Does masturbation decrease confidence?

@Bartolo99, FWIW, about 8 years ago there was an article in the New Scientist, on a topic similar. I am writing this from memory. It found that students having full intercourse (internal cream pie) were more confident the next day in presenting to a group regardless of gender. I think the finding was that protected sex or masturbation did not result in the same confidence. Now my memory may be selective and flawed. It does partially respond to your question.
It was not dealing with frequency of sensible release. I would think your time scale would only have a marginal effect if at all. If you are not partnered it is difficult to see if there would any difference in confidence. I do feel there might be something in the study

Masturbating to orgasm makes you feel less horny afterwards. This is because your testosterone levels drops for a while. Testosterone increases confidence, aggression and more.

But Masturbation leads to an increase in dopamine and a drop of Testosterone. Sex though leads to a small rise in testosterone and Oxytocin. So, make with that as you will.

There are many things besides sex that lead to an increase in testosterone like jogging or weightlifting even watching porn is meant to raise your testosterone level, so why masturbation, i.e. jerking off(a type of exertion that usually raises test. levels) and watching porn would lower test.
And sex raises testosterone regardless if it's a shitty fuck and masturbation lowers regardless if it was multiorgasmic and better than sex?
Something not quite right about that statement

I wonder if that works for women as well. I know I'm in for a nice relaxed few days after we have sex, then it's back to nagging and stress. If we had sex every day my married life would be perfect.

There must also be some psychology to this masturbation thing. Personally I used to need an ejaculation daily (not any more of course) and felt really frustrated if I didn't get it and was actually quite grumpy if I went without. Certainly sex makes me feel super confident the next day.

@smudgefish:confidence has its purpose but it also has pitfalls like complacency and hubris, but you're right you won't see men with little experience with women with high confidence and full of themselves.
Besides @ Bartolo99 if you are virgin at 33 I doubt if you'll have confidence ever again, regardless...

My girlfriend would have the confidence of a gnat if that were true, she has multiple orgasms on demand, her record being 26 in a row. Doesn't effect her in the slightest (well, in a negative way anyways)

It doesn't decrese confidence (not if you masturbate 3-4 times a day, everyday), but it certainly does lower testosterone levels, as well as overall body/mental energy (at least for me). Anytime I masturbate, I find that I always need at least 4 days to fully recover. No matter what. It does always make me feel very tired, "sluggish", grodgy and less concentrated, the very first 2 days after. Even though I masturbate every once a week.Different story if I masturbate by giving also my prostate a good workout, as well. I always feel "fresh", regenerated and my brain is always on the "very alert" side, and I absolutely don't need any "recovery time" at all, even if I blow a huge load after a 2 hour session. I feel exhausted, yes. But in a very good way. Same thing applies to sex.
As far as confidence goes, if you don't/or never believed in yourself, and in your own potentials, you can't expect others to believe in you. And this "rule of nature" not only applies to sex, but to other things in life as well.

the way I see it is if you masturbate too much and are in the presence of women then you might not have the drive and desire to actually interact with them because its nerve racking and if you fail well you can just go home and masturbate. But if you havent masturbated in a while and are pumped up and horny, well you might be more inclined to strike up a conversation. So yeah I can see how your horniness can affect situations like that.

As far as confidence goes, if you don't/or never believed in yourself, and in your own potentials, you can't expect others to believe in you. And this "rule of nature" not only applies to sex, but to other things in life as well.

