wiped.

[B_Daniel]

Cornelius, Congratulations on your relief.  Please keep us updated.   

[Daveman]

I'm happy for you Cornelius. I too am having great success with niacin, there is nothing like feeling normal again after sex. And my case was likely not half as bad as yours.

I'm sure there are some here among us like yourself where depression or ADD play a greater part in the imbalance in their reproductive cycle than anything else.

[hurray]

Wow, what a well-written and insightful account of your latest breakthrough, cornelius! Congratulations on your successes so far - obviously I'd like to know whether your success will be long-term or not. You've made a brave post, and nobody is going to think any less of you if you let us know that POIS is beginning to creep back into your life - although hopefully it won't  It is pretty common for people to build up a tolerance to SSRIs - but let's not think negatively!

I've been well aware for several years that I suffer from clinical depression, but I deliberately avoided the formal diagnosis because I was still able on occasion to do reasonably outstanding things (write good songs, articles etc) and didn't want to mess up my brain with "happy drugs". After I began taking Zoloft I was able to function far better in social situations during time periods when I should have had severe POIS. Moving to a sunny climate also helped considerably.

I think that my problems with cognition -- my ADD -- was always present. I think that as I restrained myself from sexual activity, that I became more and more stressed. That stress enabled me to push past and control the ADD for long enough to get some things done. That I have always wielded my stress in order to marshal my concentration.

Very interesting indeed. I have often felt exactly the same way about how I am able to function extremely well on occasion - I can do huge amounts of high quality work over a few days especially when a deadline is involved, but I can never sustain that intensity.

I may not agree with your final conclusion (that you don’t have POIS), but the new perspective that you put on your malady is fascinating. Regarding the symptoms that you used to consider to be POIS, what degree would you say these have disappeared to as a result of your efforts? Demo often quotes that he is 80% POIS-free now, for example.

Ask yourself: is this a common list of symptoms of acute depression?
Over-sleeping, Agoraphobia, clouded thinking, poor short-term memory, irritability
Unless you haven't been reading the same things that I have, you'll have to concede that they are.

Clouded thinking isn’t the same as brain fog for me. I had depression years before my POIS symptoms appeared, and my thoughts were not affected by what most us of think as brain fog – they were just overwhelmingly negative. Also, I have physical symptoms to POIS (extremely dry hair that starts approximately 1 hour after O and continues for days afterwards, and aching joints).

Did you ever have physical symptoms or brain fog with “POIS”? If you had neither, than your conclusion that you never had POIS might well be right.

There’s a lot of other stuff I’d like to write but I’m not a fan of making long forum posts, not that’s there anything wrong with yours   

[hurray]

I tried your ADHD tests:

http://www.adders.org/who%20addult%20adhdscreen.pdf

scored 5/6 in the dark boxes for Part A

http://www.adders.org/info7.htm

I have at least 18/20 on this one. Crumbs. Maybe I need to see a doctor!

[Habibou]

I tried your ADHD tests:

http://www.adders.org/who%20addult%20adhdscreen.pdf

scored 5/6 in the dark boxes for Part A

http://www.adders.org/info7.htm

I have at least 18/20 on this one. Crumbs. Maybe I need to see a doctor!

If I do the test too, I have very high score, even without POIS ! Perhaps, he found a good thing for "cognitive POIS", who knows !

[Daveman]

I'd say that if you have the high scores even well out of POIS, you should look at it. Although I think Habibou, that CFS might also give you a high score on ADHD even if you don't have ADHD.

Each disease makes it's symptoms, but the symptoms don't always make the Disease.

We have POIS everyone. If you think you have something else or could have something else in parallel go for it. Take the time out, re-think your strategy, follow the lead and we'll see you back here in a few months. If not, all the better for you.

As we've been trying to say. How many of us have non-stop looked for one cure after another. Maybe it;s this, maybe it's that.  I have symptoms of "God knows what" so I must have "God knows what". Ooops nope, I guess I didn't. Now I have symptoms that look like "Allah knows what", so I must have "Allah knows what", so lets try that cure... Ooops nope well now my symptoms seem like........ on and on and on.

When are we going to get off the freaken merry-go-round.

We need research!!! When will we see this. We spend far more trying God knows what than we do in the only thing that's going to finally solve this problem.

[hurray]

Research is hugely important, but it isn't something that happens quickly. We have had people on these forums attempting suicide, and many more for whom POIS is a large factor in their depression (or vice versa). If a small subset of people with POIS also suffer from depression, it is a link well worth discussing I think. If curing the depression cures the "POIS", then that is in itself a discovery.

If (as I suspect) there turns out to be different types of POIS (say POIS A, POIS B, POIS C), maybe cornelius had POIS C and has discovered the cure (eliminating depression through therapy and medication, controlling ADHD through medication). That frees us up to focus on POIS A and POIS B, making the discovery of some additional universal POIS symptoms more likely.

