I Need to Change: My Story at 16 Hello there. Let me start by saying that this site has been a blessing. I've been trying to quit my addiction for months and I'm glad that there's a place where people like me can join together and help each other. I've decided to join just now after having relapsed once again. Let me introduce myself and my story: I'm a 16 year old guy from Lisbon, Portugal. I have always been a very curious and creative person since birth. I took interest in science and music since I was a kid. I loved challenging myself and coming up with questions no one could answer. I was always a very active person; I had infinite energy, I was always happy, and I was also very sociable. I don't know when my addiction began. I remember masturbating up to 8 times a day (no joke, I need help) when I was in day care. I don't know how I found out about masturbation at such an early age. I did it all the time because it felt good, even though I had no idea what it really was. That habit didn't seem to negatively affect me back then. I was still energetic and happy. Fast foward to 2009, the year in which every thing started to go wrong. It all started with weird breathing problems. I suddenly became a very anxious person and I became aware of my breathing pattern. It would freak me out to the point in which I would always end up hyperventilating. Family problems started happening during that year as well, and that put me in a very stressfull position. I was just a kid who suddenly had to deal with very adult things such as financial problems, depression, divorce, and others. Years passed, my habit continued, and I began feeling worse and worse. I was now in puberty, and that meant that every time I orgasmed, I would ejaculate. It was also at this time that my severe exhaustion began. I was tired all the time, and no matter how much I slept, I would still wake up exhausted. I kept on masturbating several times a day, every single day. My vision started becoming blurry and a few other symptoms started developing. I asked my parents to take me to the doctor's several times, but every time I went they told me everything was fine. I had no idea back then what was causing my energy and vision problems. I still managed to live a good life back then. My mind was still great even though my body was constantly physically tired. But things changed at around 2013. This was the year in which all the major problems began. I developed many many symptoms (dozens of them) which no doctor had the answer to; my libido started dying; my energy was non-existant; my penis and testis were always cold and soft; and my mental state started going down the drain. It all got so bad that from February 2014 up until October, I was seriously considering killing myself. I kept on going to doctors during this period, but all they told me is that I was fine and that I was just complaining too much. Not even my parents believed me when I told them I felt horrible. I felt like it was me against the world. Luckily, I decided to take the matter into my own hands at around November last year. I researched and researched all over the place about what could be causing my problems. I read a lot about several different conditions and I finally concluded that I was most likely suffering from Adrenal Fatigue and Candida (for those who don't believe in candida and think it's all a myth, I had visible thrush all over my tongue and throat, so there is no doubt in that). I marked an appointment over Skype with one of the top naturopathic doctors and researchers in candida and adrenal fatigue, and I started treatment from then. The treatment was great. I drastically changed my diet and eliminated all refined carbs and sugars. I also started taking anti-fungals and probiotics. This treatment has been a life saver. Ever since I started doing it, I feel like my depression has eased off a lot (just the feeling of finally knowing what's wrong with my body helps a lot). Additionally, I feel like i've reduced my symptoms by about 40%-50%, both in numbers and in severity. However, last month I started reflecting upon how I had gotten in such a condition in the first place. Most people suffering from candida either got it from antibiotics or adrenal fatigue (adrenal fatigue makes your immune system very weak, allowing for candida to spread in your body). Since I barely ever took antibiotics in my life, and since my first symptoms seemed more related to adrenal fatigue, I concluded that my candida was a result of my adrenal fatigue (which I'm also treating ATM). But that made me question how I had gotten adrenal fatigue. I never lived an overly stressfull lifestyle. Sure, my family had problems here and there, but so did the families of many other kids I knew, and none of them were suffering from the condition that I had... I then realized that there was one thing which I had always done differently from every one else I know, and that this thing was probably what first caused my adrenal fatigue: masturbation. I started realizing that maybe I masturbated way too much. This came to my mind when my friends started talking about it, saying that the max they've ever done is 3 times in a day. I was surprised how much I had done it in comparison to them. I did the math, and ever since I remember, I've masturbated over 10,000 times (3,000-4,000 times with ejaculation). And also, no one else I know ever began at such a young age. I started researching how masturbation affected the brain and the adrenal glands, and what I read seemed exactly like the description of adrenal fatigue. I then found more sources (experienced doctors) saying that masturbation was the number 1 cause of adrenal fatigue in teens. I decided to test this theory by stopping masturbation for a week. It was not easy. I relapsed several times (which made me realize I was addicted), but eventually, I managed to go one week straight without masturbating. These were the results: My energy was a lot better. My penis was warm and it came back to its normal resting size (partially). My visual snow improved slightly (less after-images and better focusing). This experiment confirmed my suspicion that over masturbation was contributing to my poor health, and that it is probably the starter of it all in the first place. So here I am now, determined to change. I've already started treating candida and adrenal fatigue, but I know that I won't fully recover if I don't stop the underlying cause, which is over masturbation. Oh well, wish me luck. I really hope that I can do this and finally get my life back, I'm too young to be worried about this kind of stuff. TL;DR: Main 3 symptoms: Constant exhaustion which sleep can't alleviate. Visual snow. Irregular libido, ED, and extremely flaccid penis (like if I had just gone out out of a pool with freezing water. This only recovers partially if I stop masturbating for at least 1 week). The story: I masturbated a lot since I was pratically a baby. I developed adrenal fatigue (which later caused candida) over the years. I feel like c*** all the time and I want to change this. NoFap here I come!
