Has anyone here experienced chronic fatigue which they think was linked to porn?

[lukeman3000]

For the past 2-3 years it seems like no matter how much I sleep I always feel like shit when I wake up. Usually I get to feeling better over the course of the day (and generally I feel best at night before I go to sleep), but getting through the early and mid-day can be really tough for me.

It's not that I'm falling asleep necessary, but I just feel... shitty. I can feel it behind my eyes; kind of like my eyes just want to close all the time. I feel like I have virtually zero energy to do anything like exercise, socialize, etc.

I'm wondering, is it possible this could be attributed to porn and whatever changes it's made in my brain, potentially as it relates to dopamine sensitivity? Has anyone experienced similar things and felt better after abstaining from PMO for a certain period of time?

I used to think that it was allergies but testing didn't really support that hypothesis. I also have done two sleep studies and neither one has found anything substantially wrong with me.

 

[doneatlast]

Porn can definitely make you feel crummy, foggy and low on energy, though it likely doesn't account for 100% of what you're experiencing.

Having brain fog, lack of motivation, and being generally disinterested are definitely results of porn.  I definitely found improvements after quitting, but I also made diet/exercise/sleep improvements along the way as well.  Even long before I quit I knew porn was causing problems.  If I was going in to work late and had a PMO session in the morning, I could feel it most of the day as I was fogged and spaced out.  Those days were pretty close to what you're describing. 

I would definitely advise quitting porn for a variety of reasons and it can only help.  I suspect you'll find a few other smoking guns along the way, but they'll be easier to uncover as you go about your journey of quitting porn. 

Also, if I have lots of screen time from either my TV or desktop computer before bed, my sleep is crummy.  My phone doesn't hurt all that much.  I suspect it is an amount-of-light thing.  As a kid, I could fall asleep in front of a TV, but that was with old CRT TVs.  Other than that, the things that affect my sleep are the usual suspects like anxiety, caffeine, and so on.

 

[Fappy]

yeah at the start of the reboot. porn fucks up the dopamine receptors as you know, and this can leave you feeling like a steaming sack of shit. they will regulate themselves again so dont worry too much

 

[lukeman3000]

yeah at the start of the reboot. porn fucks up the dopamine receptors as you know, and this can leave you feeling like a steaming sack of shit. they will regulate themselves again so dont worry too much

To be fair I've felt this way for the past 3'ish years. Not every day is horrible, some worse than others, but in general I feel like I have just had little to no energy for a long time.

 

[doneatlast]

Out of curiosity, does your abnormal sleep schedule entail late night PMO sessions?  It could be your morning/mid-day brain fog is something like a hang over.

 

[lukeman3000]

Out of curiosity, does your abnormal sleep schedule entail late night PMO sessions?  It could be your morning/mid-day brain fog is something like a hang over.

No. Generally if I stay up late I'm playing video games. My PMO usage is almost always in the morning after I first wake up (probably not a great way to start the day).

I'm in the process of trying to fix my sleep by cutting out late-night gaming and trying to get to bed and wake up at consistent times. It's tough. Yesterday I slept close to 11 hours (not all at once but definitely most of that time). Last night I felt like I had a lot of trouble going to sleep (and staying asleep) and although I was in bed for 8 or 9 hours I felt like shit when I woke up this morning. Though the past two days have been really good, today so far has not been.

It is certainly interesting. In the past year (before starting nofap) I can remember literally two days in which I felt "good". One day was back in January and I remember the world looking so vivid and colorful, feeling absolutely great and actually happy. I was smiling at work and working was easy and not a drag like it usually feels like. I had another day like this a couple months ago (though not quite to the same extent). But since starting nofap (two weeks ago) I have had at least 3 good days. Although they may not have been quite as profound as that day I experienced back in January for whatever reason, they were noticeably better than surrounding days and my energy levels were much higher.

I thought that I had a sleep disorder, and although I haven't entirely ruled that out I'm not so sure anymore. I did two sleep studies and both were negative for any kind of disorder. I do have some apneas when I sleep but it's just below the threshold for what's considered "sleep apnea", and the doc says I don't look/act like a person who is chronically sleep deprived. Perhaps it's possible that the fatigue I'm feeling is directly related to dopamine desensitization. That would be fucking crazy if that is the case.

