u/Fit_Counter_9794

It has only been 2 weeks, so this is not entirely accurate, and I did want to ask about how long it took for a breakthrough with people who have had success with this.

NEs are the same, but when there is no release, or a very small amount during the night (I am abstinent) I am handling it a lot better. After the first week I developed almost a sense of my nervous system, I can now tell it is very activated and I had no clue of this before; I am now understanding how to decrease it - I realise the state of my nervous system is not dependent on what I do today, but on really the previous few months. The brain fog has improved, but I have also been getting near perfect sleep scores which is new for me. I think it is worth fixing my nervous system and I know I will get some relief, but how much I am unsure. The issue now is just this extreme nausea when I wake up, and just observing that as neutral is very hard. I am using principles from The Way Out and DNRS.

I am new at my branch, and let me preface this by saying I have had no formal training, have had to google and look online on how the MAR, FOA system works. I shadowed an employee and got told procedurally how to complete it, but did not understand the system. After this, there were only two shifts. On the 1st the store manager lmk that FOA was updating so not to do FOA or subsequent MAR. Then on the 2nd one I was incredibly careful and followed instructions given to me: scan an item if there are 3 or less items on the shelf, and I was incredibly careful to match the shelf label to the item. Then I had my 4 week review, which I was incredibly nervous for as this is my first job. I got told my FOA % (dk what this is) is high and it needs to be under 10%. Furthermore, I had to shadow someone on my days off as apparently they do it really well. I get around 7-10 sheets of MAR to do at both the first satellite MAR and later MAR to do in 45 mins , and apparently this other person gets only 1-2 sheets. The manager was quite firm in saying this could not continue. I also asked to change shifts for university, but because I work weekends they straight up told me I do not need to because uni is on weekdays. After this, on RSS I realised I could check the history, and all of them in the last week had stats very similar to mine, with 10 ish pages of MAR. I would incredibly appreciate if someone could explain to me how to complete MAR, and as the shifts are very late and I have recently been diagnosed with a sleep disorder, I need to change them. Unfortunately I need funds for university so cannot leave. Thanks.

This is a test I had to take for medical and biomedical admissions in UK. It is called UCAT and some physicians regard it as the hardest exam in your life. It is very cognitive I would say, and for some they train for months, others get 99th percentile first try and this is kind of a meme/stereotype of top students in UK that they do not have to practice for this. I would say it is extremely hard. It has 4 section, you should only do first 3 as last one is ethical reasoning.

Test (choose Practice test D, timed): https://www.ucat.ac.uk/prepare/practice-tests/

Score calculator: https://www.myucat.co.uk/pages/ucat-score-converter?srsltid=AfmBOorQwjiO_8x1H6CQjRuLsBQPxs_A7wKDRDuQdNTLE6RU4Q12mqDJ

Percentile calculator: https://www.ucat.ac.uk/results/test-statistics/

- great sleep

- unprocessed and great diet

- abstinence > 2-3 weeks

- Exercise if tolerated

A while ago I proposed nervous system theory and asked if anyone would be willing to join a whatsapp group, and many people said yes. Then in my previous post, I have now designed the protocol. Now I can create the whatsapp group. The approach is sort of nervous system based, but I think it is pretty comprehensive to any mechanism: https://chat.whatsapp.com/Ix1swZDUOztJlWtJ1teRW7?mode=gi_t

- POIS felt like it restricted the amount of thinking and work my brain was doing; subjectively, this felt like electricity was no longer flowing through my brain.

- Although the above sounds odd, researching it I have found out that it is a feeling often reported in POIS (what does the brain fog restrict - that is what I call the electricity, the feeling of thinking). Some report it as a burning, a numbing, but its like take objective performance aside, what does the brain fog/dpdr feel like in your head.

- After an N.E. , I would read. This very effortful task increased the electrical feeling again, and over weeks, the baseline became higher.

