wiped.

[cornelius]

gone.

[demografx]

I clearly have ADD _and_ POIS.

So what?

So do many.

The two disorders are mutually exclusive yet some overlap.

[Daveman]

Cornelius, I'm happy for you. I hope it is real this time. You've tried so much for depression, and tons of things for POIS like symptoms.

We have to, as always, for the rest of us out there, be real careful about taking someone elses cure as a solution for your own case.

I can't relate at all to what you say, but then, what's important is that it works for you.

The other night, after a great day out, for our Chilean 4th of July, came home, had abstained for 5 wks, and my wify was looking real good. Well, did the thing, went to sleep like a baby and practially forgot about POIS, until about 4 in the morning. Woke up with one of the worst cases in a LONG time. So not at all the same at all.

Also, with brain-fog, we may well score poorly in a test for ADHD. Doesn't mean we have it. These days they're giving strong drugs just about to any kid who tend to be a bit distracted. It's almost criminal in some cases.

So I'm glad it worked for you. You may well have just had ADD, and a touch of autism. But without a doctor a simple internet test doesnt tell you anything. Also take the same test out of POIS.

Please we all jump all over the place on the slightest hint. If you feel the need, go for it AGAIN, and AGAIN.

But what we need is professional research. Even if that research tells us we don't have POIS, it will finally take us out of this goose chase misery.

[Vincent M]

 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. What is the absolute bane of stress and tension? You've got it -- and my therapist figured this out really early on, but I wasn't willing to listen to him -- ejaculation. You can't remain stressed after ejaculating. And if I wasn't stressed, I couldn't concentrate. See how this is the POIS model, only turned completely on its head?

If what you say here is true then one could avoid POIS symptoms simply by remaining completely stress free for the days before an orgasm then increasing your stress as soon as you orgasm. However There have been many occasions where I've had no stress before an orgasm and as soon as I orgasm my stress level skyrockets (since anxiety is one of my POIS symptoms) and all my POIS symptoms hit even worse if I am stressed after an orgasm. Orgasm/ejaculation doesn't relax me at all and it never has even when I didn't know that POIS existed.

Also I believe the fact that fenugreek and saw palmetto helped you are very good indicators that you really did have POIS.

I think that the doctors and therapists you've been seeing have taken advantage of your confused state from POIS and the paxil and they brainwashed you into thinking that your symptoms (aspergers/add) were your actual main disorder instead of the POIS that you really have. Just remember it's only been a week and to me it seems like you're not thinking clearly due to your elation at thinking you're cured. It's happened to many of us here before. I just don't want you to hit rock bottom too hard if you find out that you really still do have POIS. Please give it more time (preferably at least 4 or 5 months) before you make any serious decisions based on the fact that you think you're cured. I thought I was cured one time because my symptoms randomly vanished for about 2 months so I went back to college only to have all my symptoms come back and failed all of my classes and now I'm in a load of debt just because I made a stupid and premature decision. Just give it more time before you decide that you really are cured of POIS or even that you never had POIS.

[Habibou]

I am on CFS also, and I will try Ritaline (used to decrease noradrenaline) soon, which is used for ADD too ! I will see a specialist soon...
It also could why my noradrenaline is sooo high .. !

[omen]

Pois is there...and there's no denying it...and one fine day poiscenter.com will find a cure for it...that also I am sure about...till then live with it...that's the only way...

[Daveman]

My tendancy is to think that, for whatever the reason that may be, we become short on the building blocks for histamines, which also happen to be the same building blocks used to make "feel normal" neurotransmitters and hormones used in the brain. There's a fair bit of data available to support something like this.

So the body tends to prioritize the histamines and we end up missing the needed balance in the head.

So we get brain fog and become depressed and lose concentration. It would make sense, that if one already has a tendency to depression or ADD or Sexual Exhaustion or CFS, the imbalance caused by POIS would trigger it sooner.

This could explain why some are more congitively sensitive than others. Maybe in many the depressive (or other) tendancy is latent, and not normally present, bordeline so to speak. But along comes POIS, and it tips the scales.

There is no doubt that POIS causes terrible cognitive depression and disorientation, no doubt, and I would even suggest that depending on the case, some of the remedies for the side effect (ADD let's say) may work, at least partially, but until the underlying casue is eliminated or nipped in the bud, the side effects will always remain.

[Observer]

Again, it's not that POIS as I understood it doesn't exist. I still went through all of that suffering, and it seemed to be triggered by orgasm...  but we have never managed to prove anything beyond that.
Fact: There are many people who report that they experience physical and mental suffering shortly after ejaculation/orgasm.

Another fact is that a dry orgasm doesn´t give you any symptoms. And that the leak of pre-seminal fluid give us this symptoms in a mild way.

Do you remember the first time that you feel sick, confused, with brain fog after having an orgasm? Your first POIS episode?
I don´t.

