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

For myself it is very obvious my symptoms are caused by porn, because of several reasons.

-One of them is how my brain reacts to triggers on screens. Its almost like an allergy. Being turned on by a real girl compared to like a sexy picture feel like 2 completely different things. If I accidentally stumble upon a bad trigger it can bring back unpleasant feelings like anxiety, brain fog and low libido almost instantly. Also when I have had relapses in the past my brain goes crazy and I have to binge watch porn. I totally loose control and it is very clear that my brain has deep addiction pathways. It feels like opening a door underwater.

-Another reason is that I have experienced popping out of PAWS/flatline, and the symptoms suddenly disappear.

-Lastly, the flatline symptoms appeared after quitting porn, and relapses have made them extremely severe (kindling). Instead of just feeling like a flatline it feels like withdrawals from a drug.

Im interested to hear if you guys have similar experiences?

 

I am glad things are getting well with you! When did you start noticing significant improvements? Like feeling fine generally without much of variabilities

 

Yeah I find it similar, the more relapses the harder the reboot and the worse the reactions, especially with a binge.

 

I just think people SEVERELY underestimate how damaging porn and masturbation is. Just because its acceptable in society and the elites dont wanna do studies on the side effects of it(billion dollar industry) we automatically think there can be very little damage done. But its insane. The 500.000+ people on Reddit who have gotten severe depression and anxiety from PMO and cure it on a long streak. The 50.000+ on semenretention reddit who abstain from ejaculation and feel insane life changing benefits. It just shows how powerful this stuff really is. Ejaculation is to make a baby thats how its always been. We can get away with doing it rather often but when overdone it completely goes against our very own nature. Top that off with watching naked 10/10 girls everyday and tricking your brain into thinking we have sex with them. PAWS from porn and even ejaculation is so common and can be compared to drug paws.

 

I have been feeling better in the last week, although things are changeable like half of the day feeling good then suddenly bad or very bad, I felt generally fine and my anxiety got improved, I was socializing normally (little discomforts but bearable). I also got a wet dream yesterday but I don't know what exactly happened at the last moment that I got aware of it and held it and didn't ejaculate (This is weird and I am not sure if it was an ejaculation moment or not, I think it is unhealthy but it happened unintentionally, I was in half sleep at that moment, this made me nervous but slept extra time and felt better) What I want to mention about this wet dream is it was a natural dream, not linked to PMO fantasies which is the first time happens since a very long time maybe before this streak so this is a positive sign. But today things were very bad, my anxiety is almost topped, I felt so nervous when I left home in the evening although I was not feeling this bad in the morning, besides general fatigue and weakness throughout the day. Also I have been getting OCD thoughts badly since last 3 days which is unusual.

 

Hi Dave, thanks for responding. This is somewhat my feeling too, that even when I relapsed to P there was some value in fighting it off without going all the way. Hopefully building up that willpower is making a difference somehow.

 

Did you perform sleep monitoring to check your oxygen levels while sleeping?

 

Yeah I have similar experiences.

 

PAWS wave hit me a couple days ago. It's usually very obvious when it's coming on for me, I have a weird sleep and then the intense anxiety and depression come on the morning after. Up until now, each wave would lasted an unrelenting 10 days+ but it seems I got over this one in half a day which is progress for sure that I'm very grateful for. I also have a question which is important to me, would appreciate your input.

One of the symptoms I've experienced is acne. I had the clearest skin you could imagine for 19 years of my life and then as soon as PAWS started I jumped into having moderate acne which hasn't left since (21 now). It doesn't bother me too much at the moment as I'm not really concerned about how I look, my only priority is to start feeling better. However, there is some cystic acne which will probably scar if left untreated and I'm sure that when I get through this I'll go back to caring about my appearance much more.

Do you think this will clear up once I've gotten through PAWS or am I being too optimistic and should just start treating it with retinoids?

 

If it caused by PAWS, it will resolved once it's over.
I used to have bunch dark spots under my arms and my ribs as a sign of insulin resistance. Now they start disappearing on their own.

 

Interesting... Thank you!

 

I'm still getting variability to be honest. But there's a lot more good days now than bad. And the confidence I get on my good days is just unreal, like I'm taking a stimulant!

 

Love it bro. Yesterday I had a day with zero symptoms, which was so pleasant and peaceful. Today they were back, but nothing too dramatic. Surely having days without is a great sign of progress. Also, the ''hell week'' I had last week only lasted from Monday till Thursday, which is a shorter time-period than I have experienced previously. Surely signs of progress

Keep updating us brother.

 

Anyone out 1-2 years and have zero good days? Are we permentantly damaged? Have had many streaks over the past 3-4 years. Currently on hard mode 7 months. I remember in my early streaks 4 years ago i got crazy benefits but the longer my streaks got the more paws hit me

 

Permanently damaged, never bro. Dont ever think that.

 

It wouldnt make sense to me if i was. I just dont get it tho, felt great before paws hit me on Nofap. Now feeling anhedonia for 4 years and social anxiety. Have had several 5 month streaks without binges in between. I want to believe this streak can cure me so i give it all i got. I have no other choice. I just dont understand people healing with good days and im still feeling as shit as i did on that 1st paws day if not worse.

 

6 years on nofap and still not cured yet. Longest streak was 16mo hardmode. Lost cognitive function since mid 2018 meaning my brain is blown. Couldn't work, couldn't stay on my feet for 45 minutes. I think my adrenal glands are shot and being repaired slowly on nofap streaks.
I forgot everything everything. It's like I'm living in my own world and still have no clue about that said world.

 

Does anyone else just feel so DUMB? It's like I've lost 20 IQ points. Jokes fly over my head, and I can't learn properly. This gets better on my good days but it's still debilitating.

 

Yes I literally feel like I'm dumb at the moment. Basic construction of sentences require huge concentration. At first I thought I'm gonna be excited about having no depression and anxiety anymore when PAWS is over but what I'm really looking forward are functioning cognitive abilities.

@sikreodds97 I don't think you are permanently damaged. It just requires this much time without any relapses to fully recover. I'm still having weed and videogame dreams although I didn't touch weed in 19 months and video games since about 3 years now. And if remember correctly I didn't had any good days until the 10-12 month mark. Before that it was just hell all the time.

My overall state of mind is so freaking weird at the moment. I'm either at peace with everything, hating the this hostile world, wanting to escape this body and mind and everything just being monotone. I could sleep all day and I feel just so far from my actual self it's freightning. But I could wake up tomorrow and everything could be just fine.

 

Yup. I really hope I can get my smarts back after all of this. All my mates have always known me as the bright one growing up but now I'm lucky to spurt out a sentence which makes sense ahah. Recently went and gathered a lot of research on this, using drug addicts as opposed to PMO addicts, as it was causing me a lot of distress to think that I flushed my potential down the drain.

From what I could see it's one of the last things to come back to you but it eventually does, some people were even saying that it was around 3 years until they got near the level they were before using. Hope this helps!