@article{ref1,
title="Iatrogenic effects of Reboot/NoFap on public health: a preregistered survey study",
journal="Sexualities",
year="2023",
author="Prause, Nicole and Binnie, James",
volume="",
number="",
pages="e13634607231157070-e13634607231157070",
abstract="&quot;Reboot,&quot; especially NoFap, promotes abstinence from masturbation and/or pornography to treat &quot;pornography addiction,&quot; an unrecognized diagnosis. While the intention of Reboot/NoFap is to decrease distress, qualitative studies have consistently suggested that &quot;Reboots&quot; paradoxically cause more distress. The distress appears to occur in response to (1) the abstinence goal, which recasts common sexual behaviors as personal &quot;failures,&quot; and (2) problematic and inaccurate Reboot/NoFap forum messaging regarding sexuality and addiction. This preregistered survey asked men about their experience with perceived &quot;relapse&quot; and NoFap forums. Participants reported that their most recent relapse was followed by feeling shameful, worthless, sad, a desire to commit suicide, and other negative emotions. A novel predictor of identifying as a pornography addict in this lower religiosity sample was higher narcissism. Participants reported that NoFap forums contained posts that were misogynist (73.7% of participants), bullying (49.1%), anti-LGBT (42.9%), antisemitic (32.0%), instructing followers to harm or kill themselves (23.5%), or threats to hurt someone else (21.1%). More engagement in NoFap online forums was associated with worse symptoms of erectile dysfunction, depression, anxiety, and more sex negativity. <br><br>RESULTS support and expand previously documented harms and problems with Reboot/NoFap claims of treating pornography addiction from qualitative research.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1363-4607",
doi="10.1177/13634607231157070",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/13634607231157070"
}