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Post acute withdrawal and my symptoms. Can you relate?

Discussion in 'Rebooting - Porn Addiction Recovery' started by DarkSektur, Mar 30, 2018.

  1. DarkSektur

    DarkSektur Fapstronaut

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    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?
     
    Bliss12, Bull87, MNViking and 22 others like this.
  2. DarkSektur

    DarkSektur Fapstronaut

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    I did pmo heavily from March 2013 - November 2013. Had these symptoms persist from November 2013 to May 2015. I think post acute withdrawal syndrome. Now is March 2018 and I am enjoying my recovery. Indeed, one will never know the value of something until it's lost. Dear fapstronaut, do away with your addiction as much as you can after that you will still have to work hard to readjust and lead a successful life. That's double task for we addicts.
     
    Last edited: Mar 30, 2018
  3. jorg78

    jorg78 Fapstronaut

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    I hope I recover faster than eighteen months, I'm soon at 8 months..
     
  4. BeanBurrito

    BeanBurrito Fapstronaut

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    Absolutely can relate.

    Post acute withdrawal from porn is real.
     
  5. DarkSektur

    DarkSektur Fapstronaut

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    can you relate? And how long was your use?
     
  6. 110% is paws and one relapse puts you back in it in my experience. Found out about nofap 2012 and before this streak I failed for that many years and didn’t progress at all and lived with pied for most of that time.
     
  7. DarkSektur

    DarkSektur Fapstronaut

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    wow. So what I experienced was post acute withdrawal syndrome? PAWS is a real Bitch.
     
  8. To reply to your question in the other thread about withdrawals, I too have experienced similar symptoms that have lasted for several years. Unfortunately I wasn't aware of the implications of relapsing until last year. I'm now 6+ months in of hard mode and am only now starting to feel positive changes in my perception and mental performance.

    I've made the mistake of thinking relapsing after longer periods of time wouldn't hurt. Or that looking at P and edging without O wouldn't hurt. I was wrong. If you've had an addiction so severe, the brain is so hypersensitive that it simply can't handle moderation. It really is all or nothing when it comes to withdrawal. At least for me.

    I've especially experienced severe symptoms of panic and anxiety that started when I first tried to quit PMO. Intense fear, agoraphobia, social anxiety, you name it. I'm absolutely certain that PMO landed me in this state of clinical anxiety. I've been seeing a psychiatrist ever since this started and am unable to function normally because of this condition. I'm reluctant to tell her about it since porn addiction is not considered a mental disorder.

    I'm certain that I will need another year or so in order to fully recover.

    Spring always is a hard time since it involves some sort of sexual awakening, for me at least. If possible I'd like to know how you guys deal with this.
     
  9. Gota

    Gota Fapstronaut

    I have most of these symptoms. However I had many of them before abstaining from PMO, so I'm not sure if these are withdrawal symptoms or maybe they are the consequences of prolonged dopamine overstimulation? What I really noticed when I went 'hardmode' was increased anxiety. This was new for me. I'm talking about general anxiety that has no clear reason (or at least I was not able to identify it). The first few nights I went nofap I used to wake up at night feeling like a scared child wanting to put the lights on. I still feel the anxiety with no reason from time to time. Concentration problems, lack of motivation, mood swings, these all can be related with depression too.

    I also can't handle a stress at all. Any stress knocks me down to depression state in a matter of minutes. Usually the stress is accompanied with lots of psychosomatic symptoms. Dry mouth, nausea, headaches, preasure and heat feeling in the head, muscle tension, chest pains, hot flashes/cold, etc. And I don't know if these are withdrawals symptoms or I get them because of depression.
     
    Last edited: Mar 31, 2018
  10. DarkSektur

    DarkSektur Fapstronaut

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    Oh my goodness, you sound like we went through similar thing. I too noticed them before quitting as I stated in my post. They persisted for eighteen months. I also had heat in the head.

    I just have few questions for you:
    1) long were you addicted?
    2) What was the frequency of your use?
    3) Did you "do" hard drugs, lsd,alcohol, weed, painkillers or any substance?
    4) are you still experiencing these symptoms?

    I think all these are porn related.
     
  11. DarkSektur

    DarkSektur Fapstronaut

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    Are you healed totally?
     
  12. Gota

    Gota Fapstronaut

    1. About 20 years (including 14 years I spent in porn business running adult websites).

    2. When I was in porn business I was watching porn daily (sometimes 12-14 hours per day), it was my job. When I quit porn business I usually surfed porn sites daily, but was spending less time, usually 1-2 hours per day. PMO once every 2-3 days.

    3. No. I used to drink alcohol sometimes, but it was not material. The last few years I don't drink at all.

    4. When I was in porn business I was feeling like I got flu everytime. I was feeling bad for very prolonged periods, sometimes months. I thought this was because of my weak immune system, but now I think it was the consequences of dopamine overstimulation and high stress. When I left porn business the symptoms became worse soon and I was diagnosed with depression, but actually I was feeling more bad physically than emotionally. My depression was not typical. When I was diagnosed with depression and started to take medication I didn't quit PMO and porn use. 8 months ago I finally quit PMO and during my abstinence the symptoms persisted, but they were improving slowly. However 2 months ago the depression suddenly worsened again (with all these psychosomatic symptoms I described in my earlier post), but it might be more related to other psychological problems (my current job, loneliness, family issues) than from abstinence from porn.
     
  13. No. I feel somewhat better but feel that I need much longer than 6 months.
     
  14. DarkSektur

    DarkSektur Fapstronaut

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    Shit! You clearly have post acute withdrawal syndrome given the wave like occurrence of the symptoms.
     
  15. Dagger323

    Dagger323 Fapstronaut

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    I can relate to pretty much all of these symptoms. I was addicted to PMO for over 15 years. I began to experience all of these symptoms during my addiction and now I’m on day 40 hard mode and am still experiencing them along with stomach cramps, bloating, back and joint pain, brain fog and many others. I can’t comment on how long they last for because I’m taking this one day at a time. I sincerely hope my withdrawals don’t last beyond eight months or a year. This is total and utter hell for me.
     
  16. FromZeroToNinety

    FromZeroToNinety Fapstronaut

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    Did you meditate at all during your recovery?
     
  17. jorg78

    jorg78 Fapstronaut

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    Yes, absolute!

    A very long time, not so much porn the later years but did masturbate a lot.
     
  18. DarkSektur

    DarkSektur Fapstronaut

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    No I didn't meditate or tried to combat my symptoms. All I did was wait it out.
     
  19. DarkSektur

    DarkSektur Fapstronaut

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    Did you do pot, alcohol, drugs, painkillers or other substances? I heard and read that addiction to these can result in similar symptoms. Did you do any of them.
     
    AspiringVitality likes this.
  20. MarinoBigFan1984

    MarinoBigFan1984 Fapstronaut

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    The withdrawal pain is part of the process.
     

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