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

If doing alcohol for 25 years is worse than pmo for a decade, then it's hard to believe it'd take 2 years frame to get better. It's been almost 6 years since I found nofap. I took it serious the second year by having short streaks here and there till I went 16 months of hardmode the 4th year. And I'm still suffering with symptoms of paws.
Maybe this person used to be a mild user.

 

Does anybody feel immediately worse after peeking at anything arousing?

Unfortunately haven’t went further than a 23 day streak, but I’ve noticed I feel a lot better mentally and in social interactions after about 2 weeks hard mode. Definitely not cured of PAWS, but I feel better. This instantly goes away if I peak or fantasize even for a very short time.

For example if I see a sex scene in a movie or if I start fantasizing or if I look at a bikini pic on Instagram for a couple of seconds, i begin to feel withdrawals again like shaking a bit, depression, anxiety, etc.

I’m 20 years old and I feel like after spending the last 4+ years addicted to edging (Normal PMO started around 12 years old with multiple orgasms after each other), I need to be on complete hard mode to recover. Any arousal for me is a setback is what it seems like. This makes it way harder for me because sometimes I’m exposed to these things without meaning to like in movie scenes or whatever.

It’s really weird because I’m not even completely sure if I have PAWS because I haven’t even reached a damn month yet. I definitely do have PAWS like symptoms however. Maybe I could recover in less than the 2 years since I’ve never been on a long streak before?

id really appreciate it if someone could give me advice and if anybody also feels the same way after being aroused.

 

First of all i would like to apologise about my english. At the end of 2016 is when i heard about nofap and started learning about masturbation and porn addiction, did many streaks 2montha, 3months, 6 months and so on but i have never been able to cut it once and for all.. 15years of porn damage coudnt be reversed in a matter of months as the habit is screwed deep in my mind. Those last 5 years have been hell for me, experiencing all the symptoms and still experiencing them since the beginning of the reboot 4 months ago: Extreme social anxiety Depression Neurasthenia Neurosis General anxiety disorder Cervical spondylosis Lumbar spondylosis Wet dreams Scalp dermatitis Irritability Tremor Dizziness Hypocondria Autonomic disorder Anhedonia Shortness of breath Rhinitis Back,face,chest/ acne Knees,muscles,joints/ pain Waist,back,shoulder,neck/ pain I would like to uege all the younher generation to be aware of this addiction and to eliminate it as soon as they found out about it. Also if tyere is anyone in the forum that can relate to it or has been dealing with same symptoms.. any advice, information would be appreciated

 

I have full body tremors and it's killing me I feel I'm gonna die or something..what do I do?

 

Diabetes secondary to pancreatic diseases is commonly referred to as pancreatogenic diabetes or type 3c diabetes mellitus. It is a clinically relevant condition with a prevalence of 5%-10% among all diabetic subjects in Western populations. In nearly 80% of all type 3c diabetes mellitus cases, chronic pancreatitis seems to be the underlying disease. The prevalence and clinical importance of diabetes secondary to chronic pancreatitis has certainly been underestimated and underappreciated so far. In contrast to the management of type 1 or type 2 diabetes mellitus, the endocrinopathy in type 3c is very complex. The course of the disease is complicated by additional present comorbidities such as maldigestion and concomitant qualitative malnutrition. General awareness that patients with known and/or clinically overt chronic pancreatitis will develop type 3c diabetes mellitus (up to 90% of all cases) is rather good. However, in a patient first presenting with diabetes mellitus, chronic pancreatitis as a potential causative condition is seldom considered. Thus many patients are misdiagnosed. The failure to correctly diagnose type 3 diabetes mellitus leads to a failure to implement an appropriate medical therapy. In patients with type 3c diabetes mellitus treating exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, preventing or treating a lack of fat-soluble vitamins (especially vitamin D) and restoring impaired fat hydrolysis and incretin secretion are key-features of medical therapy.

