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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. mentorr

    mentorr Fapstronaut

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    To be clear, just because a woman rejects you it does not mean that she just wanted to 'f**k you'. I don't think that applies to all women. I have been on a date with a woman, been very much into her, and she has just not felt the same. That is fine. There is nothing wrong with that. The point is that rejection can be painful, and for those of us that are recovering it can potentially knock our confidence or even self esteem. That is the risk. The risk is of opening yourself up to somebody and being vulnerable to aid your overall recovery.

    Being unsure about your sexuality means to be unsure of how to express yourself sexually. I'm not sure if this what you mean here?
     
  2. If a woman choose to go on a date with you, it's either she wants to use you as a meal ticket or she's already has high interest in you. If you fuck it up by acting needy or low value then it's up to you.
     
  3. Monkeyboyab2c

    Monkeyboyab2c Fapstronaut

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    Risk: telling somebody about your recovery - being rejected - slowing down your reboot by orgasming
    Reward: telling somebody about your recovery - finding a great new relationship - being able to speed up your recovery[/QUOTE]

    Hey bro is there any way that you can be up front with these women in the beginning that you aren’t having sex with anyone you don’t truly care about? I think we both can agree that our sexuality is way more powerful than we all originally thought. That level of pressure doesn’t seem incredibly helpful either. It seems like it would set you apart from the herd of guys who are only looking to have sex. Also it would weed out the vast amount of lower quality women that you don’t want to be involved with anyway. This way they would be rejecting the conditions you are putting on the relationship and not you personally. I haven’t had to date anyone since the Bush administration so I may be incredibly naive. It just seems like it would put you in the position of selecting the right girl for you instead of feeling rejected. You successfully beat porn addiction. You may still be feeling effects, but you were able to accomplish what very few men can accomplish. We all have, even those of us who have t been able to completely kick the addiction. It may just be my opinion but that puts your value way higher than any normal porn zombie dude. You should be the one choosing not the one chosen. Sorry for giving un-asked for advice. I’m just curious what you think.
     
    Last edited: May 23, 2022
  4. winningover

    winningover Fapstronaut

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    Hello Everyone, So I am back here writing which I never thought I would be if anyone asked me a few days back. So, just a reminder for everyone, I wrote about 4 months ago that I am PAWS free after a brutal 31 months battle. I have to take that back with a pinch of salt (more than a pinch actually) because I am experiencing some of the symptoms haunting me again for last 10-12 days. I am experiencing shallow breathing, throat tightness (sort of globus sensation), heart palpitations, light headedness and fatigue. No, I didn't have any relapse or anything close to it. I am continuing my hardmode as usual. So basically, I am concluding here that I just had a good 2-3 months window of no symptoms/very few symptoms where I actually thought that I am out of PAWS. And now I am back in PAWS cycle.....and surprisingly with different symptoms esp. the breathing one. Not sure how long this PAWS window last or whether it would be the last one or not.

    I would love to hear thoughts of long termers here. My case also debunks the theory completely that coming to these forums keeps you broken because I left the forum completely and thought myself healed. I only came here after hitting PAWS again and I know that its PAWS because I feel sth going on in my head as well side by side. Don't know how to describe it but PAWS can so easily be differentiated now because you literally feel the brain going through sth and I hope these are positive changes. Its been more than 3 years now and I feel so exhausted & burnt out. I was reading about the withdrawals regarding breathing and they are caused by irregular functioning of your CNS system in brain.

    Just last month, I was thinking seriously of started dating etc. because my libido is totally back for more than a year and I have been waiting to completely recover from PAWS. But I guess I would have to put that on hold because I am definitely not going to open that pandora box until I am dead sure about my PAWS recovery.
     
  5. Yeah I'm having shortness of breath, hearth palpitations, tightness in chest, feel like something heavy sitting on my chest, nightmares, feel like someone is in my room. And I've been on nofap since 2014 struggling.
     
  6. winningover

    winningover Fapstronaut

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    I don't know why but PAWS have hit me again very strongly for reasons unknown to me. Just had a very bad and long panic attack out of nowhere. Almost passed out due to shortness of breath. Friend took me to the hospital and obviously nothing came out. ECG was normal, so was blood pressure. Doctor said its palpitations and asked me if I am taking drugs. I said no but obviously couldn't tell about porn otherwise he would have sent me straight to mental hospital. It is so cruel that regular doctors do not know about this.
     
  7. I am convinced that I, as well as some others in this thread are experiencing full blown kundalini awakening. Don't know if this has been mentioned at all and it might be outside the scope of this thread.

