Days 92, 93, and 94 -- THE FLATLINE IS NOT MISTERIOUS -- INTRODUCING ALLOSTASIS
(Testosterone Booster Protocol at the end of the Post)
The weekend was okay, I did not have any negative consequences from the massage on Friday so we are good. I did continue to have seminal leakage over the weekend and today, which is different from the first time because I only had it for two days then. It's been a week already.
I've got news from the science world my friends.
As it turns out,
we can no longer call it "the misterious flatline" and claim that there is not much that is known about it like I keep reading in reboot and YBOP articles
. The mechanism that explains it was hypothesized in 1978 and it has been well documented and studied for more than 20 years. It is called
ALLOSTASIS. Even if you only understand a little bit of the neuroscience jargon, if you want to know what's going on with the flatline, at least read the abstract of:
George F Koob Ph.D & Michel Le Moal MD, Ph.D (2001) Drug Addiction, Dysregulation of Reward, and Allostasis. And especially the section on
Drug withdrawal and allostasis.
Essentially what happens is that there are counter neuroadaptive mechanisms that, in the presence of the superstimulus of a drug (porn in our case) limit reward in order for things not to break. Once you are in what they call protracted abstinence (voluntarily off the drug for a long time) these mechanisms fail to return within the normal homeostatic range (level of normal balance) and get stuck at an undesired level, trying to trick you into taking the drug of choice. Hence the allostatic state which is defined as:
"...the process of maintaining apparent reward function stability by changes in brain reward mechanisms. The allostatic state represents a chronic deviation of reward set point and is fueled not only by dysregulation of reward circuits per se, but also by the activation of brain and hormonal stress responses."
What we experience in the form of semi permanent damages is called the Allostatic Load, which refers to the cost the body may have to pay for being forced to adapt to an adverse or deleterious psychological or physical situation. It's that shitty feeling and other damages associated with chronic stress like high blood pressure, adrenal damage, etc. It's an apparent "stability" but at a price. And here's what screws up our libido because the arousal process that leads to a boner and sex starts in your HPA axis, which gets highjacked by these stressors, pausing desired functions, like the sexy signaling starting in your brain; last stop: your balls, to keep it in fight mode.
"Activation of brain and pituitary stress systems may be another common response to repeated administration of drugs of abuse that may be involved in the negative emotional state associated with acute withdrawal (Table 3). Pituitary adrenal function is activated during drug dependence and during acute withdrawal from drugs of abuse in humans. Dysregulation of the HPA axis also can persist even past acute withdrawal (Kreek 1987; Kreek et al. 1984). Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) function, outside of the pituitary adrenal axis, also is activated during acute withdrawal from cocaine, alcohol, opiates, and THC and thus may mediate some of the behavioral responses to stress associated with acute abstinence (Heinrichs et al. 1995; Koob et al. 1994; Richter and Weiss 1999; Rodriguez de Fonseca et al. 1997)." I know porn is not any of those, but the mechanisms are the same.
Essentially what we have is a chemically stressed set point in various parts of our reward and limbic systems that does not allow us to get back to normal and process sexy cues into just getting horny. The brain is so busy fighting a war that stopped ages ago, that is unable to relay the simple message to get aroused. We are more in a state of fight or flight, instead of being in a shaggalicious state.
Now, for the treatment of the allostatic state, there are specific medications used for different types of addiction, according to the systems the drug operates on. One for alcohol, one for opiates, one for cocaine, and so on. These oppose the limiting mechanisms and allow you to get back to normal, while not feeling like shit in the meantime. The objective of those drugs is for the patient not to relapse to stop the shitty sensation. However, I notice that the times these drugs are prescribed for (6 months to 2 years) coincide with naturally subsiding times of anecdotal recounts of fellow rebooters, so these drugs might not be doing anything else that the body isn't doing by itself other than just alleviating symptoms.
I am not interested in drugs and so I turn to lifestyle choices that can work to solve these chronic stresses and as it turns out the best candidates are (and not because of their spiritual side, but because of their ability to produce oxytocin, serotonin and other feel good chemicals):
- Yoga.
- Guided imagery.
- Biofeedback (see box breathing above).
- Meditation.
- Mindfulness.
We'll explore these in the days to come. I'll let you know what I come up with. Oh, and casanova, the Karezza that you mentioned before works wonders for this, because just hugging another human being gives you lots of oxytocin, associated with less stress and overall happiness.
See ya tomorrow!
Once again, thanks for the information. I didn’t know you had a good knowledge of this subject. If you don’t mind, I’d like to have your opinion on this when I get my next results and my prescription from the anti-aging doctor. I know you’re not a doctor, but still, it can’t hurt to have the opinion of a fellow rebooter on such a delicate subject.
Hey Bilbo, not that I am knowledgeable, but it's a road I already traveled. Like you said, I'm not a doctor so take everything I say with a a grain of salt. You have to see how much of that testosterone is bioavailable in percentages too and how much estrogen and SBGH you have in your body. That said, I started with 0.14 nmol/L Free Testosterone and after one week under the protocol that I will lay out down below, I reached 0.36 (when the doctor saw it again and decided against TRT), and one month later 0.59. Normal range is supposed to be 0.2040 - 0.6370. Like I said, this has great consequences for your overall health, confidence, manliness, muscular tone, it even makes you more attractive, but it didn't do much for my libido. However, if you want to get this off the table before you embark on the TRT journey:
Food:
- 3 Brazil Nuts per day (if you can't find these, just buy Selenium 200 mcg from GNC or the like and take one capsule a day. Stop if you start to get a metallic taste in your mouth, which doesn't happen with the Brazil Nuts, lord knows why).
- 20 almonds per day (unsalted, unsweetened, just raw).
- 3 eggs per day (preferably your last meal of the day, within three hours of going to sleep; cholesterol is your friend in the testosterone war, contrary to what 90s dieticians might have said).
- 3 strawberries or 1 kiwi
- 10 minutes with face and arms in the sun (maybe a walk) or Cod liver oil caplets with every meal if weather don't allow.
- Enough water (just drink one or two glasses with every meal or spread it out).
- Avoid foods that contain soy (note that lots of deli meats and sausages have soy, and almost all processed foods that are crunchy are processed with soybean oil, so look out), avoid sugary everything and forget about beer.
Body:
- Monday, Wednesday, Friday (kettle or dumbbell swings, 10 minutes of 20 seconds swinging, 20 seconds rest, 20 seconds swinging, 20 seconds rest...). Don't overdo it with the weight. It's more about the motion than the weight. You can go the full 10 minutes with swings, or you can do 7 mins swings and the last three pushups). You can also substitute this with heavy lifting for large muscle groups (squats, deadlifts, chest and shoulder presses), but I find that for the protocol, the first option is easy to get out of the way in the morning and if you don't feel like going to the gym later, at least you're taken care of.
- Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday (Jumping Jacks or Hampelmann, 10 minutes of 20 seconds Jumping Jacks, 20 seconds rest, and so on...)
- This app allows you to build a custom timer for the 20 seconds stop, 20 seconds go for ten minutes.
- Avoid too much exercise (hours on end at the gym or multiple trips to exhaustion)
Mind:
- Box breathing for 10 boxes daily upon waking up (get the app for Android or iPhone)
- Sleep well (perhaps with an app like brain.fm or just download this file and find earbuds that don't hurt like the iphone's or flat over ears and ZZZ)
- Take walks if you can.
- Avoid alcohol.
These are the essentials and you have to do all of it. The food without the exercise and the correct state, plus the other way around doesn't work. Have fun!
