Mental Illness and Rebooting

Hi man, I am not a psychologist but I am of reasonable intellect. I am a university tutor and a PhD student so hopefully my opinion might be of interest. I am not going to address your case directly as I am concerned that I give you incorrect advice. However, I can give you what I have been through. I have had significant trauma in my life and suffer from depression and bipolar. I have contemplated suicide many times but have never attempted it. I will say this. about 2 weeks into a reboot I lose so much emotional control it is crazy. I become very suicidal and cry very intensely for days. However, after around a couple weeks of this my brain chemicals stabilize. I genuinely believe porn destroys the reward system in your brain so dramatically that it makes it feel like the world around you is collapsing. Every time I relapse I go through the same process and once I get through this phase my brain chemicals tend to stabilise and I actually feel fine. It is bazaar!

I do highly suggest going cold turkey for a month and telling yourself that no matter how bad things get it is because of PMO. Typically after that period my mind stabilizes.

 

What you describe are typical symptoms of dopamine withdrawal. Unfortunately, the ECT cannot have prevented this. There are a lot of guys on here who are going through the same thing. Depression and anxiety are very common withdrawal symptoms. Scienticifcally, it's been proven porn can cause a (massive) release of neurotransmitters like dopamine, with levels being similar to those seen in cocain or heroin addicts.

Withdrawal from pmo unfortunately is not avoidable in the most severe of cases. It depends on how long you've used porn and to what extent. These withdrawal symptoms can be pretty severe and can either be acute or chronic (lasting several months to several years).

Once you're in withdrawal, and it sounds as if you are since you've been trying to cut back, it is absolutely crucial to abstain from all pornography and masturbation. Neglecting these symptoms can and will prevent or delay real recovery.

So yes, you have to go hard mode if you want to get it over with. It's a long bumpy road, can feel like a personal hell, but it's absolutely crucial that you turn your back to this addiction if you want to see the symptoms improve.

Good luck.

 

Porn withdrawal symptoms that sounds like mate, known as protracted withdrawal or post acute withdrawal syndrome. The only way is to push through. I won’t sugarcoat it.. it’s hard as fuck at times but it’s the only way back to normality I’m afraid.

 

How do you feel now, @Icarus_Landing ? Any progress to report ?

 

Glad you have managed 6 months already. Congrats. Well for me, I haven't PMOed since Dec 2018. I did however MOed only 3 days ago. I did so because I was afraid of the flatline and this loss of libido thingy. The withdrawal symptoms that I find unbearable are psychological (depression, depersonalisation, derealisation, panic attacks and whatnot).

 

Actually, ever since the day I started PMO ( I did so on my own btw without even knowing that NoFap was a thing) I have never had the urge to PMO or even O. A total loss of libido. The fact that I knew nothing about PAWS made my anxiety and depression worse because I thought I was gonna go insane. I didn't know where those panic attacks and depression were striking from. I even went to see a doctor and was prescribed an antidepressant.

 

7 months by tomorrow for me. Yesterday was though, had the whole day in withdrawal pain. But today so far so good. I don't know about pmo in the future, but for now even million won't make me doing it.

 

Through the federal plan, lawmakers and their staff members had about 70 percent of their insurance premiums covered by the federal government. The Obama administration made an exception that allowed them to use the D.C. small-business exchange to receive health-care stipends from their employer. Which is good for us but this insurance doesn't cover all the disease or others. Is therapy covered by insurance? I have some mental illness and I need therapy which costs a lot of money which I don't have, to pay for it.