Hi all,
I'm 23 years old, I have Pois since 2015 for sure, probably earlier. Here is a personal thread to sum up datas which may be relevant about my POIS.
Please forgive me my possible linguistic mistakes, I'm French and my English isn't perfect. I have no scientific training, so I'll try to be cautious when making comments but I can still say something silly !
Contents :
I/ Triggers
II/ Symptoms
III/ Health background and analyses
IV/ Chronological evolution of POIS
V/ Experiences with treatments
I/ Triggers :There are several triggers to my POIS, each having slightly different consequences, which will be detailed in the 2nd section :
a. Orgasm/ejaculation, of course. As far as I know, stronger or repeated orgasms make POIS worse. As I'm abstinent since approximately one year and a half, nocturnal emissions are now my only source of O-related POIS apart from a few exceptions.
b. Arousal : several symptoms appear from the first seconds of arousal, as I'll explain later. However, the longer the arousal, the worse. The stronger the arousal, the worse. If the arousal is kindled by a sexually explicit image, video or text, symptoms are immediately more virulent than if I'm just thinking by my own about something exciting for a few seconds. Whether pre-ejaculate is dropped or not seems to decide whether other symptoms will appear and stay for days, but I'm not sure. If before arousal I'm perfectly POIS-free, just a few seconds of arousal can trigger a complete POIS episode, while if I'm already in some kind of POIS state, even if it's mild, things are not so clear.
c. Physical exercise, whether it be sport or any kind of sustained effort. When I'm enduring an acute POIS episode, I'm completely unable to do physical exercise so there is no question. Physical activity is possible under a milder POIS state, but then there are still problems : my respiration is bad, my heart rate at rest is too high (between 90 and 110 bpm) and intense or sustained effort makes me sick, I often feel a brief burning sensation around the heart, followed by an overwhelming fatigue/malaise that lasts maybe for 24 to 48 hours, during which I have to rest. It also seems that even under a very mild POIS condition, physical exercise can trigger some POIS symptoms. I'm not sure about physical exercise triggering symptoms when I'm completely POIS-free : in the beginning it wasn't the case for sure, but since the end of 2019 I have almost never been completely POIS-free, so exercise was always harmful. The only exception was when my POIS was temporarily neutralized by daily Omega-3 last September, I spent days cycling without any problem.
Some sports are more harmful : several years earlier, when I had my first symptoms caused by exercise, they were only triggered by abdominal exercises (originally I thought that it had something to do with my breathing in this specific case, as I felt that I was unwittingly 'holding my breath' in a way very similar to what I did during masturbations). Then push-ups, lifting weights, rowing began to make me sick as well, then running, cycling, etc. Still now, running and cycling do not necessarily generate symptoms, but they often do when exercise gain some intensity or duration.
Exceptions :-
Unconscious nocturnal ejaculations without wet dream : it happened rarely but I have experienced NE completely free of wet dream and orgasm, while I'm deeply asleep. I just wake up at some point to realize that my groin is wet. Usually this happens earlier in the night (2-3 a.m.) than typical wet dreams (from 5 to 9 a.m.), but it is not an inflexible law. No POIS or less POIS in these cases.
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"Romantic" wet dreams did not trigger POIS : it happened only one or two times, I'm not sure, so take it with caution but I had no POIS after a NE triggered not by a classical "masturbatory" wet dream (a "pornographic fantasy") but by a "romantic", non-sexual one (in which I was overwhelmed by the sweet presence of a beloved being). (Endorphins?)
II/ Symptoms :After orgasm :- Overwhelming fatigue, feeling "empty" (always)
- Muscular weakness (always)
- Nervousness (always)
- Depressed mood, anhedonia, lack of energy, motivation, social skills and creativity (always)
- Irritability, mainly in the first 24h (always)
- Social anxiety, feeling vulnerable, need to be alone (always)
- "Bad" breathing : not deep and "oxygenating" enough - it's a feeling (always)
- Tachycardia (90 to 110 bpm at rest) (always)
- When I awake (after a night or even just a few seconds of somnolence), my heart rhythm races unusually (always, linked to the previous one)
- Intolerance to physical effort (always)
- Reduced hunger (always)
- Lack of resistance to stress (always)
- Chest pain (a burning point near the heart), especially when an air bubble is going up from my belly to my mouth (often). Sometimes there is a pain a bit lower, which is not worsened by air bubbles.
