Porn and POIS

[cyberguy137]

Has anyone noticed that watching porn and masturbating makes POIS a million times worse. (OK, maybe not a million but at least 4x)

Apparently even people who don't suffer from POIS can get extreme brain fog from porn.

Also... does anyone have any tips for quitting porn for good? I keep relapsing every month or so...

[Gino]

@cyberguy137 - I believe there's a correlation between the intensity of sexual arousal (mental state) at the point of orgasm and the resulting intensity and duration of POIS symptoms.

To clarify, it is the level of arousal at the exact timing of orgasm that's important. The level might fluctuate higher and lower during sex/porn but all that matters is the arousal level at the time of orgasm.

As a practical outcome, if you must finish, try to delay until you come down to a lower level of arousal. This has reduced symptoms for me somewhat.

Even better is if you can find a treatment that works for you:

Examples:
- the Niacin method (https://poiscenter.com/forums/index.php?topic=235.0) or 
- the Cascade Stack or the Betaherpesvirinae Stack (https://poiscenter.com/forums/index.php?topic=2502.0)

[mike_sweden]

@cyberguy137 - I believe there's a correlation between the intensity of sexual arousal (mental state) at the point of orgasm and the resulting intensity and duration of POIS symptoms.

To clarify, it is the level of arousal at the exact timing of orgasm that's important. The level might fluctuate higher and lower during sex/porn but all that matters is the arousal level at the time of orgasm.

As a practical outcome, if you must finish, try to delay until you come down to a lower level of arousal. This has reduced symptoms for me somewhat.

Even better is if you can find a treatment that works for you:

Examples:
- the Niacin method (https://poiscenter.com/forums/index.php?topic=235.0) or 
- the Cascade Stack or the Betaherpesvirinae Stack (https://poiscenter.com/forums/index.php?topic=2502.0)

i agree very much about the intensity level, keep it down as much as possible.

[BoneBroth]

The discussions goes like this: During mastarbation on porn-images/movies the brain gets flooded with dopamine - that never happens with sexual intercourse. The dopamine-flood reduces the number of dopamine receptors (as a protection), so next time you need even more porn to get the same effect and the spiral get worse. The excess levels of dopamine has an effect on the blood vessels in the brain. Some say vasoconstriction some say vasodilution, I dont know which it is, maybe both and excess dopamine also make you loose all motivation and get more susceptible to other forms of addictions (facebook, games etcetera), that increase the dopamine even further. You simple have to stop it cold turkey and the receptors will heal in some months or a year.
   

[Nas]

Bonebroth, this has been discussed multiple times in this forum. What we suffer from is no mere addiction. 99% of human population would masturbate on porn and it wouldn't cause them any of our symptoms. Infact porn addiction as part of the general sex addiction, is highly contested as an actual form of addiction or not. What we suffer from is perhaps related to a dysfunction in dopaminergic pathways, added to it other pathways like the serotonin pathway.
Dopamine gets metabolised into Epinephrine and Norepinephrine so it would cause vasoconstriction not vasodilation.

[BoneBroth]

I'm not talking about POIS. cyberguy137 wrote "Apparently even people who don't suffer from POIS can get extreme brain fog from porn.". Those people could have the dopamine effect, I mean. Besides, even if 99% of human population do masturbate, everyone don't do it exacly as much and continues for as long time in their life. 99.7% of human population is (as any group) within three standard deviations from the mean in the normal distribution curve. POIS'ers might be in the the 0,03 % group and in that group could be genetic factors as well.

[Nas]

Exactly, it's not a no fap issue. It's a much deeper and chronic issue then mere brain fog after porn.

[BoneBroth]

Well, we should not exclude anything

[Observer]

@cyberguy137 - I believe there's a correlation between the intensity of sexual arousal (mental state) at the point of orgasm and the resulting intensity and duration of POIS symptoms.

To clarify, it is the level of arousal at the exact timing of orgasm that's important. The level might fluctuate higher and lower during sex/porn but all that matters is the arousal level at the time of orgasm.

As a practical outcome, if you must finish, try to delay until you come down to a lower level of arousal. This has reduced symptoms for me somewhat.

Even better is if you can find a treatment that works for you:

Examples:
- the Niacin method (https://poiscenter.com/forums/index.php?topic=235.0) or 
- the Cascade Stack or the Betaherpesvirinae Stack (https://poiscenter.com/forums/index.php?topic=2502.0)

This could be explained by the activation of the vagus nerve. If you experience a very high level of arousal, and the body/mind send the wrong signal after orgasm you get a massive "hangover" in form of POIS and a wrong cascade of neurotransmitters (This was shown in the study carried out by Dr.K, it seems that a low HRV was observed - something that indicates a severe stress/shock response from the organism) . This is what I've been arguing for some time, the fact that there could be good/bad orgasms.

In my opinion, niacin helps you with the breathing, clarity of mind, no negative thoughts, a state of relaxation that produces a normal orgasm. I have also found that meditation/breathing control JUST BEFORE, DURING and AFTER the orgasm can help a lot reducing symptoms.

It was also true in my case that the use of fenugreek was giving me less powerful orgasms and less symptoms, but while I think this is important, the arousal state seems to determine a lot as you have said.

[BoneBroth]

HRV = Heart rate variability ?

[Observer]

HRV = Heart rate variability ?

Yep, you're right.

https://poiscenter.com/forums/index.php?topic=2285.0

Statement 2:

"A preliminary interpretation of our current data is that POIS symptoms are accompanied by a lowered heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV), and that vagal stimulation may produce a beneficial effect on POIS symptoms (increased heart rate and HRV) as a 're-bound' from the vagal stimulation. These are very preliminary findings and continued research with additional participants is underway, to assess the reliability of these findings."

[cyberguy137]

Hi,

I just wanted to say thanks for the responses guys. I think we are mostly in agreement that porn excacerbates POIS. However I agree that POIS is more than just the downregulation of dopamine receptors associated with porn use. 

[mike_sweden]

porn is bad since it increases the secretion of plasma and thus causes some sort of inflammation

sometimes the plasma fluid is so little one does not notice, only the symptoms later on

porn also makes the ejaculation much more intense and stronger, not good

[dizzy]

Has anyone noticed that watching porn and masturbating makes POIS a million times worse. (OK, maybe not a million but at least 4x)

Apparently even people who don't suffer from POIS can get extreme brain fog from porn.

Also... does anyone have any tips for quitting porn for good? I keep relapsing every month or so...

Perhaps you can find some tips here: https://fightthenewdrug.org/

Or here: https://www.yourbrainonporn.com/

Or in the nofap group on Reddit, for example.

By the way, I have a similar reaction to porn.