Swagnation
Fapstronaut
I am trying to find out if a lot of you guys on this forum can relate to my symptoms. I heavily got involved in pmo for nine months. I was watching it for a least four times in a day. However, I know that as my use progressed, I started noticing certain symptoms building up gradually until they became "permanent" even after I quit porn for good, these symptoms stayed and lasted for eighteen months. You read right, eighteen months! Here are my symptoms :
1) Depression.
2) Anxiety and panic attacks for no good reason.
3) Forgetfulness.
4) Concentration problems.
5) Mood swings.
6) Lack of motivation and apathy (things that I enjoyed and gave me the thrills didn't anymore).
7) Difficulty reading/studying efficiently as normal people do (I find myself forgetting and repeating lines or words over and over to retain it but it's futile)
8) Difficulty following up a conversation.
9) inability to handle stress. Any little stress made my symptoms worse, especially the cognitive impairment and mood swing.
10) brain fog from time to time. It seemed brain fog was totally separate from the cognitive impairments. Brain fog made my head feel clouded and worsened my cognitive impairments but it would subside still leaving me with my cognitive impairment. The brain fog usually came when I mistakenly saw a nude pic on the streets or on an ad. I never relapsed.
These are the symptoms I suffered as my addiction progressed. Even when I quit pmo, they persisted for eighteen months before clearing away. I think this was post acute withdrawal syndrome which I know lasts for 18-24 months or in worse cases three years. I also think hypofrontality and downregulation of dopamine could explain these symptoms. I also observed that these symptoms are present in alcohol, marijuana, hard drugs and pain killers addict even persisting in these addicts after their abstinence. I admit that they are probably more dangerous than porn but the psychological implications are all the same. Whether you believe it or not, if you are addicted to pmo, you risk having a post acute withdrawal syndrome that can last for many months to two years.
I never had PIED probably due to the fact that I was not addicted long enough. Truth is, I might be wrong maybe there is an underlying issue I ignored but I have found people whose story are similar to mine. Two were 1.5 years and another is still suffering it after 11 months. Maybe many of us don't know what it's like to be normal that's why we think we are healed after 90days..... Maybe!
NB: I never did illicit drugs, Marijuana, alcohol, painkillers or any psychoactive stuff. Porn happened to be my only indulgence.
Thanks your feedback would be appreciated. Are my symptoms due to porn (which I believe) or where there underlying issues?
dude having those symptoms for 18 months seems like a total nightmare to me. the discipline you have for not giving in is really a thing i strive for, good job man. by the way does anybody know anything about how long those symptoms, especially the depression, last when you already had depression before nofap? i've been depressed for 5 years now, and through nofap i get new insights in my depression which is good, but it also seems that the depression, especially the part where i don't feel like doing anything (except watching porn) is worse than before. i know that this is probably because i don't numb my thoughts with porn anymore, but does anybody know how long that lasts?