You're confusing the social confidence from sex with overall confidence. A rapper for example has the social confidence from lots of sex, it's a different type of confidence from confidence in yourself and abilities(some would even argue that a rapper is overcompensating for a low self worth). And again not everybody in a relationship gets confidence from it, but it is definitely true that if Bartolo99 has had a similar experience to me in my past that despite what you think about yourself, it does do something to your (social) confidence when women wouldn't give you a chance if your life depended on it.
This would destroy whatever confidence you still had from your youth.
It's what Albert Schweitzer talks about when he says:"The tragedy of life is what dies within a man before his physical death"

Don't worry about masturbation at this point in your life, the damage is already done, besides not having any confidence makes it much easier to stay single coz women won't give you a second glance anyhow 😉

@Ehm to me is the same. My parents always taught me that.If someone never really believed in himself, never spoke to or was enaged to any woman in its life, ever, he can't expect to change his character/personality, from day to day.
I'm a very outgoing person, very funny, and a good listener, as well. Never had problems approaching girls, or ask them out, ever. But I chose to stay single, anyway, because, at this point of my life, I would like to take some time to explore new things (not sexual, of course), and would also like to create something I always wanted to create, but never really had the actual time to do it. If someday I will have the fortune to meet a nice lady with some brains, I might consider doing something with her. But for the time being, i'm happy where I am with my life, now.
I had the fortune to meet a very nice girl, 6 years ago, and was enaged to her for almost 4 years. It ended because, like anything in life, it can't always be all fun and games.
But from that relationship, I learned that some women, who have some brains, not only count sex confidence, or put it at the top of their own "priorities list", when seeking a man. But they also count other aspects of someone's personality, as well. At least those who are not just after the $$$.
For the rest, whether I masturbate or not, there are some girls who try to approach me, when i'm walking in the park, or in some other contest/situation. But judging by their looks and outfits, and the way they move and talk, I don't find them "mentally attractive", like the type of girl/woman I would like to meet.
I get turned on by intelligence, loyalty and profound thoughts, mostly. If someone doesn't have any of these things, it's highly unlikely that I will jump at them or even considerate them, even for a 1-night stand.

@Staley89_IT The difference is you met someone at a critical point in your life and development if you hadn't met someone then take it from me that this would have radically effected your confidence despite all the home grown confidence your parents gave you. Besides most people with lousy parents actually have the self confidence women find attractive(then often become wife beaters)
Maybe we mean the same, perhaps self esteem and self confidence are synonyms to you, but confidence to me is largely dependent on social interaction with people outside the family. So if you're pestered, women don't give you the time of day, you're going to have low confidence and yet, if your parents gave you love etc still have a high self esteem.
A person with high self esteem won't feel the need to boast, the person with low self esteem might and in so doing become popular with the girls and because of this have high status in the group, which is what confidence is really about

People get cause and effect mixed up. In my opinion masturbating generally isn't the cause of one's insecurity and depression, it's the effect of it. (The testosterone is definitely true though.)

Similar case can be said for dating. Doing it for self-esteem is rarely a good idea, and desperation is one of the faster ways to fail at getting a woman.

I do feel when I've ejaculated less confident. I always felt it, not sure why. When I have sex though I do not feel it, quite the opposite actually, especially from a bj.

@Bartolo99, FWIW, about 8 years ago there was an article in the New Scientist, on a topic similar. I am writing this from memory. It found that students having full intercourse (internal cream pie) were more confident the next day in presenting to a group regardless of gender. I think the finding was that protected sex or masturbation did not result in the same confidence. Now my memory may be selective and flawed. It does partially respond to your question.
It was not dealing with frequency of sensible release. I would think your time scale would only have a marginal effect if at all. If you are not partnered it is difficult to see if there would any difference in confidence. I do feel there might be something in the study

Internal cream pie is actually the most artificial means of expressing sexuality, of those you mentioned, considering the highly artificial means required to make it possible.

I guess that's just a divergent thought. But it's a true one, FWIW 😛

@smudgefish:confidence has its purpose but it also has pitfalls like complacency and hubris, but you're right you won't see men with little experience with women with high confidence and full of themselves.
Besides @ Bartolo99 if you are virgin at 33 I doubt if you'll have confidence ever again, regardless...

Flagged, I'm going to ask others to flag this post as well. It's that button right next to "quote"

People get cause and effect mixed up. In my opinion masturbating generally isn't the cause of one's insecurity and depression, it's the effect of it.

Nonsense. People both in and out of relationships will masturbate.

You don't get social confidence from sex. Either say something positive or just stay out of my threads, please.

