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

Do you still experience paws after being 2 years in? I still struggle with insomnia pretty bad

 

Thanks! No worries! Great insights! The further I go on this journey, the anxiety eases up. Dizziness was a come and go thing, it went away though. The thing I love about Nofap is you find out who you are. And also the women attraction haha. My family tells me all the time when I'm abstaining that "That girl was checking you out", or "Those group of girls were eyeballing you" haha

 

Yes unfortunately I do. Most of my symptoms now are waves of depression anxiety dizziness anhedonia and brain fog. I quit PMO the same time I quit smoking weed which I did daily for about 2 years. I think that’s probably a big reason why I’m still in it. It’s a lot better than it was though. I only had insomnia in the beginning. I would get tremors at night. I would also do this thing where I would get right to the point of falling asleep and get jolted awake with a massive rush of adrenaline. That’s was awful and only really during the initial detox faze. After a few weeks that went away and I started sleeping over 12 hours a night from exhaustion. Thankfully we were in the middle of lockdown so I could get away with it.

 

That’s awesome! I’m not surprised. Getting free from Porn addiction puts you in a very rare category of men. I’d say one of the rarest. People especially women notice that kind of confidence. I’m very happy for you!

 

We need some of the recovered old timers to come and tell us what life (maybe sex life) is like for them now

I am attempting another streak. For me if I go anywhere near sex, I get dragged back into addictive behaviours in milliseconds. Maybe not porn itself, but it will be sexting, dating apps, sex apps, fantasizing, masturbating to fantasy, it just starts to consume everything

I met a girl for a date 9 days, ago and we had sex 4 times throughout night and morning, and after she left, I felt so broken I can't describe. That many orgasms just killed me

 

You should try to practice semen retention, have sex but withhold ejaculation. Look into Karezza

 

Hey guys,

I haven't checked in here for a while. Thought I'd drop by. 375 days free of MO, 447 days free of porn. ( I had 1 MO relapse on day 72 of my initial journey, which is why the counter is different)

My recovery is steady, I'm capable of doing more in my day to day, I can workout more consistently and the progress is gradually going up. I have more energy overall. I still have certain issues with occasional anxiety and stress tolerance, it's still not back to factory setting but it's improved a lot. My anxiety has decreased tremendously, I remember at the start I would have panic attacks almost daily, heart palpitations, fear of dying from them, amongst lots of other irrational fears. I remember I couldn't even watch a bit of TV without getting anxiety and feeling drained. This is no longer the case, although I'm still conscious. I do have anxiety for certain things, which I am working in gradually with a therapist. Given my stress tolerance is still not back to normal, I have to be cautious with how much self-development and exposure I integrate in my day to day, I just don't want to be set back, as that was a reoccurring theme during my journey. Full blown insomnia is no longer a thing, it was probably the worst thing in the journey, since you can't really heal without the support of sleep. I went from insomnia > to very low length of sleep > to extremely long length of sleep(12 hours still no rest) > to more regular sleeping with bouts of occasional anxiety. PAWs pop ups occur much less and for much lower duration, they use to keep down for weeks, now its at most 2-3 days. Brain fog is a faint whisper of what it was. Morning wood is definitely there much more often, healthy erections, my member looks WAY healthier than it ever did.

I think part of PAWS is also a burnout, our brain is utterly fried and it takes time to overcome. In my opinion abstinence is only part of the process though, you also need to work on the way you cope with stressors (and we all know our stress is dialled to 1000 during withdrawal or rather our tolerance of stress is at -1000). Picking up habits of meditation, delving into what is behind the emotion that arise, meaning what were you running away from, or rather what does your body now want you to run from, gradually working out at your capacity. Now, to make this clear before anyone gets upset about me mentioning exercise. I started with quite literally 2 mins a stationary bike and I have to stop due to the anxiety I would get and the quick drain. This is coming from a guy who was super active before, deadlifts over 300, pull ups over 20 etc. It was a humbling experience to say the least, but week by week I would show up. Gradually, minuscule improvements. Today I can do 20 mins of bike effortlessly, without getting a drain. I also do 1 upper and 1 lower workout for about 30 mins each a week. Granted, the weights and reps for body weight part are still low, it's still a huge improvement from where I was.

The thing that bothered me was that, last year I got my T levels checked and it was definitely low for my age, I did the same in December of 2022..and sadly they were slightly worse. Stress affects T levels, my b12 levels were also low, which is another marker. I'm planning on doing blood work for all my electrolytes and all of my B vitamin levels. I want to address anything that can help support me bring those T levels up and assist in the rest of my recovery.