And I guess it also makes sense that, if that is the case, it might be a rollercoaster like this for awhile since I've been using for so long (probably close to 20 years). I wonder if when I feel shitty like this if this essentially a withdrawal symptom or if it's just a consequence of wearing out my reward center?

Although I don't have sleep apnea my doc was willing to humor me and wrote me a script for a bipap (which is a breathing apparatus for those with sleep apnea). I actually sent it back yesterday because I wanted to see how I would react to cutting out porn, first, without introducing too many variables. I'm going to try to give it 90 days but if I haven't noticed any more substantial/consistent changes at that point then I'll probably re-order the bipap and try it.

I feel a bit like I'm grasping at straws here trying to figure out why I feel like shit all the time. Doctors can't find anything wrong with me. It's not allergies, blood markers are all good, and apparently it's not a sleep disorder (unless it's a more subtle one not being picked up). But I have to ask "what's more likely?" Is it more likely that the docs have missed something incredibly substantial? Or that I've fried the fuck out of my brain from nearly 20 years of multiple-times-per-week PMO use?

Guess I'll find out with time

 

[doneatlast]

It all kinda makes sense to me.

As I mentioned above, a morning PMO would leave me spaced, foggy and weird.  In the last couple years of my porn habit I had to be very careful not to have a session before work or anything else because it would leave me useless.  PMO can sometimes act like a tranquilizer for either sleep or anxiety.  Imagine taking some tranquilizers first thing in the morning!  You'd be useless in the morning, and just coming to when you're supposed to be winding down.

What kind of games are you playing?  Are they the sort where you can cut back without quitting?  Some people say that all video games are always bad, but I don't like to go there.  I feel like there are too many exceptions to make that a rule.  Giving yourself such a strong stimulant at night, both between the engagement of the game and all of the extra light, just doesn't seem like a good idea when you're trying to trouble shoot sleep.  Maybe fitting in your playing before 8 p.m. or something?

An interesting and unexpected thing that happened when I quit porn was that my caffeine sensitivity went way up.  Before I used to be able to drink lots and lots of coffee, and while I'd feel it and occasionally be sleepless, I never had to be mindful of my limits.  I just drank as much as I felt like drinking, at virtually any hour.  Canned energy drinks gave me problems, but in the form of coffee I was fine.  Once I quit porn I had to closely watch how much I drank, and have to be very careful not to drink coffee too late in the day.  Sometimes when people have to take stimulants in the mornings, like adderall, they're also prescribed sedatives/benzos for the evenings so they can settle down, like lorazepam.  Take one out, and they fall out of balance.  I kinda see it that way.  I removed the sedative of porn so the coffee became much more intense.  This is another way of saying maybe your life is just set up too much with the sedative in the morning (porn) and the stimulant at night (video games).

I can definitely see how you'd be sleepless.  If you're slowly waking up during the day, the last thing you want to do is crawl back into bed.  You want stimulation.  I had surgery a couple months ago, and found that as my meds were wearing off through the day, I was more awake and alert and didn't want to sleep, even though sleeping the first night after surgery seems like an awfully good idea. 

Quitting won't be easy.  The withdrawals are never fun, and in your case with it messing with sleep so much, there very well could be a "worse-before-it-gets-better" thing going on, but don't give up.  In fact, if it gets worse, it could just be a sign you're on the right track.

 

[lukeman3000]

It all kinda makes sense to me.

As I mentioned above, a morning PMO would leave me spaced, foggy and weird.  In the last couple years of my porn habit I had to be very careful not to have a session before work or anything else because it would leave me useless.  PMO can sometimes act like a tranquilizer for either sleep or anxiety.  Imagine taking some tranquilizers first thing in the morning!  You'd be useless in the morning, and just coming to when you're supposed to be winding down.

What kind of games are you playing?  Are they the sort where you can cut back without quitting?  Some people say that all video games are always bad, but I don't like to go there.  I feel like there are too many exceptions to make that a rule.  Giving yourself such a strong stimulant at night, both between the engagement of the game and all of the extra light, just doesn't seem like a good idea when you're trying to trouble shoot sleep.  Maybe fitting in your playing before 8 p.m. or something?

