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

Discussion in 'Rebooting - Porn Addiction Recovery' started by Fenix Rising, May 12, 2019.

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  1. Big Lebowski

    Big Lebowski Fapstronaut

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    Lads, just an update.

    So I found out the reason why I've been feeling like shit all these years. UARS (Upper airway resistance syndrome). A subvariant of sleep apnea that fragments my sleep enough to cause a hell load of symptoms. I'm due to be having surgery to expand my top jaw for nasal breathing to be fully optimised and then maybe double jaw surgery a year after if things need to be done. So porn was my crutch for shit years of symptoms from unrefreshing sleep.

    If you feel your sleep is shit, take a sleep study. You might be suprised.
     
    UWSDave and ALPHAandOMEGA like this.
  2. Big Lebowski

    Big Lebowski Fapstronaut

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    Yes and sometimes unconsciously waking up.

    I have chronic nasal obstruction due to narrow nasal passages, so find it hard to breathe. This makes a considerable amount of effort to breathe at night.
     
  3. DerJogge

    DerJogge Fapstronaut

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    I too have narrow nasal passages but it wasn't always like that. Back in 2014 I started to develop sinus problems and this was also the time when developed my tinnitus and other symptoms. This was also the time I started smoking again and fell back into several other addictions. Before that I never had any nasal problems and I didn't had any sleep problems when I was clean and sober. Since then my nasal breathing is slightly impaired. I already contacted a doctor last year and I was close to getting my nasal turbinates trimmed down as they seemed to be enlarged but due to Covid this never happened and I'm wondering if its really a good idea to do so. I never gotten a real diagnose why I am having chronic sinus problems and why my nasal turbinates are enlarged and the doctor couldn't find any underlying medical issues. I performed a sleep study at home but as I read UAPRs can't be detected that easily as breathing doesn't stop completely or impairs O2 saturation.

    For me personally all the problems around my breathing revolve around chronic stress and I heard from many other guys with addictions that they have chronic nasal problems that no doctor could explain. Chronic stress, due to addiction, sets of all kinds of problems and it causes a swelling of the mucous membranes which causes tight areas like the nasal area, to become even tighter. Stress is such a complex thing and its direct and indirect effects riddle many doctors as they seem to find no medical explanation of a medical problem.

    For me it's a hen and the egg problem. 2014 was the year I was the happiest and most alive. I was completely symptom free back then and this was only because I stopped smoking weed, cigarettes, reduced my pmo and videogaming habit and had a lot of good habits. The moment I started to smoke, PMO, excessive sex with my gf, all those symptoms started to appear. I personally don't think that I have major medical problems underlying because then I wouldn't be able to feel that good in the first half of 2014 and that bad in the second half. Addiction is the constant that changed through 2014.

    But don't get me wrong I'm not saying that people shouldn't get checked out for medical problems. I'm just advising to be careful what causes those medical problems. Modern medicine only offers symptom treatment to many problems and those problems only postpone a problem to a later date like ADs, thyroid medicine and other form like testosterone treatmeant and supplementation of hormones. I am also careful of removing things from my nasal area and I'm waiting until the 24-36 month mark of my recovery before I'm taking any steps in that area as a removal of the nasal turbinates can cause problems if to much is removed. Lets say I remove some parts so I can breathe better in the here and now but then my PAWS and chronic stress is resolving itself in the next half year and the swelling of my mucous membranes lessens. I may then have to little resistance as the original reason for my bad breathing is resolved. Some form of resistance is needed for good nasal breathing and thats why it's dangerous to mess with the anatomy of the nose for example.

    But as I said, don't understand me wrong - I highly appreciate your input and I even made a appointment with my doctor and to make sure that there is no overseen medical condition like UARS. I'm just trying to point out to chronic stress and its effect on the brain and body. A medical condition doesn't reduce the harmful effects of excessive PMO and any other consumption.
     
