So excited to learn about the community ...

Gonna give it another go. I've been trying to figure it out by myself. The neurology fascinates me. Understanding what is going on behind the scenes helps wash the self blame off.

I'm not totally sure how I ended up here. Here is low energy, depression, anxiety, withdrawn and negative self image from feeling beaten by biology and some symptoms that are related to Parkinsons. I'm just realizing the connection between here and PMO. I was thinking all that stuff was driven by neurological deterioration and the development of pre-Parkinsons type symptoms. I'm definitely suspicious that it might be that PMO is really the only problem.

There is some interesting info here in this group about addiction and deltaFOSB that adds some pieces to the puzzle for me. I've not yet seen that these other pieces are a part of this forum and related materials. Those other pieces related to addiction and cravings. Let me share with you my synthesis. Perhaps 1 + 1 + 1 will equal 10. Long story short, I think my PMO is interfering with an amino acid/nutrient cocktail I take to generate more dopamine. I'm suspicious that a hard reset combined with the aminos would increase success of nofap'ers. Let me explain, and perhaps somebody here has a missing piece of the puzzle.

As part of my journey I started high doses of amino acids or neurotransmitter therapy. Dr. Marty Hintz is an MD in Minnesota. He's also a chemist. He's using amino acids to treat all sorts of dopamine related problems. This includes ADHD, depression, anxiety, restless leg syndrome. Basically nearly any neurological disease has had success with his methods. There's no money in it for big Pharma because it is based upon nutrition so you won't be hearing about it except by word of mouth. They have published many papers with the University of Minnesota. He has a reputable network of MD's and neurologists that are using his methods and lab.

His big break was in being able to determine dopamine levels in the brain by using a proxy. He did this not by measuring the amount of seratonin and dopamine levels in urine, but rather by giving specific high doses of precursors and then measuring how much of those components were absorbed by the system and how much is exiting through the urine. Apparently, the body dumps what it needs if certain conditions are met. The doses and combination of components gives the body everything it needs to produce dopamine and serotonin. The production of dopamine chemically is like a big pit of snakes eating each other. There has to be a balance in all of the components or production stops. The components deplete each other as they produce dopamine and once a relative nutritional deficiency develops, production of dopamine is affected. So, to test for dopamine, he knows what should be in the urine given a provided cocktail and the difference is what is in the brain and body.

Another big piece of the puzzle was being able to properly determine what components were needed in the production of dopamine. A group of scientists in Japan mapped out the chemical chain reaction for dopamine and this was pivotal in his understanding of how to interact with it.

The lay persons summary is that there is a chain with two primary paths that produces either adrenaline or melatonin. Adrenalin when you need energy, and at night, many of the same pre-cursors are used to create melatonin which induces sleep. The chain involves tyrosine, l-dopa, seratonin, 5htp, melanin, melatonin, adrenaline, b6, sulfer and some other stuff.

When dopamine production problems happen, all sorts of brain based problems occur including addiction. But actually, it seems that addiction can start the negative self reinforcing cycle of low dopamine, more addiction, DeltaFOSB, less dopamine, more cravings etc.

We know from this group and it's related materials that DeltaFOSB plays a role in addiction. It has some affect upon dopamine, which I don't fully understand yet. But here is the fascinating thing. While on the amino/nutrient cocktail, all cravings stop. Why? It's because your brain is happy as it has all the dopamine it needs and all the other problems go away from there. Dopamine production is at the top of the chain, fix it and it cascades down through the system. I think the point of DeltaFOSB is that you have to hard reset for long enough for the DeltaFOSB to exit the system and fight the NoFap fight until you change your brain back to its natural state.

Here is a little more about the aminos. There are two protocols. Three phase and dopamine dominant (DD). Most everybody starts on three phase and if it's not working you go to the DD protocol. The description of certain symptoms (parkinsons symtoms, restless leg, alcoholism) puts you straight into the DD protocol.

For the people that went into three phase, they were having 94% success rate for those that found the right formula for them. This means, get an MD, take the formula, test, adjust, etc until all symptoms are gone. It took me six tests. At three tests, they said, you are one of the 6% and they moved me to DD protocol. Once on the DD protocol, all my symptoms when away (depression, anxiety, etc) but I was still PMO'ing. I wasn't really craving the PMO, but I enjoyed it and didn't know it was a problem. Thus I was keeping up my levels of DeltaFOSB.

Here is an interesting aside. They are using these aminos with Parkinsons. They are having 25% go onto the DD protocol, stop after a period of months with NO return of symptoms. The remainder have NO symptoms but have to keep taking the amino coctail. It's an incredible claim, I know. If you have a serious interest, private message me and I'll give you the name of my doctor. You can also look at new dt neurosciencemyths dt com. I have no association with them other than as a patient of one of their affiliates.

Lastly, I do suspect that the DD protocol is highly related to addiction based dopamine problems. The 3 phase protocol gives your body lots of 5 htp to produce l-dopa and then from there adrenaline is built through all the normal steps. In the DD protocol, l-dopa is given directly as it is not produced no matter how much 5htp is given. Maybe DeltaFOSB has something to do with it. If you know or understand how DeltaFOSB fits into the mix described at neurosciencemyths, then please share your thoughts.

So now lets come back full circle to a hard reset and NoFap.... I'm excited. I need to plan out how I'm going to journal and keep track of progress. I'm on about day 3. I now have some tools and understanding that I did not have before learning about this community. Signing off for now ...

Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, scientist or PhD. I'm not trying to prove anything other than relay anecdotally my experience and suspicions. Read this post and take what you want and leave the rest. Please direct your scientific method criticism elsewhere.