An interesting and unexpected thing that happened when I quit porn was that my caffeine sensitivity went way up.  Before I used to be able to drink lots and lots of coffee, and while I'd feel it and occasionally be sleepless, I never had to be mindful of my limits.  I just drank as much as I felt like drinking, at virtually any hour.  Canned energy drinks gave me problems, but in the form of coffee I was fine.  Once I quit porn I had to closely watch how much I drank, and have to be very careful not to drink coffee too late in the day.  Sometimes when people have to take stimulants in the mornings, like adderall, they're also prescribed sedatives/benzos for the evenings so they can settle down, like lorazepam.  Take one out, and they fall out of balance.  I kinda see it that way.  I removed the sedative of porn so the coffee became much more intense.  This is another way of saying maybe your life is just set up too much with the sedative in the morning (porn) and the stimulant at night (video games).

I can definitely see how you'd be sleepless.  If you're slowly waking up during the day, the last thing you want to do is crawl back into bed.  You want stimulation.  I had surgery a couple months ago, and found that as my meds were wearing off through the day, I was more awake and alert and didn't want to sleep, even though sleeping the first night after surgery seems like an awfully good idea. 

Quitting won't be easy.  The withdrawals are never fun, and in your case with it messing with sleep so much, there very well could be a "worse-before-it-gets-better" thing going on, but don't give up.  In fact, if it gets worse, it could just be a sign you're on the right track.

Thanks for such a great reply.

I agree with every thing you've said here. The past couple days I've noticed some substantial changes to my behavior/mood. I have been far more angry/agitated than I normally am when playing video games. When I'm not gaming I don't tend to feel angry, but when I'm gaming and I get killed or I lose, I feel a surge of anger rush through me. So much so that I broke the spacebar on my keyboard a couple nights ago because I slammed the shit out of my expensive RGB keyboard. Sometimes I'll slam my desk for fun (it sounds funny over the mic to my friends), but this time I actually muted my mic before hauling off on my keyboard. I was legit angry.

To me this seems very uncharacteristic. I also noticed myself being much more agitated and short with my friends while playing, and that's something I've been really ashamed of. In fact, the other night I declined gaming with my good friend because I was afraid I would lose my temper or do something to otherwise embarrass myself. And last night while playing I realized "I'm not having fun". I've experienced this over the past few days; video games have just not really been much fun to me. I find this very strange as they are one of the only things that bring me pleasure and enjoyment, as pathetic as that might sound. The other is my guitar.

Do you think this sedative effect could still be occurring even though I've stopped PMO'ing in the mornings? That my brain is somehow used to it and producing similar effects even though I've stopped doing it?

Man, I feel kind of crazy to be honest. Here I am making all of this suppositions about how PMO is causing my fatigue and lack of energy, and I have absolutely no way to prove that whatsoever. It's very frustrating. I even feel weird telling my friend that I consider myself to have a porn addiction. I mean what the fuck, am I self-diagnosing? And here he uses porn a lot and has a shit ton of energy 24/7 and apparently no negative effects so he probably thinks I'm absolutely crazy.

 

[doneatlast]

It all kinda makes sense to me.

As I mentioned above, a morning PMO would leave me spaced, foggy and weird.  In the last couple years of my porn habit I had to be very careful not to have a session before work or anything else because it would leave me useless.  PMO can sometimes act like a tranquilizer for either sleep or anxiety.  Imagine taking some tranquilizers first thing in the morning!  You'd be useless in the morning, and just coming to when you're supposed to be winding down.

What kind of games are you playing?  Are they the sort where you can cut back without quitting?  Some people say that all video games are always bad, but I don't like to go there.  I feel like there are too many exceptions to make that a rule.  Giving yourself such a strong stimulant at night, both between the engagement of the game and all of the extra light, just doesn't seem like a good idea when you're trying to trouble shoot sleep.  Maybe fitting in your playing before 8 p.m. or something?

