My Withdrawal Symptoms

You're not going crazy. I too felt nearly all of what you listed above and I still get some of them even though I'm on quite a decent streak, I'm no where near "healed" or back to normal.

It's down to brain chemistry. Watching a lot of porn releases a hell of a lot of dopamine. Way more than your brain can normally handle. So your brain has a defence mechanism, although it's a shitty defence system.

1. Dopamine is released into your brain.
2. Dopamine receptors then pick up the dopamine which makes you feel good.
3. Your receptors then start to destroy themselves because of too much exposure. You're not meant to feel this pleasure all the time so they try to down regulate how much dopamine you're getting by cutting down on receptors.
4. This is where you start to need more and more hardcore porn just to get the same effect.
5. Cycle continues, just getting worse and worse.
6. Now you have very few dopamine receptors.
7. Everyday activities that release dopamine and make you feel good, no longer give you pleasure because your reward circuit is exaushted and doesn't have enough receptors to pick up the dopamine being released. Something simple, like seeing a cute girl. You will get zero response.
8. By now you're feeling depressed, anxious, low motivation, lack of concentration and so on. All because the chemical balance in your brain has been hijacked. It constantly needs that rush from Porn just to feel normal. The only problem now is that there is no amount of porn that is going to be enough for you.

This happened to me and undoubtedly is happening to lots of other people without them even being aware that the problem is Porn. I didn't realise it was porn that was doing it to me until I accidently came across an article on porn addiction online and found out what it does to your brain.

 

Thank you for explaining this. This is really scary.
When I try to beat the urge, my hand starts shaking as if the urge is too strong.

 

I really think learning about the brain and understanding what is going on in your brain when you get urges etc is the key to beating PMO addiction. Realising what is happening to you, and learning to separate the rational 'voice' (the real you) in your head from the addictive one is so important.

 

It's a years long I'd see a doctor for a possible deeper mental health issue.

 

Can’t believe this has not had more replies. I have for years coupled with ED experienced every single one of them symptoms I could of wrote that myself. I am convinced it is solely pmo that does it and that there is a lot of people with the same issues on these forums.

Even down to how you described the depression, soul consuming. It was a unbearable chemically depressed feeling.

 

I hace very similar symptoms. But these can be described as depression symptoms too. And depression can be the consequence of PMO (neurochemicals disbalance). Unfortunatelly abstaining from PMO for 6 months doesn't helped me much with depression so far.

 

So it has been more than a year. How do you feel now?

 

I started to take medication and it got better, but I don't feel completely healed yet. What I realized during this year that PMO masked the true underlying psychological problems and I used PMO as self-medication tool to feel better and distract my attention from them. I think in my case the depression comes not from PMO withdrawals (even if they affect overall pshychological condition), but have some deeper roots that I still try to understand. Abstaining from PMO just helped to remove all the noise PMO created. Some psychosomatic symptoms like brain fog, intense headaches disappeared.

 

That is Great actually, because I am sure brain fog and intense headaches are 2 factors which contribute to anxiety. Remember, Life is Challenging!! Every bit of helps counts. Keep fighting Bro


PS: Sleep early and wake up early to do exercises help a lot as well.

 

I created a topic on POST ACUTE WITHDRAWAL SYNDROME. I listed ten withdrawal syndromes I faced.

 

Hey boss man, I know and have felt alot of what you felt, was addicted to porn since like age 12, i am now 26 this August. You may be experiencing true depression/anxiety. May want to see a doctor. The medication I am on has helped me greatly in my battle against porn, use to watch porn twice a day from age 12 till recently 2 years ago. Now I'm down to 2 times a week or 3 if it's a bad week. I'm still fighting, im slowly starting to see light at the end of the tunnel.

 

Keep on fighting bro, never give out and you will expect improvement everyday. Learn from your experiences and keep adjusting your life for the better.

 

Well explained brother. I am feeling the same symptoms as well but things are getting better. Although process is of healing is slow.