Masturbation abstinence practices have returned to the USA in the form of semen retention communities. Followers on one of these male, anti-masturbation forums, “NoFap,” on Reddit (denoted “r/NoFap”), have engaged in homicidal behaviors that appear to be linked to these sexual beliefs and practices. This study uses a systematic search on r/NoFap and two control forums (r/pornfree, and r/stopdrinking) to define a corpus of violent content. The study’s goals were to describe the nature of threats on r/NoFap and suggest whether the violence might be attributable to sexual deprivation or false beliefs that non-sexual targets caused their violent urges. Of the 421 violent posts identified from September 2011 to September 2022, r/NoFap contained the majority (94.3%). Violent threats on r/NoFap mostly targeted pornographers, women, scientists, specific persons, or any person (i.e. homicidal “rage”). Violent threats against r/NoFap’s own followers were growing most quickly. Violent posts were well-supported with upvotes by other followers in r/NoFap. These data are important because NoFap may represent a growing threat for real-world violence.
I’ve had a similar experience. I’ve been trying to quit porn off and on for a while now. At one time I considered myself as practicing NoFap. I consumed all the introductory content you first come across, abstained from masterbating for varying stretches of time, and visited the subreddit fairly regularly.
I would say overusing porn can for sure have downsides, and abstaining from masterbating for a short time could help with getting out of the habit of using porn. The community just gets so much more weird and cringe from there, not to mention the violence that is fostered there which I wasn’t aware of. Maybe the forum was more hardline.
That video looks interesting too, thanks for sharing!