 What's going on, you guys? Welcome to the Single Guy Channel. My name is Lloyd. I am not the single guy. Today I'm joined by a very special guest, Mr. Josh, from Pinnacle of Man. Some guys. So, we're going to talk about a subject today that Josh was very familiar with. So, the video is titled, Should You Do NOFAP? Is NOFAP right for you? What kinds of things do you need to be suffering from to actually engage in this activity? So, Josh, why don't you give us a rundown on what kind of things a guy should look for if he's thinking about doing it or if he's not sure? You know, a lot of guys overcomplicate this. I like to use Dr. Gabor Mate. He's like an addiction specialist. His definition of what an addiction is. And it's just two things. Are you doing it, despite knowing there are consequences? Like, do you feel shameful or are you wasting your time? And are you doing it compulsively? Which means, are you catching yourself just looking at a couple of photos and then watching like, how the hell did I get to this porn video? I was just, you know, on Instagram two seconds later. So, if those two markers are consistent with you, you may want to consider stopping. So, what would you say to a guy who feels like, oh, I'm not really sure. Maybe I'm doing it compulsively. Maybe I'm not doing it compulsively. What are some hard, fast rules for them to look for? For them to decide whether this is a good thing for them to do or not? Yeah, man, that's a really good question. You know, the biggest marker is like, how do you feel immediately after you do it? Right. Like, do you feel empty? Do you feel weak? Less motivated? Do you procrastinate? And the biggest one is, do you feel like a sense of shame or guilt? Right. Because a lot of what happens, so porn is a drug. Yeah, it goes along the same path as other drugs, right? And so, like any other drug, you know, when a heroine addict does heroin, he needs more and more and more to get that original high. It's the same thing with a lot of guys with porn. At first, just a picture of, you know, a girl's boobs is enough to get us off, right? Yeah. And then it's like, you need more and more deeply important. And then guys are watching stuff that they're like, why am I turned on by this? And if that's happening to you, yeah, that's definitely the biggest sign you should stop. Just so you guys know, we're not saying that porn is exactly like heroin, but it can happen. We're just giving an example about how we can have similar effects as maybe something you get addicted to. So how far, what's like the worst case scenario you've seen guys getting into with this sort of stuff? I mean, I can share my personal story a little bit. That would be great. Yeah, it was like, that was me, the guy I was just explaining to you. And I would use it as an escape. So Bill W. was like the creator of Alcoholics Anonymous. And he said that every alcoholic is trying to find God in every bottle. Right. Like me and a lot of other men were trying to find love and connection at the click of every mouse. Right. Because porn is consistent. It gives you what you want. It doesn't ask anything from you. There's no emotions involved, but it leaves you feeling empty. And so for me, instead of talking to girls, right, instead of going out there and interacting and facing rejection and building my character, I would go to porn, I would escape, and I'd watch more and more deviant stuff until I was watching stuff that, honestly, I felt so disgusted with myself. I almost became suicidal. I said if I ever watched this again, I would so feel the shame. I didn't want to live with myself. Wow. And that's where I kind of actually was a blessing in disguise because it allowed me to learn this, understand why I couldn't quit, and develop ways to actually grow it. Do you think there was other deep-receded things like going on with you when you were using porn as a way to deal with those things? Oh, 100%. Yeah. You know, a lot of guys, there's some trauma in the past. You know, it doesn't have to be sexual trauma. It could be the smallest stuff, like abandonment, rejection, not feeling good enough with women. So you kind of go to porn as an escape. These little things that kind of build up. It's like a wound. It kind of just gets exacerbated by the porn more and more and more. Sure. Sure. And that's maybe why when you use it as an escape, when you come out of it, the trauma, the wounds are still there. It doesn't do anything to heal it, but it's just more of a distraction, right? Just like I'm all right. Exactly. Yeah. Someone doesn't want to deal with depression or PTSD, so they'll drink or not with drugs. It's the same exact thing. You're trying to feel good to escape negative emotions. Whenever you're going towards something, you're running away from something else. Exactly, exactly. So with me and my clients, I don't enforce it strictly, but one thing that I've noticed that NOFAP helps a lot with is energy as well too. Big time. You know, if you're someone who is getting sexual gratification on a regular basis from yourself and from online sources, you're probably not going to look for that in a real woman, and as a result, you're not going to go after it as much. So what can you speak to about that? Like what's the good relationship a guy should have with that sort of stuff? Yeah. If a lot of guys are very logical, like myself in a lot of ways, at a logical level, dopamine is released whenever you watch porn. About 100% of your molecules, if you want to know, like 50% of the food, 1200% with methamphetamine, a little step there. But what happens with any neurotransmitter is that the more you get that drug, your brain is like, oh, I don't need to produce this naturally because you're getting so much of it, so it starts to lower, and dopamine is the incentive molecule, the motivation molecule. So the more you watch porn, the less naturally you produce it, and therefore you become less motivated to do certain things like work, talk to a girl, you know, do things that are good for you, and go to the gym, et cetera. Gotcha. Gotcha. So for me personally in my own life, I still do it, but I don't do it as much as I used to, or if I'm really like, if I'm seeing someone, I do it a lot less, I'll admit that. But if I'm not seeing anybody consistently, you know, I don't think it's that bad to do it every once in a while. I think you're relating it to alcohol. It's like, it's not that bad if you have a drink, but if you don't become an alcoholic, it becomes a problem or starts ruining your life. Yeah, look man, I'm very practical about this. I'm not saying you're going to get superpowers, and I'm not saying you should quit if it's okay for you. Like, there's people out there that use opioids, right, that are similar to heroin for pain, and then they, when the pain's gone, they stop using it, right? Or people who drink socially and they don't go overboard and get blocked out, but there are some people when they touch that substance or that activity, like gambling or anything else, it just activates their brain chemistry some way where they just have to dive into it and forget everything else. Yeah, yeah, absolutely man. Well cool. Well I think you have some resources that can help guys out if they feel like there's maybe a problem for them. Want to tell us a little bit about that? Yeah, I mean I have a program with over a thousand guys quitting porn. I went to grad school to figure out a system to quit that kind of doesn't rely on willpower because when guys try to use willpower to quit, it's like they're forcing and forcing, they only suppresses their urges, and that sexual energy just gets repressed. Imagine it's like rubber band you're pulling back and eventually it always snaps and they always come back and relapse. So I found a way to kind of get rid of those urges and yeah, that's the process I've been using. Cool, cool. All right, well we'll put links to it in the description. If you want to check out his channel, it's Pinnacle of Man. Thanks so much for coming on, Josh. Thanks for that. We'll talk soon. Cheers. See you guys.