so, you talked to anti-masturbation groups and all you got was nazis and depression...

Researchers find that what groups preaching abstinence and chastity excel at doing is giving adherents anxiety, depression, and far right memes.

Just because abstinence only approaches to sex ed have failed miserably every single time they’ve been tried doesn’t mean that the people pushing them have given up. It’s not driven by a rational look at any sort of data or statistics but religious devotion, and something as trivial as their work leaving tens of thousands of teenagers pregnant or afflicted with sexually transmitted diseases, isn’t going to stop their holy crusade. Yet, their dedication to sabotaging public health has left a bad taste in many mouths, so in order to branch out, they’ve had to shift into different spaces and try new language to repackage the same debunked talking points in shiny, new boxes.

One of those avenues are anti-masturbation communities like NoFap and Reboot, as well as a right wing obsession with “semen retention,” especially in what’s known as the Manosphere. What these groups claim is that abstaining from porn or any form of sexual release for extended periods of time — and ideally always — will help with just about everything from insomnia and anxiety, to your fertility and intelligence, and with proper dedication, it may even grant minor superpowers. Obviously, the members of these communities are virtually all male, but some women have started joining as well in recent years, claiming it gives them many of the same benefits.

Now, obviously, there’s nothing wrong with choosing not to masturbate or abstaining from sex and adult content. But it’s one thing to do so because you want to and think you need a break, it’s another to tie it to life goals like discipline and self-worth. Make too big of a deal out of it, and you will end up feeling suicidal while bombarded with a whole lot of abuse and conspiracy theories from zealous moderators, say researchers after talking to hundreds of men who participated in these forums and communities. You see, the problem is that because these spaces view masturbation as inherently evil, any “relapse” is taken very badly and can be accompanied by abuse.

Furthermore, the evidence for almost all of the claims of the NoFap movement lacks any real scientific rigor. Two of the most widely cited papers are not replicated, and show only a little and very temporary benefit in testosterone levels and sperm count. On the other hand, forcing oneself to abstain from masturbation can lead to anxiety or depression, and frequent ejaculation has been linked to a lower incidence of prostate cancer and better cardiovascular health in men. And it’s that anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation that’s been confirmed by the aforementioned researchers studying the NoFap movement and how its dynamics and tenets affect its participants.

from the frying pan into an open fire

Another interesting observation made by researchers about the most frequent and fervent members of NoFap communities is that they tended to describe themselves as porn addicts and suffered from anxiety and erectile disfunction while displaying a narcissistic personality. This is noted not because the researchers wanted to pile on these men but because they found that their test subjects and many NoFap members tend to believe they’re “especially gifted and just poor victims of a conspiratorial porn cabal,” which would make them ideal targets of far right conspiracy theorists looking to indoctrinate and radicalize through these groups.

It also means that NoFap groups may be attracting members with mental illnesses in the first place, guaranteeing behavior that is not what’s expected of a support group, often devolving into threats, abuse, conspiratorial thinking, and reinforcing neuroses and body issues, all phenomena called out by their test subjects and journalists who spent any significant length of time in NoFap forums. This may be why over two thirds of the subjects said they reported feeling distressed and downright suicidal after they masturbated, with 18% ranking their mental anguish as extreme. They need real help and what they’re getting is actively making things worse.

Yet, search results are full of praise for NoFap and glowing testimonials to the groups, and the largest community — inspired by rabid anti-porn activist Gary Wilson, who is responsible for dozens of pseudoscientific studies about pornography — has over a million members. This is set against an epidemic of loneliness and depression across vast swaths of the world, major social and political upheavals, a pandemic which had monumental physical and mental effects on billions of people we’re still struggling to fully understand and account for, and overburdened mental health professionals who also have their own demons, and are juggling record numbers of clients.

Clearly there are a lot of people out there who are struggling, who have real problems, and need real help. Unfortunately we have relegated that help to random strangers on the internet and those strangers aren’t always nice and helpful. In fact, according to the study’s data, everything they wanted to fix only got worse after they joined. They experienced more problems getting erections. They felt worse about their urges and developed more and more negative views about sex and sexuality. And they picked up harmful disinformation laser focused on making them feel shame and anger, providing imaginary targets on which to take out both real and manufactured frustrations.

how fascists invaded and weaponized nofap

Even worse, after digging into the content being discussed in the forums with the men they studied, they found widespread exposure to misogynistic, homophobic, and yes, anti-Semitic tropes, along with frequent trolling and bullying of members. As weird as it may sound, a conspiracy theory that Jews invented pornography to undermine “the traditional Western family and societal values” is downright foundational in modern far right circles and their anti-porn crusaders identifying with Christian White Nationalism and neo-Nazi movements. Their ideologies fit seamlessly into NoFap mythology, so it really isn’t that surprising they’ve proliferated there.

So, you join a NoFap community for discipline and self-empowerment, then end up in the company of far right zealots telling you that porn is a Jewish invention intended to pervert and de-socialize boys, while brainwashing men and women into relationships they consider unnatural, i.e. anything other than child “trad wives” of their own race. The most frequent data point they’ll cite is the so-called Millennial sex recession, the steep drop in sexual partners of Millennials found by researchers much to the chagrin of media outlets that were up until that point obsessed with “youth hookup culture” in many salacious and breathless longform articles.

To hear them tell it, this is prima face evidence of the diminishing power of all Western culture at the hands of feminism, Marxism, and yes, Jews. The solution? Following the doctrines of NoFap, abstaining from porn, starting a media diet heavy on far right and culture war influencers — as well as anti-Semitic memes — and joining local groups of far right activists in what’s called the NoFap to Nazi pipeline. Of course, the causes of this sex deficit are complex and include relying on useless dating apps, American sex ed being generally awful, seemingly exponentially increasing stress of daily life under a system falling apart around us, and yes, major socioeconomic changes.

But “hey, listen, a lot of things have gone sideways and we are dealing with systemic problems we need to fix as a society” is not a satisfying answer, nor does it empower sufferers who feel like their lives are out of control. “Just don’t jerk off, read this, and watch these videos, and we’ll have you on the road to recovery in no time” does. This is why when you almost certainly fail to live up to the group’s expectations, it feels so devastating. You had a solution within your grasp, then you’ve gone and fucked it up, and now you’re being bullied by the people who were so supportive last week. And it turns out a bunch of them are Nazis. To borrow a certain meme, feels bad man.

See: Prause, N., & Binnie, J. (2023). Iatrogenic effects of Reboot/NoFap on public health: a preregistered survey study. Sexualities, DOI: 10.1177/13634607231157070