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

Why don't you do hardmode with sex without orgasms, like Karezza. If your wife is up to it ofcourse. Or just take a 4 months break from any orgasm caused by sex. I hypothesize this will repair the dopaminergic mesolimbic pathways much faster, because your deprive you reward centers from an overload of dopamine and endorphins. After some abstinence from sex, your porn pathways also weaken much faster.

Focus on other healthy habits instead and keep your mind free of sex for a while. After going monkmode for some time, you can slowly rewire your brain to natural sex again with your partner. I think this will help you healing PAWS much faster.

 

I hope you're right and I am thinking of doing hard mode again. Its just a little difficult for me right now because I got cured from PIED after one long year last month. And now I am having normal regular sex for the first time after my marriage. But if this is what it takes to get cured from PAWS, I am willing to do it.

 

antidepressant then, not really relevant to my point

 

It’s an important distinction because wellbutrin is a NDRI, norepinephrine dopamine reuptake inhibitor. If it’s what helped the guy get over his depression then it helps confirm that what he had was PAWS relating to porn since elevating his dopamine helped him and porn seems to damage the dopaminergic system. That’s my theory at least

 

So shd he have taken that or let the brain recover naturally no matter how long it takes?

 

Guys, please do read the post above regarding how fasting can speed up the recovery process and get us out of PAWS faster. I am on my first fast today, will report within next 30-50 days if I see improvement. Search it yourself on this forum and generally. Long term rebooters have had great help from fasting in recovery. And this account is again deleted. He recovered and deleted his account.

 

I think NDRI agents like bupropion or MAOI's like selegiline only really do so much when the extreme debilitating physical and mental symptoms like tremors, abdominal issues, severe anxiety, derealization etc are gone. If you're in the late stage of PAWS and still suffer from anhedonia or low libido, you could give bupropion a try. It's also very hit or miss with these kind of substances. Some people react well, other people get intense anxiety and severe insomnia from bupropion.

I myself used selegiline once during a reboot, to combat anhedonia, but it did not do a damn thing for me. I had better luck with Rhodiola Rosea, but that only worked for a week and then it stopped working. Tolerance is a bitch. My take on it is like this: Your receptors need to be resensitized for the dopamine to it's work, don't fuck around with precursors, MAOI's, dopamine agonists, dopamine reuptake inhibitors and definitely no dopamine releasing agents! Let nature take it's course.

Low dose naltrexone (LDN) is something you might give a try. It has many positive effects inside the whole human body and is used for various ailments. Including endorphin resistance. I tried it too, but again it did not work for me Maybe some other people get more out of it than me. The best antidepressant I have taken was microdosing magic mushrooms.

I also tried and still do intermittent fasting. I don't think it's helping my recovery at all. It did made me lose weight and gave me a bit more energy.

 

At around 44 days it was my first time for nofap back in 2019 January, after those 2-3 days I was suddenly depleted of energy, like flatline had come I didn't know about flatline back then I broke it after that, because I was working very hard at that time like waking up at 4 a.m. cooking my own food studying, exercising, going to college that includes 3 hours of travel time come back home clean the house, clean the dishes do my homework although for the first time I followed a schedule in which I didn't sleep during the day just at night, I slept from 8 to 4, I wasn't able to repeat that anyhow. Maybe it was just the energy from the first ever nofap streak, first time's the best. Maybe it was the first time of not feeling like shit all the time.

 

If some are willing to take the medicinal substances road, I think the best drugs for us PAWS suffering people, will be the corticotropin-releasing hormone antagonists and kappa-opioid antagonists. These are still under development and it could take years before they get approved by the FDA. These drugs in combination with some clonidine will the best medicinal substance approach for severe PAWS sufferers in my opinion. Benzodiazepines should really only be used with extreme panic attacks and very sporadically.

 

This definitely does not confirm paws.

I was simply making a statement that i thoughts it was interesting that some of us have had success with medication

 

thanks for the information my friend. Would be interested to see if you have some success

 

Has anyone picked up a new hobby while having these symptoms, and if so, has it helped to alleviate them?

I was thinking of picking up a guitar as doing something tangible would be improve my hand-eye coordination and reduce anxiety.

 

Yes, I have started reading actual physical books for the first time in my life. Not ebooks or reading on tablet/laptop. I have completed 4 books in last 6 months whereas I read like only one ebook in last 6 years. I would suggest you to pick up table tennis rather than guitar. Its good for your health physically and mind wise. Much better than guitar for hand eye coordination.

 

Why are you so defensive on a forum where we are meant to support each other and help each other overcome this horrible addiction??? I mean seriously

 

Alright I take it back. I was an total asshole and was myself acting like a triggered asshole myself. I deleted the comment and take back what I said. I have moments of aggression during nofap streaks and start to act like an arrogant asshole.

 

Im hitting 11 months and still don't feel normal - I have this weird brain throbbing and pressure near the front (not painful) thing going on a 24 hr a day basis, that goes from subtle to gross. Anxiety is at a constant 3-4/10 compared to normal. Sleep is okay but never good, always tired never refreshed

Once every 90 days I have a massive attack of sexual fantasy which lasts 2-3 days, which is at times scary that I might relapse - not to PMO but to an escort or old sexual partner. I don't crave porn but more real life sex, but not normal sex, crazy sex fantasy stuff.

Sometimes doubt arises whether I've caused permanent brain damage, hard to see or imagine full recovery, but remaining forever optimistic

 

I am nearing 10 months and battling PAWS. To be honest, you can talk about permanent damage to brain at least after 2 years. 11 months is good but not long enough. And I say this with a heavy heart because I am at my wit's end after 9 months without any relapse. I know it is tough but we have to move on and move the clock forward in our favour. One day at a time.

 

Yes we all do. There’s a certain rage feeling that comes about once you stop fapping everyday and we have to learn to control it since it’s new

 

Pretty much the same brain feelings here, I've had days where the head pressure has gone away and I've felt very lightheaded then. When there's pressure I can manage more when it comes to physical exercise, but with the lightheaded feeling even a few hundred meters can be gruelling. It's so weird as I used to play all day long fast motion video games and never, ever had dizziness for over two decades. I wouldn't worry about permanent brain damage though, I've had a brain scan and according to it all should be okay and I've been PMO'ing since puberty for over 20 years. I think the most damaging activity for me was searching for the perfect scene for hours on end, constantly keeping my dopamine high instead of a quick MO.

 

I think it's an expression when people say that it causes brain damage, but only physical addictions like hard drugs and alcohol can cause brain damage. Not dopamine from pmo.