Dangers of Masturbation on Dopamine

This is a post I copied from a different forum. I find it very informative. Hopefully it will help someone just like it helped me.
For years I never understood why I lacked the motivation and self discipline of others. Was something wrong with my moral fiber? Recently after doing some reading its starting to make more sense...
Ive been a compulsive masturbator...and had severe anxiety, since the onset of puberty. Sometimes I would masturbate 20 times a day. All day at school, all day at work, even on dates with girls Id just look forward to getting home as soon as possible so that I could masturbate. I didn't even bother pursuing girls anymore because they couldn't get me off as well as I could and I didn't have to have a personality of any sort to score with myself.
In addition to being a compulsive masturbator I've also been a compulsive drug user since about puberty. Between the two I think I pretty much killed my drive in life, and did so by my own doing only seeking immediate gratification.
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The problem with too much If you begin looking forward to getting home only to play with yourself all night long, then maybe masturbating is not so good for you. After all, the fact that you're looking forward to basically sleeping with yourself is stopping you from meeting other people, namely women.
That's right; and even if you do go out with the boys on Friday night (I'm referring to your friends, not your testicles), you won't feel inclined to approach all the beautiful women. Why?
Well 1) your testosterone levels are lower so you're more serene and not very inclined to approach women and 2) you know that you'll be home alone in about three hours so you can stroke and choke your penis at will. Why are you doing it? Even if you are in a relationship, you might masturbate -- and that too is absolutely normal, although your woman might think and feel otherwise. But do you even know why you masturbate if you have a woman who's ready, willing and able in your bed?
Believe it or not, sometimes masturbating is less about sexual thoughts and feelings and more about anxiety. Many men, when they're feeling stressed about work or home life, tend to masturbate as a way to relieve the tension and anxiety.
Now don't get me wrong; of course masturbation is also about sexual frustration. If your woman is not giving it to you enough or not the way you like it, then masturbation is one way to relieve the pent-up sexual aggression trapped inside of you.
Read more: http://www.askmen.com/dating/love_tip_60/92_love_tip.html#ixzz1za0iZQpx
This article below discusses more on the science of it:
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Has anyone reading this noticed a correlation between giving up porn and reduced social anxiety?
Due to a search engine coincidence, I have been listening to the agonies and ecstasies of recovering porn addicts for several years. Over and over, a common pattern appears: As users manage to abstain from porn and cut way back on masturbation, their desire to connect with others surges. So does their confidence, their ability to look others in the eye, their sense of humor, their perception of their "manliness," their concentration, their optimism, their judgment, their attractiveness to potential mates, and so forth. Even those formerly suffering from social anxiety are more often than not emboldened to explore new avenues for social contact: smiling and joking with work colleagues, online dating, meditation groups, nightspots, and so forth. In some cases it takes months, but often the shift is so rapid that it catches them by surprise. (I'm not implying that social anxiety is solely due to porn use, or that extroversion is a sign of its absence. I'm merely wondering whether, for some, more careful management of sexual desire might be surprisingly beneficial.)
In Addiction as an Attachment Disorder, Philip J. Flores makes the point that one can't attach in a normal, or even therapeutic, relationship while one is attached to an addiction. By the same token, the best support for avoiding relapse is solid relationships with others—and the ability to form them at will.
Why might a porn addict be obliged to address his compulsion in order to form, or restore, real relationships? Psychiatrist Norman Doidge suggests that the intense stimuli (high dopamine) of today's porn hijacks and rewires "brain real estate" that would otherwise be devoted to making social ties rewarding. (The Brain That Changes Itself, p. 109) Actual people become less rewarding; fake people become far more enticing. In this case, size does matter, namely, the amount of brain that lights up. Ceasing the compulsive behavior frees the brain to restore its normal priorities.
Interestingly, people whose habits cause continuous over-stimulation of their reward circuitry with high dopamine—drug users, for example—often feel anxious or depressed the rest of the time. This is largely due to abnormally low dopamine (or low sensitivity to dopamine due to a decline in D2 receptors) between the highs. Rats that have been bingeing on sugar show signs of anxiety and brain changes (decreased dopamine). And mice exposed to protracted elevated dopamine later behaved like they were depressed in response to stress. When one is anxious or depressed, socializing can feel like too much of an effort.
Several studies show that social anxiety is associated with low dopamine or decreased sensitivity. Also see this study about the link between dopamine instability and social anxiety.
All addictions cause a decline in dopamine (D2) receptors, which is a major aspect of desensitization.
• First question: What's one primary biological difference between dominant and submissive primates? Dominant primates have higher levels of dopamine D2 receptors. They were not born with higher levels of D2 receptors, rather "becoming" a dominant male caused the increase.
• Inducing addiction in these same primates resulted in the same low levels of D2 receptors in all the males
• Second question: During rebooting, are reported increases in confidence, sociability, and motivation related to regaining dopamine D2 receptor levels?
Is excessive masturbation to Internet porn leading to social anxiety in some individuals?
Dopamine surges during sexual arousal and drops after climax. Do some people masturbate so frequently that their reward circuitry is unable to return to homeostasis between orgasms? Are they suffering from chronically low dopamine (or low response to dopamine)—making social anxiety more likely? It's important to realize that masturbation frequencies in modern Western society may have little resemblance to our hunter-gatherer ancestors (see WEIRD Masturbation Habits).
If not masturbation, then heavy porn use can certainly lead to a decline in dopamine and dopamine receptors in some brains. All addictions, including behavioral addictions such as pathological gambling and Internet gaming, cause a measurable decline in dopamine signaling. If you have a porn addiction, you have what we call a numbed pleasure response or desensitization, which means low dopamine signalling. (See: Porn Then and Now: Welcome to Brain Training and Intoxicating Behaviors: 300 Vaginas = A Lot of Dopamine to understand the mechanisms.)
Once the brain becomes less sensitive to dopamine, it "becomes less sensitive to natural reinforcers" such as the "pleasure of seeing a friend, watching a movie, or the curiosity that drives exploration." —Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse
Hardcore, ever-novel Internet porn is mightily compelling—for the same reason as crack and Krispy Kreme donuts. These stimuli are like nothing our ancestors' brains had to cope with as humans evolved. Yet the primitive limbic system mistakes them for things so "valuable" that it urges us to seek more and more of them—even when they cause hangovers and withdrawal symptoms.
As with drugs and alcohol, "too much" is different for everyone. However, for some, the vulnerability of the brain's reward circuitry in combination with Internet porn means that pursuit of sexual stimulation has become compulsive pursuit of sexual stimulation. That is a problem because compulsions, remember, get in the way of forming rewarding relationships. In short, it may be that balanced masturbation habits are more important for our psychological health than generally recognized.
Source: https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/16474569