PIED or something else?

[Fe2448]

Hey guys, first of all Hi and thanks a lot that a place like this exists.

Circumstances in short: I'm suffering from severe insomnia for years which causes a lot of physical exhaustion (I sometimes have to lay in bed for a whole day because I'm so exhausted).

If I start masturbating (without porn) I can only get an erection when I stimulate my glans. My penis gets very hard and I could also get to O quite easily. If I don't O, I lose my erection within a couple of minutes and further glans stimulation does not lead to an erection anymore.

If I then start watching P and I start to masturbate again, I do not get an erection but I could O within seconds.

I'm not sure if this is really PIED (it doesn't make sense to me that I can get to O so easily) or if this has something do to with my physical exhaustion that I can't get maintain and get an erection without stimulating my glans. I'd be happy about your thoughts!


Fe

 

[PIEDPiperThrowaway]

Probably need more info to know what the cause is. Yes porn addiction and withdrawal from it can cause insomnia and exhaustion for some people, but your insomnia sounds extremely severe. Have you seen a doctor about this? There are many causes of insomnia both physical and mental... Are you depressed, are you in good physical shape? These are a few things that could contribute, but probably it'd be good to see a doctor.

Whether or not you have PIED it's hard to tell. It's not just about how hard is your penis, how fast you O, etc. Do you feel like you can get aroused organically? How do you feel in real sexual encounters? Is this something new, and is your sex drive much different than it has been in the past?

These are just my thoughts, I'm no expert at this. But if you are unsure what is causing your issues, it at least won't hurt to cut out porn. You'll probably feel better in general whether or not it fixes these specific issues.

 

[Fappy]

could be PIED, given your porn consumption its likely. the big red flag here is that you can easily, almost with no effort. also the lack of visual stimulation makes orgasming difficult. those are all symptoms of PIED.
stop PMO now and see if it improves, i reckon it will

 

[Fe2448]

Thanks for your answers, guys!

Sorry for the lack of background information and sorry in advance for the longer text. I totally understand that the text may be too long for you guys to fully read it.

TIMELINE

• I got into porn by the age of 12 and watched it regularly till I was 24 (I’m 32)
• My first sexual experience were quite good (13 years old - BJ, no problems)

• I was kind of addicted to competitive computer games from 14-16. Not sure if you can really call it an addiction since I had no friends and was probably more addicted to the approval I got in the internet
• This was also the time when my sleep quality and also my physical fitness decreased - I went to bed late, I needed to get up early to go to school, I slept in the afternoon, it was a total mess

• The first time I tried to have sex was by the age of 16, wasn’t able to get an erection, felt embarrassed and it definitely created performance anxiety (HJ worked to a certain extent)

• Got a girlfriend from 18-20. I could have sex with her without a condom but had DE - no erection problems as far as I can recall. I’m also not sure about how exhausted I was at that time but it was clearly better compared to the time I was 14-17
• There are memories that indicate I was physically exhausted at that time as well

• By the age of 20 I started to have severe insomnia. This was due to studying and had nothing to do with P

• I couldn’t get erections anymore (to a certain extent it worked with Viagra)
• By the age of 24 I discovered YBOP and thought immediately that this has to be it and stopped watching P immediately
• I have never been addicted to P but still escalated in terms of categories (femdom HJ have been pretty much my thing)

• Did a reboot for 77 days (had sex for about three times more or less successfully) and had the first orgasm inside a vagina with a condom in my whole life (after 77 days, greatest moment of my life)
• After a couple of Os (not more than 3-5) I felt like was back to day 1

• Did a couple more reboots, sometimes 20 days, sometimes 40 days
• I also went to prostitutes to check on my progress in terms of sex - I only went to girls I had some kind of chemistry with. I told all of them about my situation and why I was there which reduced performance anxiety significantly
• Sometimes everything worked very well after 20 days, sometimes nothing happened after 40 days
• By the age of 26 my insomnia peaked

