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

Also, to whom it may concern: it might be worth switching to decaf, tea, or quitting, if you're consuming coffee, soda, or energy drinks. And switching to carob if you eat chocolate. Apparently people are reporting PAWS from caffeine too (I just found out about this).

https://www.caffeinewithdrawal.net/paws
https://www.caffeinewithdrawal.net/other-withdrawal-stories-and-commen

I know my sleep improved by leaps and bounds after quitting caffeine. I used to toss and turn for hours every night before I quit caffeine; now I fall asleep reliably every night unless I mess up my sleep schedule by staying up late. I can't say I've noticed PAWS from quitting it (I quit in 2018 or 2019, don't remember exactly), but they could be or have been overlapping with my other symptoms. I know it's worth giving it a try, at least.

 

In late 2020s I have hit the rock bottom. I was in a very complicated situation with PAWS. But with faith, Efforts of taking care of health, and patience. It eventually revealed. Happened again with less intensity but was resolved. Nowadays I am in recovery too and I believe it will resolve.

Never give up and do your best not to repeat the previous mistakes so you don't suffer again. You will heal soon as you keep up the good work.

 

I believe that each one of us can be healed. Time and abstinence lead to healing. Hardmode and not relapsing is the only way. Stay away from alcohol, drugs and medication.

I had PAWS reductions at month 4, 6, 18 and 32. This means that some symptoms went away and some symptoms became weaker.
I have had a PAWS reduction every year so far. Therefore, I assume that this year will be the same or that I will be completely cured. I am "tired" of these PAWS reductions.

I have not experienced any benefits/superpowers in this streak.
Before this streak I had mini streaks for 1.5 years. In these mini streaks I experienced benefits / "superpowers".
The so-called "superpowers" is your state before PMO, when you were like a little child without brain fog, anhedonia, social anxiety, etc. and your brain, i.e. neurotransmitter like dopamine, serotonin, etc. were at normal levels. No chemical imbalance.

More background information about me and my story.

My 36 months post - https://forum.nofap.com/index.php?threads/36-months-will-i-ever-heal.341254/#post-3548858

Reddit profile - https://www.reddit.com/user/Experiment1996/submitted/

I will publish my 39 months post on Monday, 3 April 2023.

 

This is the longest PMO PAWS success story available on the Internet:

27 months flatline - He writes: https://www.reddit.com/r/NoFap/comments/csqkbw/yes_end_of_27mo_flatline_826_days/

 

Ive been addicted for probably around 5 years before nofap then paws for about 6 years. In my previous longest streak i noticed improvements after 12 months.

Today im still in paws. Im still at the beginning of this journey as im just over 6 months into this streak. Symptoms tend to come and go in groups rather than one at a time. Most of the time when i experience good periods a lot of the symptoms sort of clear up before returning later.

Mostly i am extremely up and down but for the most part right now its down.

 

I agree with this as it relates to my recovery too. Just beginning. I have the same experience so far- up and down but mostly down with paws. I'm finding that things like euphoric wetdreams and if I get some hits of dopamine from other sources can lead me to be paws free (the up phase). What would you say contributes to your "up" times when you mention being up and down? For example, yesterday I had a wetdream that gave me pleasure (brain-gasm feeling). This lead me to feeling relaxed and I could finally sleep a bit (struggling with insomnia). Just wondering if these things might be hurting the healing process?

 

How does that make sense? You were an addict for five years and you experienced paws for six years.. Could it be that the damage is irreversible?

 

I have two questions
First question is why do you think you experienced "superpowers" in the first sequence and now you don't? After all, your streak is now longer!

A second question is, did you not have sex at all during all this time?? And if not, how did you survive without having sex with your partner?!

 

1. I really can not explain it myself.

As I said, for 1.5 years I had only mini streaks between 1-14 days and once I managed 30 days. During that time I experienced benefits and "superpowers". Of course not with every streak but with some streaks. I have experienced some benefits on some streaks but the "superpowers" I have experienced only on one streak. I had these "superpowers" for 2 weeks, every day, from the time I got up to the time I went to bed.

I think that my healing started only when I finally stopped with these mini streaks. That was on January 01, 2020. I have been abstinent since that time and have had no benefits at all and no "superpowers" at all. Only PAWS / flatline.

2. Why do you ask a question that I have already answered ? That suggests you didn't read my 36 months post.

You wrote: "And if not, how did you survive without having sex with your partner?!"

