Celebrating 8 Months Clean - Continuing to heal

[PAWSsurvivor]

Hey Everyone,

Celebrating my 8th month. It's been an awful 8 months. I wrote a highly detailed writeup of my experience here in this link:

viewtopic.php?t=108567

To quickly summarize my story. I used weed only for 3 months. I had a large dose of weed on my birthday for my tolerance. After that, cue a cold turkey withdrawl 8 months of PAWS. Sometimes I think my symptoms are more akin to a Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. I'll probably never really know what happened.

Here's the good stuff. I continued to improve in month 7. The biggest improvement? My brain fog finally disappeared. Coincidentally, I also undertook 2 extended fasts this month. One for 36 hours, and another for 50 hours. I wanted to induce a process called Autophagy which is a cellular cleanup. You can google it. Anyways, it was quite dramatic, I felt like my brainfog disappeared after my fast.

So whats left for me is this Anhedonic feeling in my head along with a mild head pressure feeling. But even that lifted a bit this month. It feels less "tight" in my head, and more solid. I remember my head used to feel like it had holes in it. It still does sometimes, but other times not so much.

Other things of note, I haven't be disassociated in a couple of months. I'm so thankful. I did have a couple of weird flare ups. For about 4 days I had this odd twitch in my right thumb along with sort of an anxious restless nervous feeling in my nerves. It felt like my body was going to spasm or something, but I never did. Felt like I had a nerve disease. And then one day I woke up and it was gone. I also had a brief few seconds of a couple visual snowflakes. It scared me because it reminded me of being in Month 3 or 4. Fortunately, it only lasted a few seconds and went away.

I'm more vigourous as well. I'm doing HIIT oriented workouts again. I was worried I wouldn't hold up, but I am. I'm getting a strong 5 days in a row workout with weights coupled with a walk or jog later in the day. When this all began, I couldn't even hold a Down Dog in a Yoga class without getting shakey. My brain really has come a long way.

I hope that by the 1 year mark I'll have this behind me. Thanks everyone here for being supportive. I know I'm not out of the woods yet, but boy am I glad to be out of the fog at least.

[SparkleFly12]

All the best! Just don get to sad if it does take a little longer...this thing is really lingering in me; at 8 months I thought itd be better by 12; but nope. Its gotten better, but still not gone.

[Candid]

The biggest improvement? My brain fog finally disappeared. Coincidentally, I also undertook 2 extended fasts this month. One for 36 hours, and another for 50 hours.

I'm a big fan of fasting, PAWSsurvivor, and I don't think the big shift was coincidental. When we fast, the body begins a major clean-up, first burning up all the rubbish. That's why most adults wake with a bad taste in the mouth, a process we usually interrupt with a drink or breakfast.

I strongly recommend a longer fast. Fifty hours is basically just a weekend, something plenty of people do every year to raise money for World Vision https://www.worldvision.org.nz/connect/40-hour-famine/

If you live alone you would find it comparatively easy to fast for longer. Once you get through the first day you're on your way, but until you get your wheels up it's hard to resist regular olfactory reminders that it's 'time to eat'. Joachim Werdin offers lots of advice and encouragement in his e-book Inedia, Non-Eating, Fasting, http://breatharian.info/texts/InediaNon ... asting.pdf

Finally, I'm sorry that you call yourself PAWSsurvivor, are still counting the days and enumerating the 'symptoms' after three months on, no relapse, and eight months off. This subject has been done to death on many other threads so I won't go into it again here. I wish you well.

[PAWSsurvivor]

I'm sorry you and that Richard guy try to offer unsolicited advice and criticism when not even asked. PAWS is for real. I'm not making it up. And you can ask the two medical doctors who diagnosed me.

Why do you guys keep offering all this unsolicited advice?

I can't post URLS. So here's something from an Article:

"Psychology Says People Who Give Lots of Advice Secretly Want This 1 Thing

The tips might be useful. But don't be fooled about what motivates the speaker.


People who give you advice all the time are just trying to be nice, right? To teach you and help you break through barriers? While that motivator can be there, too, you might want to be a little wary of someone who always chimes in their two cents or rethink what you say yourself.

Four studies that point to one conclusion
As summarized by Dr. Art Markman for Psychology Today, a set of four studies led by Michael Schaerer looked at how giving advice influences a person's sense of power. Each study focused on power perception slightly differently, but all relied on participants filling out scales to measure the desire for or current feelings of power.

In the first study, the researchers asked participants to either think about and describe a situation where they gave advice, or just a regular conversation. Everyone filled out a scale to measure how much power they felt afterward. Those who had given advice showed they felt more powerful.

Two more of the studies focused on whether individuals who want to boost their power tend to give advice. These studies found that individuals who want the upper hand do in fact tend to be more loose lipped about offering guidance.

Finally, the researchers gave participants a chance to give advice online. They then told the participants that the person who got their message either did or did not read the advice. This study found that giving advice increased a sense of power for the participants, especially for those who were interested in gaining more power. When the participants thought others hadn't taken their advice, their sense of power went down rather than up.

As Markman interprets, taken together, these studies indicate that, even if you're not actively out to take the reins over others, giving advice can make you feel like you have some sway, which helps you feel more powerful. And if the idea of more power makes you drool, you're probably more likely to look for opportunities to tell others what to do.

[tokeless]

For God's sake just ignore it. You've come on a forum and the assumption being you needed or wanted some advice.. that's all it is, take it or leave it. You've gone out your way to 'prove' yourself right in the debate. Ok, you're right.. ask yourself this. Why are those you disagree with or don't like the advice from on a power trip over you, yet those who are also trapped in a PAWS grip better to advise and want no power over you? Advice is advice is advice. Take ownership of your sh** and decide to ignore it or not. The forum is here to help... why did you come here PAWSVICTIM??? Strewth...

[Candid]

... when not even asked.

The forum doesn't specify who may or may not reply. There's nothing in the Forum Rules to say "only those people in the same boat, who are equally clueless about how to get over any given issue, may reply".

I responded with something I personally had found helpful. If you aren't interested in an extended fast, who cares?

It's possible site admin could make Addictions an invisible section, available only to people in the throes of it who can produce written statements from two doctors that yes, you've got PAWS. Ordinary members wouldn't be able to see it.

Anyway, it's nothing to bite your own teeth over. Good luck.

[tokes]

Good to hear you're feeling better at the 8 month mark. Incapacitating brain fog was one of my biggest symptoms and dietary changes such as fasts did help. Thanks for sharing your experiences thus far.