A content creator who deliberately put himself through a week-long behavioral experiment around masturbation has opened up about what he uncovered — and how alarmingly fast a routine habit can begin sliding toward something harder to control.
Masturbation — a practice Gen Z has taken to calling “gooning” — is something the vast majority of people engage in, yet almost nobody talks about candidly. How often someone does it differs from person to person, and there is no single correct frequency, provided it stays within boundaries that do not chip away at daily functioning or emotional health.
YouTube creator Chris Ivan, who posts under the name CITV, approached the experiment with a clear purpose: not for shock value or bragging rights, but to personally document how effortlessly excessive self-pleasure can creep toward compulsive territory — and to give his audience an honest, unfiltered look at what that descent actually involves.
Gooning refers to a prolonged form of self-pleasure centered on pursuing an intensified state of arousal, commonly described by practitioners as the “goon state.”
Chris was straightforward about why he did it: “I tried ‘gooning’ for 7 days. Not as a joke, not as a flex, but to honestly explore how easy it is to slip into addiction and how quickly something ‘harmless’ can start controlling your thoughts, mood, and habits. This video isn’t here to glorify gooning. It’s here to show the real dangers, the mental pull, the excuses your brain makes, and what it actually took for me to stop.”
This was not unfamiliar territory for him. Chris acknowledged that during his teenage years, he was consuming adult content multiple times daily, though he had stepped away from it entirely for a long stretch before the experiment — leaving him, by his own description, “insanely sensitive to it.”
From his perspective: “There is not a single positive outcome that can come from watching porn or gooning consistently” — though it bears mentioning that clinical and research communities hold more nuanced positions on this, with outcomes varying considerably depending on the individual’s mental health background, personal history, and patterns of use.
When the first day wrapped up, Chris described a noticeable drain on his energy — a feeling that his vitality had been hollowed out — alongside fatigue, irritability, and an almost immediate pull back toward the same stimulation. He recognized this loop as consistent with early-stage addictive behavior.
Day two saw his sharpness noticeably dull. Doubt was already creeping in: “There’s a temptation to view the content and then in the back of your head, you know, it’s like, ‘Hey, I probably shouldn’t.’ But you still do. I just feel so guilty. I hate this for myself because I know it’s just not healthy.”
By the third day, the difficulty had shifted inward. It was less about the physical urge and more about the weight of guilt he was carrying. Ordinary responsibilities started feeling burdensome, and his mental bandwidth was increasingly consumed by the experiment itself. Giving in no longer brought any particular satisfaction — it simply restored a baseline feeling of normalcy, which Chris identified as a telling sign that tolerance had already begun forming.
As the week closed out, Chris was visibly more reactive to minor frustrations, emotionally muted, and stripped of his usual drive. Returning to reflect on the experience a month later, he described the contrast in his overall quality of life as striking — a world apart from how he had felt during those seven days.
The lesson Chris draws from his experience is not that masturbation carries inherent harm — the broader health community generally considers it a normal, healthy aspect of human sexuality when it remains moderate. What his experiment does illustrate, however, is that any repeated behavior, once it starts reshaping mood, concentration, and daily motivation, is worth taking an honest look at.
Note: This article documents the personal experience of a single individual and should not be treated as medical or psychological guidance. If you find that your relationship with pornography or self-pleasure feels compulsive or is causing distress, reaching out to a licensed therapist or counselor is a sound first step.
For those dealing with compulsive sexual behavior or problematic pornography use, the Society for the Advancement of Sexual Health (SASH) at sash.net provides resources and connections to qualified professionals.
Source: Chris Ivan / CITV, YouTube
Featured image : Chris Ivan / CITV, YouTube
