An update on what my POIS is like nowdays under the following conditions (personal documentation):
All of these releases occurred while I am following an animal-based diet.
Dosed fenugreek, garlic, eggs, and B complex. Toying around with antihistamine (Tagamet) and quercetin, although honestly have not noticed any difference while taking them.
Released once last night & twice this morning/late morning after about a 7-8 day abstinence streak.
Journal entry:
Woke up feeling tired, like my body is sunk into the bed a lot more intensely. Whereas normally I wake up feeling energized. Still had a relatively deep sleep, its just that I wake up feeling more exhausted than usual. This is normal for my POIS.
After releasing twice in the morning around 7am and 11am, definitely felt it throughout the day. Generally fatigued, unmotivated, body aches, mood disturbances - ranges from light to moderate-light, a bit more anxious, etc. These are my primary symptoms nowadays. These generally seem to last a couple of hours, and today I noticed a significant easing up of them around 5-6pm ish (improvements in mood). Usually I will not release in the mornings so I do not need to experience all of this (when I release at night, I generally wake up feeling refreshed, even tho still tired, and easily go about my day after dosing fenugreek, garlic, eggs, and a meal, etc). All of this is normal for my POIS, and I've experienced all of this many times before.
Tomorrow I will wake up feeling generally refreshed, relatively POIS free (although not as good as when I abstain - I still feel better generally speaking when I abstain for a few days at least). My mind will be relatively calm and stress-free, I will have energy to do a relatively physical job, I will still be able to communicate with others feeling relatively grounded and confident, although I certainly am not at my prime. I could not release everyday (nor would I want to anyway, it feels much better when you give it a few days at least), otherwise my fatigue and weakness would be overwhelming to live in any meaningful way. I also feel more socially confident (thriving), grounded, a lot more energetic - significantly more energy, and creative when I abstain. Music sounds a lot better. Life feels like I am on a microdose of mushrooms when I abstain, thats how I would describe it. Whereas when I release frequently (along with my POIS solution), life becomes harsher, my body and mind are weaker, joint pain, more tired, more insecure and anxious, etc. Compared to what my symptoms used to be - immensely chronic fatigue, anxiety, and brainfog for days on end, it is still a significant improvement from that place. Lots of nuance here in describing symptoms and experiences.
Edit (the next day): I dosed another fenugreek & garlic before bed last night. Which makes it 3x garlic & fenugreek dose in 1 day. Once in the morning, once around 12pm, and once around 7pm. Felt like it the 3rd one (before bed) was necessary. Woke up feeling fine, zero tinitus. Tired and generally hungry. (Woke up at 5:40 as I had to go to work). I took another fenugreek & garlic in the morning, along with 3 eggs, 1 mango, and 1 B complex. Ate 2 bananas and some medjool dates for 10am lunch. Mind was relatively stable all day, calm, etc. Not as confident and grounded as I would be if I abstained completely and reached those thriving levels, but still confident enough to feel relatively secure. Music still sounded good on the way home, but not as good as it does when I abstain lol. Writing this edit at 3pm the next day, and right now feeling relatively good. I still think animal-based (diet I am on now at the time of writing) seems to handle my POIS episodes the best. I would say that by the time this morning rolled around, especially after taking another dose of garlic, fenugreek, eggs, B-complex, breakfast, etc my body had for the most part recovered fully from mental POIS symptoms, where my state of consciousness and experience is what is described below in the frequent releases section.
5:44pm at time of this edit: after a physical day of work (I work in a warehouse), ive eaten a steak, mango, some raw cheese, some raw milk with colostrum, some grapes, and about to whip up some white rice. I haven't eaten too much white rice in the past few days, but ive observed zero negative effect when eating it in the past. will be eating 2+ cups of it tonight, so will write down how im feeling tomorrow as well (day 2 of post-release). so far, i am still feeling good, clear, happy, etc. It's sometimes hard to describe the nuances in how I feel, but im doing my best so I can compare it to how I feel during my POIS episodes when eating more foods outside of an animal-based diet.
6:22pm edit: even at the time of writing this edit, i dont really feel much need to dose another fenugreek & garlic. I will tomrorow morning obviously, but i would be willing to bet that if i was on a diet that eats more plant foods (ie. phd, vegetables, etc) i would feel like i need to redose up as light POIS symptoms have resurfaced. it wouldnt hurt to redose now, but its more the fact that plant foods in general seem more inflammatory for my condition.
2day post release (25th 1:14pm): woke up with slight very tiny amount of tinnitus (probably not significant enough to even mention, but i will mention as a tiny tiny tiny amount was there, probably to be expected), took garlic & fenugreek as usual along with eggs, B complex etc. Felt good today, also had another meal of rice in the morning and felt good all day. Did not notice any negative effects from eating white rice. Mood has been good all day.
2day post release (25th 6:55pm): do kind of feel like another dose of fenugreek & garlic would be useful. Ate lots of white rice today in addition to animal-based
2day post release (25th 7:27pm): took fenugreek & garlic and feel a lot better. Felt POIS residue arising all afternoon- subtle but noticeable. Feeling a lot better. Also had a big bowel of rice with banana and milk in the morning for breakfast. White rice in morning is most likely what set it off (apart from POIS itself obvz)
I'm going to describe the difference between how I feel when I abstain & how I feel when I release frequently, while eating an animal-based diet:
Abstinence (after 1+ day, peaks around 7-14 days. red meat & eggs send me here):
- Very high levels of physical energy
- Endless passion for the world
- Music sounds incredible
- Experience of life and emotions feel are lot deeper and vivid, as if I am on a microdose of psychedelic mushrooms
- Very grounded
- Naturally more confident and calm
- Lots of energy which makes it easier to talk endlessly
- Hot feet
- Sometimes all the energy builds up into stress (failure to transmute sexual energy)
- Deeper levels of love
- Life feels easier, more effortless
- Fluctuations in mood still, but baseline lows are higher than what they would be when releasing frequently. And ofc, baseline highs are way higher than what they would be when releasing frequently.
- Thriving levels of self-confidence. To rank it out of 10: 8.5+ (a strong base to continue develop self-confidence through cold approach)
- Thriving in general & overall
- Sometimes too intense, which is why transmutation practices are necessary. The need to burn off excess energy is real.
POIS (2 hrs - 24 hrs, as long as red meat & eggs are consumed):
- Low to moderate levels of physical energy (lowest in first days post-release)
- Calm but tired, non-stressed
- Mentally ambitious, but not as much energy or drive to go after it
- Music sounds good, but certainly not incredible
- Life in general feels a lot more dull, and emotions are relatively more numb (not completely numb, but certainly more numb when compared to abstaining)
- Still grounded, but not as grounded when abstaining
- Life feels harsher, more difficult
- Still relatively social, witty, etc. Not thriving levels of self-confidence that I experience when abstaining tho. To rank it out of 10: 7. Today for example, still social/confident/grounded enough for small talk with strangers while doing my grocery shopping.'
- Easily fall asleep at night
- Joints and legs feel significantly weaker
- Back is generally more inflamed during this period
Immediately post-release (0-6 hrs):
- Mood disturbances i.e., generally more anxious, but nothing crazy
- Minor body aches all over in random places
- Fatigued, basically feel like not doing anything physical
- Still grounded, but generally less so than what is described in the frequent releases section
- Moderate anhedonia
EDIT: RED MEAT & EGGS basically recover me back into the "thriving"/"abstinent" state very quickly, something I did not realize at the time of recording all of these symptoms.
