I've been practicing abstinence for around 2 years now. For the first year or so it was working great, and my quality of life improved drastically.
Unfortunately, around summer last something seems to have shifted and abstinence started causing me more negative than positive effects.
At around day 4 I get severe ADHD and dopamine-hunger. I am completely incapable of performing any task (mental or physical) that requires focus. I'm unable to keep my affairs in check as I cannot garner the focus to even recall what has to be done. I become jittery, anxious and start having extremely compulsive behaviors (overeating, overindulging in media, chainsmoking)
This goes away immediately after I ejaculate which gets me working right away.
Now this doesn't happen every time. For the last year, i'd say about 10% of my abstinence attempts led me to feel better for some period of time but the negative effects start happening sooner or later.
The rest of the time I only get minor positive effects from abstinence on day 2, 3 and on day 4 I wake up a shaky mess.
I've posted about this on the pois subreddit and some people reported experiencing the same.
I also noticed POIS type 13 is worsened by sexual activity without ejaculation. I think that might be related.
Very recently I began writing a detailed journal to keep track of all my habits In an attempt to find a pattern but that's probably going to take months.
I am hoping someone more knowledgeable on pois heard of this phenomenon and has a clue as to what might be the reason this happens as I'm completely debilitated.
Thank you.