- Basically, my theory is that people with primarily cognitive symptoms have very neuroplastic brains, so there brains can change very easily, but not structurally, more like the software (I have heard so many reports of, before POIS, people being very intelligent, which is a sign of high neuroplasticity). Add commonly reported addiction, anxiety around anything sexual, and the neuroplastic brain forms these symptoms. They then get enforced over and over again. Think about it: after POIS does your brain feel differently, as if it is literally reorganised. And this comes with a pathology to it, the exact concentrations of neurochemicals is technically affected. Add on poor sleep, frequently unhealthy lifestyles, and this becomes a complex disease.

- Of course, currently nobody really knows how true this is. But it felt like it described me exactly when I saw this online.

- This is my hypothesis and I've come up with a 6-8 week treatment protocol to try it out, and it is not really exclusive to any other treatment plan. Think about treatment most people report. It often helps only temporarily, or a bit. To me this sounds like the benefit they have is proportional to the affect they have on the nervous system. Like if something only is correlated with the nervous system a bit, then it only helps a bit.

- Protocol:

1. Abstinence. I frequently hear that this is not realistic, but in my opinion people need to claim there life back first and get order. I mean if anyone is going to criticise this, at least suggest an alternative; most I have seen are not reliable.

2. Reduce Nocturnal Emission Frequency. There are many posts on this, and if people do not know how to do this, please ask.

3. Read hard books. This is the number one thing that helped me with cognitive symptoms. Basically I started with what I call a reorganised brain (it might not be true but this mental model helped me). So I had to learn how to think with this new brain. It was key to not compare my performance with others - they have had years to learn their brain organisation. You will get to that level, but it takes time. Basically, the very thing that caused this (high neuroplasticity) can help cure it. I found because my brain was so adaptable to negative stimuli, it also was quick to relearn how to read. I struggled with basic tasks at first, but focusing on reading books for a duration helped. Start with easy books, and 20-30 mins at a time. The effort you feel is good: that is your brain reorganising and you learning how to operate your new brain. I followed this progression, starting with Thinking Fast and Slow and ending with Immanuel Kant. This led me from struggling to understand to 2nd in my class, and doing well in exams. Just remember if you struggle with cognitive symptoms, your brain is basically more adaptable than others. Because of your behaviours, it quickly and deeply learned bad patterns. But it can learn good ones, and in the end you will learn quicker than most. The youtube channel Justin Seung helped me so much with exams and I have seen many posts from many years ago with people struggling with studying and I feel very bad that I could not help. If anyone is confused on this point please ask. (btw start with 2-3 hours a day, and make the number of hours reading proportional to symptom intensity, so on bad days, read more)

4. Sleep at same time, wake up at same time, and sleep hygiene. Pick a time to sleep before midnight, then wake up 8-9 hours later. I have learned that if it is nervous system based, then sleep has to be perfect; treat sleep like one of the biggest tools you have, more effective than any medication. Before bed, try get blue light blocking glasses, do not exercise or eat at least 2-3 hours before bed, and avoid water after dinner. When you wake up, get sunlight in your eyes as quickly as possible and drink water and get blood flowing. Be very strict with this

5. When reading, or when you really feel like the symptoms are getting bad, just breathe deeply. It doesn't instantly relieve symptoms, but just remember that you are actively giving it your all to cure this, and fighting hard. It's okay to feel symptoms and you've been through this before. I am not saying it is al anxiety, but this can help remove any.

6. Unprocessed diet + nutrient eating. I eat with two principles for maximal cognitive clarity. First is avoid UPF. This is basically anything with ingredients you would not find in kitchen. This is supe key. The second is use the cronometer website to add the foods you eat. It then tells you which micronutrients and vitamins you are and are not getting. Then look up what to eat to get the micronutrients youa re lacking ,or make a shopping list based on getting all micronutrients. Surprisingly, this type of food is often the cheapest.

7. Hydrate with just water and maybe caffeine. Stop drinking around dinner time to not sleep with full bladder, and go to toilet before bed. So make sure you drink enough during day.

8. Exercise, at least a 30 min walk daily, this is already talked about but just in case it helped someone.

This is the protocol I followed to get me through school. Nocturnal emissions made it gruelling, so I am investigating how to make it more robust. I think it is almost in a new stage now , where the normal system does not apply for me. Anyway, this got me to 1 day recovery from nocturnal emission and minimum symptoms if I read on that day. I think if everyone got on this protocol, it sets a nice context for any future treatments and rules out other things. It should also make you more responsive and ready for new treatment, for example, you would respond better and quicker to drug X.

