For adults 18+. This page is general information, not medical advice or a diagnosis.

The NoFap flatline

Last reviewed November 12, 2026. About 4 min to read. How these pages are written.

"Flatline" is a term from online recovery communities. It describes a period after quitting porn when sex drive drops, erections are less frequent, and mood feels flat. It is not a medical term. One study has recorded how often people on a recovery forum mention it. None has measured how long it lasts.

What the one study found

Researchers read 104 journals that men kept on a "rebooting" forum while they tried to stay off porn. Most of them were also avoiding masturbation ^[1].

• Close to one third of the men wrote that their sexual desire went down during abstinence when they had expected it to go up. They called this the flatline, meaning a marked drop in libido or a loss of it.
• For some, the hard part was not knowing when desire would come back.
• The count is a minimum. Nobody was asked about it, so the study only caught the men who chose to write about it.

The study could not show what causes the drop, and it had no comparison group of men who kept watching.

Two other sources mention it:

• In a survey of Polish university students, 17.3% of those who had tried to give up porn recalled a drop in sex drive during the attempt. That is a memory of a past attempt, and most of the students were women ^[3].
• A 2026 review of the research notes that some people recovering from problematic porn use report a prolonged drop in libido, called flatlining, and says it remains uncertain how widely this happens ^[4].

Flatline symptoms people describe

• Little or no sex drive.
• Fewer spontaneous or morning erections.
• Low energy and a flat mood.
• Worry that something is broken. This is usually the worst part.

How long does the flatline last?

Nobody has measured this. The journal study did not record how long it went on for anyone ^[1]. Forum accounts vary widely, and about two thirds of the men in that study never mentioned one.

Is the flatline permanent?

There is no evidence either way: no study has followed men through a flatline to see how it ends. If low sex drive or erection problems persist, do not wait for it to pass on its own: see a doctor, because the cause may be something else.

The opposite also happens

The same journals describe men for whom avoiding all sexual activity built up desire and made cravings for porn stronger, and others who got strong cravings after sex or masturbation, which forum members call the "chaser effect" ^[1]. A flatline is one pattern people report. It is not a stage everyone goes through.

Clearstretch is also building a step-by-step plan for this. What it covers and what it costs.

Two common mistakes

1. "Testing" with porn to check that things still work. On forums this is a commonly described route back into the habit.
2. Assuming every drop in sex drive is a flatline. Erection problems and low desire have many possible causes: heart and blood-vessel disease, diabetes, low testosterone, some medicines, and also anxiety, depression and stress ^[2]. Medicines matter here: in one treatment trial, about a third of the men given medication (mostly SSRI antidepressants) reported lower sexual desire as a side effect ^[6].

Does sexual function come back?

In the journal study, 42 men reported erection difficulties at the start, and half of them (21) reported at least some improvement after a period off porn ^[1]. That is self-report with no comparison group, so it does not show that quitting was the cause, and it says nothing about how long it took.

What goes with erection problems in young men

A web survey of 3,419 men aged 18 to 35 looked at this, though not at quitting ^[5].

• Time spent on porn each week, grouped into four bands, was not clearly linked to erection problems. How often men masturbated was not linked either.
• A higher score for problematic use was linked: 12.9% of men in the lowest quarter of scores had erection problems, against 34.5% in the highest quarter.
• So were being single or in a new relationship, and feeling pressure to perform.
• Most men who had erection problems with a partner (61.4%) had none when masturbating with porn.

The authors say this does not show that porn causes erection problems, and that erection problems may lead men to use more porn. Men with sexual problems may also have been more likely to answer the survey ^[5].

When to see a doctor

• Low sex drive or erection problems persist.
• You have other symptoms, such as tiredness that does not lift, low mood, or chest pain.
• You are worried. That is reason enough, and a check-up answers the question faster than a forum can.

See also: Porn withdrawal symptoms and how long recovery takes

Sources

1. Fernandez, Kuss & Griffiths (2021), Archives of Sexual Behavior 50, 711–728: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7889567
2. NIDDK, "Symptoms & Causes of Erectile Dysfunction": https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/urologic-diseases/erectile-dysfunction/symptoms-causes
3. Dwulit & Rzymski (2019), International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16(10), 1861: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6571756/
4. Ince et al. (2026), Journal of Behavioral Addictions 15(1), 32–98: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13132360/
5. Jacobs et al. (2021), JMIR Public Health and Surveillance 7(10), e32542: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8569536/
6. Scanavino et al. (2023), Journal of Behavioral Addictions 12(1), 261–277: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10260211/