 

My advice would be to cut off social media/movies/youtube/instagram(delete that shit!) etc where you could accidentally see something triggering. Cut off fantasising before goes to far. For the first 6 months i used no social media and only watched very safe tv like seinfeld and anime. Dont use “accidental exposure” as an excuse to relapse. Make it so there is no chance of exposure. Anything you can do to reduce cravings and triggers should be done.

4 years is a long time trying to break this addiction but it absolutely can still be done. Maybe try to consider a porn addiction coach or councillor?

 

Day 98. I'm really struggling with negative thoughts most of the time. I know I'm sexually unattractive and I can't attract any females that I like. Only single moms, old women and even homosexuals, but never single females in my age group. I think it's mainly due to my baby face and soft body. I just don't look manly enough. I been working out regularly but see little to no difference. I wish I had any skills but I don't seem to be particularly good at anything. At 25 it just feels like it's over for me. Being unable to fulfill your sexual needs without porn is a curse. Sometimes I just wish I was asexual. At least I wouldn't feel so inadequate and frustrated all the time.

 

I've been in a similar position to you when I was younger - a big contributory factor to getting addicted to porn. HOWEVER, from my late 20's to early 40's women did start to notice me. Men do mature later. For women, 25 is pretty much their peak. For men, it's definitely older.

Frankly, once I got a decent job, they started to take more notice (I've just lost that, but still...). Also, look at what you wear, and how you conduct yourself - ie confidence, eye-contact etc. This, for me (being what you could call "marginally attractive") makes a big difference - between women looking straight through me, to occasionally checking me out.

25 is too young to give up. If you're still in this position at 35, then maybe. But not yet!

 

I hope ur right man. I been thinking about suicide recently. I just hope that pmo and poor nutrition didn't stunt my physical development permanently

 

That's amazing mate. My symptoms are very similar to yours and I am approaching the 11 month mark. Looking forward to some updates.

 

High guys, what are you doing in controlling
Overactive pituitary gland (a gland in the brain that helps control hormones in the body)?.
This is the gland responsible for secretion of cortisol (stress hormone) and high cholesterol in our blood.
This is why we have brain fog, boozing pain and heat coming out of our brain.

 

Hello guys. Today I been getting strong urges and I started to get erections to the point that I felt like I was about to ejaculate a few times. It almost felt like edging. It seems like the top of my penis is super sensitive and than any mild type of stimulation could make me ejaculate. Another thing is that now I feel crazy anxiety whenever I start thinking about porn. Would you consider this edging? I am worried that I may have undone all of my progress so far.

 

So, an update of 04 days after I posted this message. These 04 days have been more or less the same. So, maybe it means that I am not one of those good and bad days guys. Although I would not categorize these days anyway near good but better than where I ve been so you get the point.

The thing though which really has haunted me is that I am SO SCARED of having those worsened symptoms again that its really on my mind 24/7. Its like I am judging my response and symptoms all the time whatever I am doing. Its something new because when you are just having consistent bad days with crazy symptoms everyday, you get into a "nothing to lose" state. But after seeing so much dark, and then a little bit light, you get this new emotion of fear where you dread losing this little progress due to one reason or the other. Its like @Don Quixote said a few days ago that after the physical recovery of brain, there is another psychological battle which awaits us to recover ourselves from all the beliefs, mindsets and twisted responses developed during recovery. We somehow have to pass on this message to our conscious and unconscious mind that you are recovered now and start believing and acting accordingly. Its easier said than done. I don't know how long can this take and it will vary drastically from person to person.

Especially since we unfortunately can't see our physical brains and SEE for ourselves as to how much our brain has recovered, even the ones who have fully or partially recovered may remain in recovery state for a much longer time for no reason. So its a very complex battle where we have to use our brain to heal our brain. Where will the belief that you are recovered will come from? The mind is such a strong organ that if we let it believe that its damaged and its going to respond in a specific manner in a specific condition, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. So, how can we know that our physical brain has recovered and now its a psychological battle to recover from all the bad days during recovery?