As for women, I'm not exactly in a place where I'm ready to actively date again yet. I do have a few women at work who are actively flirting with me, I just banter playfully with them but that's it. I'm not at a point yet where dating is viable, I have few things I want to fix before. My goal is to go on at least 1 date by the end this year, but we'll see. Full recovery is my first priority.

Perhaps not the most motivating post, but it's the truth of where I'm at right now. There's been a lot of ups and down, but also a lot of improvement. I'm sure this next year will bring more success.

Let's keep to our path guys.

 

Glad to hear your positive outlook friend, do you mind if ask you how old you are, as you mention 16+ years of addiction.

 

I have that same anxiety. It sucks. But gradually improving. I take b12 pill along with mens multi vitamin and a vitamin d pill. That really helps also with some sunlight. You're a good inspiration!

 

Thank you friend! Yes..anxiety/low stress tolerance is a really difficult thing to manage during this journey.

For b12, I started about a month ago, 250 MCG every second day does the trick for me . 1200 MCG daily was making me dizzy and lightheaded. I may opt for a multivitamin later, I just want to see where I stand after my blood test. I read a study for vitamin d, those who took 3.3k a day for a year increased T levels by around 20%, the thing is they were also overweight men. I'm not overweight at all. But I will increase from 2k to 3k soon, see if that makes any difference overall.

 

I’ve experienced that same thing. The jolt of adrenaline right before falling asleep. I’ve also experienced every other form of insomnia as well. Not able to fall asleep, wake up at an early hour and not be able to fall asleep, wake up several times a night, be able to fall asleep but not able to get into a deep sleep.

it’s been the worst part of it for me. Then there are periods I sleep fine. It’s weird

 

I go into quite a funk after sex with my wife too. Think I need more time to fully heal. I, too, would like to hear from some guys who went from withdrawal symptoms to successful sex life with no negative side effects.

 

Hey redemption,

Yeah sure, I’ll be 34 in a few weeks. I’m pretty sure I started PMO at around 14 and then experienced PIED at 30. So I actually think it may have been slightly longer than 16 years.

 

I honestly couldnt imagine dating with so many of the symptoms that paws so gracefully provides and i have had multiple serious relationships while i was in my addiction phase. I feel like my brain is to scrambled to be anywhere near a relationship

 

Congrats on your progress man, sorry you still have to deal with debilitating symptoms

 

It was motivating for me - it's just good to see that I'm not alone with all of this, and the detail you mention about sleep and exercise just provides a bit of re-assurance that "it's not just me" - your story, at least in terms of symptoms and related health problems is very similar to mine. I have been wondering what to do with exercise - the irony is that it can make my sleep a lot worse, at least if I over-do things, so it's a fine balance, so I am looking to tweak my exercise / activity regime to get as much from it as I can without affecting my sleep too badly.

Keep up the good work!

 

Hang in there bro, it wasn’t too long ago that I felt this way. As time passes you will gradually get that natural urge to gravitate towards people. The symptoms will reduce and you will forget that you ever had them. It’s a gradual process for sure but it WILL happen.

 

After reading this I figured it would be time to chime in again. My situation is a little unique as I've recently entered into a sugar relationship with a girl over 20 years my junior.

Just a quick background to begin: I'm nearly five years sober after being an end stage alcoholic, suffered horrible PAWS for the first two years of sobriety, stopped masturbating November 2019 and did 20 months of semen retention while being in flatline. The first time I had sex after retention was during a Vegas trip and it put me back in flatline for quite a bit.

I met "Mary" on a dating/hookup app, she reached out to me looking for a sugar daddy. Our arrangement actually works quite nicely for both of us. She periodically satisfies my sexual needs while allowing me to get some "reps" in to rewire. Besides financial incentives for her I've come to realize she gets more out of our arrangement as well. As cliche as it sounds I'm almost certain she has daddy issues and from her perspective I think pleasing an older man with an air of authority fills something within her that is missing.

I'm still steadfast in my belief that there is no substitute for time when it comes to healing. However now that I'm out of flatline I do believe there is benefit in rewiring. The more I have seen her the healthier my libido has become. I have no idea how long our little arrangement will last but I'll enjoy the ride until it ends.

Am I absolutely 100% recovered? No, but I've finally reached a point where any symptoms are minor and don't really have an impact on my quality of life. I'll seldom get a headache or heartburn or suffer fatigue but it's nowhere near as bad as before. As long as I stick to my disciplined lifestyle I believe that signal noise will decrease even more.

Life is awesome and I'm happy. I still stay away from porn and masturbation but my time with Mary has definitely rejuvenated me.

 

How old are you

 

@Freeddom_Taker I am 43 years old