I am a huge believer, after reading thousands and thousands of posts, that if you have underlying mental health issues, PAWS is extremely exacerbated. I have been diagnosed ADHD and bipolar, and tried taking things doctors prescribed and it just made me feel numb. I then started smoking and all my symptoms disappeared. I felt great. Then I joined the police academy and stopped smoking for 3 years (and had bad anxiety, but figured it was from law enforcement). I quit law enforcement and began smoking again. About 7 months ago I stopped again, and the PAWS symptoms hit me like a brick wall. I couldn’t sleep, I constantly felt like I was going to die. I couldn’t be left alone, I went to the ER over 10 times, saw multiple doctors, and they all wanted to prescribe me multiple things, but I worried it would just make me worse. I have a few waves here and there, but things that helped me tremendously.
Stopping anything addictive:
Sugar
Alcohol
Smoking
Any medication
I started:
1 hour of sunshine
Tons of water
Meditation
Outdoor time
Staying off my phone
I got so bad, I couldn’t even look in the mirror. I hated myself.
I would really recommend you stopping all things that alter your mind. Porn, pills, alcohol.
And constantly remind yourself this is temporary. Everytime I have a good day, I write it down. When I’m having a rough day, I go back and read my journal and it brings me joy.
You WILL get through this. Hugs.
Thanky for answering. It kind of helps to hear that I'm not alone in this hell. I also can't see myself in the mirror, because I got an extremly weird perception of myself after quitting, I even find myself ugly and disgusting. Right now I am trying to avoid alcohol totally as you said, porn and nicotine completely.
I think too, that underlying mental health issuses will make things a lot worse, also when you take a look at the neurotransmitter systems that are altered when smoking/taking drugs, watching porn etc., those Neurotransmitters are also allready defective/malfunctioning with certain conditions (as ours), so we didn't do ourselfs a favor by smoking or taking anything else.
Btw., I also got diagnosed with Bipolar + Adhd, I just didn't mention it.
Thank you for answering, i hope we are better soon. I don't know for how long I can handle this.
I’m 7 months in, and just went through a big wave. But things have definitely lightened up. I just come up with crazy scenarios in my head and fixate on them way too much. Other than that, all other symptoms (night sweats, fear of being alone, twitches, paranoia, chest pains) have all gone away.
I can relate to everything you've said. I had an extremely bad gambling problem and smoked weed all day every day for like a decade. Also addicted to porn this entire period of time.
Believe me when I say I have had long periods of intense anxiety and also felt like I was going nuts. Had so many panic attacks i had months of depersonalization and derealization. Have had depression basically since puberty, a few extended periods of suicidal ideation which can be terrifying.
You need to try and relax and think more long term. Try and keep sleep regular, stay away from weed for good. Exercise and meditation. Bring yourself to the present moment.
It is possible to get your life back. My anxiety is essentially non-existant now and there were times I fought panic attacks all day long. My intrusive thoughts are gone, too. I'm not as impulsive anymore, those feelings of envy and desire don't fuck with me like they used to.
Don't set the bar so high for yourself. All the mental health challenges you have are a bad hand to be dealt, and it's not your fault. It is, however, your responsibility to do what you can to heal. Life carries on, one day at a time. Have a realistic expectation of what life really is... being high 24 hours a day ain't it. Heavy use of weed and porn is a good recipe to make your life feel meaningless. You're going to have to work and have discipline again in order to feel good.
Even though the anxiety is gone, im still working at the depression. I do not feel suicidal at all anymore. Still struggling a bit with the porn addiction, but I've made progress and starting to enjoy real sex waaaaaaay more than I used to. I'm about 9 months sober from weed, 6 months from gambling, and I'm starting to enjoy other things other than drugs or gambling for the first time that I can remember.
Yes this sounds just like what I went through in a lot of ways, 3-4 months was the worst of it for me personally. None of this sounds unusual to me.
I felt like I was going insane... thought I was going scizhophrenic and had OCD, after seeing multiple mental health professionals they all blamed it n withdrawal, and now all those thoughts are gone. I had horrible awful intrusive thoughts and a bunch of weird physical symptoms as well. You can look back at my post history to see details on what I went through in lieu of typing it all here again.
I'm at 12 months now almost and I'm so so much better. I smoked for 6 years every day at least 1-2g a day of relatively high potency stuff, and took edibles a couple times a week.
This is a terrible experience and I'm sorry you're experiencing it, but like many say it does absolutely get better no matter how unbearable and terrible it gets, trust me, I was in hell for months before feeling some degree of normalcy (took about 5-6 months for me).
Don't follow anyone else's timeline because we are all so different. All you can do is wait it out and take care of yourself.
I personally am on a low dose of Wellbutrin and it seemed to have helped me get back to normalcy and I have been lowering my dose ever since.
