Wicked Case of PAWS....what finally helped me

The opposite is true, if you are truly addicted. D2 receptors deficiency and lack of elevated levels of dopamine will cause temporary anhedonia (total lack of energy and will to do anything). So called "superpowers" come from brains trying to rebalance dopamine levels to baseline, undershooting and overshooting the baseline target causing euphoria and depression:


I've experienced and am experiencing all of the above plus resurfacing of preexisting anxiety/depression. Devil's cocktail of swing emotions has often lead me to very dark places in the last 2 years of abstention.
Abstention is only a first part of the puzzle. Taking care of your body, changing your inadequate mind patterns and feeling the void in your soul is needed to fully recover. It basically demand of us to reinvent ourselves if we want to break the cycle of addiction(s) for good.

 

I want to stay hopeful, and wish we all get a reward for our efforts but, looking at your graph, is the target level the same as the baseline? —g axis. That is not much of a reward!

 

What an absolutely awesome and insightful post, thank you so much @BeanBurrito for taking the time to write it, I'm sure it will help a lot of people.

As a pharmacist, I would like to add a word of caution: most SSRIs work solely on hindering serotonin reuptake and might actually cause anhedonia after some time. They are generally not useful for treating it in the first place, either.

Now Prozac (fluoxetine) is one of the very few that actually helps with anhedonia, which is caused by a down regulation of dopamine receptors. I'm so happy that you took the plunge and got a medication that is proven to work in your case. Another medication that is known to treat anhedonia is mirtazapine, which doesn't have any sexual side effects.

Testosterone, or lack of it, is usually not the problem and levels should always be checked before tampering with. Failing to do so can cause a lot of troubles down the road. As you also mentioned, most supplements are worthless.

High quality fats are essential for treating depression, so is a high intake of fiber and a moderate amount of exercise. All of that has been scientifically proven to help.

For anyone suffering from anhedonia, please talk to your doctor. This is a common side effect of quitting addictions, so make sure you describe what caused it in the first place and make a plan on what steps to take to take control of your health and your life. Anhedonia is a terrible condition and a common cause of suicide. There is help to get!

 

Still struggling to understand how I can fix my PIED. Will this come from abstaining alone? Magically I’ll start getting elections. Hope it comes soon, SO and I get a bit frustrated

 

Reward is return to normality (baseline). Constantly overshooting dopamine level baseline with binge PMOing FU brain chemistry and depletes your body of vital minerals and vitamins, causing anxiety and depression over long run.

Here is very good description of how treatment of binge compulsive masturbation should be treated:

Treatment
Treatment and recovery for the compulsive masturbator can also be a varied and complex issue. The most commonly suggested first aspect after therapeutic engagement is suggesting a celibacy contract, which involves a prescribed period of no sexual activity with self or others, any pornography, chat rooms, affairs, etc. The primary goal of the celibacy period is to allow the fear, anxiety, pain and shame that the client has been endeavoring to escape from the opportunity to surface. It is in this place of affective awareness that the client can often for the first time begin to glimpse the myriad of issues they have sought escape from and the ritualized fantasy they have often engaged in.

During this celibacy period, the clinician has the opportunity to obtain a detailed sexual history, a detailed family of origin history, and begin the sacred process of understanding how the client became socialized around their sexually compulsive behaviors as well as the process of self-harm as an escape mechanism.

As the client’s treatment progresses, the clinician is able to illuminate how their distorted self-belief system has concretized their belief that acting out with masturbation increases their sense of isolation and separateness. What the client seeks in their masturbatory fantasy world probably centers on sexual acts with others yet their compulsive masturbation reinforces the belief that, “I am alone, no one will desire sexually; therefore I am responsible for meeting more core sexual needs alone.”

https://oxbowacademy.net/educationalarticles/comp_mast/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6174597/

 

Thank you for taking the time to put that response together brother.

 

I've tried three drugs during my reboot, none of them helped me get slightly better, they were all dopamine reuptake inhibitor (DRI) I didn't want to take SSRIs because of the reasons you mentioned in the thread
the drugs were modafinil, deprenyl and wellbutrin, I was feeling shit, a quarter of a human if you will and they had no effect on me. I'd take one at a time, (never all of them at the same time)
currently I'm still taking wellbutrin (Bupropion) 150 mg a day in the morning as well as doing all the other things we need to do for a proper recovery

 

Would love to hear an update from you brother if you ever return. Hope you are doing well.

 

How are you doing right now? Are you still on AD's?

 

How are you doing right now?

 

First of all, it's good to hear that you feel well again and are back to living your life to the fullest!
the problem in my opinion is that you replacing difficulty with disaster, antidepressants change the brain and disrupt homeostasis, at first everything is bright and rosy, but after six/seven years or so everything starts to go wrong, there is a lot of factual research material on this on the Internet that I highly recommend you read. Weaning off antidepressants is the hardest weaning in the world and the side effects that come with it are very hard (I'm sorry to tell you ). There is an American website called https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/
I really recommend you go through it!

Can you tell us please how are you today? How do you feel ? How are you progressing in your process? It will help us all

 

An update would be nice.

 

I agree.