Thank you Talen. that’s exactly what I needed to hear.

Huberman* btw not Hibernian lol

Hope your still going strong. I’ve been listening to an episode on the Hibernian Podcast for the past few hours on dopamine (highly recommend btw*) and a few parts caught my attention. The biggest one involving peaks of dopamine and baseline dopamine. Every time you go above baseline (ie watching porn, masturbating) the baseline lowers. Making (for me) the next 24 hours awful. Especially the first like 6 or so. That rush of dopamine alters the way your prefrontal cortex efficiently functions for a bit. This is important because the prefrontal cortex controls the ability to focus, make good decisions, and analyze consequences. Even worse, neural transmitters linked to dopamine (almost all of them) become more and more worn, hence tolerance. But tolerance to porn also decreases the dopamine releases from things that you actually enjoy or things that motivate you. So what do you do right now? If your goals align with it, I recommend you take away porn and just masturbate. Removing the distractions/stimulators (ie your phone and social media) from anything in life will increase your mood, motivation, and work ethic. It just takes around a true week of true dedication to start feeling these things.