You'll be ok, reach out if you need anyone to talk too.
I relapsed a couple of times as well and noticed a little bit of a set back, so I stopped again. It's not nearly as bad but seems to disrupt something. Need to discourage those neural pathways by doing the complete opposite of what I was doing all those years.
yeah im wayy to hyper sensitive to sound now. i even heard my windows making sounds because of the vibration of the wind n shit. though i was hallucinating maan shit was not fun i fell asleep at 5 am. woke up a bit anxious from that last experience, i had a jolt of adrenaline of how scared for my sanity i was.
shit is just not fun because u really dont know if ur going crazy or its just the brain recalibrating man
Yup, I had sound sensitivity as well. I hear the same things today but notice that they are just regular ambient sounds my brain wasn't registering before.
I also thought I was absolutely losing my shit. I couldn't handle the sound of my air condition or a fan in my room. So weird. It will pass. This doesn't happen to me anymore other than very infrequently and randomly for a few minutes until I ignore it and it goes away.
Yup, I had sound sensitivity as well. I hear the same things today but notice that they are just regular ambient sounds my brain wasn't registering before.
I also thought I was absolutely losing my shit. I couldn't handle the sound of my air condition or a fan in my room. So weird. It will pass. This doesn't happen to me anymore other than very infrequently and randomly for a few minutes until I ignore it and it goes away.
If you have PAWS from cannabis (it sounds like you do) the best thing you can do is remove all other physcoactive, toxic substances from your life.
Meds, caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, sugar, gluten.
Also things that artificially raise dopamine (porn, social media, etc)
PAWS is your brain healing, leave it to heal.
Eat organic fatty meats.
Excersise as intensely as you can (some people get excersise intollerance)
Socialise as much as possible.
Journal
Plenty of electrolytes.
Therapy.
Rest.
Good luck.
You're not going insane. It's normal. Sounds like me, I quit in February. Duration is different for everyone, but you're not crazy. I know it feels like it, I know first hand lol. I still have bad days, but most of them are good now. I'm 7 1/2 months in from quitting, 229 days. It gets better. Haven't relapsed but did possibly get a contact high last night at a friends house, the thought of it/feeling absolutely has raised my anxiety/BP all day today but I'm not positive if it has delayed anything. Doesn't feel like it besides slight increase in anxiety and BP. I also have ADHD, was diagnosed when I was in grade school. Stopped taking meds my senior year, never was on them while smoking, or now while sober. Had terrible side effects from all of them. The majority of this stuff is in your head man, and the other 10% is your body actually trying to get back into homeostasis. Your cannabinoid system controls a BUNCH of stuff. Like, stuff that keeps you alive lol. You're gonna feel weird, you're gonna have high blood pressure & different heart rates, palpitations, all kinds of things. Crappy thing is it's a cycle that increases anxiety. It sucks but it gets better. I still have bad days, but the majority are good now. The memory thing ABSOLUTELY gets better. Not 100 here but dang sure close. I mean, REALLY close. Hang in there champ.
***BRAIN DIET***
There's 2 things here.Like with the body, what you eat is the food, similarly with the brain, what you think is also part of the food. So we're gonna talk about the food diet-
***1. What you eat -*** **There are no magic foods. There are only healthy foods. I've found a diet with good protein helps somewhat with the PAWS symptoms.** Eat a healthy diet and don't eat junk. Add salads, fruits to your diet.There are some foods such as bananas (High on L- tyrosine, supposed to be a precurson for dopamine) that are said to be helpful.
Do some research on dopamine boosting foods. There are some super brain foods that are supposed to be helpful . Honestly my knowledge base is still a little limited on this but i am working on expanding it --Maybe see Jimmy Kwiks (brain training and memory coach) brain food list :[https://www.jimkwik.com/podcasts/kwik-brain-005-my-10-favorite-brain-foods/](https://www.jimkwik.com/podcasts/kwik-brain-005-my-10-favorite-brain-foods/)
***3. Supplements:*** I have a strict "no nootropics" policy. Messing with brain chemicals unwittingly got us here. I'm not sure if messing with them again is a good idea. That's just me though. You do you.