    For me I believe it started 5+ years ago when I had a spiritual awakening that led me to stop drinking cold turkey instantly despite being an end stage alcoholic.

    I've been doing some research online and the good news is that once the kundalini activates the process will finish even if you are dragged kicking and screaming. The bad news is that the process can take a long time...I've read that seven years can be the minimum but who knows.

    Today I have flu-like symptoms but without any sort of fever whatsoever. I really hope I don't have to deal with this for at least another two years but there is nothing I can do.

    Again this might be outside the scope of this thread but at this point all options are on the table for me.
     
    Dave G 123 likes this.
  8. Rexbrent

    Rexbrent Fapstronaut

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    Can someone tell me how to rewire and get arousal and libido back for real women . I am already nofap for 2.5 yrs . I get sensation in penis from screen and if i watch long enf women on screen i get orgasm without touching myself but real women doest make me aroused at all .
     
  9. humbleone

    humbleone Fapstronaut

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    Okay, this could be the case, but what does this even mean, what does the end goal of this awakening look like? And how do we get it to stop?
     
    UWSDave likes this.
  10. I believe the goal is to transcend the ego and wake up to your true divine nature. Once the process has started there is no stopping.

    The old me would have scoffed at things like kundalini, chakras, third eye as new age hippie granola pseudospiritual mumbo jumbo. Then I had my spontaneous spiritual awakening and have been going through a rebirth process ever since.

    I didn't ask for this experience but I got it and can't undo it. Nothing to do but wait it out.
     
    Dave G 123 likes this.
  11. I hit 31 months the other day.

    Pretty nuts.

    If I'm trying to stay positive, then I'd say that I can clearly see improvements. Incremental as fuck, and never consistent or long-lived, but I am seeing proof that I will one day break free.

    Improvements I've noticed:
    -Working memory better. Can actually recall what happened the day before, and even have pretty solid pictures of what went down over an entire week. This is probably the most encouraging uptick.
    -Dreams are delving deeper and deeper into my past, and as time goes by my memories that I lost during the depths of PAWs are slowly trickling their way into my conscious thoughts.
    -Had some libido for ~20 days. Still kind of lusty and dirty, but I was just happy to feel some movement down there.
    -Digestion, though not perfect, has gotten better. Still have some constipation, and some other issues, but it has gotten much better, though I don't trust it. Digestion problems can really fuck with a person.
    -More motivated to workout, get small tasks done, and gather up the details of my life. Now have a list of goals, to dos, workout plans, diet plans, and other various organization tools. Also scared that this will go away, because it has happened before and then disappeared, though this time it feels more powerful and evident.
    -Wanting to listen to music that I once loved. As time goes on I feel a rekindling of some of the old stuff I used to like.
    -Sociability. Though nowhere near perfect (I still can't really connect with people), I'm serviceable a lot of the times. Still experience some anxiety when I'm having shit days, but I have some good ones where I'm not too worried.

    Some lingering horse shit:
    -Stupidity. I remember Don commenting on his dip in cognitive functioning and I'm experiencing the same thing. I still can't read books or process too much information at once. My attention span mimics how I used to PMO, which is have 15 tabs open and jerking it to each video for ~2 minutes before moving onto the next. In fact, on really bad days, I will actually open a bunch of internet tabs (not porn, but youtube and the like). Fuckin' wild.
    -Shriveled junk a lot
    -sleep still kind of fucked
    -an unending feeling of loneliness. As I said before, I can't connect with people on a level that I need to in order to feel true companionship. So, even when around people I adore, I still feel alone. The inability to speak about my condition makes it that much worse. I have to kind of mask my symptoms as something else in order to somewhat communicate to someone my day to day experience. I often use depression as my alibi. Not a total lie, but just a trojan horse.
    -realizing how different I am from most people. This could be seen as a positive because I'm learning more and more about myself, but this knowledge has made me aware to my reasoning for always being somewhat of a loner. There are a lot of stupid people out there, and the funny thing about the dumbies is that there are too stupid to realize that I'm intelligent. In their eyes, they are the smart one. Dunnings Kruger does a good job of explaining this phenomenon. Also explains a lot of the issues of our day.
    -anxiety about death.
    -anxiety about driving a car. harkens back to the death obsession
    -desires to live have been stockpiling, but I still can't act on a lot of them due to the rollercoaster-y aspects of PAWs. Have so many plans and dreams and ways I want to live as a healthy person. This could also be seen as a good thing I suppose. Will definitely not take life for granted anymore. still fuckin sucks ass though. My passions are at the tip of my fingertips, but I can't actually grab hold of them.
    -bad days are still pretty fucking bad. like, I don't think they will ever get easier. my only hope is that they'll just one day disappear.
    -want to experience intimacy with a girl but am not confident or with it enough to follow through. Hoping something falls into my lap once I start fulfilling those dream I mentioned.
    -Can't develop muscle mass. Think my body is still dedicating too much energy to recovery from addiction. Most times I won't feel sore until several days after a workout. It's like my body just doesn't have time for muscular development, no matter how much protein I put into my body.
    -still not as masculine as I would like to be. Know it's there, just can't access it yet. This'll also help with the girl issues.
    -I'm now more aware of my symptoms. since my memory is much better I now have a more accurate picture of how things have been, which is discouraging. Before, my memory was so fuckin shot that I'd have a shit day, wake up, and only have a faint memory of what happened the day before. And the feeling will then disappear not long after. It was a weird existence where I didn't even know what day it was, ever. "Is this a Monday? Fuck, it's already Friday?"