    UWSDave likes this.
  4. Dave G 123

    Dave G 123 Fapstronaut

    I know that fatigue all too well, and I'm also unemployed. I have tried loads of things, and nothing provides relief for more than an hour or two (eg coffee, cold showers), and I've not come across anything that seems to speed up the recovery process. Just got to tough it out hardmode. I know that's not much comfort, but stick with it and get through each day, and you will get to somewhere better.
     
    Bright Man-02 likes this.
  5. jayyad

    jayyad Fapstronaut

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    205 days hard mode, still at a full loss of libido and extremely negative thoughts. I also keep waking up at night, this is either due to bad sleep patterns or the nasal issue a lot of people are talking about. One think that makes me think it’s a breathing problem is my lack of good sleep these past 1-2 years. Maybe porn was that crutch that allowed me to get going but I could be wrong. Might be worth going to a doctor and getting my nose checked.
     
  6. sikreodds97

    sikreodds97 Fapstronaut

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    Bro with all respect, you have said 10 things have been the cause of your flatline and you keep changing it. We are all on a journey to find the root cause to this suffering, but its really not that deep. Masturbating to 10/10 girls multiple times a day and feeling that good for years. Of course it absolutely fucks our dopamine/serotonin receptors and that needs a shit ton of time to recover and heal. Our whole body has been abused for years. Same with any drug addiction, exactly the same symptoms. Never underplay how damaging porn and exessive ejaculation is just because the big pharma preach and even ignore the effects/side effects from it.
     
    Dave G 123, winningover and OhWhenThe like this.
  7. OhWhenThe

    OhWhenThe Fapstronaut

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    Don't get turbinate surgery, biggest regret of my life - well that and the chronic porn edging. Instead, try those nasal strips that you wear at night or maybe a humidifier, that or just live with it.
     
    DerJogge likes this.
  8. DerJogge

    DerJogge Fapstronaut

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    Thanks for the advice. It intuitively felt wrong right before surgery was due and I was kinda glad afterwards that it got canceled through covid. I would say breathing through my nose got better which is another hint that it kinda revolves a changing factor like e.g. stress and not something anatomical set in stone
     
  9. UWSDave

    UWSDave Fapstronaut

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    Why do you regret the turbinate surgery?
     
  10. Bright Man-02

    Bright Man-02 Fapstronaut

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    With the way we're going, we will never be able to identify the issue, because 99% of the guys disappear once they're healed. and no doctor is taking time of the day to research this.
    it's very unfortunate that guys would just delete their account and or leave the forum once they're healed, because it's now not a big deal to them.
    where is the guy who initiated this thread? why doesn't he come and at least tell us 'I am healed'?:(
     
    KaliYugaWarrior likes this.
  11. DerJogge

    DerJogge Fapstronaut

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    I don't think thats quite true. Don is here and he is the living proof that all of this is real. There are also other reports from people coming out of PAWS. I'm at 21 months and there are other guys entering the 20+ month area. I will promise you all that I will stay and provide help and knowledge when this process is hopefully done one day.
     
  12. OhWhenThe

    OhWhenThe Fapstronaut

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    It left me with a condition called Empty Nose Syndrome which is absolute hell on Earth, thankfully I'm one of the rare cases where it slowly(and I mean very slowly) fixed itself. I still live with some of the effects 10 years later but it's only a fraction of what it was at its worst. I should say though that even in the horror days of living off 1-2 hours sleep per night I still had a crazy high libido so I'd be inclined to think that there's not too strong of a correlation sexual flatline and suboptimal sleep.
     
    DerJogge and UWSDave like this.
  13. wfcasdvwervdsv

    wfcasdvwervdsv Fapstronaut

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  14. UWSDave

    UWSDave Fapstronaut

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    I think RLS is restless legs syndrome.
     
  15. TBH all these symptoms yall experiencing including the Sinus thing are all caused by the reboot. I couldn't breathe properly either. I think it's caused by paws because I have had glimpses of breathing normally same as before my deep reboot.
     
    zander13 likes this.
  16. winningover

    winningover Fapstronaut

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    It's quite easy for us in this time going through PAWS to judge people who are healed and have moved forward with their lives. I am sure most of us here would do the same thing. Even though I am still suffering, I tend to not come here when I am having a slightly better day. There is this theory which was being discussed on this thread a few months ago that coming back to these forums and reinforcing your mind that you're broken is acting like a self fulfilling theory and keeping us in the rut of PAWS. Now, I don't believe in this and I know that most of us are genuinely suffering here and it's not "just in our mind".

