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

Exactly!

 

Day 127 - euphoric at some points, next day suicidal in the morning, ok in the evening.

I get brain fog and slow brain, slow physical movements, staring blankly.

then at some points dancing to dance music. Been a interesting week.

No libido with the girl I’m seeing last night. Couldn’t maintain boner even with cialis.

still optimistic I’m improving overall though.

when I’m good I feel like I’ve cracked life’s code, making future plans. When I’m bad I’m hopeless suicidal and can’t see past the now. Time goes slow.

 

Almost at 10 months and I'm still hurting every day. Anxiety, depression, anger, shriveled junk, anhedonia, fatigue. Just a whole plethora of shit symptoms. Ready for a change.

I do get MW though, it usually lasts 2-5 minutes. Not every morning, but most of them.

 

Mate I think you may have other issues besides PIED, 2 years and 4 months is not a normal recovery time. Really and truly you could go on a 90 day reboot and rewire for a few months after that but to be flat for near 2 years and a half downstairs, there must be deeper neurological issues that are unknown about.

 

2 and even 3 years are not unseen. Many people need years to recover. Don't underestimate the damage of PMO.

 

It's been proved by vast observations of different cases that people fully recover within a year with the most important period being the 90 day reboot (for some it could be up to 100+ days, for some less). All porn does is that it wears out your dopamine receptors and wires your neurological pathways to a screen instead of a real person. I genuinely believe these people that report 2+ year cases have other underlying issues that they are not revealing to the public in their stories and it becomes a major source of confusion when others read these stories where you have people saying "I have been in a flatline for 3 years". It's like there's so much more that we don't know about this person.

Take me for instance, I had been abusing PMO heavily for 7 years straight from age 11 all the way up to 2016 where I got into my first relationship and I had severe PIED but after a month or two of rewiring I was seeing improvements and had it not been for the relapse I may well have been cured by now. I just don't believe someone can just stay dead for 2+ years recovering from PMO, there must be other factors in place causing this. And these type of stories are not good for the public to read as it provides a vastly distorted idea of the real situation of that individual. For e.g. if you are becoming suicidal or have severe mental health issues as a result of leaving porn, I doubt it's simply because of PAWS, there are deeper underlying issues behind this that you haven't discovered about yourself. Give me your thoughts on this.

 

You are again understimating the damage of PMO.

I never had PIED but still have PAWS after over a year of quitting PMO. You are just projecting that, because PIED was your only issue and it improved within a month, that should be the case for everyone. Again I never had PIED but not because of that will I say that your PIED must be due to underlying issues.

If you are tempted to say that my recovery is taking so long because I have underlying issues I will tell you the contrary: it is because of my underlying strength that I am getting over this. I am very strong and healthy —been checked by multiple doctors– and never had mental issues.

Having been clean of P and M for over a year, I am starting to really enjoy life —e.g. less panic attacks and anxiety, but when I am falling asleep in the most relaxed state and start getting spasms and ectopic beats, I know PMO damaged my brain and my whole nervous system among other things. And I can see the progress after over a year of abstinence.

Throughout this recovery process I myself have had doubts about the origin of my conditions. As I progress in my recovery, I am more and more certain that PMO was the cause and I can imagine PAWS popping up in smaller and smaller waves for up to 3 or 4 years. But I am starting to feel good enough to bear a normal and happy life.

I don't say this is the case for everyone, but it is for sure my case.

 

Yeah he's right about the above. PAWs can take a long ass time.

But congrats man. That's so fucking encouraging to hear.

 

So you never suffered from PIED in your entire life? In that case, your issue is not even PMO related, you're just probably someone who suffers from anxiety and depression and has incorrectly conflated it with PMO. I'm sorry but if you haven't developed PIED ever in your life then I don't even know why you're on this app.

 

Man, you are really uninformed. I will try to help you understand.

Please read this wikipedia entry. It has 37 references to scientific studies so please do not try to contend with "it's just a wikipedia entry."

It would be such a big coincidence if my symptoms were just the same as many listed in the wiki. Take into account that MRI studies of the brain have shown that Porn is as addictive as hard drugs and has similar physiological effects. I am convinced it is addictive. Very.

- Anhedonia[18] <- this causes desperation when nothing is satisfying
- Autonomic disturbances <- most scaring
- Emotional overreactions or numbness <- especially with women
- Sleep disturbances <- most problematic
- Physical coordination problems <- for some reason I noticed this one
- Panic disorder[13] <- sudden panick attacks anywhere, fear of going to bed and fear on the bed

> Drug abuse, including alcohol and prescription drugs, can induce symptomatology which resembles mental illness. This can occur both in the intoxicated state and during the withdrawal state.
There was a time, not long ago, when I thought I was getting insane, I though it was all over for me, the end. Every day was a fight and a constant wondering about what was happening to me. I was trying to live a perfect life to rule out every possible cause. Then I learned about Porn addiction.

> The syndrome may be in part due to persisting physiological adaptations in the central nervous system manifested in the form of continuing but slowly reversible tolerance, disturbances in neurotransmitters and resultant hyperexcitability of neuronal pathways.[23][24][25][26]
The mentioned hyperexcitability of neuronal pathways is like hell on earth. It's hard to explain the degree of painfull alienation.

