Severe withdrawal symptoms, anyone else?

          I've  used YBOP.com and these forums for quite a while now but i've never posted anything because i wanted to see what other people are going through. Here's my story:

        I've been masturbating once a day (at night) in order to fall asleep since probably 7th or 8th grade, and i am 21 now, so 7-8 years. Anyway, one day a couple years ago after a night of masturbating to porn and playing video games, i woke up to what seemed to be a complete burnout. Overnight i had developed severe light sensitivity, dizziness, fatigue, irritability, blurred vision, pressure in my head and behind my eyes and general malaise. I quit my job and went into a deep hole that i couldn't get out of. For a year I was jobless, experiencing these powerful and debilitating symptoms that would NOT go away. I went to every single doctor and everything that i could think of wasn't causing these symptoms.

      After a process of elimination i've decided to give masturbation/ porn up to try and heal myself and get back to living my life. I am on day 38 and have been experiencing some symptoms that have surprised me, Here's a list: (These didn't all happen at once, and haven't lasted this whole time)

-For the past week i have been experiencing pressure in my chest, like a shortness of breath
-severe panic attack (Never had these until i stopped masturbating)
- horrible anxiety about NOTHING. I have nothing stressful going on in my life
- my vision has actually gotten a lot better since i've stopped, i no longer need glasses and the pressure in my head is beginning to fade away slowly.
- thinning hair and horrible dandruff
- insomnia, waking up in a panic
- theres a lot more..

Anyway, the reason I'm posting this is to see if anyone else has experienced these horrible panic attacks for no reason? Like i said i have nothing stressful going on in my life and I'm having these. please feel free to share your stories and if you are experiencing similar stuff PLEASE let me know. Thanks for reading

Warm welcome to the Nation Anthony

I'd recommend creating a journal to detail your story as well as get specific feedback. With regards to your symptoms, I have gotten most of them when I was heavily doing p. I got panic attacks, anxiety, insomnia, blurred vision and shortness of breath (the latter always happened just before a relapse and is actually quite common in a lot of addictive behaviours).

Honestly, don't trouble yourself with the withdrawals, they are withdrawals that are the minds way with trying to undo years of conditioning, you've been doing exceptionally well holding out for 38 days. Some people feel brilliant at 3 months some after 6/9-16. Nobody can predict recovery, but it's far better than p, definitely.

I wish you success and better, promising days ahead

Anthony B said:

-severe panic attack (Never had these until i stopped masturbating)
- horrible anxiety about NOTHING. I have nothing stressful going on in my life
- insomnia, waking up in a panic
- theres a lot more..

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Yeah, same stuff here. I also became a kind of "paranoid" with regards to some work that had to be done.  I made mountains out of molehills.

There is a solution for any problem in this world. The panic, the insomnia and the anxiety will go away and your issues will soon be gone. Same here. Just know that the day is coming. There's no need to fall back into old patterns. New ones will be created, better ones will establish.

Anthony,
I'm going through the withdrawl symptoms right now as we speak.
The usual suspects like insomnia or lack of sleep.
-Lack of focus.
-Irritability.
-Anxiety
-overall depression
And like robust said, making a mountain out of a molehill

The way I describe it is that you are trying to make a better you and the old you is fighting the better version for
control over you. This battle is waging and you are in the middle taking the blunt of the blows.
But believe that the better you will prevail with each passing day.

Welcome to this great community.

I agree with the other fine men. It is a struggle between our true self and the addict mind. It does pass , it actually helps give us the fortitude not to go through it anymore.

Tough it out good sir! It is worth it. You are worth it!

Viper said:

Anthony,
I'm going through the withdrawl symptoms right now as we speak.
The usual suspects like insomnia or lack of sleep.
-Lack of focus.
-Irritability.
-Anxiety
-overall depression
And like robust said, making a mountain out of a molehill

The way I describe it is that you are trying to make a better you and the old you is fighting the better version for
control over you. This battle is waging and you are in the middle taking the blunt of the blows.
But believe that the better you will prevail with each passing day.

Click to expand...

Exactly this!

Thank you everyone who replied, it really makes a positive difference. I haven't told anyone about my masturbation addiction or why i have been so anti-social and down lately, i just have to make up some lie to get them off my back. It's nice to talk to people who are going through the same thing, even it it might be through the internet. it just blows my mind how chemically driven we are and it is the strangest thing to feel anxiety and depression for no reason at all.

the weird thing is, i have absolutely no urge to masturbate, like NONE. Just the thought at relapse makes me disgusted.

Lately I've been noticing that i have very low pleasure response to everyday things like eating (I never feel hungry and have to force myself to eat). Could this be due to low dopamine?

I've been through a feeling like you describe. Flat pleasure responses, less enthusiastic towards meals and some good activities. I think you nailed it the various receptors and brain chemistry is changing at this phase of recovery and that leaves us a bit off... to say the least. Last time I found lots of exercise helped... cardio (modest) and lifting (for me pretty modest) and making myself do it. This got my body/mind looking forward to something positive and helped me sleep. Helped build a healthy appetite as well.

I've been through a feeling like you describe. Flat pleasure responses, less enthusiastic towards meals and some good activities.

Click to expand...

