NoFap Edging: Is it good or bad to edge when you’re on NoFap?

NoFap edging is the simple act of masturbating to porn (or without porn) but stopping yourself before orgasming/ejaculating, while you’re on NoFap.

Edging when on NoFap can also be in the form of just watching porn without masturbating, while you’re on NoFap.

To understand what NoFap edging is, think of an alcoholic that’s been sober for a while. He takes a bottle of alcohol, opens it up, brings it to his nose, and sniffs the alcohol. He savors the smell for a while, and without drinking it, puts the bottle back down.

As absurd as edging sounds, I used to do it back then.

And if I were to venture a guess, you’ve also done it at a point in your NoFap journey.

That’s why you’re here reading this post.

You want to know if it’s okay to edge when you’re on NoFap. You want to know if edging takes away from the benefits you get from doing NoFap or if it adds to the benefits of NoFap.

Going forward, as you read this post, I want you to put these words at the back of your mind;

“You can’t eat your cake and have it; you can’t have it both ways.”

There have never been truer words than these words. In life, something has to give.

That said, let’s look at the reasons why you might be thinking of edging when you’re on NoFap.

Two reasons you might consider edging when you’re on NoFap

1. Edging isn’t relapsing

You’re on NoFap and you’re having intense cravings. You’re about to relapse!!

So, you think you can use a little bit of dopamine by edging to porn.

“If I don’t orgasm or ejaculate to it, I haven’t relapsed”, said the voice in your head.

It’s true that when you please yourself, and you’re able to bring yourself back from the brim of orgasming, you haven’t (technically) relapsed on NoFap. (In my NoFap dictionary).

Your progress on NoFap isn’t yet lost and you can still pick it up from there.

You would edge, and move on from there.

But the thing with edging is that you never do it and just move on. You keep on edging and edging and edging until you finally relapse.

And I’ll explain why this is the case in a moment.

2. You do it to strengthen your willpower

This is the only argument I see that’s remotely close to being reasonable when it comes to edging on NoFap.

The argument is this; when you edge on NoFap/sniff the alcohol/take a teensy little bit of that drug you’re supposed to stop using, and you’re able to stop yourself from going all in, then you’ve just done a little bit of willpower workout.

And with time, you’re supposed to be able to resist the urge better.

People that edge on NoFap (because of the willpower workout reason) don’t know how willpower works. Your willpower doesn’t get stronger when you keep resisting the urge to do something. As a matter of fact, your willpower gets depleted the more you resist doing something.

Eventually, you say, “what the f*ck, might as well finish.”

And that’s why no matter why you’re edging, one day, you’ll get that “what the f*ck” feeling.

8 reasons why NoFap Edging will ruin your NoFap challenge

1. It’s the most surefire way to a relapse

I want you to think back to every time you’ve edged while you’re on NoFap.

Which of these times hasn’t resulted in a relapse?

You won’t find any!

It might be a day after you edged or a week from it, there’ll come a day when you get that “what the f*ck” feeling and relapse.

Why does this happen?

It’s all down to a little something called dopamine.

In a fight between dopamine and your willpower, dopamine wins nine out of ten times.

When you edge, what you’re doing is giving yourself high doses of dopamine. You keep getting these doses for a prolonged period.

These high doses of dopamine come from three sources;

• The dopamine you get from searching for that more shocking, more novel, and more intriguing porn,
• The dopamine you get from tuning-in to the most arousing sensation of masturbation, and
• Dopamine from the promise of the pleasurable reward of orgasming.

All these dopamine culminate to give you the ultimate high from edging.

One thing about dopamine for a PMO addict is that when you get arousal-related dopamine, your brain always wants more. Your brain will want to drag out that feeling of dopamine.

The dopamine that finally pushes you over the edge is the one that gets secreted for the promise of reward of orgasming.

So, if you keep edging, one day, you finally say, “what the f*ck, let me get that orgasm”.

2. It slows down your dopamine rebooting process

The main aim of doing NoFap is to give your brain a rest from porn, masturbation, and orgasm.

This is so that all the PMO dopamine pathways you’ve formed over the years become redundant.

But when you edge on NoFap, you’re further strengthening the dopamine pathway for PMO addiction.

This is because of the prolonged duration of high dopamine dose that you get when you edge.

Even if you do NoFap for two years, but you continue edging, chemically, nothing changes in your brain.