- Diarrhea / sudden increase of gut motility in the following hours (sometimes), then constipation in the subsequent days (always)
- Nausea (often)
- Asthenia, impaired work capacity, slower thinking process, speech impairment (often, but decreased since abstinence)
- Dry mouth and throat after sleeping (often, by periods)
- Fasciculations and nervous spasms when I relax and lie down, or before falling asleep (often)
- Post-nasal drip (often)
- Acne pimples, or a unique big one (often)
- Appearance of a ganglion under the jaw, for 24/48h (sometimes)
- Lower back pain, disappearing after a few hours (sometimes)
- Nasal congestion (sometimes)
- Insomnia (sometimes)
- Shrill voice (sometimes)
After a sustained sexual arousal (more than a few minutes), without orgasm :Most symptoms are similar but NO overwhelming fatigue, not such a feeling of emptiness / weakness / vulnerability. Other symptoms include :
- Big nausea (almost always)
- Unpleasant body odour (almost always)
- Muscular (?) pain, especially in all the thorax area (often)
- Need to urinate just after (always), sometimes for multiple times
- Shivering (often, but just in the minutes or hours following the end of arousal)
- Difficulty for breathing, which ? needs ? some conscious effort, and can be irregular (sometimes)
- Pelvic pain (sometimes)
- Pain near the jaw (sometimes)
After physical exercise (with some intensity) :- General fatigue, of a different kind than post-orgasmic fatigue (often)
- Bad breathing (often)
- Muscular (?) pain, especially in all the thorax area (often)
- Difficulty for breathing, which "needs" some conscious effort, and can be irregular (often)
- Nervousness (sometimes)
- Tachycardia (sometimes)
After a few seconds of slight arousal if POIS-free, after the release of pre-ejaculate if already in POIS :- Nervousness (always)
- Constipation (always)
- Bad breathing (always)
- Tachycardia (always)
- Depressed mood, lack of energy (always)
- Lack of social skills, self-confidence and creativity (always)
- Reduced hunger (always)
- Lack of resistance to stress (often)
- Fatigue and need to sleep (sometimes, IF completely POIS-free before)
Most of post-orgasmic, post-sustained arousal or post-exercise symptoms resorb after a period from 24h to a week. The last list of symptoms can last for weeks (it's more difficult to be precise because it can be difficult to avoid arousal completely for a long time).
It means that the signs of complete remission from POIS are the following :- Breathing suddenly becomes normal, deeper, with a "fresh" feeling in the entire body at each breath
- Heart rhythm gets back to normal (60-70 bpm) and doesn't race when I awake
- General relaxation of my body, I feel calm
- No more constipation
- Hunger
- Joyfulness, humour, social skills, energy and self-confidence come back
- I feel more intelligent, sharp, creative, motivated, I wake up earlier, etc.
This happens at the same time, either when I wake up in the morning or suddenly in the middle of the day. The last time it happened was in May 2020. This state of "perfect health" lasted one day before POIS came back when I had a few seconds of slight arousal in the morning.
Most of the time my illness decreases progressively (with some symptoms like tachycardia finally disappearing) but not to the point of complete remission.
Miscellaneous :- My orgasms are not as pleasant as they used to be before POIS. There is often a bittersweet feeling, evocative of a poisoning, during the orgasm and in the following seconds.
- My ejaculate became yellow, liquid and transparent since 2016.
- Usually, masturbating or being aroused will prompt some (apparently) stress-related symptoms starting from the very first seconds : anxiety spikes up, heart rhythm increases, my body get insanely tensed, my breath almost stops by moment, then all this vanishes and only some minutes after do the "post-arousal" symptoms manifest themselves.
- Repeated orgasms or masturbations without ejaculation, in the space of one or a few days, worsen my condition. The symptoms that worsen the most are nausea, fatigue, weakness, depression, shivers, body pain, social anxiety, anguish. If I were to speculate a little, I would say that these are the 'opioid withdrawal-like' symptoms.
- What I call my 'big POIS crises' have two possible causes : repeated orgasms/masturbations, or physical effort in the 24h following an orgasm or a prolonged arousal. In this second case, it can be a slight and temporary effort (vacuuming my room, for example). It would usually cause a one-time burn near the heart, then an overwhelming fatigue, nausea, and anguish, often leading to a crisis of tetany for a few moment. Tetany seems to be caused only by anxiety, because now that I have POIS for years and that I know somewhat that this a real disease, I don't have these attacks anymore in the same situation.
