Struggling with anxiety

I've been finding the same thing. Free floating anxiety. Pretty much all at once, I went off porn, hookup sites, masturbation. I'm also in a fairly new emotionally complicated friendship. I've ramped up my exercise: walking and swimming. Reduced my caffeine due to jitters that seem to be constantly with me. Any suggestions?

 

If you are like me then you used PMO to relieve anxiety, even if it ultimately caused more. So now you have to deal with the anxiety. The good news is now you can deal with it in a good way. There are lots of great resources out there for dealing with anxiety. There are lots of body techniques that help. Deep breathing is a great, simple place to start.

 

Anxiety will go away around between day 30-90 days. You must rest but don’t play on phone on rest days.

Breathe in through nose hold for 4 seconds and release through mouth. Repeat 5 times every fresh morning and think positive. This will help with brain rewiring. And low moods.

Anxiety will return maybe months 4-5 and depression may kick in during the flatline period. This is when the brain is trying to reset so it can begin the reboot and rewire. You must try to understand yourself in these difficult times.

A good book to read would be gAry Wilson your brain on Porn or rebooting as best remedy which the link can be found on my profile page status update. According to Chinese medicine pmo can destroy your life and nofap flatline can make you aggressive and over confident. The book written by the Chinese scientist went through great suffering and he detailed it all in his book.

It definitely helped me reach a 400+ day streak on nofap. Currently I’m on Day 414.

I hope you get there.. please give your phone a rest and don’t spend too much time alone unless you’re occupied with productivity. Set a filter on your phone.. and focus on your moving forward.

 

My social/general anxiety worsened around 4-5 months of "monk mode" and I don't know how to get better. I used to follow pretty strict play (exercise daily, diet, sun, enough sleep, trying to become more social...) but since 4th month it's really hard to follow these steps as even brushing teeth, taking a shower, eating or just calling a friend has become huge burden.
What is your observation, has your anxiety and mood improved and if so when? I've never gone past 200 days (relapsed last time) so I don't know what to expect, but I'm currently not in good emotional/physical shape at all. Any advice how to get out of it?

 

Anxiety happens when you are unable to do something usually with depressed mood in the background.
Think of not being able to find your door key when you have to run out because you are late. Its excessive brain activity that does not get resolved, stuck in the loop, because, well - you are still looking for the key and you are still late. So in your mind you are going in a circle, I am late I need to go, ohh I cant leave I need the key, looking for the key, cant find the key and then ohh I am late I need to go, and I cant go I need the key..
This is an example where mechanism is apparent but general anxiety has similar roots, if key is not found anxiety may persist for hours if it was found this loop breaks and brain calms down.

Brian activity has two components, one generates and maintains the signaling(done by verity of neurotransmitters) and the other depresses the signaling. Any though you have is a signal and as this signal travels though the neutral networks it is maintained and the for you are thinking about something, but you kind of need to be able to stop thinking about that and move on to something else. The way that works is special neurotransmitter GABA than begins to gradually(or not) inhibit the signal until it eventually breaks apart. If it did not exist then you would go insane very quickly and that anxiety is probably what initial stages of going insane feels like.

When we end up in a situation with strong signal or though, it is more difficult to stop that signal. Kind of like that song that got stick in your brain, that signal got so strong that it does not fall apart.

Since anxiety in otherwise healthy people is result of not being able to take action, that would lead to calming effect and kill this hyperactive brain I would guess that roots of anxiety after you stop porn use is similar. You want to do something subconsciously that you are not allowing yourself to do and this leads to similar loop. What you feel anxiety about is perception driven, your brain can make all sorts of shortcuts.

You should practice meditation, slow berthing and relaxation exercises which will help reduce and manage your brain activity naturally overtime but otherwise you can also use GABA supplement which will help you stay calm if it is an ongoing problem.

 

A couple of things could solve it quite easily..

Number one method is to get married quickly. This will greatly balance dopamine in brain. Emotional connection is more important than copulating.

Secondly, in addition, dry fasting will eliminate desire and compulsive thoughts and behaviour.. eating a healthy meal pre dawn and breaking the fast with a meal at sunset is excellent for the brain and stomach. In the winter time it would be better to fast as days are shorter. The body completely detox itself after 30 days of dry fasting, no food or water for 7-8 hours in winter or 18 hours in summer.

Thirdly and this is the route I unfortunately went down. With no choice. Take a very low dose of meds preferably in liquid form every night. Something like Abilify or A low side effect antipsychotic or similar. And then when you will feel no brain zaps or depression, stay on it for maximum 5-6 months maintaining your nofap streak aswell, and then wean off very slowly.

Lastly you can try cbd oil, organic cbd capsules or medical cannabis. Depending on how you respond it works for most. It doesn’t get you high.

Very last, you can choose one of the above, or fight it by going for walks. It will get better my friend, .

My anxiety has gone but has manifested into antisocial behaviour. Because I was taking meds at high dose, it affected me in bad way. I’m gonna fight now for next 5 months to get it out of my system completely. And then my nofap journey will be complete.

It’s all psychological. Hang in there. You’re not far from winning the race. I relapsed once in month 8 then reset. 14 months later I made it. When I got to the 8 month mark second time round, it was pretty quick.

Focus on your gains not losses.

 

Diet is quite important, at least from my experience. Gluten, simple sugars (fructose, glucose) or anything else you are intolerant too (perhaps without even knowing) can massively aggravate anxiety. On the one hand these anti-nutrients will cause anxiety or massively aggravate withdrawal anxiety by depleting adrenal resilience, on the other they cause chronic low grade inflammation in the gut, affecting production of calming neurotransmitters like serotonin. Serotonin is one of the key players in this story, dopamine addiction will rewire serotonin pathways, aggravating anxiety. Anything that stimulates the nervous system, from cafeine to pornography, is something you really want to avoid.

 

Cannabis seems to have increased my day to day baseline anxiety. I've had bad experiences where my heart beats real fast and my skin feels like it's burning and the boundaries of my body in my mind are like static. It also seems to make me more fixated on bad thoughts that aren't true for days after. But sometimes it helps me forget the past and move on.

 

Eat plenty of iron-rich foods, such as tofu, green and leafy vegetables, lean red meat, lentils, beans and iron-fortified cereals and breads.
Eat and drink vitamin C-rich foods and drinks.
Avoid drinking tea or coffee with your meals, as they can affect iron absorption.

 

I have some serious social anxiety and i even tried going for 50 days without any sugars, only healthy eating mostly, cold turkey. I have not seen an improvment. Staying most of the time offline, like never watching youtube vids or stuff like that( i watched once compulsivly youtube for over 8 hours a day) it doid not help alot. Sleeping enough or sleeping not enough , minor improvment . laying all day in bed vs walking for 10 kilometers a day , little to no improvment . i dont get it. The only thing i know is that when i stopped porn i got serious issues with anxiety.

 

Taurine, l theanine, chamomile tea are some safe natural aids. Phenibut for occasional really bad episodes -this one is addictive so it’s occasional use only. Benydral is an over the counter solution for a bad episode or sleep issues.

research them all