Nearing 5 months in hardmode - being sick a lot

Yea I went through a period of being sick (or at least feeling sick) off and on for like 3-4 months straight. The doctor couldn't find anything wrong.

I think that withdrawals can mess with your body in a lot of different ways including your immunity.

It's not the sexual abstinence that is causing it, it's the post acute withdrawal from the drug that is PMO.

Just keeping push, it eventually passed for me.

 

In my own experience it feels as if your immune system is compromised from heavy abuse of pmo. I very rarely get sick but a few months into withdrawal bam a week or two of flu then the following week a cold. I never was a person to get the flu, fucked me right up haha.

Hang in there buddy.

 

I don't feel like having flu/cold during my reboot, but I used to have these symptoms for many years when I was PMO addicted. They used to appear and dissappear maybe 4-5 times per year and usually lasted for few weeks or, sometimes, even months. I agree that it has something to do with your immune system. The symptoms were very much the same like having cold, except no temperature. I don't know if this related to PMO addiction or, maybe, prolonged stress, but I was permanent sick back then.

 

I don't mean to discourage you but well over a year of hard mode.

My body and mind were completely out of whack. No doctor could find anything wrong and the only thing that changed in my life was giving up PMO.

As hard as it is you just need to accept that things might be shitty for a little while longer. I can also absolutely relate to the chronic fatigue/lethargy along with a host of other mental symptoms- depression and anhedonia being the worst.

Your brain and body will heal though, there are many accounts on this forum and others of people going through a similar process.

This shit is really, really hard. Just keep pushing through and keep in mind that everything that you are going through physically and mentally is temporary.

 

Keep yourself active, go to the gym, hike, play sports.
Be more social and meet friends.
Have you thought about taking (Bacopa Monnieri) supplement? It's known to regulate the dopamine levels and I believe it should help.
I stopped PMO for about 4 months, but didn't know that I should stop orgasming/edging too because the problem is in the dopamine. So, I stopped it for about 25 days.
I started to get erection some nights, the erections are 60% strong, then flatlines most of the time. I know from reading that it takes time. We spent so much time damaging our brain, so let's be patient and give ito brain the time to heal.
This is my first post, I hope you guys find it useful.

 

From my understanding, the early days of yourbrainreblanced.com was populated by a lot of middle aged and older guys who didn't grow up with high speed porn and didn't PMO during their formative early years. Older dudes who didn't grow up with the stuff and have plenty of prior sexual experience typically take a lot less longer to reboot than younger guys.

Gary Wilson, who discovered (or at least popularized) the link between ED and porn has even come out and said that he didn't realize the full effects of withdrawing from PMO. Again, he was initially dealing mostly with older guys who tend to not only recover faster from PIED but don't tend to have the nasty withdrawal and post acute withdrawal symptoms (PAWS) from porn.

When I first started rebooting 2 years ago, I GREATLY underestimated how long and how tough this journey through PAWS would be. I think that the notion of a 90 day reboot is still out there but at least now there are more and more accounts of guys going through longer, more drawn out reboots.

There's no guarantee that your will have severe withdrawal symptoms but there is a pretty good chance. I've seen accounts of dudes who basically had very minimal withdrawal symptoms and I've seen plenty of accounts (like mine) of extremely sever withdrawal symptoms lingering well over a year into the reboot. The timeframe and severity of the withdrawals are based on a number of factors and individual brain chemistries and I honestly think that there's no point in trying to put a timeframe on recovery as hard as that is.

There have been several things that have helped me get through this period in hell. I would have to put meditation at the top of the list. Chances are your mind and body will be all over the place. It's helpful to have some awareness of your thoughts and be able to at least notice when you inevitably fall into a cycle of negative thinking or anxiety.

Exercise and eating healthy is also obviously important. I don't think there's anything that you can do to prevent withdrawals but eating right and trying to give your body the best chance of fighting through this is a good idea.

Trying to replace the dopamine that you've lost through PMO, the dopamine that your brain has relied on for years is also important. Exercise, socializing, getting into a hobby or craft, reading, etc are all beneficial. Basically the idea is to try and not only give your brain a little bit of the dopamine that it is no longer receiving from PMO but also to try and make sure that dopamine is coming from healthy sources. That's the whole "rewiring" part of this process. Rewire your brain to crave exercise and socializing and productivity and ACTUAL FEMALE INTIMACY instead of PMO.

Lastly and most importantly my number one piece of advice would be to be easy on yourself. Everyone has different symptoms but the common factor for most everyone going through PMO withdrawals is that it is an EXTREMELY difficult time. It's been the hardest thing I've had to go through by a fucking mile. Try to be a friend to yourself and have some compassion (not pity) for yourself. This journey is hard enough on its own, try not to make it harder by getting frustrated with yourself and the way you feel which is much easier said than done.

Also, try to keep in mind that everything that you're going through is TEMPORARY. By all accounts (not only form porn induced PAWS but also PAWS from other substances) the symptoms don't last. You will eventually come out the other side at 100% or more likely more than 100% of your PMO self.

Going through this tremendous adversity will make you a stronger, more grateful, more empathetic person if you let it.

Just hang in there and keep fighting.

​

 

17 years Addicten for Every year 2 months reboot. I was 20 years addicted and Fight some years know and it get better but slowly.