Someone have advice after 90 days symptoms

My process has definitely been non-linear and gradual. I’ve got rid of many symptoms I had earlier like shortness of breath, fight or flight mode anxiety, racing thoughts and insane digestive symptoms.

Went through a period where everything mentally felt really good but was hit by another bad window/flatline and insomnia, involuntary twitching, knee jerks, head tension and sinus problems came back.

Very weird sleeping patterns recently as well, feels as if I’m not sleeping but I am dreaming, like my sleep is broken I’m tossing and turning and don’t feel like I’m getting asleep but I can remember dreaming?

Very brief moments of libido, very short lived. But mostly in a flatline coming up to 16 months, hopefully start seeing things turn around soon.

So fucking frustrating having life on hold but that is the price we pay.

The only thing that helps is time, patience, determination and a belief that this will one day go away reading other testimonies and going by my own experience.

Best of luck m8.

 

Yea I think that the fight or flight mode and racing thoughts might be the ‘acute’ part of withdrawal. Literally where you are at now. They say usually acute ends about 3-4 months on average and that you go into Post acute withdrawal.

Man, I’m an expert with severe pied. I honestly have had weak erections since 2011. I relapsed to porn once after my first streak of 77 days in 2013 and by my surprise I had a rock hard erection like I haven’t had in years and that stunned me. Where I’m at now though it’s took me longer and longer to get benefits because of relapsing. Morning wood is making a slight comeback! Not rock hard but there is some activity going on down there for sure.

I have no urges whatsoever for porn. Yea I think once we hit that threshold where we go into Withdrawal/flatline we ultimately dig ourselves deeper every relapse. My first streak I felt so fucking alive near the end of it and finally thought I was getting some libido back but didn’t know about paws or anything like that so didn’t know the consequences.

 

Are you talking methods to reduce the typical stress and anxiety that builds when cravings and urges come about or something else?

 

Long term alcohol addicts when become sober they often have dreams even while awake, if I remember it is because the brain try to compansate the loss of dreaming while they were active addicts. Alcohol can prevent dream phase of sleeping. So if you dreaming when you feel like you awake that mean you have been in the addiction's hole since long time, and your brain is healing.

 

well i suppose experiences at that stage vary. it depends on person and on how heavily you have been dependent on porn before. but you should be very conscious of how you spend your time and be clear about what your life aims are and socialize more... usually when i reach three months i become very horny and most of the day i have an erection...
i lift heavy weights but that doesn't seem to be a real solution.... i think having a big goal and starting from this moment to reach that could help

 

I swear to God, Nofap made my dreams come back. I didn't even realize I wasn't dreaming anymore until they returned.

 

quick question. do you believe this is in anyway, unnatural, unhealthy, or bad?

 

For me too. If i lay down and close my eyes then sometimes I instantly start dreaming while im still awake.

But if i knew well, for alcohol addict its more like "augmented reality" experience, because they get these dreams even with open eyes.

 

Letting go of the frustration (which sometimes feels like it's buried deep) when things aren't going the way we desire can be very tough

 

On a normal night I'll dream vividly for like 4 hours, sometimes lucid, i would rather have more deep sleep again ._.

 

Yea man I agree I think that also prevents me from sleeping properly. Infact I will meditate on this tonight. Cheers! Hope your recovery is going well mate.

 

In my case I reduced the fapping in 2017 but still had withdrawals every time I pmoed. In 2018 I have completed double 60 days streaks back to back after a failure. This current streak started in July hardmode. After 2 weeks, I experienced both acute and paws together till month 6 they slowed down but returned every other day. Progress varies from person to person. Also paws diminished months by months, then weeks by weeks and days by days till they wear off completely. I'd say you should start feeling a lil bit better by month 5.

 

I am passionate about looking at this from different perspective.

Ok. 3 steps. All easy to do. Goal is to change your relationship with the urges/cravings. Just fighting them and trying suppress them makes matters worse by creating MORE stress and anxiety.

To most when the urge starts, through their "inner voice" they start having a conversation in their head that scripts something like this.

I want some porn. I cant its bad. just stop thinking about. wait maybe I'll just look at a few pics. god I hate this. fight it. I want porn how bad can it be. no stop just try to fight it . wait till tommorrow. porn would be nice, god I hate this what the fuck is the matter with me. I want porn. lemme just go it do it and ill stop tommorrow. this so stressful why is this happening to me.... on and on. this convo just feeds the urge.

The key is that most just listen to these inner voices as if they are watching a movie,and just let them flow, creating more stress/anxiety.

This can be easily changed. Two steps

1) Quick education on what is happening at biochem level in your brain.
2) Next time urge happens don't run from it. Embrace it. Own it Dont let inner voice control the conversation, YOU take control.
3) TBD

Watch first video once and the second one three times ( then watch the second one each morning until you have it memorized. They are each only 5 minutes long. All of this info in these videos is presented in a variety of ways in a variety of videos/papers etc. Ive find these two quickly cut to the important stuff and are easy to understand







Next time urge happens you take control of your inner voice and practice how to talk to yourself, and use this internal voice to analyze the urge, break it down, understand it, get yourself to understand its not the porn you want (... the bell to pavlovs dogs) . porn is just pixels on a screen. Is it logical that you really want or need pixels on a screen?

So try this when urge hits


1) close eyes. take a deep (4sec) breath in through nose. hold for 4 secs, let it out for 4 secs through nose. repeat one time

2) While continiue breathing Step outside your own body and look back at the urge as something separate from you. It is not you. Its just a little bit of "electricity" sparking around your brain, trying to fool you into thinking you want porn when in fact brain actually wants something else. TScan your body and focus on any physical changes . Heart rate up? Tension in some part of your body? anything that feels different. Dont worry about these just be aware and observe them. BREATHE. Scan and be aware of physical changes urge brought to your body.

3) Do this for 2- 5 minutes.


Lets call the above steps . Your Practice. You should find this is effective in moving past the urge and in a way that calms and relaxes you.

Once you've master this there is a 3rd step that is not important until you master the practice above (has to do with first video)

The urge is not bad.
You are not the urge
You are not bad.
The urge is just biochmestry in your brain
Take control of the urge vs it controlling you.

Good luck . let us know if this helps

 

Libido and morning wood come back slowly then disappear for months or weeks. I have extreme case of addiction. It will take time for things to return to their place again.