PMO Physical symptoms?

Congratulations on commencing your journey.

The answer to your question about symptoms is: yes, everyone who is PMO addicted experiences variations on these symptoms when beginning to quit. They pass or greatly lessen in time. Some "symptoms" are not symptoms but the price of being alive, such as, for me, fairly constant low level anxiety.

While this site is emphasizes abstinence, I have found conceiving that I am in recovery far more helpful. Abstinence, that is seeing how many days you can go without PMOing was not helpful for me. It was sort of like seeing how long I could hold my breath. I could hold it for long periods of time, but what I really needed to do was quit breathing (so to speak). When one conceives as oneself in recovery one can look for outside help with the problem. I concluded that I had to quit P altogether. That was a conception I did not have at the beginning, but came only with education. I broke the P from the MO early, but still was watching P, imagining P, remembering P for a long time in. Once I quit that I really started to recovery. I use tools to stop watching the P, such as porn blockers, and consciously stop myself from lingering on sexual thoughts. I don't think it is realistic to believe you can eliminate them, but thinking about anything else when those thoughts pop in, as opposed to letting them become a fantasy, is important. Thinking of sex even without PMOing is essentially edging, and edging is unhelpful, even harmful, to the recovery process.

As for going to the doctor, if you do choose that option, make sure it is therapist that specifically treats porn addiction. Some therapists don't even recognize the illness as one that actually exists, but put it in the obsessive compulsive disorder category. It is not the same as sexual addiction, it is its own little specific niche.

I, myself, believe therapy is not helpful because I believe the problem is strictly a brain-reward-chemical imbalance problem. Yourbrainonporn is a good place to start to learn about the effects of porn on your brain that if you have not already. Once I understood that high speed internet porn had essentially rewired my brain's software to release dopamine in response to that, as opposed to real sex, I also learned it could be rewired back to normal. I don't watch P now, don't allow myself to think of it, and don't MO either. I am not abstinent though, as I have a partner with whom I now have what would be considered a normal sex life, though at the height of my PMO addiction I did not conceive of normal sex as normal, but rather boring. Giving up that chemical high that PMOing gives us is hard, no doubt about it. Our brains like that release of chemicals. For me, conceiving as my brain being addicted (as opposed to myself, overall) was a helpful little trick. I could almost analytically look at my brain as distinct from myself, like looking at a broken finger, and ask: how can I fix that? How could I fix my rewired brain as opposed to fix me overall.

Good luck in your journey. It is a journey. Quitting PMO, recovery from PMO addiction, is a process, not an event. You won't quit at once, but with education and tools I have been PMO free for some time and I don't really struggle with it these days, though I still keep using my tools. The beginning is the hardest because your brain wants that fix and initially will punish you for not giving it to it. Eventually, it won't. Peace.

 

I agree with William's advice, it's really good I think, except I disagree with his thoughts on therapy and the like. Sure, PMO dependency does have a strong, brain chemical reenforced neuropathway aspect to it, as YBOP and he describe. But that only describes how one's brain becomes dependent on the dopamine high that one gets so easily from porn and PMO. However, it does not describe why a person becomes dependent on porn in the first place. Not everyone who looks at porn and faps is dependent upon it.

An addict is one who does so compulsively, and behind every compulsion to an addictive type of behavior, especially of this type, are psychological needs that aren't being met. You can address the chosen method of acting out/escape, whether it be PMO, or alcohol, or drugs or codependency, whatever, but so often, if the root psychological issues aren't dealt with, the person will simply exchange one addiction for another. (Ever see people at a 12 step program, say AA, outside on break? Even notice how many of them are smoking?!)

For complete victory over this issue, you must not only deal with the physical actions and behavior, but you must also dig deep and discover why you have become so dependent on PMO in the first place. Sure, it hyper-stimulates the reward circuitry in the brain, but that alone doesn't create an addiction. There are almost always attenuating issues that are affecting a person's self-esteem and sense of hope, that they are trying to escape from via their "drug" of choice. Deal with the root issues and the addiction itself looses much of its attraction.

