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PAWS / sexual exhaustion - 1.5 years.

Discussion in 'Rebooting - Porn Addiction Recovery' started by saneagain, May 29, 2018.

  1. jorg78

    jorg78 Fapstronaut

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    I started to have PAWS after 14 days and I have been having PAWS on and off the majority of the the first year. Of 365 days with of NoFap, I was out of the flatline for a total of maybe 2-3 weeks in 1 year. I recently got in to another flatline and this time it's horrible..
     
    Freeddom_Taker likes this.
  2. Westsidejimmy

    Westsidejimmy Fapstronaut

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    Yep,
    I'm about 100 days in and still having paws, but the severity is much less and I can totally deal with the anxiety using a bit of CBD.
    Besides the B6 I'm also taking 400mg of magnesium at night before bed. It relaxes muscles and I have been sleeping way better.
     
    Freeddom_Taker and im_broken like this.
  3. Guys any update?
    Poor me reading your Paws stories similar to mine. Based on the amount of days y'all gone and still experiencing these intense withdrawals, now I start asking myself I have a long road to go. I have reached multiple 30 and 60 days streaks with 1 relapse each and still experience though PAWS the further I've gone to.

    The question I'm asking is how long somebody has to be addicted and how long will it take to start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel?
     
  4. Ezpz

    Ezpz Fapstronaut

    Im more than 200 days in at the moment. Still in heavy PAWS symptoms, also experiencing almost all the symptoms there are. Heavy depression some days and heavy anxiety. Reading posts like these keep me going that there is hope and light at the end of the tunnel. My will power is constantly shattered so im finding it hard to stick to anything at all, but im doing my best.

    Having said that there is 1 thing after all my time on this journey so far that helps with all of my symptoms, the only problem for me is having the will power to stick with it. That thing is staying offline and when i manage to do it i do start feeling better, happier, less anxious and depressed. But i find this thing so hard to stick to.

    At this point there is nothing more i can do, i'm trying to keep the healthy habits up, eat the right foods but ultimately none of these things really help to alleviate symptoms. It just comes down to waiting. Every day in the morning i tell myself 'keep going and things will get better'
     
  5. Wario32

    Wario32 Fapstronaut
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    This scaresssss me so much man. I think I'm going through paws. I been doing NoFap for a while now. My highest streak is 82 days. I ve been getting bad anxiety and brain fog all of sudden. It sucks, I have a new job where I want to succeed but I feel so bloody stressed. I'm hoping stuff get better soon
     
    Freeddom_Taker and BeanBurrito like this.
  6. jorg78

    jorg78 Fapstronaut

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    I'm 419 days in. Slowly, it's getting better. Hopefully this was the last flatline stage..

    My libido is starting to get back.
     
    Freeddom_Taker, Ezpz, Wario32 and 2 others like this.
  7. I'm currently going through the worst insomnia wave this month and last I have ever been through, nothing helps I just have to ride it out. But on the plus side have felt libido for very brief periods this month, something that has been suppressed for many years due to PMO'ing.
     
  8. Ezpz

    Ezpz Fapstronaut

    Have you experimented with no internet/screens for a while? curious to know if it helped you. I had a month of insomnia around the 3 month mark of my reboot so i know how horrible it was.

    Huge props for being 371 days in still dealing with symptoms, its tough man.
     
  9. Yea I have done everything from melatonin to meditation, Wim Hof breathing method to chamomile tea.. you fucking name it! The mind is just too wired sometimes and legs feel they have a tinge of heat and restlessness. I had an episode a week or so ago with like 2 hour sleep each night for three days. I went out like a baby last night but the night before last woke up early and couldn’t get back to bed.

    But, my erections are returning and a spark of libido is showing up. I woke up with a throbbing erection today, so I’m happy about that. It’s honestly been ages since that’s happened.
     
  10. Mattew

    Mattew Fapstronaut

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    I always had leg restlessness when pmoing and during withdrawals. Do you also have back pain in the lower back?
     
  11. Ezpz

    Ezpz Fapstronaut

    Yep same here, tried everything and nothing really works that well. It feels like over the past 200 days what ever i did health wise to improve my symptoms made no difference at all. Maybe it did but hard to tell. Im just coming out of a horrible few days of depression. Hard to keep up the habits when you cant get out of bed :emoji_smirk:

    That's good too hear your libido is coming back! I hope it is there to stay this time.
     