    But when the shadow lifts after a very long time, most of us would escape from here in a heartbeat because we just want this chapter of our life to be closed. Most of us would even want to forget this. Coming back here for most is just a painful reminder and even a fear that just recalling all these things may impact their mind badly. As a fellow sufferer, I have also searched mindlessly day & night for success stories. Long term success stories. People recovering after 2 years, 3 years. We need it because we want somebody to tell us that we will be alright one day. A bleak glimmer of hope is enough when your whole existence is under brutal PAWS. It almost feels like an orgasm when you finally find the one perfect success story here or anywhere else. I get it. I share the same pain & desire.

    I have done my research on people who were active when this thread started. Most of them have recovered and their account is inactive. They were kind enough at least to not delete their account. I went to their last posts on profiles and it is quite clear that after seeing improvements they never came back. And you talk about Fenix Rising who started this thread. Let me add a quote from his post a while before he became inactive

    He recovered. I am happy for him. He contributed to this forum a lot more than anyone else I know. You can check out his profile yourself. You need weeks if not months to go through all his content. I was extensively in touch with him for 06 months and the guy suffered brutally and extensively.

    There are many people here who are just silent readers. People like @Don Quixote are not in abundance here. There are very few on reddit who remain active about this after recovering.

    If I talk about myself, I must confess that I would find it very difficult to remain active here after recovering. But the least we could do for people to come after us is to write a detailed account of our journey to recovery and NOT delete your account. Anyone really interested can connect the dots by default by going to your profile and reading all the past posts where you went from relapse to bitching about PAWS and then finally seeing some good days and then vanishing into thin air.
     
  17. Bright Man-02

    Bright Man-02 Fapstronaut

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    That's right, if an addict recovered from addiction then they would move on with their lives.
    I'm not here to request daily support or anything like that, I was just saying if we don't share our experiences once we're healed then we won't be able to know exactly what's going on.
     
    UWSDave likes this.
  18. Monkeyboyab2c

    Monkeyboyab2c Fapstronaut

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    Hey PAWS pals. I have a theory please tell me if I’m crazy or at least not more crazy than my PAWS addled brain has left me, or if this is absolute common sense. What do you think the chances of PAWS being an inflammatory response. Anxiety, depression, brain fog, dizziness, headaches, joint pain, can all be linked to inflammation. Alcohol, bad diet, stress all cause it. Good diet, exercise, cold showers, meditation all help reduce it as well as PAWS symptoms to some degree. I don’t know, I’m no doctor or scientist but it seems like there might be a link. I wonder if we would see any symptom reduction from a simple over the counter anti inflammatory? I’m not saying it could be a magical cure. I think only time will do that, but maybe it could help reduce the symptoms on some of those really bad days. It’s worth trying anyways. Is anyone willing to try it with me to at least see if there is something there?
     
  19. UWSDave

    UWSDave Fapstronaut

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    I think this is a really solid theory, and would actually make a lot of sense given the similarities between PAWS and ME/CFS that some of us have been posting about. It seems like some of the research into fibromyalgia, chronic Lyme, long Covid, etc. is finding that neuroinflammation is a big part of the story of what goes wrong in these conditions.

    CBD is supposed to be really good for inflammation, which is one of the reasons I’ve been looking into trying it, but I’d be curious to hear if you have improvement on any other anti-inflammatories. I’m also really interested in trying to find a doctor who would prescribe low-dose naltrexone, which seems really promising for people with chronic pain and even some psychiatric conditions. (But of course that requires finding an open-minded doctor, which we all know are not easy to come by!)
     
    Redemptionisrequired likes this.
  20. I once read that inflammation is influencing dopamine pathways, causing less dopamine to be produced. It was related to Wim Hof method but I don't have link now.
     
    Redemptionisrequired likes this.

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