- I'm not 100% sure about this one, but it looks like my immune system is weakened after an orgasm, because I quite often fall sick (from a 'common' illness) in the 24 or 48h after it, mainly in autumn, winter and spring. Now that my orgasms are rare, and almost only from nocturnal ejaculations, it has become clearer. For example, last winter, I got the flu one day after a NE, probably in a cinema, while my mother who was with me didn't catch it. Then in March I got Covid-19, like all my colleagues : in the first days I had only a post-nasal drip (I'm young, after all), then I had two NE, two nights in a row, the usual symptoms lasted for a few hours only, and after less than 48h I became very ill, which lasted for 13 days. I have other cases in mind.
- Please also notice that I don't have POIS when I'm ill, like with the flu or Covid-19 (though some Covid symptoms were very evocative of POIS). It is also true, though, that I'm less prone to sexual arousal when I'm sick...
- I feel "less heterosexual", or "less manly", in a POIS state, and I experience a much stronger desire for females out of it, as well as a stronger "willingness to assume a manly role", sexually.
- In the "not sure about this one" category, I believe that my POIS is rather less powerful in winter.
III/ Other informations on my health :- I am subject to cholinergic urticaria since 2012, ie when I suspect that POIS appeared. My mother had this when she was 14 to 18 years old, but then it disappeared (it did not for me).
- I have always been sensitive to constipation, but under POIS it has become systematic and almost a permanent state. My grand-mother also has a long history of chronic constipations.
- Since my teen years I have important bloating. I also have gastroesophageal reflux sometimes, which is quite common in my family (due to problems with a valve somewhere).
- I have haemorrhoid problems since the beginning of 2020, as I'm almost always constipated, but I also wonder if there's not a link with changes concerning blood vessels in POIS. I've noticed that leaving POIS state immediately stops haemorrhoids, while ending constipation alone doesn't seem to be as efficient. Not sure, though.
- Since my teen years, I'm vulnerable to stress : in the beginning, it was mainly when I had to speak in public that I had spikes of stress, then it extended to some situations when playing video games, and more recently to watching movies (when there is suspense). In this kind of situation, my heart rhythm increases importantly, I feel anguished even if I'm not, I sweat, I'm shaking,... I've noticed that I'm much more prone to this in a POIS state, and that Omega-3 are a great help for this problem, as they are for some other POIS symptoms.
- I have a lymph node behind the right ear since 2008. I was also tested for EBV this same year, but I don't remember if it was because of this or if I was also sick (the result of the test was negative).
- I have atopic dermatitis (eczema) on the face since 2007 (mainly around the eyes, but it spreads on the forehead and the cheeks when I wash my face). It was more virulent when I was younger, but I didn't succeed in erasing it completely.
- I had a skin mycosis on my arms in 2007-2009, but I got rid of it.
- I was tested positive for allergies against ? dust ? (acarids) and cypress pollen in 2007. No other allergy test was made, except against mimosa pollen (mild reaction, not very important).
- I had a surgery of the retina (with laser) in 2012, after a tennis accident.
- My weight remained between 51 and 54 kg (it varies) since 2012. As I am 178 cm tall, I'm underweight. My body appearance is skinny and it's very difficult for me to gain muscle, even with sustained physical exercise (which I can't do now that it gives me POIS symptoms, but I used to go to the gym for some periods before, though I was never good at sport).
- It seems that I have Gilbert's syndrome, according to my last analyses (my doctor said so).
- I'm beginning to have some gum problems, it's more easily irritated and bleeding than it used to, but I don't know if there's a link with POIS.
- I have been taking anti-histamines (desloratadine) very regularly for long periods of time when I was younger, before POIS onset (approximatively between 2008 and 2014, I'd say, and much less frequently until 2016), first because of my allergies which were thought to result in eczema, and then because of my cholinergic urticaria (which manifested only when I went bathing). At the time, desloratadine didn't trigger any special nervousness, which it now does, at least during POIS episodes (but they never really end). I report this because some people here seem to think that prolonged use of anti-histamines can in fact increase histamine production and allergic sensitivity.
- In 2019 I suddenly developed a mild phimosis and had an injury of the frenulum. I don't know which caused which: one day pulling back the foreskin became a bit more difficult and painful, notably in the frenulum, and a few months later, when I had a rare sexual intercourse with a woman, my frenulum was injured and bled. Since then, stretching the frenulum is very painful, pulling back the foreskin when I have an erection is impossible, the extremity of the glans seems permanently irritated (there is a point, just at the junction of the frenulum and the urethra, which is now abnormally red, like an inflammation or a little cut which doesn't heal), and having a coitus is impossible (too painful). "Fortunately" I don't have a girlfriend. When I saw a urologist recently, he estimated that the frenulum should be removed. As for the phimosis properly said, its intensity varies through time: most of the time it isn't really obvious, there is just the frenulum problem which prevents me from pulling the foreskin, but sometimes the foreskin is much more tight and adhesive, to the point that when I finally pull it, the glans is red and irritated.
