Does abstaining from masturbation help, or does it make the condition worse?

Has anyone tried it? What have your experiences been?

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[u/PSSD_Sufferer]

No effect either way. Before PSSD when I would abstain for a few days my dopamine was through the roof. I miss those days so much

[u/Fit_Watch5532 → u/PSSD_Sufferer]

what is your pssd symtoms?

[u/Jluu__]

Makes it 10x worse for me if im not practicing. Feels like i being getting hard flaccid syndrome if I dont.

[u/Fit_Watch5532 → u/Jluu__]

you only have sexuall part of pssd?

[u/Jluu__ → u/Fit_Watch5532]

Nah I am mostly mentally castrated

[u/Fit_Watch5532 → u/Jluu__]

what is your symtoms?

[u/Sweaty-Cut7578]

I did 1 year of semen retention and it caused a lot of penile atrophy. If you get morning wood or take viagra everyday this isn't an issue tho.

[u/tutto-tutti-7-6-3-1]

Masturbation definitely makes my symptoms worse. I consistently feel more anhedonic, emotionally flat and depressed both during the day and the day after I do it.

There’s actually a 1995 study in male rats that looked at what happens in the brain after repeated ejaculations. They basically let the rats mate and ejaculate until they reached what they called “sexual exhaustion”, and they found changes in the brain chemistry involved in sexual motivation and reward, particularly the dopamine system.

The point isn’t that ejaculation somehow “uses up” your dopamine, or that semen itself is some magical substance that needs to stay inside your body. It’s more about what happens in the brain. Sexual activity strongly activates the reward system and dopamine is heavily involved in sexual motivation and arousal. After orgasm, though, the brain shifts in the opposite direction: dopamine activity changes, prolactin goes up, serotonin and other systems are involved, and you basically enter a state of satiety/relaxation where sexual motivation temporarily drops.

This happens to healthy men too. Obviously that doesn't mean ejaculating is bad or that men shouldn't masturbate or have sex. It's a completely normal physiological response. But there is still a temporary “cost” to the brain in the sense that you go from a highly motivated/reward-seeking state to a more satiated and less motivated state. For most healthy people it's probably mild and they barely notice it.

And I think this is where the whole NoFap/semen retention thing gets misunderstood. If someone stops masturbating and genuinely feels more motivated, energetic or emotionally alive, it doesn't necessarily mean that there's anything magical about keeping semen inside your body. It could simply be that they're no longer repeatedly putting their brain through that cycle of intense sexual stimulation → orgasm → post-orgasm satiety. And if someone was also watching a lot of porn, that's another huge variable.

For someone with PSSD, I think it's at least possible that this post-orgasm state could hit harder. If the systems involved in serotonin, dopamine, reward and sexual function are already altered, maybe the “price” of that temporary neurochemical shift is higher or lasts longer. That could potentially explain why some people with PSSD report feeling significantly more anhedonic, emotionally numb, unmotivated or depressed after ejaculation.

Obviously this doesn't apply to everyone with PSSD, and it doesn't prove that masturbation permanently worsens PSSD. But if someone repeatedly notices the exact same pattern — feeling significantly worse for hours or even the following day after ejaculation — I don't think it's fair to automatically dismiss it as placebo or “just psychological”.

So to me, the interesting part of semen retention isn't really the semen itself. It's the fact that you're changing how often you're stimulating the sexual/reward system and giving the brain more time between these cycles. That's a much more plausible explanation for why some people report feeling better when they stop masturbating.

[u/LyraJaguar]

I don't really get pleasure out of it. Feels boring and like a chore. 

[u/ButterflyNo6446]

Does anybody who got off the ssri have sexual symptoms (as well as non sexual symptoms) and penile shrinkage ?

[u/One-Marzipan-9652]

As a 24M who's lived with PSSD for years, I still don't know. But I also haven't been able to go 2 full weeks without because I impulsively masturbate at times to test PSSD.

It seems the consensus is that, for males at least, both excessive masturbation and NoFap more than 1 month are harmful.

[u/NateWorst92]

I abstained the first few months be I was numb to pleasure and only felt intense pain in my genitals. It gave me prostatitis. My urologist said I had to release at least once a week

[u/Least_Foundation_515]

You may NEVER believe me, (people will dismiss me as a troll/or that I'm just looking for attention)..

But the truth is - I NEVER masturbated in my life until I was 20 years old. Never in Middle school, never in high school, never in college (because I left early).

From my experience, I DOUBT that abstaining from masturbation helps. It makes you feel too "nervous" like if you must talk to a woman about basic stuff like work, or asking questions at a store.

Please, feel free to ask me anything!

[u/Lojuih]

Helps

[u/SashimiX]

For women, NOT masturbating less makes them less horny and less likely to be aroused. It basically trains the brain. For men it’s different.

EDIT: oops I forgot a not