I now need to convert my gaming focused Fredde into one for deep focus. I need to fit lots of paperwork on the desk so probably have to remove the middle shelf. Does anyone have any ideas for a minimalist setup, that will be used for lots of notion and similar apps just to give the theme. Thanks

Context : When I first got pois, it was as if I had unlocked a 6th sense It was like I had sensory cells inside my head; I can only describe it like I can feel, quite intensely, the internal state of my mind/brain.

(can skip if too dense): At first this was an intense burning that I couldn't think through. I've read in philosophy books that you think through a canon, or a lense. It is similar to that, as if the only way I can think is through a solid substance, and at first this was a hot and painful substance. Abstinence and reading hard books felt as if it changed this lense to think through to a clear and responsive lense. Like I could feel more electricity flowing through my brain: increasing entropy. )

This sounds quite strange, but its basically just being very sensitive to an internal mental state. I would say substances like alcohol change this mental state, which is the only time its detectable to less sensitive people. Then, nocturnal emissions brought symptoms back regularly, making normal life very hard. I developed a protocol of reading right after NEs for the entire day and that helped but was unsustainable.

What is new ? : Over the last few months, this mental state has changed to a solid, numbing like feeling, and wet dreams affect it but not as much, and the mental system is less reactive to reading. Before it was as if reading directly increased the flow of the electricity, now the increase is less.

People may say this is unrealistic to continue like this, and I agree, but I cannot face symptoms from an alternative lifestyle.

My question is has anyone experienced similar ? Does this sound like nervous system (this is my only symptom) ? This is the thing I care most about: having a clear mental state and feeling present. There is definitely some overlap with dpdr, but how much I am unsure ? Any suggestions or thoughts in general are appreciated. Thanks.

After my last post on the trauma/anxiety origin of POIS, it seems an overwhelming number of people could have a nervous system component. Treating a nervous system side would not exclude any current biochemical treatment people are trying so I want to emphasise joining this group would be an additional treatment. Basically, if we are going to try a nervous system treatment protocol, I am unsure where to start. We could get loads of people to try to same thing or different things on whatsapp group, get everyone researching independently, producing an input of new things to try. Then one thing seems to work, we can formalise it into a protocol. I think even if it is biochemical, even just reducing anxiety for some could increase quality of life. Comment if you would join, then I will create a group.

I am pretty sure this applies to many, many individuals from my experience. I cannot make a poll on my device. I will ask to only comment if you have not had these, and I can compare the ratio of views to comments. Also, you may wish to comment if your primary POIS symptoms are cognition related AND the title applies, as I think they are related. I think this would provide evidence for a nervous system type mechanism, or something similar, but there may be other interpretations. Thank you.

Edit: 800 views so far, unsure if completely accurate, but seems significant

After reading the book, I had some ideas on strange loops that I know aren't really the main point of the book but I am unsure how to move in the right direction. So the author has this very incredible idea of a strange loop, and expresses in many mediums, and that is my poor attempt to set up context for this. I will express my idea through the self reference in the first dialogue, where I think Mr T and Zeno both refer to the situation they are in. Now I pictured a few possibilities when I read it: 1. they are talking about the world they are in 2. they are talking about another world, and this other world refers to the original world, like epimendes 3. there are > 2 / infinite worlds referring to each other 4. (unsure in this one) the dialogue is referring to the readers representation of the dialogue. I don't know which one really describes a strange loop, but I think the author is saying that they all sort off apply and that is what makes them incredible. How can I unite this train of thought with the correct, or maybe more intended interpretation.

Have seen increasing frequency of people believing the nervous system is the underlying mechanism. I thought that any sort off treatment of the nervous system would not be mutually exclusive with other treatment (I think) so it is worth doing. I have heard about brain retraining and neuroplasticity, but how have people actually been carrying out these principles to improve symptoms ? The one thing that helps me is reading challenging, academic books, which feels as if it is building my brain. I was unsure why it worked, but perhaps I was unknowingly using neuroplasticity ?