@smudgefish:confidence has its purpose but it also has pitfalls like complacency and hubris, but you're right you won't see men with little experience with women with high confidence and full of themselves.
Besides @ Bartolo99 if you are virgin at 33 I doubt if you'll have confidence ever again, regardless...

Flagged, I'm going to ask others to flag this post as well. It's that button right next to "quote"

I've seen people in their late twenties lose their virginity and get confidence, but at 33? Forget it!
Anyway just because you're socially fucked doesn't mean you can't have high self esteem and that's ultimately more important

@Bartolo99 just ignore him.

I feel that the original post had merit. Not sure what happened seems to have gone into a wobbly.

In my experience I found that full sex, as I mentioned, made me feel more complete therefore more confident. The same seems to go for my wife. I think there is a reason but I just don't want to post it.
My comments are. a bit unfair in the context of someone not in that situation. So @Bartolo99 how does M affect your general confidence after and in the days between. I am interested as I am trying to remember how I felt.

@Bartolo99 just ignore him.

I'm speaking from personal experience if my good intentions warrant a flagging from someone who at least should know the truth of this statement. Being a virgin isn't a badge of honour if you are male, it's a stigma. It's not that masturbation lowers confidence or that sex increases it...the effects of this social stigma do that.
But yeah, just ignore me and listen to people like smudgefish who can't even begin to imagine what it's like, do what you like I can't empathize with you anymore

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@ smudgefish You and Bartolo99 should be apologising to me if you had been a half decent individual that's what you would have done instead of all this feigned sincerity and your pathetic attempt at trying to vilify me.
Facts are however that nobody is more qualified than I am to respond to this thread, I lost my virginity in my early thirties before 33 and I possibly even more than Bartolo99 know what it's like.
Again virginity isn't a badge of honour like it is for women. Not only does it cause internal pain, depression, lack of confidence you're also confronted with external pressures. Losing friends because of it, people making you feel worthless, general ridicule.
Now imagine this every single day from your teens thru to your twenties. These are the formative years, when you should be having your first experiences, love and be loved. Do you know what it's like to miss out on that? Do you know what it's like to be so depressed because of this lack that you're feeling suicidal? And besides this internal pain being pestered as well?
Possibly Bartolo99 hasn't had it as bad, possibly his virginity was even of his own choosing, but even then....it's about stages in development, getting confidence from a relationship/sex in your thirties is too late in your development for it to make any difference whatsoever.

Anyway don't mind the huge elephant in the room and continue the discussion if masturbation lowers confidence

@bartolo99, I found an interesting article on confidence in New Scientist. I could not copy the web reference but extracted part of the text that refers to a video talk. It is not directly on your topic but it may be pointer, in as much as how we hold our body after Masturbation.

Confidence is something we tend to regard as coming from within, but Bargh, a social psychologist, is one of many researching how subtle influences – from music to how we walk – can affect it. It's an idea that has grabbed the public imagination: a lecture by Amy Cuddy of the Harvard Business School, entitled "Your body language shapes who you are", is the second most watched TED talk ever, with over 32 million views and counting. Cuddy recommends striking superhero-style "power poses" to buoy self-assurance in advance of high-stakes situations: her research suggests that doing this can improve performance significantly.

Ehm, I have never seen someone besides you write such pointlessly demeaning, nonsensical balderdash. You seem to take sadistic joy in bringing others down into your nihilistic "haven" or whatever you've built for yourself.

Isvara at least is a realist... he's told me things can and will improve should I put in the effort.

Go ahead and enjoy your nihilistic belief system. Your posts are great evidence of how well it's been working for you.

You know it's quite funny how just a month ago everything was very civilized in this place. I could say anything I wanted and expect I wouldn't get laughed at. That's all changed. It's due to one person, and one person alone. If nothing else, I ask that you please don't post in my threads anymore, whether or not you're the only "qualified" person.

@Bartolo99 just ignore him.

There seems to be no ignore function on this site 🙁