The dopamine craving brain will still be very active and you’ll still be at the mercy of your porn and masturbation addiction.

This is why I argue that instead of edging, just PMO.

Because when you ejaculate, prolactin is secreted. And prolactin is the hormone that counters the dopamine effects in your brain.

3. Edging on NoFap wastes your precious time

You spend more time when you edge than when you PMO.

When you PMO, after the act, prolactin peaks and dopamine is at its lowest.

When you PMO, after the act, you’re done.

But you can edge continuously for hours. Dopamine can have you awake and actively chase pleasure for more than six hours straight.

I’ve personally edged for six hours in the past. Whereas, when I PMO, the longest time I’ve spent is two hours.

Imagine wasting six hours of your day edging. With the time you could have done productive and positive things that would better your life.

You could’ve used this time to work on your goals. But if you embark on edging when you’re on NoFap, it can be a great time-waster.

4. You make your erectile dysfunction worse when you edge on NoFap

Every erection begins in the brain—the most important sexual organ.

Your ability to get erect is tied to your dopamine pathway and your limbic system (particularly the thalamus).

These systems are like a relay that sends arousal messages to your penis. When one of these relays is messed up, it messes with your ability to get erect.

And apart from the role of dopamine and the thalamus, the prolonged masturbation time that’s often associated with edging can further de-sensitize the penis.

5. It lowers your libido for real sex with your partner

If you’re in a relationship, edging won’t do you any good.

Some edging sessions are almost like completing a PMO session.

The prolonged high levels of dopamine associated with edging is training your brain to require constant visual stimulation, novelty (newness), and more shocking sexual acts.

Real-life sex is far different from what we see in porn videos.

So, when you get down with your partner, who is flesh and blood and not some pixel on the screen, who can’t possibly live up to your dopamine cravings, you can quickly lose interest.

This can result in low libido or a loss of interest in sex altogether.

6. You’re more exposed to bad habits when you constantly edge on NoFap

When you edge, your limbic system—the part of your brain that operates on compulsion and impulses—becomes activated for a very long time.

The thing with the prolonged activation of the limbic system is that its activation shuts down the prefrontal cortex—the center of your brain that regulates willpower and your ability to delay gratification.

What does this mean?

It means that while you’re edging, or right after that, you have no defense against indulging habits like binge eating, binge-watching Netflix, consuming too much sugar, biting your nails, and so on.

You should have noticed this trend when you edge on NoFap. Your sugar consumption increases or you start feeding your sweet tooth. You start gaming excessively after an edging session. And so on.

7. You waste energy when you edge

The process of edging can leave you drained. Depending on how long you do it, you expend a lot of energy in the process.

The energy you waste when you edge might not be as much as completing the full cycle of PMO and orgasming. But it does affect your energy reserve.

8. It takes away from the benefits you’re supposed to get from NoFap

When you do NoFap without edging, you get to experience the full benefits of doing NoFap.

But when you edge, you keep chipping away at the benefits you’re supposed to get on NoFap.

I want you to experiment this sometime. Compare your NoFap (or semen retention) that’s combined with edging and your NoFap (or semen retention) without edging.

You’ll notice that the benefits of the NoFap challenge come in thick and fast when you don’t edge. This is not the case when you edge on NoFap.

The benefits that are dopamine-related—like brain fog, focusing and concentrating, erectile dysfunction, feeling joy in the little things, and so on—are the ones that you notice first.

They take some time to happen when you combine edging with your NoFap.

Final thoughts on NoFap Edging

I understand that the NoFap challenge is difficult for some people. I’m one of those people that found NoFap difficult.

I want you to know that I understand what you’re going through if you’re having to edge when you’re on NoFap. I’ve been there. I’ve done that.

Since I just tore NoFap edging a new one, I want you to know that if you’re at that stage where you’re edging on NoFap, don’t feel guilty and ashamed for doing it.

But going forward, this article aims to make you aware that NoFap edging takes away from your NoFap challenge. In all its forms, edging isn’t good for you.

And it kind of eventually (almost always) hinders your NoFap recovery.

If you’ve been edging, it’s time to stop doing it. If you’re not ready to stop it, be (at least) aware of its side-effects on your NoFap challenge.

Please share this post if you found it helpful. You might help another Fapstronaut.

If you have any questions, use the comment section below.

Till the next time we speak,

STAY EDGE-FREE, STAY MOTIVATED, and STAY FAP-FREE.