If you’ve decided to start keeping your hands away from yourself, then you might need to know about what could happen to you afterwards.
Masturbation is a normal thing, and most people will go on to partake in it - but refraining from masturbation and even an end to sex in general can have a strange affect.
According to a sexpert who'd abstained from masturbation upon the suggestion of her therapist, she detailed what happened when her sex life with her partner of seven years 'started to feel like we were having sex next to each other instead of together', which led to the masturbation ban.
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The anonymous sex writer penned a detailed breakdown of how her mind and body coped during the hiatus, in a candid article for InStyle.
Here’s what she found:
Uncontrollable urge to get off
According to the woman, going cold turkey made her want to do it even more.
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She began explaining how she used to do it 'two or three times a week', which she thought was a 'very reasonable' amount - but it soon ‘became the white elephant that I wasn't supposed to think about'.
Mood swings
After giving up the good stuff, she explained that she was going through a 'period of mild withdrawal' which caused a 'low-grade headache' as well as feeling irritable.
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She said: "Masturbation withdrawal may sound far-fetched, but masturbation releases a delicious cocktail of feel-good chemicals and hormones and whatnots, so it seemed reasonable to me that my body was all like, 'Hey where'd that awesome stuff go?'"
Arousal
The woman further explained: "The build-up to satisfaction went from minutes to days, sometimes a week.
"Orgasm became an event to be longed for and fantasised about instead of another item to check off my to-do list like dry-cleaning.
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"Now when I found myself unexpectedly in the mood, my thoughts turned to 'Won't it be nice when my boyfriend gets home…' instead of 'Where the hell did I put that Hitachi Magic wand?'"
Becoming a nuisance
She explained when she was turned on, she ended up 'getting a little desperate' which was exacerbated when he 'always in the mood to act as a member of my personal stud farm'.
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She called it 'freaking frustrating' if she couldn’t use him to relieve herself and said that ‘dignity flies out the window when you're desperate to get down.’
Better sex life
Surprisingly, not masturbating had a great affect on her sex life.
The sexpert shared: "Because I was hornier, I was genuinely excited from the get-go during partner sex, instead of taking my usual 20 minutes to warm up and decide this was more fun than watching Project Runway after all.
"Pre-masturbation ban, I frequently took over the controls to climax, but strict adherence to the letter of the law meant I was now had to relax and leave that shizz to my man.
"And while I used to have some occasional trouble getting off, now I finished quickly and easily."
Even though she enjoyed masturbating, she agreed that the ban 'was the kickstart her relationship needed' as it opened up the option to have a 'shared experience'.
Would you ever try it?
Topics: Sex and Relationships
Britt Jones