For example, a guy who has become truly dependent on PMO, who does it habitually and rather compulsively, who can't seem to stop the behavior and feels crappy when he doesn't do it, etc. probably started to do it a lot when he was dealing with tough issues in his life: family problems, abuse, school stress, unrealistic expectations from parents, relationship problems with girls or not feeling accepted by peers, parents going through a divorce, etc. The guy starts to look at porn regularly and fap to it, not just bec he is a horny, curious teen, like other guys, but bec when he does so, he forgets about all of his other issues for a while, and gets to get his mind off of it and basically get "high" for a while, even though he may feel low or guilty afterwards. And then you add adrenaline to the mix, bec of PMO's secretive nature, the thrill of seeing forbidden acts, the potential of getting caught, etc. and chemically this all intensifies the act in his brain. If he feels shame/regret afterwards, then that only serves to intensify the high/low or addiction/shame cycle, which makes it all the more difficult to quit.

But whether he stops PMO or not, unless he deals with the underlying issues, then eventually he will either relapse, or find another way to escape them when he's feeling down, hopeless, worried, scared, frustrated, lonely, insecure, worn out, etc. However, when he feels good about himself, feels competent, happy, in-control, appreciated, loved, valued, and like he's accomplishing good things in his life, the desire to PMO will almost disappear.

 

I've had the stomach pain and the bad cramps. I think there is a chance those pains were caused because I didn't masturbate for quite some time. Maybe the body has to get used to it.

 

Hi xavieravenue.

I've not PMO'd or MO'd for just 10 days and in that time, the dark circles I've had under my eyes since the age of 14 have vanished. Gone! Every photograph after the age of 14 I've had these circles, I got called badger at school! I thought I was the only one who experienced arm pains, that plagued me for years and that's gone. It might be pure coincidence that you and I were compulsive masturbators and just happened to have these symptoms though it is unusual that mine have disappeared in 10 days. What did I do 10 days ago? I made the decision to stop playing with my dick.

Also my hair is thickening up, I like you had lost hair on the back and top and no hair ever fell out, it just got thinner. I've also had a lot of stomach problems in the past, bloating and this is getting less. I think there are a lot of symptoms with this that in years to come people will have a lot more knowledge of. If you think logically though, we're ejaculating out all this goodness for no reason because our bodies don't need to do it that much and we're not making love and releasing lots of lovely feel-good chemicals with it, we're just smacking away at our dicks until we get the chemical high we've learned to crave. Just keep with it.

 

great thread - I love the posts from bullseyechris and william - and have sent them friend requests.

but I echo beginintenz - those physical complaints are probably not related to quitting porn...go and see a doc to find out what is wrong with you rather than self diagnosing.

Personally i have not felt and negative side effects of quitting PMO. I just feel slightly better all round. very slightly I add...its a subtle but welcome change.

peace

 

I've definitely noticed many physical symptoms as a result of my PMO addiction. Although it wasn't until fairly recently that I began to make the correlation to those symptoms and my PMO. After everything I've read about porn addiction and it's apparent side-effects I began to have a real revelation about myself. I was like "yep, been there. That's totally me! WOW!".

Constant fatigue, loss of interest in things that once held great interest, irritability, lack of focus/concentration, frequent depression and lack of self-worth. Very low self esteem not to mention erectile problems.

The other thing is the hair loss. My hair started thinning around my early to mid 20's (I'd been masturbating pretty frequently since I was 15-16 and PMO-ing since I was 19-20 or so). By the time I hit 29 I decided to shave my head because it was so thin on top I didn't want to be Mr. Combover. Fortunately I think I actually look better bald and it's more acceptable today anyway. But the thing is, I am the only known member of my family to have this amount of significant hair loss. The males on both sides of my family as far as anyone can tell me, all had pretty thick heads of hair.

I began my NoFap journey in early November. When I first started I managed to go 14 days PMO free (though my wife and I had sex a couple times during). I've had a couple pretty hard relapses since then, but during that initial 14 days, I did begin to feel an increase in confidence and focus. Not a night-and-day difference but definitely an improvement did occur. Even now in spite of my relapses, I do feel an improvement taking place, albeit slowly. I need to work on my self-control and willpower though so I can maintain that feeling.