• From age 24-32 there were only 3 periods I watched porn ( 5 months, 2 months and 1 month - regularly but not excessively) but I started to go to massage parlors since this was the only way to experience some kind of stressless sexual pleasure (lube, HJ, a little bit of soft femdom) but most notably I used it as compensation for my physical condition which was tremendously bad (probably 1-2x per months)
• Obviously this wasn’t a great idea, though it felt like it wasn’t as nearly as harmful as watching P regularly for hours
• To a certain extant going to a massage parlor was like watching P. The soft femdom always made it easy to O, but I couldn’t maintain erections for long (without lube I couldn’t get an erection at all)

• I still have severe insomnia and I’m definitely physically exhausted. I can also say for sure that P fantasies (femdom), the urge to watch P and to go to a massage parlor get only triggered when I’m physically exhausted, otherwise I’m not interested in that stuff at all
• When I watched P I barely got erections but could O within a couple of seconds/minutes

• When I haven’t done reboots, I saw girls regularly for at least the last 5 years. Most of them were very understanding and they didn’t put pressure on me. I took Viagra many times. Just like with M, I could get an erection for a couple of minutes if my glans was stimulated
• Better erections the less exhausted I was
• Same thing happened without Viagra, but my erection lasted way shorter
• I ended most of these relationships. I had great chemistry with the girls and they were very attractive, but it was just too frustrating to not get an erection over and over again

• 2 days ago I finished a 165 day hard mode reboot (except one BJ)
• I went to a really nice girl and tried to have sex with her which was not possible, I barely got an erection (I slept for hours that night and was exhausted)
• I had 2 orgasm that day with a HJ. One without fantasy and one with some femdom fantasy - my erection was a little bit stronger with fantasy and I could get to O way more easily compared to the first time but the erection was far from normal

 

[Fe2448]

The more I read my own text, the more I think there is no other way than to solve my physical/insomnia problems - no matter if PIED is a thing or not. Even if PIED is a thing, I don’t think it makes much difference if I do not get my physical problems solved.

I still think it’s a good thing to avoid PMO till I solved these problems since there are some indications that PIED could be a thing (especially my ED and DE when I was younger).

Whenever I’m hardcore exhausted I feel depressed about the situation (there is definitely a correlation). But I’m mainly pissed about it.

I have seen two doctors but they couldn’t really help me - which is understandable since I truly thought my insomnia is caused by a physical condition. Therefore I told them that I was mentally ok (depending on my level of exhaustion). It was definitely not their fault.

Especially in the last weeks I see more and more indicators that my situation actually caused by stress and (to a certain extant) panic.

I do not have panic attacks or something similar. But I’m definitely obsessed (like really obsessed) (due to anxiety) with getting the situation under control. I take notes all day about how I feel, what worked and what didn’t work -

It would make sense that this causes a lot of stress and would also explain why I feel exhausted and suffer from insomnia especially now that I feel like the situation is getting better. I still sleep pretty bad but the exhaustion decreased significantly.

I’m also in great shape and go to the gym regularly. This may sound like a joke, going to the gym gets me so exhausted that I sleep way better but it obviously decreases my physical fitness tremendously. Most likely I will take a break from going to the gym.

I’m also aroused by real girls, and I think about having (normal) sex with them but a second later a thought pops up that I most likely won’t be able to have sex with them anyway.

 

[Fe2448]

Summarized and questions

I think my main issue is my physical exhaustion/my sleep and the issues that lead causes them. I also think PIED could be an issue, therefore I will continue to not PMO.

One last thing I’d love to hear your opinion on:

• I tried to M which worked when I stimulated my glans and I could get to O within seconds
• When I don’t O, I lose my erection after a couple of minutes
• Afterwards touch is not enough to arouse me/to get an erection/to get to O

But why I on earth am I able to O so easily whenever I see something arousing like P or even just a picture of a girl in her underwear while not having an erection (at least not a good one)?

It doesn’t make sense to me. It almost seems like my psychological arousal is fine, but my arousal through touch and my ability to get an erection isn’t. Why would I otherwise be possible to O without having an erection?

Not trying to talk myself out of PIED but it confuses me a lot.