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

Yesterday I just looked at some erotic photos, and caught such excitement, which used to happen only when watching porn. What can this mean guys? That the receptors have become too sensitive, or for me already viewing photos and fantasies are equal in harm at the level of porn? Who has any thoughts?

 

Try to ignore the feeling and force yourself to do something healthy, useful, don't wait for it to improve. I believe in this way it will get better quicker.

I am familiar with sensitivity especially after some streak of nofap. In the moment your brain is looking for anything to stimulate it. Just stay on the track and the snesitivity will become normal again.


Have a good day everyone.

 

Doesnt matter if i ignore it, do something about it or not it doesnt actually change the fact your brain has to heal. Trust me ive tried every known fix for 6 years. Ive tried exercise for 2 years almost daily, tried ketogenic diet for multiple months, meditation etc. only thing that ever made a difference was time pmo free.

After a while you get tired of trying all these things you think might help and just let time do what it has to. Forcing yourself to do things can work in the short term but inevitably you will burn out.

 

If your behaviour is seeking out erotic material in any way then it is harmful to your recovery, whether hardcore P or just images it doesnt matter

 

I personally think it’s a sign that you’re healing. When you were a kid before all of this just looking at a picture of a naked woman was really damn exciting. After years and years of porn viewing, multiple women doing horrific things to each other on camera can be thought of as boring if you are desensitized enough. I’ve gone through the same thing. It’s all part of the process. The high jacker in your brain will use comparatively erotic images to lure you back into the addiction if you let it. Trick is to not put yourself in that position again and let your brain heal now. Now I’m at a position where if I happen to see a naked woman on accident or however (it almost seems unavoidable these days) I can enjoy it because I love the sight of naked women but not let it rule and control me. However if I started viewing erotic images intentionally or scrolling Instagram for chicks with hardly any clothes on or deliberately viewing movies I knew would have nudity in them. I know I would be right back where I started from. You are on the right track. But you have to stay away from edging even if it is to erotica. It’s all just going to set you back. That being said sometimes you have to learn these things on your own. Take my advice or not I still respect you for trying to kick this thing.

 

I know this has been discussed extensively but I had a pretty hardcore non-wet sexual dream last night (17 days streak). It woke me up and i could not get the images out of my head. Since we do not control this, it is not an official relapse. However, how bad does it set you back in terms of symptoms? I have been reading this book and the guy explains how dopamine is the neurotransmitter of dreams so i guess this means that having such a dream releases quite a lot of dopamine in the system...https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Daniel-Z-Lieberman/dp/1946885118

 

It is not really known if dreams or wet dreams effect recovery but i do know that the wet dreams and sex dreams do slow down significantly later on in the reboot.

Its just part of the process

 

I have bad sexual conditioning , seeing images pics , women know screen gives me sensation in Penis but nothing from real women.
Is it can b reversed I have been rebooting 3 yrs

 

Yesterday I watched came across porn online (pop up) and it was on maybe 30-sek 1 minute before I closed it. I did not seek it out. I did not close it immidately just to see how I would react, as a test. No PMO etc. It still has the pull on me that I want to watch more and more but I can stopp myself. I think also being in a place where many of us have not much physical contact with women on a daily, weekly or monthly basis makes is vulnerable to P. It's a fake kind of "comfort". Like "I can always go home and watch porn, to see a naked woman". It's very wierd but I used to think about it this way, sometimes even long for going home again being somewhere just to be able to watch porn. Anyone else shared these thoughts? I guess it's for the dopamin but also for the loneliness and depression I suspect.

 

You need to reset your counter. Only searching online already qualifies as a relapse. Peeking is for sure. Regardless if you think you did not respond, your brain, body and hormones did respond and you have reactivated the porn pathways in your brain. So please don't cheat on yourself and people on this forum and reset your counter and start again. I know this sounds hard, but neurologically it's the truth. Be hard and honest with yourself, you deserve more self respect.

 

If I did that I know what would happen.

