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

Man those are long timelines. I really hope mine doesn't take that long. I guess it depends on many factors. Mine will be at least 12 months. I went like 8 months back in 2020-2021 and wasn't close to full healing. But I also got buzzed from drinking a couple times during that streak. My plan for this is complete abstinence that would mimic pmo in anyway. Try to heal faster. Do you think monk mode could accelerate the timeline?

 

Yeah that's a great post man. He's spot on. Monk-mode would be to remove most stimulating activities out of your schedule, essentially living like a monk. Occasional phone usage for texting and YT and if you work on a computer would be ok. I like what he said about point #4: do not replace one addiction with another. I also like #7 keeping busy to rewire and heal faster. And #12 reading books. That's really my goal is to remove all the potential highly dopaminergic activities and replace them with things like reading. Like he said, the paws will be much worse. Whenever I introduce cold showers, my paws gets much worse. Just confirms to me that if I take away a highly dopaminergic activity, then the brain is healing faster..

 

Have you ever had a time that you did something that it got you out of paws?

 

Yeah true, I agree 100%. I asked because I had incidents where I drank alcohol or watched tv I enjoyed and it actually pulled me out of paws because of the dopamine releases I was experiencing. So I went from feeling absolutely awful from paws to actually feeling pretty good. It just worries me that if I do those things that make me feel better, it will delay the recovery process considerably. What do you think?

 

Absolutely man. You're right. We can do things to help heal faster but ultimately it's a marathon. I'm 29, so I guess I'm pushing to be healed by age 30. But whatever the timeline is, I have to be good with. I can't fall into the trap of rushing this thing.

 

Nice bro, that actually makes me feel a lot better. I often read about 16-18 year old kids on here. I found NoFap at age 24. But I live in MI, US. You?

 

I'm four months into the process, I haven't stumbled at all and I still suffer from symptoms like brain fog and more..

Is it normal?

 

How long will it take me to recover? I must have hope that will hold me through all these hard times..

I'm starting to think I'll never be normal again

 

It's extremely difficult bro. I show up later than I need to be there often times, my motivation is non-existent, and I'm brain fogged out most days. It sucks. Most days I just go through the motions because that's all I can do. Surprised I can maintain this job up to this point.