An interesting and unexpected thing that happened when I quit porn was that my caffeine sensitivity went way up.  Before I used to be able to drink lots and lots of coffee, and while I'd feel it and occasionally be sleepless, I never had to be mindful of my limits.  I just drank as much as I felt like drinking, at virtually any hour.  Canned energy drinks gave me problems, but in the form of coffee I was fine.  Once I quit porn I had to closely watch how much I drank, and have to be very careful not to drink coffee too late in the day.  Sometimes when people have to take stimulants in the mornings, like adderall, they're also prescribed sedatives/benzos for the evenings so they can settle down, like lorazepam.  Take one out, and they fall out of balance.  I kinda see it that way.  I removed the sedative of porn so the coffee became much more intense.  This is another way of saying maybe your life is just set up too much with the sedative in the morning (porn) and the stimulant at night (video games).

I can definitely see how you'd be sleepless.  If you're slowly waking up during the day, the last thing you want to do is crawl back into bed.  You want stimulation.  I had surgery a couple months ago, and found that as my meds were wearing off through the day, I was more awake and alert and didn't want to sleep, even though sleeping the first night after surgery seems like an awfully good idea. 

Quitting won't be easy.  The withdrawals are never fun, and in your case with it messing with sleep so much, there very well could be a "worse-before-it-gets-better" thing going on, but don't give up.  In fact, if it gets worse, it could just be a sign you're on the right track.

Thanks for such a great reply.

I agree with every thing you've said here. The past couple days I've noticed some substantial changes to my behavior/mood. I have been far more angry/agitated than I normally am when playing video games. When I'm not gaming I don't tend to feel angry, but when I'm gaming and I get killed or I lose, I feel a surge of anger rush through me. So much so that I broke the spacebar on my keyboard a couple nights ago because I slammed the shit out of my expensive RGB keyboard. Sometimes I'll slam my desk for fun (it sounds funny over the mic to my friends), but this time I actually muted my mic before hauling off on my keyboard. I was legit angry.

To me this seems very uncharacteristic. I also noticed myself being much more agitated and short with my friends while playing, and that's something I've been really ashamed of. In fact, the other night I declined gaming with my good friend because I was afraid I would lose my temper or do something to otherwise embarrass myself. And last night while playing I realized "I'm not having fun". I've experienced this over the past few days; video games have just not really been much fun to me. I find this very strange as they are one of the only things that bring me pleasure and enjoyment, as pathetic as that might sound. The other is my guitar.

Do you think this sedative effect could still be occurring even though I've stopped PMO'ing in the mornings? That my brain is somehow used to it and producing similar effects even though I've stopped doing it?

Man, I feel kind of crazy to be honest. Here I am making all of this suppositions about how PMO is causing my fatigue and lack of energy, and I have absolutely no way to prove that whatsoever. It's very frustrating. I even feel weird telling my friend that I consider myself to have a porn addiction. I mean what the fuck, am I self-diagnosing? And here he uses porn a lot and has a shit ton of energy 24/7 and apparently no negative effects so he probably thinks I'm absolutely crazy.

Yeah, rebooting is gonna be a wild ride.  The anger bit doesn't surprise me, but I'm not sure I have any explanation for it besides a bunch of guesses.

I don't know if you still feeling foggy and lethargic despite being away from PMO is meaningful or not.  I do know that it isn't unreasonable to expect to have to wait on results.  I imagine it is also tied up with your circadian rhythm, and I don't know what the time line is like on that, either.  A flatline and loss of interest in things is a very common side effect of quitting, though.  That goes away eventually.

Some guys end up giving up other things along with porn.  Often it is because that is when the motivation hits and they do a bunch all at once.  It is hard to say exactly how those things interact.  I also made big diet improvements and gave up drinking (temporarily) during my reboot purely for health/weight issues.  I suspect it helped with my reboot (easier to avoid relapse if you're sober) but I honestly have no idea.  Taking a break from video games might be helpful, though it seems to be one of your social anchors and those are so valuable during the pandemic, so it is a hard choice, for sure.

We all tend to feel crazy!  Porn addiction is uncharted territory in a lot of ways.  I found out about it years ago because it seemed like it made sense in the abstract, so I just tried googling "porn addiction" and found Gary Wilson's materials.  He's done a lot of great work, but it is all still in its infancy, and a minority of people even accept that it is a real thing.  But, I know it is real.  It was real in my life, and I've seen it be very real in other people's lives.  Medical professionals are behind the curve, and the mental health profession is a mixed bag.  It can feel like we're all part of a little cult, but that isn't how it is at all.  It is just very new, and the few people who get it are the ones who A) have experienced it, and B) had enough self-awareness to realize that something wasn't right. 

