P.A.W.S. - what are they, cure, duration

Well, turns out thats what this forum is all about, mate

To quit fcking ourselves

 

And have those particular symptoms gone away for you after some time or are they still there nonstop?

 

They have been stabilizing and, to a degree, lessened. But I have been relapsing in the previous year and some streaks in between. Now on a 16 day streak again and the withdrawals are kicking in like a MF again.

Just because we may have been gaining a lot of knowledge on these subjects doesn't make us saints, unfortunately. It still is a battle uphill on almost all fronts for me.
And this addiction is.. tough.

 

@Tywin Lannister can you list your streaks and history so far? Im intrigued to understand your progression. Did you ever fully heal? do you think you are back to the beginning again - you state you are going through withdrawal again

 

bro.. it's like my whole being has been disintegrating and I'm literally being built again
the catabolic stage that you experience in a flatline (at least I did) is no joke, you feel all your muscles burning and being broken down

 

@Freeddom_Taker How are you feeling after your relapse after 16 months? Any severe withdrawals come back?

I have let myself go since October and have been relapsing ever since. Even had a binge of three yesterday. However I still feel the same as I did before the initial relapse in October. No debilitating/severe symptoms as of yet. Sleeping fine as well. Memory still the same as it was prior. Not stuttering. No stomach issues. Definitely not in the constant fight or flight mode where sound sensitivity and light sensitivity increases. No head pressure whatsoever.

None of it.

Which is all really weird as you all know my symptoms were quite extreme, near enough on par as Saneagain.

I’m more looking at the possibility that infact porn and other stressors just lead us to a state of generalised anxiety/chronic stress over time, the symptoms being the most part identical to what a lot of us suffer. There was a point where my fight or flight was so bad I would zone out of conversations and couldn’t listen to anyone or take anything in. However that is getting better.

 

@Big Lebowski did you ever have intense social anxiety and brain tingling? When did they dissapear for you?

I know you've been rebooting for a while so your probably fully healed, but dicing with death going back to porn and binging, what was the motivation to go back?

 

Yes I did but again I think that was due to living in constant fight or flight. Yes brain tingling, brain zaps, head pressure all of it. The head pressure/headaches went after I stopped caffeine for three months. Even drinking it moderately now and relapsing to porn I have not had them return. I have a little bit of social anxiety but that it too be expected living like this for the best part of ten years. I am still social but often find mind is blank or I’m thinking what to say most of the time like analysing to much. Much how I used to be with the racing thought symptom.

Yea I agree. I need to stop again as I am definitely not getting anything productively done and it is a waste of time and energy. I think at around the two year mark I had more expectations about how I should feel and I didn’t do too much else in changing my life around at that point so felt frustrated. However a new decade a new opportunity now. So I hope to be living to the utmost very soon.

 

@Big Lebowski All the severe withdrawals happened to you after you cold turkeyed heavy PMO edging binges for hours per session, and did this for many months right? So there has to be a connection to your past severe PMO use and the increase in symptoms. Just like what happens to hundreds of guys here after we try to quit.

As I as said earlier I got severely addicted to extreme doses of benzos (I abused the shit out of them) and had the worst psychotic hell on earth withdrawal ever. It took 6 months to feel 90% healed. (Other benzo users that got them prescribed by their doctors that only took around 1/20 of my dose and used them for maybe 2 months are still suffering benzo PAWS, still suffer 10 years later)

After being sober for more rhan 2 years, I relapsed for months to extreme doses of research chemical benzos like clonazolam and quit cold turkey again. I expected even worse withdrawal than before. But absolutely nothing happened. Zero symptoms came back.

I would caution you to not get overconfident and go back to full blown PMOing again. I am pretty sure one time it will hit you in the ass once again. Consider yourself 80 or 90% healed and try to keep it this way. 2 years PMO did some massive healing for you, I am sure of it. PMO will mess you the fuck up if you're not on guard. Keep up the good work and stay away from PMO.

 

That's exactly what happened to me since mid 2018. It felt like someone doing surgery in the deepest organ from my body. I may have move on when heal but won't forget the PAWS symptoms.

