I believe I initially posted this in the wrong forum as I relate much better to people my age range.
Hi fellow fapstronauts. I'm grateful to have found this place as I was introduced to porn at about 12-13 and am now in my 30s. I was alright throughout high school and college regarding stress, anxiety, etc...for the most part. Then adulthood hits, my father suffered in bad health for a long time then passed, work stress, etc.
In doing some reading, ok a LOT of reading as I've become OCD (gee I wonder what that is a symptom of) about our plight, I've come across something to bounce off you guys and/or gals to see if this possibly ties together what we're going through.
First, Gary's finding of this study on addiction - https://yourbrainonporn.com/hpa-axis-dysregulation-men-hypersexual-disorder-2015. Addiction makes it more difficult for us to regulate stress.
Second, stress produces cortisol (learned something with my biology degree for once). Excess stress produces a lot of cortisol.
Third, this - https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/stress-hormone-causes-epigenetic-changes. Hence why some of this may actually have genetic predecessors for this stuff. I know my family had some addiction issues throughout the years. Thankfully I didn't besides porn. I won't quote the whole article but stress and cortisol alter our genetics! The more we stress, the more likely we are to stress. It's like muscle memory. Of course they want to do further research but that's pretty convincing to me. Check out the article, it's pretty fascinating. This could explain why we get OCD, anxiety, depression, etc. Maybe?
Fourth, most of us hit that flatline after stopping PMO. Are you doing other things that still may be altering your ability to heal? Stressing? Drinking excess caffeine which again contributes to cortisol production and stress? Over-consuming other substances like alcohol? etc etc. This could be why SSRIs don't affect every person the same, because our behaviors are different and maybe porn addiction isn't the only thing screwing up our stress levels.
To me, this would tie together why things like CBT, Meditation, Yoga, etc all contribute to healing from depression, OCD, anxiety, etc. They help to manage your stress response. And things like SSRIs are supposed to help rebuild the brain, from what I understand.
Are we overdosing our bodies on stress? PMO, alcohol, caffeine, work stress, cortisol...whatever it may be.
Anyhow, that's something that struck me as interesting as I've done all this reading and could explain our superpowers when we stop PMO. That's my theory for now. Will update going forward in my journey. Went 70+ days toward the end of 2017 but relapsed. Did it again the week after, and now back on nofap.
Hi fellow fapstronauts. I'm grateful to have found this place as I was introduced to porn at about 12-13 and am now in my 30s. I was alright throughout high school and college regarding stress, anxiety, etc...for the most part. Then adulthood hits, my father suffered in bad health for a long time then passed, work stress, etc.
In doing some reading, ok a LOT of reading as I've become OCD (gee I wonder what that is a symptom of) about our plight, I've come across something to bounce off you guys and/or gals to see if this possibly ties together what we're going through.
First, Gary's finding of this study on addiction - https://yourbrainonporn.com/hpa-axis-dysregulation-men-hypersexual-disorder-2015. Addiction makes it more difficult for us to regulate stress.
Second, stress produces cortisol (learned something with my biology degree for once). Excess stress produces a lot of cortisol.
Third, this - https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/stress-hormone-causes-epigenetic-changes. Hence why some of this may actually have genetic predecessors for this stuff. I know my family had some addiction issues throughout the years. Thankfully I didn't besides porn. I won't quote the whole article but stress and cortisol alter our genetics! The more we stress, the more likely we are to stress. It's like muscle memory. Of course they want to do further research but that's pretty convincing to me. Check out the article, it's pretty fascinating. This could explain why we get OCD, anxiety, depression, etc. Maybe?
Fourth, most of us hit that flatline after stopping PMO. Are you doing other things that still may be altering your ability to heal? Stressing? Drinking excess caffeine which again contributes to cortisol production and stress? Over-consuming other substances like alcohol? etc etc. This could be why SSRIs don't affect every person the same, because our behaviors are different and maybe porn addiction isn't the only thing screwing up our stress levels.
To me, this would tie together why things like CBT, Meditation, Yoga, etc all contribute to healing from depression, OCD, anxiety, etc. They help to manage your stress response. And things like SSRIs are supposed to help rebuild the brain, from what I understand.
Are we overdosing our bodies on stress? PMO, alcohol, caffeine, work stress, cortisol...whatever it may be.
Anyhow, that's something that struck me as interesting as I've done all this reading and could explain our superpowers when we stop PMO. That's my theory for now. Will update going forward in my journey. Went 70+ days toward the end of 2017 but relapsed. Did it again the week after, and now back on nofap.