 

[lukeman3000]

It all kinda makes sense to me.

As I mentioned above, a morning PMO would leave me spaced, foggy and weird.  In the last couple years of my porn habit I had to be very careful not to have a session before work or anything else because it would leave me useless.  PMO can sometimes act like a tranquilizer for either sleep or anxiety.  Imagine taking some tranquilizers first thing in the morning!  You'd be useless in the morning, and just coming to when you're supposed to be winding down.

What kind of games are you playing?  Are they the sort where you can cut back without quitting?  Some people say that all video games are always bad, but I don't like to go there.  I feel like there are too many exceptions to make that a rule.  Giving yourself such a strong stimulant at night, both between the engagement of the game and all of the extra light, just doesn't seem like a good idea when you're trying to trouble shoot sleep.  Maybe fitting in your playing before 8 p.m. or something?

An interesting and unexpected thing that happened when I quit porn was that my caffeine sensitivity went way up.  Before I used to be able to drink lots and lots of coffee, and while I'd feel it and occasionally be sleepless, I never had to be mindful of my limits.  I just drank as much as I felt like drinking, at virtually any hour.  Canned energy drinks gave me problems, but in the form of coffee I was fine.  Once I quit porn I had to closely watch how much I drank, and have to be very careful not to drink coffee too late in the day.  Sometimes when people have to take stimulants in the mornings, like adderall, they're also prescribed sedatives/benzos for the evenings so they can settle down, like lorazepam.  Take one out, and they fall out of balance.  I kinda see it that way.  I removed the sedative of porn so the coffee became much more intense.  This is another way of saying maybe your life is just set up too much with the sedative in the morning (porn) and the stimulant at night (video games).

I can definitely see how you'd be sleepless.  If you're slowly waking up during the day, the last thing you want to do is crawl back into bed.  You want stimulation.  I had surgery a couple months ago, and found that as my meds were wearing off through the day, I was more awake and alert and didn't want to sleep, even though sleeping the first night after surgery seems like an awfully good idea. 

Quitting won't be easy.  The withdrawals are never fun, and in your case with it messing with sleep so much, there very well could be a "worse-before-it-gets-better" thing going on, but don't give up.  In fact, if it gets worse, it could just be a sign you're on the right track.

Thanks for such a great reply.

I agree with every thing you've said here. The past couple days I've noticed some substantial changes to my behavior/mood. I have been far more angry/agitated than I normally am when playing video games. When I'm not gaming I don't tend to feel angry, but when I'm gaming and I get killed or I lose, I feel a surge of anger rush through me. So much so that I broke the spacebar on my keyboard a couple nights ago because I slammed the shit out of my expensive RGB keyboard. Sometimes I'll slam my desk for fun (it sounds funny over the mic to my friends), but this time I actually muted my mic before hauling off on my keyboard. I was legit angry.

To me this seems very uncharacteristic. I also noticed myself being much more agitated and short with my friends while playing, and that's something I've been really ashamed of. In fact, the other night I declined gaming with my good friend because I was afraid I would lose my temper or do something to otherwise embarrass myself. And last night while playing I realized "I'm not having fun". I've experienced this over the past few days; video games have just not really been much fun to me. I find this very strange as they are one of the only things that bring me pleasure and enjoyment, as pathetic as that might sound. The other is my guitar.

Do you think this sedative effect could still be occurring even though I've stopped PMO'ing in the mornings? That my brain is somehow used to it and producing similar effects even though I've stopped doing it?

Man, I feel kind of crazy to be honest. Here I am making all of this suppositions about how PMO is causing my fatigue and lack of energy, and I have absolutely no way to prove that whatsoever. It's very frustrating. I even feel weird telling my friend that I consider myself to have a porn addiction. I mean what the fuck, am I self-diagnosing? And here he uses porn a lot and has a shit ton of energy 24/7 and apparently no negative effects so he probably thinks I'm absolutely crazy.