Answer: Why on earth should I have sex when I have PAWS from PMO ? Sex delays healing, I don't need it. Sure you can feel better temporarily if you have sex daily or weekly and abuse your dopamine and other neurotransmitters. When you have sex, you are not in hardmode. Your question is very strange.

I didn't have sex during my PMO time and I didn't have sex during PAWS.

If I started having sex, smoking weed or drinking alcohol, I wouldn't realize I had PAWS either. You then just replace PMO with another drug. That doesn't do anything. The only way is: No porn, no masturbation, no sex, no conscious ejaculations, no alcohol, no drugs and no medication. Let the brain heal naturally without numbing it with this things.

Cheers mate

 

Short answer is time is the only thing that affects my up periods. It just comes with the up and down nature of recovery. Nothing ive done in the past seems to have changed this.

I wouldnt be to worried about wet dreams as long as you remain pmo free. They are pretty much irrelevant anyway as you cant really get rid of them. They should become less frequent with time but im still getting them pretty often at over 6 months.

 

Years 1-5 before i found nofap i had unexplained symptoms that got worse as time went on. I found nofap, everything suddenly clicked for me however everything got much worse when i decided to quit. Pretty much some variation of paws started back then and has continued until now. So what has kept me in paws? Relapse. More specifically edging.

As long as my case has been i dont believe that it is irreversible. I was seeing significant results at 16 months pmo free. Even now im better than i was 6 months ago.

 

My question is not strange at all.. When you are in a relationship, the other party also has needs.. It is not easy to be with a girlfriend and tell her now we won't have sex for two years, the world doesn't work like that, so my question is not strange at all..

 

Have you ever had weakness in your legs as a symptom of PAWS?

 

You tell her that you are in PAWS and don't want to do anything sexual. If she accepts this, then fine. If she doesn't accept it, then break up with her. That sounds tough. You can go through life like a deluded person and take it half-heartedly, or you can decide to be a warrior with principles.

It is about yourself and your health. An alcoholic in recovery also has a zero tolerance policy. After all, the alcoholic doesn't say that he only drinks a little bit of light percent alcohol. Or like when a person doesn't watch pornographic videos, but he looks at photos of naked women.

Everyone wants to be cured as soon as possible, but how many are willing to make sacrifices ? I often notice that some people don't really take the healing process seriously. They take it half-heartedly. This is evidenced by the fact that they do not practice hardmode or they replace PMO with another drug or they are relapsing all the time. They are fooling themselves and some don't even know it and some already know it but don't want to admit it.

 

I am experiencing extreme leg weakness still at day 72. Can not stand longer than 10 min.

 

I am at day 72 and for the past 2 days i have had morning wood with lots of horniness during the day. It feels like i might be coming out of the flatline. Yet, all of disabilitating physical symptoms (extreme fatigue, leg weakness, can not walk or stand more than 10 mins, shaking, constant neck pain, headaches...) are all still totally there. It feels weird to be horny again when the body is not functioning...I spoke to a woman yesterday and felt sexual energy ad thought that even if i wanted to, i couldn't make love to her because my body is not working.

 

It's a different story for me, I'm approaching 30 years old and I'll want children in the next two years.. This makes everything more complicated, also asking a partner not to have sex for two years is really not an easy thing.. The question is if you have sex once for a certain period, how much does it affect the recovery process?

 

The more I'm coming along, the more cemented that fact is: time is the only cure. Just got to ride these waves. It just bothers me that I often experience wetdreams in a semi-conscious state, probably because of my sleep issues with paws. Do you ever get wetdreams while you're almost at a conscious state? Because I have had wetdreams while I slept through them completely and had them while being half awake, just wondering how the latter would affect things?

 

What other things have you done to support recovery? Because I agree with you, the only way to heal this properly and effectively is cut off all drug-like things that would stimulate the reward system with high releases of dopamine, etc. I've found that even listening to music and watching tv can get me out of paws because of the dopamine releases. I want to do whatever is necessary to instill proper recovery. So what has your lifestyle been like the past three years? And congrats on that, much respect. Hopefully I can join you one day.

 

I think this guy was married and recovered. 9 years no pmo. Ask him any questions you have. I’m single, so I can’t answer. https://forum.nofap.com/index.php?threads/9-year-pmo-free.345681/