  12. Try looking into Iboga / ibogaine
     
  13. Mattew

    Mattew Fapstronaut

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    Did you try that?
     
  14. I will be taking it in the near future. You can do it for 450 euros here in Holland. It resets als the receptors involved with addiction. Dopamine, kappa opioid, mu opioid. It releases high amounts of glial cell line derived neurotrophic factor in the ventral tegmental area and repairs dopaminergic neurons. In the nucleus accumbens it releases a lot of brain derived neurotrophic factor and repairs and rewires the reward circuit. It cures PAWS and stops cravings.
     
    AspiringVitality likes this.
  15. The porn addiction PAWS is just like DAWS (dopamine agonist withdrawal syndrome)
    People trying to quit their dopamine agonist or L-dopa will get severe withdrawal symptoms and some for years and become protracted. They will all eventually heal at some point. This withdrawal we are going through is just the same as DAWS. Maybe even more severe because our sexual circuits and sex organs are also hijacked by porn.
     
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  16. Mattew

    Mattew Fapstronaut

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    I wanted to try ayahuasca time ago, but i didn't have the courage.
     
  17. Ezpz

    Ezpz Fapstronaut

    There is little research i could find on the drug, also no really concrete evidence suggesting it helps (only a small amount of people) long term.

    I would be very careful with trying this as who knows what effects it could have on your brain long term.
     
  18. Casanerd20

    Casanerd20 Fapstronaut

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    Yes exactly. Based on my research that’s the connection I made. It also really resembles benzo withdrawal. Your whole brain and nervous system are going haywire but it’s good to know that with time your body starts adjusting back. It might take a while but it’ll happen. I think In my case it’s better I don’t take medication. I don’t want to substitute one addiction for another plus I think introducing something else to change brain chemistry isn’t a good idea. The intense anxiety is a result of little to no GABA receptors which is what benzos uptake or they tie to those receptors to increase and create the relaxing feeling. high stress hormones are then released a lot in the beginning which is completely normal but for severe cases it’s gonna be hell for a while. I know it’s withdrawal for me cus it all came so fast 8 days after I quit. I didn’t know what it was at first and was trying to fight it so hard until I learned what was happening to me and now know with time it will get better. I was a severe case and the past year before I quit I was spending 4 hours on porn every single day. One hour in the afternoon and about 3 hour edging sessions at night. If only I knew what I was doing to myself.
     
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  19. jorg78

    jorg78 Fapstronaut

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    Did your libido / erections come back? Or did you jump start your libido somehow?
     
  20. A lot of drug/medication withdrawal symptoms resemble eachother. SSRI's, opioids, benzos, NMDA antagonists, cannabinoids, gabapentinoids, gaba b agonists and dopaminergics share the same symptoms. But they all have their own unique feelings, symptoms and mechanisms. During our withdrawal we have decreased dopamine projection from the ventral tegmental area to the nucleus accumbens and prefrontal cortex, have decreased dopamine receptor expression, have increased dynorphins and dynorphin receptors (kappa opioid) that decrease dopamine even more, I hypothesize that we have increased dopamine transporters that suck up dopamine out of the synaps back into the presynaptic neuron. So we have 4 x an antidopaminergic action going on. We are in a hypodopaminergic state. On top of that our amygdala is overactive and signals our hypothalamus (CRF)->pituitary (ACTH)->adrenals to pump out stresshormones (cortisol, noradrenaline) Our GABA levels also drop making us even more anxious. If one neurotransmitter system is out of whack, a lot more interconnected systems follow. This is setting up a chain reaction of neurotransmitter changes that causes weird symptoms. Benzo withdrawal works a little different, it's because of downregulated GABA receptors, changes in GABA-A receptor conformation (epigenetic changes of the genetic expression of the ionotropic GABA-A receptor (uncoupling alpha 1,2,3,5 subunits and upregulating them with alpha 4) upregulation of NMDA and AMPA receptors. This also screws the entire neurotransmitter system balance. And activates the stress circuits in the brain. This causes the weird symptoms and insane anxiety.
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2020
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