Initially I wouldn't feel anything but gradually I would feel compelled to look again and once I've gone back to it once or twice, it would pull me out of the flatline and I would be hooked, likely leading to a one or two day long edgeathon. At which point I'd have reset myself not only back to zero but below and it'd take me the best part of a year just to get back to where I am now. I don't know why you would do that but maybe you're not quite as damaged by this as I am.

I remember a former poster on here who recovered after 15 months but then looked at some facebook pics for 30 seconds and it sent him back into a five month long flatline, that's how fragile a condition some of us are in.

 

I agree wirh you, time will take its portion. But based on my experience, taking am action can help time get faster. It could be difficult to realise the first couple of months, but later when you loom back you will find how hard it was and what were the things that helped you to improve the situation, even a little.

Until today i face PAWS but by time I realised that our habits, routine, lifestyle, time, and environment do have an impact on it.

I remember during my last streak before a month of the relapse, when I started edging again I used to get horrible social anxiety that I would feel at when I meet people at a gathering.. A feeling of numbness, palpitation, sweats, dizziness as if i would faint. But by persisting and faking it I used to feel relaxed and soothed after an hour or too.

In my opinion, I think there are many similar situations including depression, physical and mental weakness can be treated in a way or another to cope with it. Don't stress it, but keep pushing.

 

Just the typical suggestive/provocative pics that a lot of women post on social media, no porn or nudity but still enough to light the brain up.

I'm sure in time that kind of material won't have such a drastic effect but even when you're recovered you're still going to be in a fragile state for a while.

 

Wow, the king has spoken so I must obey. Tell me, you never came across anything resembling to porn in any social media during your time of abscence? For me the struggle is not never ever clicking anything, for me it's not to PMO and besides my own struggle is mine, not anyone elses. So who are you putting yourself on a high horse and tell me anything about me or what I should do. That's right, you are not so what if you just mind your own bussiness and journey instead of being a stuck up person? It's all the same, once you start to hang out with extreme people you get the same type of people in the group. The ones trying to be "the master", "the most extreme" and tell others what to do and what to think. NoFap is ofc no exception. The fact that I can for instance think about masturbation and still not do it, come across porn and just close it down and avoid it is for me something good. But if you want to be extreme, did you see any female today and had whatsoever any thoughts of intimacy? Then you must change your counter. Maybe also report yourself for the crime of "thought crime" Let's say you try to stop smoking and you hang out with other smokers but you do not participate, does that make you a smoker again, or does it make you stronger? It would be the same as coming across porn, close it and then leave that page.

Also, is the meaning of this page for you status? The counter itself means zero, it's just a measuring tool that is individual. I am not a part of a sect or your rules, I have clearly my own set of mind. Also I guess I already should have reset it bc I had sex and orgasm during this period, right? My counter however shows P, M and O for me as a whole thing. Sure, I do avoid all three but the goal is to avoid watching P doing M that results in O. And ofc stop watching P altogether.

 

I have the same but it's changed slightly.

When I started I was so numb that I didn't even care that I wasn't interested in anything or doing anything. Now I still have no interest in anything but I at least care that I have no interest, does that make sense? The anhedonia actually bothers me now whereas before I was so anhedonic that I didn't even care about it. Now I desire the desire at least.

And like you say, the only thing that does excite me is the thought of porn or sex but even then that's still nowhere near the same level of excitement that I used to feel for it. I guess this is no different to what hard drug addicts experience.

 

Me personally I tend to have wet dreams a lot every now n then I’ll say it does set u back quite few symptoms far as dizziness, low energy etc it all depends on if u continuously having wet dreams like myself cause urges kick in almost everyday I tend to ignore them then it leads to me having wet dreams so in my perspective it can set u back few symptoms which really gets annoying, my flesh is weak I got start fighting back

 

I don't know man, none of us really know exactly how all of this works. I guess the safest option is to just never take the risk and stay away from chicks on screens.

I always say to those who get out of a long flatline though that you should probably give it at least another 90 days before trying to have sex. Many guys recover and their first thought is to find a woman but more often than not they just end up back in a flatline if they try too soon. Worse still they get stuck in a relationship where they feel obliged to have sex even though their body cannot handle it.