Before 2019 I had never had any problem of phimosis or frenulum. It may be a pure coincidence if this happened but... well, no, I don't really believe in this kind of coincidence, I guess there is a link with POIS. Maybe a chronic inflammation of the genital tract which resulted in the weakening of the frenulum? A consequence of a general tension and stress in my body? I've also read that scleroderma (connective tissue autoimmune disease) can cause dyspareunia (my kind of problem), and scleroderma develops through Th1 & Th17, ROS, VEGF upregulation, etc., i.e. mechanisms which have been discussed for POIS.
- Someone recently mentioned hiatus hernia, it's a common problem in my family and it may cause my important bloating & digestive issues, I don't know.
Results of my blood and urinary analyses :November 2020 : Probably the most interesting anomaly is the presence of Anti-nuclear antibodies, of the ENA kind, which may be indicative of an auto-immune condition.
Other anomalies:
- total bilirubin: 23,9 umol/L (norm: 3.4 - 20.5)
- albumin: 49,1 g/L (norm: 40.2 - 47.6 g/L)
- proteinuria: 0,22 g/L (norm: < 0,14)
- red blood cells in urina: 9 090 (norm: < 5 000)
Normal values:
- blood counts
- CRP
- sodium / potassium / chloride / proteins / calcium / phosphorus
- uric acid: 370 umol/L (norm: 208 - 428)
- blood creatinin
- ASAT / ALAT / alkaline phosphatase / GGT
- conjugated bilirubin / free bilirubin
- cholesterol / triglycerids
- TSH
- testosteron / free testosteron
- vitamin D: 32 ng/mL (30 - 60) - I had taken a supplementation in september, as I had a deficiency in previous tests.
- prostate-specific antigen: 0,996 ug/l (<4)
- syphilis / HIV / hepatitis B and C: negative
- anti-dsDNA antibodies and anti-phospholipid antibodies: negative
- leukocytes in urina: 1 980 /mL (< 10 000)
- no urinary infection
- Chlamydia, gonorrhoeae, mycoplasma hominis, ureaplasma urealyticum (though only in first jet of urina, semen was not tested): negative
- C3, C4 and CH50 complements: normal
- ANCA specificities (MPO / PR3): negative
May and
June 2021:
1/ May:
LH: 2,91 IU/l (RR: 0.57 to 12.07)
FSH: 1,39 IU/l (RR: 0.95 to 11.95)
Prolactine: 196,0 mIU/l (RR: 72.7 to 407.4)
LH and FSH are still in the reference range but seem pretty low.
2/ June:
Abnormal values:Progesterone: <1.6 nmol/l (RR: <0.64)
Homocysteine: 12,73 micromol/l - Normal: <10 micromol/l ; Intermediary level: 10 to 15 micromol/l ; Superior level: 15 to 30 micromol/l
Normal values:Estradiol: <88.1 pmol/l - RR: 40 to 161
Estrone: <0.04 nmol/l - RR: 0.03 to 0.22
DHEA-S: 6.6 micromol/l - RR: 5.7 to 13.4 micromol/l
Histamine: 392.2 nmol/l - RR: 200 to 2000
Tryptophan: 59 micromol/l - RR: 52 to 82
Adrenaline: <0.50 nmol/l - RR: < 1,00
Noradrenaline: 2.37 nmol/l - RR: < 4,00
Dopamine: <0.50 nmol/l - RR: < 1,00
Previous analyses :Vitamin D3 deficiency (in 2016 and 2018, end of summer).
Iron, B9 and B12 values were normal.
In 2008, my ferritin was low, but it was never tested anew later.
EBV negative in 2008.
Normal cerebral MRI in 2016 and 2020.
Genetic profile for methylation and detox.IV/ Chronological evolution of my POIS :2012 : Suspected first POIS symptoms at age 14/15. I noticed that my breath was not always as good, deep and regular as it used to. I stopped to gain weight. In 2012/2013 I became much less social, joyful and energetic, had a more depressed general mood, lost progressively most of my friends and became completely solitary. At school, one of my friends noticed that I was depressed and silent in the morning, but that I was better after noon. I remarked that it was true when I masturbated in the morning, when I awake, and that I had a much better mood when I abstained. At the time though, I masturbated several days a week, if not every day. As I became solitary and depressed, I masturbated more often.