 

I still have symptoms before or after relapse. However cognitive function has improved a lil bit. Symptoms I'm still experiencing are tremors, shaking, head tingling pressure, lower back dysmorphia, subtle brain fog.

 

Of course. But I had a lot of stress as well on top of porn, ate shit food, smoked cigarettes heavily, drunk a lot of caffeine was slightly overweight, dabbled in MDMA now and again too, hated my choice of career previously all before the two years. I definitely do think PMO did contribute amongst the symptoms though especially binge pmoing.

I find it hard what to believe in these days there’s so much information everywhere about this and that. Hopefully you’re right. I always thought after a prolonged relapse you would go into acute withdrawal and restart said symptoms over again. But like you with Benzos that has not been the case (touch wood) yet.

I’m looking forward to seeing how I feel now with proper recovery and a solid lifestyle change.

 

Honestly the twitching, fluttering and head tingling pressure went away for me after cutting out caffeine. In turn my sleep was better and I could feel refreshed for the most part in the mornings even after a relapse to porn. I’m not getting any nervous system trouble for the time being.

Do you have any unhealthy habits on top of porn?

 

Oh and definitely don’t frequent this forum too much as well I can say from experience coming here too much don’t help either we all have to move beyond this eventually one way or another.

 

Quick reboot question: do accidental exposures affect withdrawals and the reboot in general? (Unwanted email, tv, ads on the street, etc.)

 

I don't have bad habits other than pmo. I don't smoke. I'm an occasional and light drinker whether with alcohol or caffeine.

I'm assuming that my nerves tissues are damaged and they are repairing slowly especially in the lower back.

 

Is it not possible that we just hyper-stressed ourselves/burnt ourselves out with this overtime and caused these symptoms? But kept pmoing regardless? That would explain why I was flatlining for years as I never gave myself a break and how others couldn recover within weeks or months, who probably all had different variable levels of anxiety and so on? I’m open to all ideas and one needs to be open in the early stages of this all as it is all relatively new. It’s very interesting.

 

I was living the same lifestyle. Also used all kinds of herbal supplements, synthetic nootropics (noopept, piracetam etc). Also dwelled in stimulants such as 4fmp, mephedrone, MDMA, 6-APB, methylone, caffeine, phenibut, baclofen, 2cb, benzos, Isomax. (You name it, I used it) tc. Also the opioids oxyxodone, methadone, fentanyl, kratom and sometimes even #4 heroin acetyl ester. I quit the opiates/opioids cold turkey and withdrew cold turkey.

It took about 2 weeks to feel physically and mentally better. While stoping opiates I started binging on porn and after 2 months of PMOing inplace of using opioids as a substitute. Later massive anxiety, sleep loss, social anxiety, brain fog I never experienced before just became appearent.

Then found yourbraininporn and did the challange. That's when the hell of withdrawals hit me with even more severe symptoms that came from short term opioid use. The porn withdrawals also lasted much longer. That hit the nail on the head. Porns the problems and one of my first streaks of 150 days PMO free I was totally healed and felt the "superpowers"

Then iI relapsed and all positive effects went away within some day after the relapses.

 

What about libido and erections man? No problems since relapsing?

 

I get so confused by some of these posts - the symptoms I have of social anxiety or constant throbbing/pulsing in the front of my brain aren't something that possible anyone would confuse with other things like caffeine or anything else. The social anxiety can be when going to the hairdresser etc - but all this started around the 3rd month and 5th attempt at NoFap. It's unquestionable different then normal or before nofap - it's impossible for someone to be experiencing my symptoms and think that they could be due to anything else. I am going to give up on explaining my story as it's just repetitive, but I never experienced anything resembling social anxiety in my life before NoFap. I also gave up all alcohol and drugs same time as NoFap - 10 months, and I've always played sports so Im in great shape.

Big Lewboski states ' I think at around the two year mark I had more expectations about how I should feel' - this is the type of comment that confuses me - you either feel normal as in before you started nofap or you don't, it should be clear to you how you felt the month before you started this journey.

I'm starting to think;

1) Either my symptoms and case is unique
2) Most people have a ton of other issues (perhaps before even nofap or in tandem) and factors (other mental health issues) that make their recovery so complex it's hard for them to know what they are recovering from in what timeline