Anyway, i know that this hell began at the age of 18 years. I was deppressed due to i was rejected, and this feeling expanded in the time for some months. I recall feeling with brain-fog, cognitive problems, social anxiety, repetitive and negative thoughts etc. I could remember feeling worse after an Orgasm, but not exactly the first time that i feel like this POIS. I recall leaving behind this social anxiety and overcoming the negative feelings of personal rejection. I remember feeling better *my mind**my body*, and then falling in a cycle of hard brain fog, cognitive problems after every orgasm. I made the connection over the months; at the first time i thought it was an overwhelming feeling of guilt after masturbating, then i stopped masturbating. But then i had the NE, and the problem of POIS surfaced again. It was more difficult to not masturbate while in POIS due to the excitation was the only thing that could distract me from my tortured mind of POIS. The years passed until i discovered that something called POIS exists. This has changed my life. I am not experiencing brain fog anymore due to the niacin, social anxiety has dissappeared, negative thoughts have stopped, and i´m growing confident in every aspect of my life. The battle to fight against POIS has made me to contact some proffesionals in the health world to discover why i suffer this. I´m not anxious anymore to have an orgasm, but if ejaculate when the flush hasn´t dissappeared(or too soon)  i would feel sick-- i have done that---.
I would get that horrible wave spreading on every corner of my body and mind. The same wave that hit my mind and made me recognize that if i was plenty and perfect, this was going to change and the brain fog will appear with intensity in minutes and will last several days. Not anymore. But i would not stop searching the truth. Maybe you have finally find your truth--- Then, congratulations, but i can´t believe that your case is my case. I have a very good friend with Asperger, and i have always recognized the moments when he shows his problem in social situations. I don´t have aspergers and i can say this with 100% certainty, so i think that my search is going to continue. Thanks for sharing your experience with us cornelius

[Daveman]

Thank you Observer for understanding Cornelius's situation, and also expressing well, how we are certain too, that POIS is real.

I understand Cornelius, who probably has been very hampered by his ADD and other cognitive, perhaps depression related in their own right. I have seen a number of us who probably have depressive tendancies as a parallel condition and or axagerated by POIS. I know the situation is VERY complex, and we resist psychological help becasue they don't want to recognize POIS.

But we have said before. Treatments for symptoms CAN help, and should be pursued. But DON'T expect that the treatment will cure you. ONLY a cure for POIS will cure us.

I think niacin has given us a very big clue.

Although we have niacin, and one or two who find great relief with some treatment or other we still MUST pursue the research grant. It's the only thing that will clear the doubt. Perhaps, as Cornelius says, we may ALL be chasing rainbows.

Man I wish that could change!!

[Willem]

Hi Cornelius,

I'm very happy for you.  It's fantastic news that you're feeling and doing better.  Unfortunately sex is one of those things that is so powerful and intertwined with the mind that problems like the one you're describing (thought you had POIS, but probably not) I think are totally possible. 

Please keep us updated on your progress as you are a valuable contributor to this community and I want to hear how this goes over time.  I agree with you that what may be the case for you does not make it the case for others and that's what's so frustrating about this condition.  For example, I don't feel threatened if for you it turns out to be psychosomatic.  If that's the case it would be helpful to know.  Best of luck.

[UnderstandingPois]

im sorry to say but, pois suffers are very likely to get diagnosed with ADD i also bet it is the inattentive kind. i also got diagnosed with ADD . and other shit where they try explain and cover up they symptoms of pois.

[MrMoonJr]

Taking University courses specifically in critical thinking.. this whole post makes me feel really uneasy. Number one, I cant take anecdotal experiences, it may work for you but that does not mean it will be the case for all pois sufferers. It might be interesting to look into but with the symptoms we have it would be a very hard case to prove in cornelius's favour.

Also, many of us here like said above have a combination of ADD + POIS which would make us automatically subjected to an "a.d.d. test"
This seems very skeptical and im sorry if i sound like an ass, but i like when research has been presented orderly and scientific. Maybe we can look into this? but as it stands very very skeptical

[Starsky]

Over so many years we had so many "cured" that i doubt that Cornelius really had POIS.

[Daveman]

Let's hope he didn't have POIS Starsky, and has found his peace.

[Egordon]

Cornelius,

Congrats man! Whether or not you ever had POIS -- and I think you probably DID and still DO -- it's great that you've finally gotten some of your symptoms under control and are seeing improvements in your life. I, though, absolutely know that I have POIS. Sure, I have trouble concentrating sometimes. But those times are almost exclusively only immediately after orgasm. In fact, since discovering Niacin and ceasing to masturbate I feel like a completely different person -- and people have noticed. Everything in my life is better! I'm able to date more often, i'm doing well in grad school, and have far more friends than ever before. So I have no question that my problems are related to physiological -- not psychological -- problems related to orgasm.

But Cornelius does perhaps raise a good point. Because of how little we know about this constellation of symptoms, it's wise to have your doctor consider all of the possibilities of different disorders that exist out there. You may have POIS AND something else. Or you may just have something else. As helpful as this community is, experimentation and openness to other ideas is pretty important since we know so little about this disorder, so don't be hesitant to consult actual doctors -- no matter how sure you are that you just have POIS.

[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 !