Yeah, rebooting is gonna be a wild ride.  The anger bit doesn't surprise me, but I'm not sure I have any explanation for it besides a bunch of guesses.

I don't know if you still feeling foggy and lethargic despite being away from PMO is meaningful or not.  I do know that it isn't unreasonable to expect to have to wait on results.  I imagine it is also tied up with your circadian rhythm, and I don't know what the time line is like on that, either.  A flatline and loss of interest in things is a very common side effect of quitting, though.  That goes away eventually.

Some guys end up giving up other things along with porn.  Often it is because that is when the motivation hits and they do a bunch all at once.  It is hard to say exactly how those things interact.  I also made big diet improvements and gave up drinking (temporarily) during my reboot purely for health/weight issues.  I suspect it helped with my reboot (easier to avoid relapse if you're sober) but I honestly have no idea.  Taking a break from video games might be helpful, though it seems to be one of your social anchors and those are so valuable during the pandemic, so it is a hard choice, for sure.

We all tend to feel crazy!  Porn addiction is uncharted territory in a lot of ways.  I found out about it years ago because it seemed like it made sense in the abstract, so I just tried googling "porn addiction" and found Gary Wilson's materials.  He's done a lot of great work, but it is all still in its infancy, and a minority of people even accept that it is a real thing.  But, I know it is real.  It was real in my life, and I've seen it be very real in other people's lives.  Medical professionals are behind the curve, and the mental health profession is a mixed bag.  It can feel like we're all part of a little cult, but that isn't how it is at all.  It is just very new, and the few people who get it are the ones who A) have experienced it, and B) had enough self-awareness to realize that something wasn't right.

Are you speaking from your own personal experience? That is to say, did you stop experiencing fatigue/lethargy as soon as you quit PMO or perhaps you never experienced those symptoms at all?

From what I've seen such lack of energy is very common for guys using PMO. It could be that what I'm describing as "lack of energy" is an extremely blunted dopamine sensitivity leading me to feel numb to many aspects of life (possibly in turn downregulating energy output since I have no desire to do/pursue anything). Guys who quit seem to not necessarily experience substantial effects until 30-90 days on average, so seeing as how I'm only two weeks in I think it's probably still normal for me to still be feeling like shit. Especially considering that I might be in for some PAWS since I've been using for close to 20 years. But the stuff I have used has not been extreme in the slightest, and I would go times without it for various stretches, but it has been a common thing for me over the years. Especially in the past 3 years since my last relationship when, coincidentally, I've felt the worst.

 

[doneatlast]

My personal experience was definitely the fog/lethargy in the short term, like the examples I gave of morning PMO sessions.  That was apparent before I even quit.  Besides that, I did notice many changes in energy levels and mood, although they were bundled with dietary/health changes, so it is hard to separate out which was which.  I definitely regained an ability to develop interests and pursuits.  Those things came slowly, and it was only more apparent in retrospect.  I'm also less triggered to an anxious state which previously would make me withdraw and focus on porn, and that was a sort of mental/emotional shutting down... not the same thing as lethargy, but there are similarities, I suppose.

I also noticed some basic personality changes.  Social dynamics changed entirely.  My sexual attractions changed, too.  I had one major odd fetish (mild compared to some stuff you read about) but felt at the time that my Jekyll/Hyde life of porn meant that outside of porn I had a good grip on what my attractions were.  I still found that many of my tastes normalized and changed, and I had in fact escalated more than I'd thought.  Honestly, when the majority of men have escalated tolerances and tastes for sexual stimulation, a normal level is going to seem so tame that it almost seems made up.  But, I'm much happier this way, and women are far more beautiful to me than before.

We're all temperamentally different, and addictions take different roles in our lives.. for me it was very much about withdrawing and being able to shut down an anxious, over-wrought brain.  For some it is a mania.  For others it is about anger management.  Sometimes it is about control dynamics (femdom/findom totally kicks those people's butts).  I can tell that we're definitely built differently, so it makes complete sense to me that you'll experience something different.

You might find that diet/exercise plans along with quitting will help.  Many find that the exercise helps offset the PAWS.  And, even if you tried it before for your lethargy and found it wanting, you may find that combined with the reboot it works incredibly well.