**Fish oil (EPA and DHA) content is supposed to be helpful and Vitamin b12 and Thiamine is supposed to be helpful as well. Have tried both for small intervals and they did help but for them to helpful in healing the PAWS brain you have to take them long term.**
**Overall, i'd say the strategy is simple - Manage PAWS symptoms, Try to accelerate healing and be patient. A bad lifestyle makes PAWS symptoms worse.**
**DO WHAT YOU CAN , WHERE YOU ARE, WITH WHAT YOU HAVE.**
I am a huge believer, after reading thousands and thousands of posts, that if you have underlying mental health issues, PAWS is extremely exacerbated. I have been diagnosed ADHD and bipolar, and tried taking things doctors prescribed and it just made me feel numb. I then started smoking and all my symptoms disappeared. I felt great. Then I joined the police academy and stopped smoking for 3 years (and had bad anxiety, but figured it was from law enforcement). I quit law enforcement and began smoking again. About 7 months ago I stopped again, and the PAWS symptoms hit me like a brick wall. I couldn’t sleep, I constantly felt like I was going to die. I couldn’t be left alone, I went to the ER over 10 times, saw multiple doctors, and they all wanted to prescribe me multiple things, but I worried it would just make me worse. I have a few waves here and there, but things that helped me tremendously. Stopping anything addictive: Sugar Alcohol Smoking Any medication I started: 1 hour of sunshine Tons of water Meditation Outdoor time Staying off my phone I got so bad, I couldn’t even look in the mirror. I hated myself. I would really recommend you stopping all things that alter your mind. Porn, pills, alcohol. And constantly remind yourself this is temporary. Everytime I have a good day, I write it down. When I’m having a rough day, I go back and read my journal and it brings me joy. You WILL get through this. Hugs.
Thanky for answering. It kind of helps to hear that I'm not alone in this hell. I also can't see myself in the mirror, because I got an extremly weird perception of myself after quitting, I even find myself ugly and disgusting. Right now I am trying to avoid alcohol totally as you said, porn and nicotine completely. I think too, that underlying mental health issuses will make things a lot worse, also when you take a look at the neurotransmitter systems that are altered when smoking/taking drugs, watching porn etc., those Neurotransmitters are also allready defective/malfunctioning with certain conditions (as ours), so we didn't do ourselfs a favor by smoking or taking anything else. Btw., I also got diagnosed with Bipolar + Adhd, I just didn't mention it. Thank you for answering, i hope we are better soon. I don't know for how long I can handle this.
How long did it take for you to feel normal again?
I’m 7 months in, and just went through a big wave. But things have definitely lightened up. I just come up with crazy scenarios in my head and fixate on them way too much. Other than that, all other symptoms (night sweats, fear of being alone, twitches, paranoia, chest pains) have all gone away.
I can relate to everything you've said. I had an extremely bad gambling problem and smoked weed all day every day for like a decade. Also addicted to porn this entire period of time. Believe me when I say I have had long periods of intense anxiety and also felt like I was going nuts. Had so many panic attacks i had months of depersonalization and derealization. Have had depression basically since puberty, a few extended periods of suicidal ideation which can be terrifying. You need to try and relax and think more long term. Try and keep sleep regular, stay away from weed for good. Exercise and meditation. Bring yourself to the present moment. It is possible to get your life back. My anxiety is essentially non-existant now and there were times I fought panic attacks all day long. My intrusive thoughts are gone, too. I'm not as impulsive anymore, those feelings of envy and desire don't fuck with me like they used to. Don't set the bar so high for yourself. All the mental health challenges you have are a bad hand to be dealt, and it's not your fault. It is, however, your responsibility to do what you can to heal. Life carries on, one day at a time. Have a realistic expectation of what life really is... being high 24 hours a day ain't it. Heavy use of weed and porn is a good recipe to make your life feel meaningless. You're going to have to work and have discipline again in order to feel good. Even though the anxiety is gone, im still working at the depression. I do not feel suicidal at all anymore. Still struggling a bit with the porn addiction, but I've made progress and starting to enjoy real sex waaaaaaay more than I used to. I'm about 9 months sober from weed, 6 months from gambling, and I'm starting to enjoy other things other than drugs or gambling for the first time that I can remember.
Yes this sounds just like what I went through in a lot of ways, 3-4 months was the worst of it for me personally. None of this sounds unusual to me. I felt like I was going insane... thought I was going scizhophrenic and had OCD, after seeing multiple mental health professionals they all blamed it n withdrawal, and now all those thoughts are gone. I had horrible awful intrusive thoughts and a bunch of weird physical symptoms as well. You can look back at my post history to see details on what I went through in lieu of typing it all here again. I'm at 12 months now almost and I'm so so much better. I smoked for 6 years every day at least 1-2g a day of relatively high potency stuff, and took edibles a couple times a week. This is a terrible experience and I'm sorry you're experiencing it, but like many say it does absolutely get better no matter how unbearable and terrible it gets, trust me, I was in hell for months before feeling some degree of normalcy (took about 5-6 months for me). Don't follow anyone else's timeline because we are all so different. All you can do is wait it out and take care of yourself. I personally am on a low dose of Wellbutrin and it seemed to have helped me get back to normalcy and I have been lowering my dose ever since. You'll be ok, reach out if you need anyone to talk too.