2014/2015 : Increased loneliness when I entered the university, increased masturbations. I slowly became consciously addicted to it. I started to have insomnias sometimes in 2015, linked to anxiety, nervousness, bad breathing and tachycardia in the night (probably after evenings when I had been aroused by some stuff). I realized that when I was aroused / masturbating, I had this rise of strange stress symptoms, and tried to be more relaxed when doing it, without success. At the time I only suspected problems of posture or breathing when masturbating.
2016 : First time I became really sick because of POIS, early in the year : I had made push-ups some time after a masturbation, if I remember well. Big nausea and anxiety, really bad. Then I noticed that after an orgasm I was tired and weak for hours (climbing up the stairs going to my appartment was difficult). I also became convinced that abstaining from masturbation for several days allowed me to regain an unsuspected level of energy, good mood, calm and sociability. I thought that I was masturbating too much, and tried to do it less... but it was difficult. The more I wanted to stop it, the more I felt that I was addicted. In November I had my second big POIS crisis, I believed that I was going to die and it lasted for almost a week, then it got back to normal. It became nightmarish : I tried to stop masturbation, but I was waking up in the morning while realizing that I had been unconsciously doing it. My general psychological well-being was, huh, not very good.
2017-2018 : The nadir of this period. Though I did succeed in slowing down the rhythm of my sexual stimulations, I became progressively more sensitive, all the other symptoms popped up and worsened, and they lasted longer. Social anxiety in particular was very hard to manage at the time. Still, POIS did not last for more than 1 week, and there were many periods of complete remission. In the summer 2018, I could do one month of daily exercise, while abstaining completely, and felt very healthy. However, at the end of 2018, I began to get symptoms even from sport.
2019-2020 : When I understood that even a few seconds of masturbation, without orgasm or anything, were sufficient to make me sick, I definitively stopped doing it. I'm still completely abstinent now, but since the beginning of 2020 my sensitivity to POIS and its duration increased ever more, and I'm no longer able to stay in a state of complete remission for more than 24h. Last winter, the maximum duration of POIS was 10 days, it went to 15 days in the spring, to 5 weeks until May, and since then it never really ended. However I discovered several useful supplements and drugs, and I keep being abstinent, so generally speaking I'm in a much better state than during the previous period.
V/ My experience with treatments, supplements, etc.Spontaneous remission cases :- After spending an evening with friends : I don't do that often because I have very few friends and almost no social life, but two years ago I was invited to an aperitif with work friends, while I was feeling sick (I had had a prolonged period of arousal earlier in the day). It began at 6 pm and ended at 1 am, and when going back home I suddenly realized that I was perfectly well, calm, no more tachycardia, etc. (Endorphins?).
- It also happened two times that a 'very long' night of good sleep ended a POIS episode suddenly. I mean going to bed at 7 pm and waking up at 12 am. I tried to repeat this solution but I didn't fall asleep before 2 am, so it didn't work... (POIS often causes insomnia and bad sleep.)
- Showers : they have sometimes stopped a mild-POIS onset after the "slight arousal" kind of trigger. Even if they do not, I usually feel better after a shower. Warm showers are especially welcome to end my nervousness.
Drugs :- Paracetamol (500 mg, immediately after O) : 50 to 80% of symptoms reduction. Tired in the following evening but most symptoms are under control. Some of them can still be there but they are attenuated and resorb more quickly.
- Tramadol (37,5 mg + Paracetamol 325 mg, immediately after O) : no POIS, but I seemingly got a mild serotonin syndrome the second time I tried it. Other side effect : stronger constipation for 48h.
- Codeine (20 mg + Paracetamol 400 mg, immediately after O) : no POIS. Side effect : stronger constipation for 48h.
- Anti-histamines (ebastine, desloratadine) : I've noticed that ebastine seemed to help against nasal congestion, but I'm not sure that my nasal congestion is linked to POIS, I'm allergic to dust and some pollens, so it may be just this. I didn't carry on with anti-histamines because they stirred up important nervousness and insomnia every time I tried them (I don't know why). Update April 2021 : I also tried Cetirizine for a week, no side effect but no positive effect either.