Yup, all of those pretty much come from withdrawl symptoms. Even if it's my favorite food, I wouldn't be to excited to chow down. I'll eat but just for the sake of eating. Just not motivated or in the mood to do things that generally excite me.
At work, I'm just a robot. I'm not engaging at all, it's like I'm there just for the paycheck. I wasn't like that before the PIED and the reboot

Last time I found lots of exercise helped... cardio (modest) and lifting (for me pretty modest) and making myself do it. This got my body/mind looking forward to something positive and helped me sleep. Helped build a healthy appetite as well.

Click to expand...

I think the key there is making yourself do it. This is exactly what most
guys won't do to improve themselves. Because like you, I can't say I enjoy most of the exercises. But there's no denying the benefits.

(Just a quick side note: Lifting in the evening (let's say 2 hours before going to sleep) can make you not falling asleep too. When I deadlifted heavy in the evening, my body did not rest within a couple of hours.. It needs more to calm down. Just my experience.)

I wish i could work out.  . Just a month ago i was the kind of person that could jog a mile without stopping (easy for some but really challenging for me) and now even walking up a small flight up stairs gets me winded. Im 21 and in really good shape/ health (except for this ordeal that I'm going through)

I am not as strong as the rest of the members on this thread. I used to masturbate twice a day , almost every day for 30 years. A few months back I quit , did yoga and stuff. For a month I was ok and during this period I used to masturbate 5 -6 times a month. This has been continuing for the last 3-4 months. But I am not able to control my sexual urges and masturbate at least 4-5 times a month. The symptoms of depression,anxiety come back to haunt me . I am in a dilemma as to whether to start again by doing it everyday or stick to 5-6 times a month. I know the best thing is to quit it once and for all but I cant seem to........

I do not want to single anyone out who says they are not strong enough or physically fit to work out, I think that is a pathetic excuse and I will tell you why.  Fitness is for people of all sizes, shapes and physical makeups! You don't have to be a monster when in order to set foot into a gym.  You think those 'monsters' were walking in hoisting mad weight started out that way?  The answer is a hell no they most likely started out with the bar and built themselves up.  You think people who just completed a 26 mile marathon were just born runners?  The answer again is an affirmative hell no!  Those guys most likely took baby steps and went from walking one block around the house to running 4 laps around the track and built their endurance up to the point where they can do those incredible things. 

I do not want to turn this into a fitness reply because that is not what this board is about but going to the gym and working out is probably one of the biggest reasons as to why a guy like me who at times could not fall asleep without masturbating who at one point could not go a day without looking at porn, who beat his meat so badly that I actually had burns on the penis at one point to becoming clean of Porn Masturbation and orgasm in a hard mode for 40 plus days.  Whatever excess energy I had in regards towards using porn and masturbating is now being expended at the gym.  If I did not have that outlet, I have no idea as to how I would deal with my porn addiction and the recovery process that goes with it. 

So for those of you who want to work out but are fearful that you are not strong enough or don't have the stamina to perform I suggest you start out by walking around the block then build it up to 2 blocks and build it up from there.  Or for those of you who want to go to a gym  but are afraid of what the other people are going to say well I say throw your head phones on and do some work and lose yourself at the gym trying to physically and mentally improve yourself.

No sir. I did not mean that. I meant I am still not able to stop masturbating ... I still do it 5- 6 times a month. i do one hour yoga and go for 2 rounds of around 2 km

Yes a lot of what you have a lot of us here have gone through it. I  have bouts of shortness of breath and extreme anxiety all the time. They kind of get weaker after a while  so bear with them because it's worth it.

On phone so can't type properly

But yes around my first 30 day streak I got struck with wanting to vomit, head spinning, not leaving my room for a 2 week streak anxiety.

My ONLY advice for how to deal with it. Stick to the reboot, anxiety will only drag out as long as you drag out recovery.

I mean I do advise other things.. Exercise, Meditation, Cold Showers but they're typically not what will 'cure' the anxiety

Wow thanks for the replies people!  I was about to fix an appointment with a shrink! I had other suicidal thoughts too .My whole body feels as it it is on fire and I can't seem to sleep  at all. Let me see what happens. I hate to say it , but misery loves company :-\ :-\

withdrawals...
here in order after a relapse.
day 1-2 almost nothing just a numbed brain feels like a sponge. i dont know why but on day 2 i have the best day i am very social and everybody is down with me
day 3- 5 here i start to get the full package i get anxiety (short breathing and a rollercoaster heartbeat, up and down)insomnia,depression
this goes on for some days. by far the worst days
about day 8-9 i get an insane urge the cravings are insane and these days are very very hard for me... this has already shifted when i started i could only get to day 4-5 without these cravings
~day 11/12 i feel very depressed but not a big urge anymore
then a few days later i feel pretty normal and then pretty awesome ... around day 22 i feel like i am unstoppable.



(longest streak has been 24 days)

thats stuff which i wrote down to myself, it seems to always happen in this order.

My only doubt here is how is sex considered good & masturbation bad? The only difference is in the former you have a partner and in the latter case you don't. How does that make such a huge difference when the act is the same ?  I have read over a 100 mags which advocate having sex once a day but all of them criticize the act of masturbation.

Withdrawal symptoms from quitting porn?  Never heard of it.  OK, maybe once:

https://www.nofap.com/forum/index.php?threads/get-educated-get-tools-and-learn-to-love-withdrawals.2402/

Peace.