Quote:
What is the overall effect of paying for sex on game and social shyness?
There is no "overall effect"--meaning that it depends on where you are, what's going inside your head.
I'll start with my story:
When I was young (high school age), I was way below AFC. I couldn't talk to the HB who wrote me a fawning 5 page letter begging to be my GF; I could do no more than mumble and walk away when she asked me to dance at our graduation party. And in other ways I was one of those guys who from the outside had it going on (looks, co-captain of the football team, "cool crowd" guy-friends), just AA in spades.
After HS I joined the army and was sent to Germany, and in those (long gone) days it was the custom for your platoon to chip in to send the new guy to local eros.
They did, I did, and I can tell you that it was damned anti-climactic.
What I learned from the experience was only that I could "perform"--like most guys that age I'd read so much about problems with "stamina" and ED (can't get it up), that they'd become near phobias. Nope. Knowing this did nothing for my AA, only caused me to switch to other irrational fears.
I have not been with a prostitute since then. But--I have a thing for strippers, and if I go out to a club I'll usually drop $100 or so. I tip enthusiastically and chat up every single girl--also tip and walk away, never pay for a lap dance. I'm basically throwing money in a way that is a DHV, and practicing my game on these girls.
I end up taking a high percentage of them home (over the years).
These girls may not be prostitutes, but they are definitely sex workers, and I am definitely spending money. This affects the rest of my game positively. It's like this: if I can chat up a girl who is naked (or practically so), in a sexually charged SPAM, then a girl at a nightclub or coffee shop is easy pickings. (Though the game is somewhat different.)
Back to paying for it directly: I can think of a couple of situations where it won't hurt and might do some good:
* You have big performance anxiety
* You have a long dry spell (or extra-prolonged virginity)
* You want to try something sexually experimental
When I think it would harm most guys' game:
* If you think of it as an alternative to the hunt/chase
* If you spend your emotional energy on it (planning, anticipating, remembering)
* If you already have low self-esteem and think it's "bad"
* You've already been addicted to porn/masturbation
The last two are game killers. I have, by the way, dated prostitutes. I like sex-workers in general--though there's the same variation you find in the rest of the population--and there's the bonus of many of them are fierce about not being paid for when they are not working, to create a barrier between personal and professional.