    There's probably some other shit I can't think of.
     
    Andy1517, jay3241, Dave G 123 and 4 others like this.
  12. Dumnap

    Dumnap Fapstronaut

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    This whole PAWS thing is such a pain in the ass. I have been struggling trying to stop this god awful addiction since 2013. My longest streak was 280 days, which was pure hell. I had every symptom mentioned here. I even had to go to the psych ward. Besides this addiction, I also have dissociative personality disorder, which is a bitch to live with.

    Every time I ended up relapsing to porn or prostitutes. I feel like such a fuckin' retarded loser. I became immensely bitter and angry and even started trolling in this forum. I feel deeply ashamed and I am sorry for that.

    I was a hardcoe drug addict as well, and steroid user. This turned me into this megalomaniac egocentric asshole. It is probably the best to not take any drug, but since I smoked 5-MeO-DMT, i can say that I longer crave porn anymore. Did it cure my addiction? Hard to say. Do I still have withdrawal symptoms? Yes, they come and go. The main ones are insomnia, anhedonia and sometimes social anxiety.

    Look up 5-MeO-DMT, also named "the God molecule". It cured meth addicts with just one session. Really an interesting molecule, that actually is in trace amounts in our own body, where is functions as a trace amine neurotransmitter.

    I wish you all the best beating this demon.
     
    Freeddom_Taker likes this.
  13. Just a short update:-

    I'm around 403 days without PM.To be true to myself,I had not a single replase in these 13 1/2 months.Only thing which I must mention here is that I binged read about people's sexual experiences somewhere around 2 months back from today for some 2-3 days.Other than this no texts,no images,no videos just forget about porn and masturbation.

    I walk a lot.I am not doing any exercises since a while but I ensure walking.I eat good diet without any fast foods.hardly have one-two coffee or tea in a day.No smoking.No alcohol.No other addictions. I try to sleep between 11-6 but able to do it between 11-1 o clock in night and wake up between 7-8 in the morning.I am trying hard to avoid using mobile screen since a while.On weekdays I am able to restrict it in 2 1/2 hrs a day but on weekends it goes around 4-5 hours and still i am working on this.

    Having experienced all above,it's really difficult for me to admit that still I'm nowhere recovery.
    • Main issues are continuous exhaustion,zero libido and inability to have proper and continuous erections while trying to have sex.I have not have a satisfactory sex since past 1 year since I left PM and ironically I used to have it when I was indulging into PM and early days of my marriage.strange!
    • My stomach is also upset in general and it's been a long.it goes well and again gets wrong.but not normal what it used to be.
    • Still feel exhausted even after sleeping 6-7 hours a day.no refreshing and calmness what a sleep offers.
    • Wet dreams are still there at frequency 2-4 per month.any ejeculation brings chemical inrush ,fatigue and all symptoms to mention which becomes unbearable.Its intensity has receeded wrt what it was earlier.
    My attention ,focus and brain fog has improved a lot and sometimes for some 5-10 minutes I feel normal and present but not always.My momentarily loss of postion sense and tingling of head have almost gone and I feel normal.I can read and do things but gets exhausted after some time.

    I don't know how long I'll be like this.But I want my ED or PIED cured first as its badly affecting my relationship with wife.Its a slow poison which I consumed for 18-19 years and it's costing me severely and heavily.its like living with a curse.But I'm committed and determined to beat this addiction and get normal.I hope I'll get better slowly.

    Thanks to all.I'll keep updating my progress.
     
