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

Do you guys think it's safe to drink alcohol whilst in PAWS? I'm doing alright with my recovery (month 8) and will probably want to start socialising again but I've created this idea in my head that alcohol is going to set me back a lot.

Can anyone tell me whether or not they've experienced notable set backs after drinking alcohol?

 

4 months away from 3 years in deep PAWS + SEXUAL EXHAUSTION. I must note it wasn't 32 months hardmode but 16 months as my longest streak. It was a due or die situation as I've reached the lowest of the lows.

 

From what I see, no one here has made out of the PAWS!!! which is very scary....

 

how long have you gone without PMO? Have you just been MO’ing without P?

 

I think this is because everyone is still MO’ing thinking if they don’t watch P they’ll still be fine, which is wrong. From what I’ve seen, the ONLY people to have recovered from this is those who don’t PMO whatsoever.

 

Also, Don Quixote is the only one here to have recovered. Other than that, there was a Reddit user by the name of sikreodds97 (I believe that’s how it’s spelt) who has recovered. There is a PDF floating around this group that you can download, talking about what he dealt with, how he recovered, etc. Not the sikreodds97 on this website. I believe it was around 2 years of no PMO for him. If you want the most detailed journal of recovery from PAWS, winningover was I believe the one who posted it here.

 

When I got sober from alcohol I joined an online forum about nine months in because I was losing my mind. That's where I found out about PAWS and it sounded exactly like what I was going through. The forum had quite a lot of people talking about suffering from PAWS but nobody talking about overcoming it. I realized after awhile that the people who were suffering ended up leaving the website the second they started feeling better. That is what I ultimately ended up doing.

I'd like to think that I would stick around and give encouragement to others once I beat this thing but I can't be 100% certain. Once all traces of my drinking past were behind me I firmly put it in the rearview mirror and moved on with my life (such as tackling THIS addiction). It's possible that as soon as I exit the flatline I'll want to put this period of my life in the rearview mirror as well.

 

People I knew who got healed from PAWS are: SANEAGAIN; BIG LEBOWSKI; DARKSETUR; YOUNAME IT.... There was 1 on Reddit. Forgot his name.
Once I'm healed completely, I'll make a success post and move on from there.

 

Saneagain recovered? I remember when I first started dealing with PAWS and stumbled across his posts.. he seemed absolutely miserable. I mean, who wouldn’t be. But he just seemed super down low about it.

 

For me alcohol was part of the problem but that's mostly subjective. Do you really need alcohol to socialising? If you need alcohol to socialise then I would consider it as a problem by itself.

From my subjective perspective I would do anything to avoid any form or stimulant that can alter your brain chemistry. You don't know if it sets you back until it actually sets you back. I mean it's also advised to not drink any coffee in your PAWS recovery while coffee only being a soft drug. Alcohol seems much more dangerous than coffee to me if you view it in general. I personally wouldn't do any experiments.

I think PAWS is a great chance to break every reliance on any substance. Why would you drink alcohol if you feel really good sober and clear-headed?! If it's only because other people pressure you then I don't think it's healthy to consume something out of peer-pressure and social acceptance. The key to be around people that drink while not drinking, is to not make a big deal out of it. Just not make it a big topic and have something non-alcoholic to drink and just socialise as you normally would do

 

Thanks for the response. I wouldn't say I NEED alcohol to socialise but seeing as I'm 21, most of the social events with my events are based around drinking and it is difficult to properly join in on these whilst sober. After some thought, I am going to try and hold off until I'm fully recovered as the risk of disturbing PAWS recovery probably isn't worth the extra fun!

 

It seems so as we don't hear about him anymore. He talked to a rebooter saying that "he was fine."

 

How did you hear about this? Really hoping it’s true but the last post in his history was him talking about how he still had awful symptoms 24/7.

 

Another rebooter commented his word in a thread. I'm part of severe case so I used to read and reply a lot in a lot of posts.
If you don't hear about a year at least from PAWS sufferers, that's mean they are healed and moved on with their life.

 

Seems like recently I've been coming across more and more stories similar to our own. A guy on the journal website I go to just reached out saying that he was 17 months into PAWs.

Considering how much time I spend feeling lonely, it feels nice to have more "peers" bouncing around the interwebs.

Talked to my therapist yesterday and I told her that sometimes I believe that all of the anger and pain I experience during the flatline are just old emotions that I used porn to repress. What do you guys think about that?

Sometimes I take a more spiritual approach, like the one above, where there is some kind of balance to all of this. I'm just processing old stuff that I ignored, and that these old feelings have to be felt in order to be set free.

Another part of me thinks that I'm feeling really shittily only because of kindling, and brain chemistry, and neurons, and electricity, and other science-y things.

Guess we'll never know the truth.

The spiritual stuff helps me make sense of all the pain I've endured. The science stuff helps me stay detached from the pain, knowing that it's just carbon doing it's thing.

One of those mysteries of life, I suppose.

Edit: Just took a piss and thought about something that makes me lean more towards science:

During my first periods of abstinence the pain was nowhere near as severe as it has been during this reboot. That makes me think that kindling is definitely the main culprit, though the psychology of why I turned to porn still holds true.

I had emotionally immature parents, and it fucked me up. I buried my unexpressed emotions in porn, used it to morph my personality, and am now, at 29 years old, still facing the consequences. But maybe without porn, I never would have been able to understand my past and who I am in relation to it. It's all fucking jumbled around.

 

There is a way to find out - quit PMO for good, don't do anything else (at least consciously) to change yourself, and then compare how you feel before and after.

I have noticed that PMO massively affects my state of mind - calmness vs anger etc. I think that without getting a PMO-free foundation in pace, then everything else is just pissing in the wind.

Also, I can relate to having "emotionally immature parents". That's where the problem starts...

 

Gary Wilson RIP.

Does anyone know why he died?

He was a true pioneer who must have saved many lives, and I'm grateful to him for everything he has done.

 

Oh my bad! Are you healed completely?
If so, you're one of the proof we can be cured.

 

R.I.P to Him as well!
He was one of the ones who paved the way for us rebooters.

 

How long you've been in PAWS?