Pickup over time in my own case lead to not actually feeling happy or fulfilled even after having success (and that was after ditching pickup, all the techniques, terminology, and just talking to girls in a sort of naive I don't know what I am even doing manner) but it actually reminds me of addiction or cycles that people with OCD go through.

The experiences of my two best friends who were deep into pickup are very similar. First, even in relationships now, it's hard for us to actually let go of this mindset when we're constantly scanning every girl on the street, which makes us anxious. Second, as we do constantly scan them, we cannot stop thinking about where we are "on the market", as we got so accustomed to always checking which girl checks us, which girls we like and it causes us a lot of anxiety - hence why I believe a lot of pickup "gurus" are unable of relationships and thus their relationship always end. Third of all, we are unable to just walk down the street enjoying the sun, the present moment, because we always obsess about the girls around, we feel shitty if we don't approach (but we have girlfriends now) and we are always in this weird mode where it's all about women when we are outside. It's annoying.

I work as a psychotherapist and pickup really reminds me of people that I see who go through addiction, borderline disorders, OCD. It's like this obsession oh, I gotta have these women followed by a ritual/compulsion where you try to act out on that anxiety. Similar to addictions, I feel a lot of "Craving" when I don't have women when I don't approach and it makes me terribly anxious. In my eyes, if one wants to successfully make it so that they can't have a family one day and in fact be sociopathic enough that they won't even care, pickup is a good choice. What scares me is that there are no "adverse effects" talked about when you first get into this, it's all positive, shiny, ultimate man's potential, that will give you so ahead in life talk. But the reality is different.

I am at the point where it's very hard for me to be in a relationship now. Btw I did pick up for 10 years ever since I was 14 years old. I did it for almost as long as many of the so-called "advanced" in the industry. I think these adverse effects should be also discussed. And no, I am not the "this is offensive, let's make sure everyone's safe or let's ban it!" guy. But there are adverse effects to this, dark sides of it, that none of the people who sell pickup talk about, because they don't want to spoil their own industry.

To conclude, I believe that every normal man has some natural level of craving for other women even when they are in a relationship, of course, they do, that's our nature. But the level of craving me and my friends experience seems to be unnatural. When I am around guys who never did pickup they don't have such extreme cravings and it doesn't cause them anxiety. They may think "Wow, she's hot", but they won't think "and therefore I should engage with her somehow, make her interested in me, make her be into me, attract her, I should approach her, I need to have her", etc. They just don't care and often times they are guys who pickup jargon would name "naturals".

Have someone else experienced this too?