  14. Dave G 123

    Dave G 123 Fapstronaut

    Thanks for your post. It's good to hear from someone who's so much further down the road. There's also a lot I can relate to. At the moment for me the biggest thing is mental / cognitive functioning. I have days (like today) where I am so zombified that I'm constantly on the verge of having an accident - I can barely walk in a straight line, and can't remember whether I've opened / closed windows / doors, left the cooker on, etc. Yesterday (I sh*t you not) I cut my finger on a blade of grass. Today I dropped a bowl (thankfully didn't break it). All down to not paying attention, zero focus, sh*te memory, feeling completely spaced out.

    It feels like fricking Alzheimer's, and the only reason I'm not freaking out about it is because I have the experience of seeing these symptoms ebb and flow with my PMO activity over many years. I am a little alarmed to see that after 31 months in you are still seeing this ebb and flow despite staying clean. For me I've seen a fairly linear response, most of the time - my pattern seems to be: first 2 weeks don't feel quite as bad as expecting, then have 2-4 weeks of feeling terrible, then a slow but steady improvement, that varies day to day according to activity levels, but with an underlying improvement.

    Given that my best streak has only been 9 months, I guess I have to be prepared for what you are experiencing when I get there. Are you working at all, or feel like you might be able to any time soon?
     
    Freeddom_Taker likes this.
  15. Yeah man I have garnered enough cognitive abilities to write copy. Currently working on building a freelance writing business. Kinda exciting actually.
     
    Cbur31, Dave G 123 and UWSDave like this.
  16. SinguIarity

    SinguIarity New Fapstronaut

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    Can somebody show me a timescale showing how many years of pmo leads to how many years of paws?
     
  17. well, quite the thread!
    zander has almost three years, and still struggling, which helps me to be more realistic about long term recovery...life is still life, with or without porn, the difference being we are no longer using a method of destruction to deal with it, but embracing the emotional roller coaster, and also learning to accept who we are...many of us are loners and thinkers and don't "fit in" anywhere; that is an acceptance issue and stoicism can come in handy here
    for me, acquiring new daily habits and sticking to them religiously, regardless of feelings, pushing through them hard...has helped, but there are days when I have to allow myself to not shower, just stay in my pajamas and mope around the shop, maybe even drink a beer at 11am, just for the fuck of it, anything to stay away from porn
    also, daily writing has helped me, even if I can't put things into words exactly the way I would want to, but again, that's perfectionism, which in porn we are always looking for that, aren't we, the perfect scenario for the ultimate orgasmic experience; anyways, the writing is like circling around the truth, you can never really pin it down
    but life is so many things and it's raw form, limitless, connecting the dreams to reality, allowing the unconscious to merge with the conscious, embracing the depths of karmic accumulation and then releasing it all...wow
    it's fucking crazy, and society, our modern culture grinds on like ship breaking the ice as it moves ahead, perhaps the art to living successfully is the ability to jump on and off this ship at will, the ability to play along on the world's stage, but at the same time staying connected to the spirit of the great cosmos
     
    SinguIarity likes this.
  18. humbleone

    humbleone Fapstronaut

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    Ill be honest with everyone, I have absolutely no idea whats going on with life. I am still in 'PAWS' and been having sex and PMO for last 4 weeks after another 90 day streak.

    The problem is I have most profound spiritual awakenings during my relapses, so I have no idea if there is some spiritual component to this

    Also it doesnt make sense, have I masturbated daily since a kid, yes, was I hypersexual for my 20s yes, did I edge or binge watch porn, rarely (only in last 1-2 years), there are many people who have done what I have or worse, and have no where near the same repercussions

    Nothing makes sense anymore, I probably have to get another streak going,, im 34 now, started this at 30, what a rollercoaster this has been
     
    Ezpz likes this.
  19. Ezpz

    Ezpz Fapstronaut

    I use to masterbate to P from age 17 onwards for about 10 minutes daily and overtime it destroyed me without me even realising it. The only indication was that my taste to P had become more extreme.

    I think genetics plays a big role.

    The worst part of this is trying to explain it to people, especially the length it takes to recover. My parents still dont believe that P can be the cause of all this. The only thing that will work is showing how much you improved in all areas after paws is over.
     
    Dave G 123 and Freeddom_Taker like this.
  20. Hi guys.

    I confirm that I'm out of PAWS. In fact, I begun to be free year ago.

    I had first bout of feeling 'normal' one year ago - but I waited to write it in this forum whole year to watch whole 'cycle' of this. I still have some improvements to do (economical to be specific) but I'm out.

    My advice - keep rebooting and find your way out.

    Good luck.
     

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