I think the only cue is improving symptoms. If you see my last post to which I am responding, I have noticed a sudden improvement on range of symptoms suddenly last week. Some symptoms have improved very slightly, some more. So this is a very major sign for me that I am now entering more into the psychological battle phase. I now need to stop telling myself that my brain is broken and I am recovering and ACT like a normal healthy being or at least the way I used to before I went into recovery mode. Easier said than done. VERY EASY to say. VERY DIFFICULT to execute. Specially if you feel the symptoms coming back again while you TRY to act normal, that can really hurt your already damaged confidence and many things. If you feel the symptoms coming back again to that severity, it may mean one of the two things. 1) Your physical recovery of brain is not complete OR 2) Your brain is still in recovery mode and feeling the psychological heat of LONG recovery process.

At this point, I would say that its better to focus on second point rather than the first. Because if you have seen the light and somewhat improved symptoms, there is no doubt that your brain is improving physically and is on its way to recover. So there is no point in reinforcing the first point again and again which you have already been doing for 1-2 years to the point that its almost part of your belief system. Its not going to go away soon so its much better to start working on it already while your brain is on its way to full physical recovery.

I will keep you guys updated in coming days.

 

Hey guys. On day 80 now. Have many 3-4 months streaks and still in the claw of PAWS. Yesterday i felt a very rare "good" day. I just felt a bit better. I stupidly watched a tv show with a sex scene in and i felt the depression immediately come to me. Today i have been so depressed, anxious and had body aches. Suffering paws from PMO is the hardest thing in the world, sex is all around us. I have tried for years to overcome this. Is this a relapse? Does this set me back yet again? Im trying and trying so hard but honestly i think i cant overcome this. Im legit suicidal, been asking and yelling for help by some sort of higher power. No answers. How can a sex scene trigger body pains and anhedonia, what the fuck.. Sorry for the rant, but man, i cant do this anymore. 4-5 years of different streaks. PAWS from PMO is the hardest thing a soul can endure, im sure of that.

 

It is hard indeed. We need to be strong.

How do you know for sure that your symptoms are PAWS from PMO and not something else?

 

I just don't watch when a sex scene comes on. It would just trigger me. Tempting but I know the temporary pleasure is no

Are you getting to 4 months then relapsing every time? I did that for many years and found that it doesn't work. I have had to abstain for a long period of time to see results

 

Not every time, i have also had a 9 month streak. I haven't binged at all on my streaks when relapsing so that gives me hope that i still carry some progress, but ultimately my goal is to never relapse again and im more motivated than ever on this streak coming up to 3 months hard mode.

 

Because before my big streaks i would feel amazing on Nofap before the flatline hit around a month in. I would feel the superpowers and it was like my life was finally good. Then i had a long streak and i felt the withdrawal and anhedonia for the first time in my life, i had no doubt in my mind that it was paws. Now i have been fighting for years and years, getting streaks, relapsing, and so on. Have tried everything to get better as well and it all seems to correlate to PAWS. Sometimes i get a day where i feel the superpowers so i know im still in the healing process and gotta hold on!

 

Ok, so lapsed yesterday. I totally get the concept of Kindling. It's what I've done for over a decade. I feel like total ****, and I just lost my job. Things aren't going well.

The only thing keeping me sane is knowing that there is hope - hope that I'm not stuck with some mystery illness, but that this is an addiction, which can be conquered (for want of a better term), and that there is the possibility of better times in the future. It's extremely difficult, but possible, and I'm up for it. This thread is a big part of that for me, so a big thanks to all the contributors who are showing that it can be done, and well-done to everyone who is trying so hard.

Seeing other people succeed, or even just people like you guys who have similar symptoms, and long PMO-free streaks, is inspiring. It is going to get me through the coming days.

 

Has anyone here heard of Neurofeedback, or brain-training? I've been reading a bit about it in relation to addiction treatment. Although there is some mention of it here in Nofap, there doesn't seem to be anyone who is actually using it to quit PMO as such, much less to deal with PAWS. Not sure if it would actually deal with the symptoms of PAWS, but you never know...?