 

[Deleted member 17609]

I have also been dealing with chronic fatigue for years. I usually need a nap in the afternoon, and on most days, my energy is low, unless I use stimulants like coffee and cigarettes (which I don?t recommend). Gary Wilson says that porn use can be the cause of low energy, and I believe him. Many guys have reported improvements after quitting porn. I would say that my energy levels have been higher since I quit porn and masturbation. Doing regular exercise has also helped me with this. We must not forget that depression and PIED are often intertwined as well, so we are very likely to have low energy if we are stuck in the porn addiction vortex. Happily, it seems all of this can get better as we free ourselves from this addiction, and gradually head toward a healthier lifestyle.

 

[joepanic]

I think its a known fact that too much screen time can hinder sleep patterns. Especially  in the evenings.  I took to reading a book  and found it made somewhat of a difference.  There may be other factors at play  Stress...  Diet.....  a few things to look at for sure

      Cheers

      Post often it helps me it helps you

 

[lukeman3000]

I have also been dealing with chronic fatigue for years. I usually need a nap in the afternoon, and on most days, my energy is low, unless I use stimulants like coffee and cigarettes (which I don?t recommend). Gary Wilson says that porn use can be the cause of low energy, and I believe him. Many guys have reported improvements after quitting porn. I would say that my energy levels have been higher since I quit porn and masturbation. Doing regular exercise has also helped me with this. We must not forget that depression and PIED are often intertwined as well, so we are very likely to have low energy if we are stuck in the porn addiction vortex. Happily, it seems all of this can get better as we free ourselves from this addiction, and gradually head toward a healthier lifestyle.

Have you been porn-free for a certain period of time? I'm curious how far into your journey you started noticing improvements to your energy levels.

 

[Deleted member 17609]

Yes, I have been porn free, and also masturbation free, since April 4th. I was diagnosed with depression on October 2019, so I have been in a really bad emotional state for quite a while. When I started rebooting, things were a little better (suicidal thoughts were not very present anymore). But since I often used masturbation (without porn) to help me fall asleep at night prior to my reboot, I had bad sleep issues during the first months of my reboot. Things are better today with sleep, but are still far from perfect. But I would say that I started feeling better overall in my life after 4-6 months of rebooting. That also coincided with improvements in other aspects of my life, like work and personal projects.

I would add that when I started rebooting, I was only focused on healing from PIED. It?s not a bad attitude, I mean, it?s really understandable to want to have a healthy libido. But for some, like me, this is a long and uncertain process. So at one point my reboot became a sort of existential journey. I became aware of some psychological issues I have been dealing with for years, like hopelessness. And I have been trying to break the patterns that would bring me in a constant state of despair. I am still not done with this, of course, these things can be deeply rooted in one?s mind. But things are better. Moreover, I feel better overall despite not still being cured from PIED. Somehow, this is progress. I still hope that I will someday get to a point where sex is no longer problematic, but even without this, I am better overall.

Hope it makes sense.

 

[lukeman3000]

It's been about 2.5 years since I became aware of porn's potentially damaging effects and tried to quit, and I've had 3 attempts to do so in that time. My first streak lasted about 20 days, the second streak about 60, and currently I'm on day 77 of my most recent streak.

I feel like each time I've removed pmo from my life I've experienced what I can only describe as severe withdrawal symptoms. Including: depression, agitation, even lower energy/drive than usual, even poorer sleep than usual, loss of appetite, highly sexualized dreams (dreaming of myself viewing porn), even some kind of suicidal thoughts. During my most recent streak these symptoms seemed to hit me hard on day 30. For about a week it was hell, and then it seemed like things were kind of gradually trending up. But around days 60 and 74 I feel like I've been thrown down back again.

I'm just not sure what to make of it. I don't know if I can attribute my symptoms to pmo or not. As I mentioned before I have done a handful of sleep studies and one said that I have "mild to moderate" sleep apnea, though I've never been able to get pap therapy to work for me.

Despite my best efforts I don't feel like I'm much closer to figuring this thing out than I was 3 years ago. To be fair, I am only on day 74 - I haven't even gone 90 days yet, let alone 6 months or a year. I'm not planning on quitting anytime soon. I'm just discouraged because I wish that I would've seen some big increase in energy levels, some kind of improvement to my sleep, similar to what I've seen other guys talk about in some of the success stories I've read.