> A protracted withdrawal syndrome can occur with symptoms persisting for months to years after cessation of substance use.

> For some individuals, these withdrawal symptoms are short-lived and make a full recovery, for others a protracted withdrawal syndrome may occur with withdrawal symptoms persisting for months or years.[22]
You see it can cause permanent damage. It's not just 90 days for every one.

> Symptoms can sometimes come and go with wave-like re-occurrences or fluctuations in severity of symptoms.
We all know this here.

> Symptoms occur intermittently, but are not always present. They are made worse by stress or other triggers and may arise at unexpected times and for no apparent reason.
I can attest: for no f**ing reason. Sometimes so unexpectedly because you were just feeling great one minute ago.

 

I used to get scared in my heavy pmo use back then, even with lights on. A lot of nightmares till this day...

Brief, for someone to deny, us addicts w/ severe cases go through with ACUTE withdrawals and PAWS is pure close minded.

 

I might be a useful test case here. Unlike many on the forum, I'm not ever going back to porn no matter what. I have some but not all of the symptoms of PAWS that everyone reports. Certainly a brutal flatline, which at least means fighting relapses is not at the moment an issue. But I'm never going back. I'll let you all know how I get on. After about 40 days I still feel a bit numb but there's mild progress. So many of you seem to be stuck in a cycle and I would urge you to break it. Setting aside all the debate and complexities, porn, like computer games, reality TV, or social media consumes acres of time better spent with friends, family, reading or whatever.

 

I swear every two weeks its the same damned guy who thinks they know whats wrong with everyone else.

This particular guy joined nofap on Friday and presumes to know more than all of us who have many combined years of experience. I cannot wrap my head around why these people just invalidate everyone else's experience because their experience went a certain way.

 

So you're what, about 20 years old? Try PMO'ing heavily for 30+ years and then see how long it takes to recover. You simply don't have the authority (ie experience) to make comments like these. As with some others on this thread, I've never suffered from PIED, but I have suffered just about everything else, and there is an unmistakable correlation between (for example) PAWS symptoms and PMO. I've found that my mental health issues have largely been caused by PMO. Years of therapy and medication got me nowhere, but abstaining from PMO has made a massive difference to problems that I thought I would have to live with for life - nothing else has worked.

Everyone is different, but if anyone sees a change in their health and wellbeing in response to a change in their PMO activity then it's a fair bet that there's a correlation, and they might benefit from stopping - they've certainly got nothing to loose by trying. They don't have to cough up large sums of money for sham treatments, or risk their health. Just put in some effort and see what happens. For some of us, that means a lot of effort for a long time, but the effort is worth it.

 

How many MO relapses have you had in your 17 months? How much hard mode? And do you ever have really good days where you feel almost normal?

 

In 17.5 months at around the 7 month mark I had a 24 hr relapse of sex, cocaine and porn constantly for that 24hr period, and orgasmed once. This 7 month before had been monk mode, and by the time I relapsed I was feeling better, the wierd brain throbbing had started to calm down a bit etc, the relapse was stupid but the best I could do.

At the 16month mark as I was starting to feel better probably 60% better (I went into a full office without feeling panicky which is rare for me) I relapsed again to foreplay with a real women after a few days of sexting, and then around 4 MO over the course of 2-3 days. And then now been 5-6 weeks monk mode again, and just starting to feel better now. During this next 8 month since my first relapse, I would say 6months were monk mode, and then 2 of those months had small periods (2-3 days) of tinder, sexting etc

Its been a long road, and no idea where Im at in recovery, this past 5-6 weeks have been a rollercoaster, but stabilizing out now, and starting to be consistent, and feeling slightly better: anxiety down, brian is still throbbing near front but is more gentle and pleasant, sleep is bad and still wake up throughout night, but its getting better etc etc

 

Thanks for clarifying. Do you struggle with anheodnia(hard to feel emtions and pleasure)? And social anxiety? These are my main symptoms, my suffering is mental not that much physical. Have had several 3-4 month hard mode streaks and still not feeling better. Some days i do feel it lifting but its rare

 

Translation: from my slut female teacher from Cucknada who obsesses over sex and wants to remain anonymous so she can avoid being ashamed. Not credible.

Obviously she has no fucking idea. She is not only useless: she is pernicious as she discourages abstention from PMO. What a joke of professor with a shitty degree.

 

Social anxiety has got alot better, but I stll suffer deeply. Like if Im meeting friends for lunch at a restaurant theres 4 of us it causes stress as walking in etc (at beginning was pure panic).

If I have a meeting with someone at work it causes anxiety and stress before the meeting for no reason.

I actually 3 months ago bought Valium and Beta blockers to get me through work - I take half a valium probably 2-4 times a month. My first 13 months I didn't take anything and suffered huge amounts before certain meetings etc.

As I type this to you now, Im exhuasted and tired, feel slightly stressed for no reason, and my brain has a dull achey pulsating feeling near the front, and this is constant for me 24/7. The anxiety only appears when going to social things now btw, not constant general like in the beginning

 

Sorry where are the studies? I don't see any.

Ill be honest, you sound like some sort of cult leader for the P industry.