NoFap Week One. Social Anxiety| Panic-Attacks| "Brain-Fog"

Hi there!,
so this is probably going to be the most personal story I've ever told anyone, let alone strangers on the internet. My Name's Jan and I'm a 23 year old student currently living in Berlin.

The last year I slowly started developing bad social anxiety. I can't exactly put a date on it, but it just started coming up. I was smoking a lot of weed at the time and occasionally (max once a month) did some other "party-drugs" as well (speed + xtc). The Anxiety got so bad I started getting Panic attacks. My Face would start to tense up and feel like its frozen, my heart is racing and I feel like I can't breath. I remember on one particular occasion I really thought I was dying. I called my parents and everything .. that was really bad.

This was sort of a wakeup call for me. I was pretty sure the drugs did this too me so I started cutting them completely out of my life. I started eating healthy, I got a pushbike and rode to work every single day. Looking back this was a bad idea. I didn't get the bike for the sports aspect, but too avoid public transportation at all cost, because of the incredible anxiety I had. But by avoiding my fears they actually grew bigger. But anyways, I was really trying to live a healthy lifestyle. Almost worse than the anxiety was that I started getting what I can only describe as "Brainfog". My head constantly felt like it was wrapped in wool, I felt dizzy and was not able to think straight. This had me really really scared. So scared in Fact that despite my S.A. I went to the doctor. She did a full check up on me everything looked good. I was then sent to a Psychiatrist, did a MRT and again everything looked just fine. The Doctor gave me a weak antidepressant against the panic attacks, but I threw them away (I knew more drugs would just make things worse).

I quit my job, and focused only on university and ever since then I've slowly but surely getting better day by day. I think this might have to do with the fact that I started to stop masturbating so much. Since I was 13 I was jerking off about 3 times a day (don't judge me). But recently I was on a trip and didn't really have the opportunity, and I noticed that my energy was slowly coming back. I was doing baby steps but it was enough for me to do research into this and discovered NoFap. Some of the Stories I've heard were actually quite similar to my story. So a week ago I decided to give it a shot. The effects already are crazy compared to my progress before. I'm back in public transportation without too much anxiety, I've had 2 presentations that I did well in and my confidence is slowly coming back. Most notably, after just 3 days the "brainfog" has more or less completely cleared. I can't wait to see where this journey will take me and I actually have a positive outlook for the first time in a while.

Thanks Guys and happy holidays
Jan