Supplements :- Omega-3 (EPA 400 mg, DHA 200 mg, daily) : most useful supplement so far. I tried it last September, together with Vitamin D3, and I experienced 2 or 3 very good weeks, all my physical problems vanished, my psychological state was better though it was not a complete remission with regard to this. I tried brief sexual stimulation without O in this period, it did gave me the usual symptoms but they disappeared after a few hours. However it ceased to be this efficient at the end of the month (but I had problems due to Vitamin D3, as I'll explain). I stopped, then tried Omega-3 anew in November, my remaining symptoms disappeared (especially tachycardia and constipation). It was also very efficient against problems of stress/anxiety management. However, once again my tachycardia & constipation came back after some time, while I was still taking the supplements. So I'll probably continue to take them and cycle-off regularly.
- Vitamin D3 (800 IU, daily) : as my blood tests show a deficiency since many years, my doctor used to prescribe monthly doses of 100.000 IU during winter. I never noticed any effect on my POIS. Then, last september I decided to take daily doses of 800 IU. I don't know if they had positive effects as I took them with Omega-3, but after maybe 3 weeks strange symptoms appeared : I felt like my brain was permanently intoxicated by a mild feeling of sexual pleasure or stimulation (without any related trigger or physical sign). As days passed, this feeling gained strength and worsened to the point that it became difficult to think about something else. I had a kind of pressure point somewhere near the center-back of my skull and a small area (near the center of the brain, but it would be difficult for me to be more precise) where this strange "pleasure" originated, generating waves of stimulation more and more intense and spreading in the rest of the head whenever I thought about it, thought about nothing, lied down, tried to sleep or changed my body posture (it seemed that when the higher part of the neck or the lower part of the skull was pressed on, the stimulation increased). The only way to keep this strange stimulation in check was to focus on doing or thinking about something precise, reading, speaking, etc. If you don't understand my explanations, you're not alone, doctors did not either. All this in turn generated big nauseas, anxiety crises, tachycardia, diarrhea. It was extremely frightening. After a few days I stopped vitamin D3 and Omega-3, and the symptoms vanished progressively. Two weeks later I tried to take vitamin D3 anew (without O-3) and symptoms re-appeared in several days. Then two weeks later again, I tried another brand of vitamin D3, from lichen, which seemed very safe, and took only 400 IU : the symptoms burst in, in the following hour. I stopped my experiences with D3.
- Quercetin (500 mg) : last summer, I tried quercetin and curcumin supplements after reading posts from Muon, Quantum & others about mast cells issues. In a short period of time after taking the pill (45 min to 3h, I'd say), quercetin seemed to allow me to be slightly aroused (and even to masturbate a bit) without having the immediate unpleasant symptoms (sweating, mood shift, tachycardia, anxiety, need to sleep just after). It was completely useless to prevent symptoms from orgasm, however, and I also got symptoms from prolonged arousal. Taking quercetin daily for one month was equally fruitless.
- Curcumin (Curcuma longa 500 mg + piperin) : as for curcumin, it seems to provide some help in order to recover after orgasm, though it is a partial help. Taken 1h before O: extremely similar to the effect of Paracetamol. I feel that I'm a bit "emptied", and I get out of breath quickly if I make a little physical effort (climbing up my stairs...), but I'm overall good.
- Flaxseed oil (500 mg, 2 times a day) : 1 g seemed to offer similar effects as quercetin when taken 1h before sexual arousal (but nothing more). As with quercetin also, orgasm after having taken flaxseed oil was a bit different (less powerful). Taking 1 g of flaxseed oil daily for a week helped to clear all my long-lasting symptoms for another week, then they returned and flaxseed oil wasn't useful anymore.
- L-theanin (100 mg) : I tried it when I was beginning to experience troubles with vitamin D3. Positive effect, it suppressed the awkward feeling of intoxication with pleasure/stimulation that I was enduring these days, and it seemed also to spare me the post-arousal symptoms, but after an hour I had what resembles a mild serotonergic syndrome (spike of anxiety, feeling cold, important tachycardia, fasciculations, nervous spasms, shivering, nausea), disappearing after a few hours. I had it each time I tried it (3 or 4 times), but the last time the side effects were really stronger so I stopped.
- Hawthorn (Crataegus) : a doctor gave it to me in order to alleviate my tachycardia and it's very efficient, although the effect doesn't last much. It's sold under the brand Cardiocalm in France (70 mg of hawthorn), and currently I take it in the brand Omezelis (50 mg of hawthorn + 45 mg of lemon balm). When I can't sleep because of tachycardia or anxiety it's a good help.