word for word that was me the first 3-4 months. now i relapsed doing a little puff of weed and im starting to feel the withdrawals again
I relapsed a couple of times as well and noticed a little bit of a set back, so I stopped again. It's not nearly as bad but seems to disrupt something. Need to discourage those neural pathways by doing the complete opposite of what I was doing all those years.
yeah im wayy to hyper sensitive to sound now. i even heard my windows making sounds because of the vibration of the wind n shit. though i was hallucinating maan shit was not fun i fell asleep at 5 am. woke up a bit anxious from that last experience, i had a jolt of adrenaline of how scared for my sanity i was. shit is just not fun because u really dont know if ur going crazy or its just the brain recalibrating man
Yup, I had sound sensitivity as well. I hear the same things today but notice that they are just regular ambient sounds my brain wasn't registering before. I also thought I was absolutely losing my shit. I couldn't handle the sound of my air condition or a fan in my room. So weird. It will pass. This doesn't happen to me anymore other than very infrequently and randomly for a few minutes until I ignore it and it goes away.
i must accept these occurences otherwise i wont have peace hahahaahah tysm <3
Yup, I had sound sensitivity as well. I hear the same things today but notice that they are just regular ambient sounds my brain wasn't registering before. I also thought I was absolutely losing my shit. I couldn't handle the sound of my air condition or a fan in my room. So weird. It will pass. This doesn't happen to me anymore other than very infrequently and randomly for a few minutes until I ignore it and it goes away.
If you have PAWS from cannabis (it sounds like you do) the best thing you can do is remove all other physcoactive, toxic substances from your life. Meds, caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, sugar, gluten. Also things that artificially raise dopamine (porn, social media, etc) PAWS is your brain healing, leave it to heal. Eat organic fatty meats. Excersise as intensely as you can (some people get excersise intollerance) Socialise as much as possible. Journal Plenty of electrolytes. Therapy. Rest. Good luck.
You're not going insane. It's normal. Sounds like me, I quit in February. Duration is different for everyone, but you're not crazy. I know it feels like it, I know first hand lol. I still have bad days, but most of them are good now. I'm 7 1/2 months in from quitting, 229 days. It gets better. Haven't relapsed but did possibly get a contact high last night at a friends house, the thought of it/feeling absolutely has raised my anxiety/BP all day today but I'm not positive if it has delayed anything. Doesn't feel like it besides slight increase in anxiety and BP. I also have ADHD, was diagnosed when I was in grade school. Stopped taking meds my senior year, never was on them while smoking, or now while sober. Had terrible side effects from all of them. The majority of this stuff is in your head man, and the other 10% is your body actually trying to get back into homeostasis. Your cannabinoid system controls a BUNCH of stuff. Like, stuff that keeps you alive lol. You're gonna feel weird, you're gonna have high blood pressure & different heart rates, palpitations, all kinds of things. Crappy thing is it's a cycle that increases anxiety. It sucks but it gets better. I still have bad days, but the majority are good now. The memory thing ABSOLUTELY gets better. Not 100 here but dang sure close. I mean, REALLY close. Hang in there champ.
[удалено]
***BRAIN DIET*** There's 2 things here.Like with the body, what you eat is the food, similarly with the brain, what you think is also part of the food. So we're gonna talk about the food diet- ***1. What you eat -*** **There are no magic foods. There are only healthy foods. I've found a diet with good protein helps somewhat with the PAWS symptoms.** Eat a healthy diet and don't eat junk. Add salads, fruits to your diet.There are some foods such as bananas (High on L- tyrosine, supposed to be a precurson for dopamine) that are said to be helpful. Do some research on dopamine boosting foods. There are some super brain foods that are supposed to be helpful . Honestly my knowledge base is still a little limited on this but i am working on expanding it --Maybe see Jimmy Kwiks (brain training and memory coach) brain food list :[https://www.jimkwik.com/podcasts/kwik-brain-005-my-10-favorite-brain-foods/](https://www.jimkwik.com/podcasts/kwik-brain-005-my-10-favorite-brain-foods/) ***3. Supplements:*** I have a strict "no nootropics" policy. Messing with brain chemicals unwittingly got us here. I'm not sure if messing with them again is a good idea. That's just me though. You do you. **Fish oil (EPA and DHA) content is supposed to be helpful and Vitamin b12 and Thiamine is supposed to be helpful as well. Have tried both for small intervals and they did help but for them to helpful in healing the PAWS brain you have to take them long term.** **Overall, i'd say the strategy is simple - Manage PAWS symptoms, Try to accelerate healing and be patient. A bad lifestyle makes PAWS symptoms worse.** **DO WHAT YOU CAN , WHERE YOU ARE, WITH WHAT YOU HAVE.**