Extreme Anxiety/Panic

It can. I’ve read somewhere, this is a little Chinese medicine, that it takes 100 days of no orgasm to balance our energies. Forget what energies, but if you’re depleted from excessive mo, then you need time to recharge and refill.

Then there’s your hormones, something more concrete I suppose. Those are out of wack and if you keep doing O, then those same hormones never get a chance to rebalance themselves, which take time.

And another guy told me that some guy didn’t use P for like over a year but still MO and he still had som symptoms.

My suggestion is try hard mode for 100+ days.

 

I'm in the same boat. Only sex with the SO. I have heard from some people, and my therapist that sex with SO is OK because it's not looking at a screen. I have heard from others that it's NOT OK. I'm on the fence, myself. I have had absolutely horrible withdrawals, even ended up in urgent care yesterday with chest pain so bad I thought it was a heart attack. I'm 50 and have seen p for a long time. After multiple ekg's and blood work, I'm fine. I had a great week 2 weeks ago, and then at 8 weeks, I'm hurting again. I have been pm free for 57 days, except for sex with the wife, and that sparingly. I wonder, myself, if I should go completely o free too. I can tell you one thing...this is the hardest, worst, experience of my life.

 

Sometimes it's hard to believe how severe withdrawals can be... I get chest pains too, it feels like a strong spasms and I usually get these after I experience hard stress. I'm 9 months 'hardmode' and my 'energies' definitely are not balanced yet :-/ I also have anxiety with no reason, hot flashes and brain fog from time to time. I was told these are side effects of depression, but after reading this forum I tend to think that it's more related with withdrawals from PMO than depression. Depression itself most likely is the consequence of brain neurochemicals disbalance caused by the excessive porn use. What bothers me that after 9 months of going 'hardmode' I don't see much improvement in my physical and mental condition. However rebooting is uneven process and it takes lots of time, I just hope I'll get better one day. But I agree with you, this is the hardest experience in my life.

 

That SUCKS. I have "proof" of sorts, of my imbalance. I was feeling particularly horrid, laying in bed a few days ago, chest tight, anxiety through the roof, and my wife says "I can relieve your stress" and bing-bam-boom, I was completely at peace for 3 hours. Dopamine and other goodies. Then it wore off and back to anxiety I went. It didn't get worse, just came back to where it was. I have 2 masters degrees in chemistry and biology, so I have a decent understanding of this stuff.

I can't believe 9 mos and still symptomatic. That stinks. I hope you get relief soon.

 

Adding to my post to Gota, to you too...

Went through Q course in SF, Jungle training, SERE school and also POW school. Nothing, NOTHING has compared to this. Told one of my law enforcement buddies I would MUCH rather have Vinny and Vito bust my legs with sledgehammers than go through this mental/physical manifestation crap. With broken legs, I know the timeline and the eventual outcome. With this withdrawal stuff I HOPE for an outcome and HOPE for a short duration.

My question then becomes: how long were you guys hooked on pmo before this? Is there a correlation between age, use, duration etc. I'm 50, never got too much into it until a few years ago, and never more than once a day. Never had even an inkling of ED, everything works fine, always has. In fact it feels better with my wife now, than in the last 6 or 7 years at least (we've been married for 20), which tells me there are positive changes on that level.

 

We should start a "shitty withdrawal" group! I actually lurk here a lot looking for stories from other people feeling as bad as me so I don't feel so alone. I have trouble believing how bad it can actually be. And I totally understand that feeling of "loosing my shit".

 

I kind of jokingly loathe those guys who say "what withdrawals?"

 

You and me both brother... and I just want to say, these are readings that I have come across and I find that it may be valid, but I am not 100% but it makes sense right?

 

How long have you attempted reboot for in general? Only 9 months? Were you a heavy user?

 

I think we're halfway there. I'm on the West Coast U.S. so it's just about time to hit the rack for the night. Try a cup of Camomile tea before bed. Seems to help me calm down before bed.

Try this out too

http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20669377,00.html#l-theanine-or-green-tea-

 

I'm in hardmode for 9 months and this is my first and the only attempt so far. Before I was a porn user since 1998, softcore erotica from my teen years (I think it all started in 1992). I also was in porn business for 14 years (running adult websites), but left the business 4-5 years ago. PMO usually every second day for many years (daily when I was younger), but in recent years I had a bad habit of edging daily. And I was feeling these 'withdrawal symptoms' for many years before I ever withdrawed from porn. It just got worse with every year. I think it was lots of things going wrong with me, some psychological issues, but porn was the main reason of my deteriorating health I think. 9 months might seem a long timeframe, but when I think about all these years I spent in porn I think it will take at least 2-3 years to recover. I can't say I feel very bad everyday, my physical condition is slightly improving compared how I was feeling few years ago I definitely feel better now. Lots of symptoms are gone, but maybe this is because I'm taking medication. However my biggest concern is my mental condition, noticeably increased anxiety when going hardmode, hot flashes coming together with anxiety, it's a new thing for me, never had them before. Depression is still here, however with the help of medication it's slightly improving.

I know my post might seem discouraging for those who are going through reboot (or just started the reboot), because 9 months is a long time and I can't say I see lots of positive results, but keep in mind that I have very long time addiction, many years spent in porn business (watching porn up to 12-14 hours per day) and I was already affected hard (feeling lots of symptoms of dopamine desentization and nervous system damage) long before I ever abstained from PMO, so for me recovering will take a longer time.

 

The first time I made it past 40 days and up to 150 I had terrible withdrawal symptoms, anxiety, etc. but since then while I’ve relapsed multiple times, I’ve reduced the binging. That helps with maintains progress tremendously. So, for example my counter now says 150 days or so but im on a streak of only day 30+. My relapse was only a single event. As a consequence, while I feel horrible when I relapse, my progress continues with only minor setbacks. With the relapse/binge cycle the progress is all lost.
My story is very similar to yours. I was hooked for decades. Check out my journal if you’re interested in how I’ve progressed. But my anxiety is much better now. Some keys:
1. CBT
2. No fantasy lust
3. No fantasy thinking (imagining scenarios like what people are thinking)
4. Prayer / mass

Btw, I don’t take any anti anxiety meds now but did for a while. They helped but I’m feeling better than ever now.

 

My psychologist wants me to take an ssri but I'm not quite ready to go there yet. When I went cold turkey 2 months ago it was hell. I had 3 pretty nasty anxiety attacks and a month of solid insomnia. Three hour nights were the norm. Then I had an OK period, followed by this latest anxiety attack thst lasted 6 days. I can still feel a twinge this morning, but actually got some decent sleep last night. Suicidal thoughts were pretty high in the middle of that last attack. I'm worried that taking an ssri would just give me another problem that I would have to deal with. How ling did you take the meds for and what was it like to come off them?

 

Hang in there man. Sounds like you kind of got set up with a worst case scenario, for sure. I can't imagine how it would be to be "in the business" and then try to get out. That would truly suck.