 

[Brutus]

I've also experienced low energy levels and troubled sleep as a result of PMO. I'm curently at 143 days without PMO and I'm still having trouble getting a consistent sleeping schedule. Tired during the day and suddenly wide awake at night describes my experience too. Though I'm still dealing with these problems, they are way better now than at the start of my reboot. I have more drive to finish projects now. I'm not exactly raring to get work done but I don't struggle with motivation as much now. While PMO'ing I had zero energy for socializing outside of work. This has slowly gotten better, to the point where I actually look forward to being around people. It's felt like incremental progress rather than suddenly being healed after the 90 day mark. Everyone's recovery is different so who knows how long it will take before these issues settle for me. I'd say patience is key, don't get discouraged by the slower pace of recovery. It'll be worth it in the end.

 

[lukeman3000]

I've also experienced low energy levels and troubled sleep as a result of PMO. I'm curently at 143 days without PMO and I'm still having trouble getting a consistent sleeping schedule. Tired during the day and suddenly wide awake at night describes my experience too. Though I'm still dealing with these problems, they are way better now than at the start of my reboot. I have more drive to finish projects now. I'm not exactly raring to get work done but I don't struggle with motivation as much now. While PMO'ing I had zero energy for socializing outside of work. This has slowly gotten better, to the point where I actually look forward to being around people. It's felt like incremental progress rather than suddenly being healed after the 90 day mark. Everyone's recovery is different so who knows how long it will take before these issues settle for me. I'd say patience is key, don't get discouraged by the slower pace of recovery. It'll be worth it in the end.

My issue is that it's not just a lack of desire to socialize or things of that nature. I have actually felt that desire increase since I stopped using pmo 76 days ago.

My issue is that I feel literally fatigued and devoid of energy so much of the time. Waking up in the morning I feel completely unrefreshed and like my body demands that I stay in bed and try to sleep more (even though it never seems to help all that much regardless of how long I try to sleep). But I have to force myself out of bed at some point and carry on with the day anyways, and my eyelids literally will want to be closed - I have to put forth some amount of effort to keep them opened.

I don't see a lot of guys talking about fatigue in this kind of context; this overwhelming fatigue that I seem to experience. So it makes me doubt that it's directly (or primarily) related to pmo. I think it's probably more likely that I have some kind of untreated sleep disorder, and to be fair I have one out of two sleep studies which have told me that I have mild to moderate sleep apnea.

But I feel like I'm at a standstill; I don't know what the fuck to do next because I haven't got pap therapy to work for me.

 

[arcana]

Yes, this is definitely an abstinent symptom, I had such chronic fatigue for many years and after 2-3 years without pmo it passed ... there are rare outbreaks of fatigue.
Where can the energy come from if the dopamine receptors are at low sensitivity, you have knocked out the dopamine system in the brain, so everyone has their own recovery time.
The first year of recovery, I hardly got out of bed, hardly washed, ate, and talked. zombie)

 

[Brutus]

My issue is that I feel literally fatigued and devoid of energy so much of the time. Waking up in the morning I feel completely unrefreshed and like my body demands that I stay in bed and try to sleep more (even though it never seems to help all that much regardless of how long I try to sleep). But I have to force myself out of bed at some point and carry on with the day anyways, and my eyelids literally will want to be closed - I have to put forth some amount of effort to keep them opened.

It sounds like your fatigue is more intense than mine was. The fatigue your dealing with sounds really challenging and I feel for you. That being said, I still wouldn't discount PMO as a major cause and for abstinence to possibly fix it. I suppose only time will tell if this is true or not. One thing you can't do is lose hope in recovering and use PMO as a way to cope. I say stay hopeful as it's still relatively early in your recovery.

As for a possible sleep disorder, I can't really offer any advice on what you should do there. What's helped me to fall asleep more consistently is to have a strict sleeping schedule and follow it no matter what. I wake up and sleep at the same time every day. When I do this I fall asleep quickly and get higher quality sleep. I'd recommend a book by Matthew Walker called Why We Sleep. There's a lot of good information about getting quality sleep in it.