The fact that we have found so few POIS symptoms that applies to every case certainly suggests that there may be more than one variant of POIS at work here - of course it also suggests that some of us may have misdisgnosed ourselves with POIS.

[Daveman]

I agree particularly with your last statement.

Perhaps I tend to worry myself too much in seeing yet another being redirected into a fruitless attempt to solve POIS and having to come back and start over. We've just seen it too many times. And especially when SSRI become involved, if those are not handled properly, and there are so many doctors willing to prescirbe them at the drop of a hat, one enters into a whole world which could involve, many times, fruitless psychological treatments with doctors that are only inerested in having a long term patient.

I just have to stop worrying about that.

I have also said often here that many times it is necesary to treat parallel illnesses first, get straightened around over all, and THEN get into POIS. But the problem is when we chase one thing, then another then another and we never seem to get off of the merry-go-round.

[Daveman]

And I guess THAT's why I say that research is so important. To give us a real direction, a real definition so we can stop chasing our tail.

We can do what ever we want while the finding for research is in progress and the research finally comes through. But the problem is that once we distract ourselves from the main goal, getting the research, we put the research on the back burner HOPING that we will find something ourselves. We don't focus on the funding, and try to look for temp solutions meantime, we focus on temp soutions full time, and MAYBE think about funding meantime. If something we think that has promise comes along we dump the funding. So in the whole process, the funding takes second and third place when it should take first and second.

Aaargh!

[hurray]

The research fund is extremely important, and there is a decent percentage chance that it will lead to a breakthrough in our understanding of POIS. We need to understand the mechanisms that cause POIS, let us hope that the research when it finally comes will give us the explanations we are desperately looking for. It certainly doesn't hurt to have a plan B in place though.

Discussing POIS theories is a little like discussing politics - there is never likely to be a satisfying conclusion to the debate where everyone agrees that we should vote for candidate X rather than candidate Y. But sometimes the merry-go-round produces some real gems. If we weren't filling Google with our discussions of POIS, victor.kons would likely have never found our forums and shared his Vitamin B3 discovery with hundreds of other fellow sufferers. Not a cure-all, but something that is providing real help to real POIS sufferers right now.

The more we talk, the more likely it is that new members will stumble upon our community and share their own discoveries. People who feel involved in the process are probably more likely to make a financial as well as a thoughtful contribution to the community.

People can discuss POIS and donate at the same time - it's not a question of choosing one or the other, thankfully  

[Habibou]

Cornelius,
I got POIS (only cognitive symptoms) while I was scared to be aroused because I had a huge pain between legs... I got stressed each time I got excited and it looks like like your story.
You mean your psychotherapy was the key to avoid the cognitive symptoms after a sexual activity? When did it change? Did you find out what locked you (turning point)?
Did you have the feeling of a huge pressure in the brain while on POIS?
I have seen you were under cognitive symptoms most of the time before Strattera, I am either tired mentally or totally out mentally (under POIS).
So by now, you have a totally normal life as if you never got POIS?

[Vincent M]

Also, concerning the research fund, I think the more treatments we can find on our own that help reduce POIS sufferers' symptoms right now the more pois sufferers will be feeling better and thus become more effective at their jobs thus earning more money that they can then funnel into the research fund. This is certainly the case in my situation as the treatments that I learned here have gotten me to the point where I have a job and am earning money. Maybe in a year I'll have enough money saved up that I can spare some for the research fund.

[Daveman]

Thanks for your objective and factual post. It could help several of us.

I insist though, it is not at all my case, and likely not that of many, but once again simply taking a dose of niacin has completely blocked my POIS reaction. With all the anxiousness and tension associated with thinking the niacin won't work, or it's too go a dream to be true, even on day "0" I actually forget that I have POIS.

By day 1 it will be all gone.

But if you can help even 1 or 3 or 10 like you've helped yourself, ALL THE BETTER.

[Habibou]

That mainly means that talking to a psychologist was the key for getting out of POIS. So you mean the different pills you got did not really change anything?...
You said you do not have any post O headache, but cognitive brain fog... what is the real difference?

[sameer7777]

my blood sugar came normal so i took Cipralex !! terrible results !!
my God my diabetes came normal so i took the decision and thought its depression , as i am feeling all social phobia and too much stress ....
i took cipralex and my symptoms get worse , the whole day i felt nausea ...... my stomack trend to constipation , my whole body esp my head is numb , insomnia is terrible i cant sleep ..... this all i feel after O , now with out O i have more worse symptoms ..... now i have to detox the cipralax , kindly help me how to do it quick ...... i cant sleep .... GOD please help me .................