Hi everyone. I'm trying to figure out whether what I've been experiencing for almost 8 years could be POIS, and I would really appreciate hearing from people with similar experiences.

I've had a persistent group of symptoms for nearly 8 years. I'm not sure whether this represents one prolonged condition, or whether my symptoms are repeatedly being triggered/restarted because I masturbate relatively frequently.

At one point, I stopped masturbating/ejaculating for about two months, but I still didn't feel completely recovered. This makes me unsure whether I'm experiencing continuous symptoms or repeated POIS episodes that never fully resolve.

My symptoms include:

• Blurred vision
• Dizziness
• Muscle tension and muscle weakness/fatigue
• Tachycardia / rapid heartbeat
• Palpitations
• Emotional disturbances / emotional instability
• Anxiety and restlessness
• Difficulty concentrating
• Decline in memory
• Cognitive dysfunction / brain fog
• Feeling like my thinking ability has suddenly become much worse
• Throat discomfort
• Irritability
• Bloating / intestinal gas

The cognitive symptoms are probably the most noticeable to me.

Normally, I feel that my thinking is flexible and clear, and I can process things quickly. During these episodes, it feels like my brain suddenly becomes dull or “blocked.” It's difficult to describe, but it almost feels like my intelligence has temporarily decreased. I'm not simply sleepy — it feels like my overall cognitive and emotional flexibility is impaired.

A recent observation about rice

Recently, I noticed something that made me wonder whether diet might be affecting my symptoms.

I ate a relatively large amount of rice for three consecutive days.

On the third day, shortly after eating rice, I suddenly noticed that my brain felt “off” again — the same kind of cognitive dullness/brain fog described above.

That night, I ejaculated.

The next morning, my symptoms became much more pronounced and felt like a typical POIS flare.

So the timeline was:

Several days of eating a lot of rice → cognitive symptoms appear → ejaculation that night → significantly worse symptoms the next day.

I've had a similar experience in the past where I ate a lot of rice for several consecutive days and subsequently developed symptoms that felt like POIS.

I don't know whether rice is actually responsible. It could be coincidence, or perhaps the diet is somehow lowering my threshold for symptoms rather than directly causing POIS.

I'm currently considering avoiding rice for a few weeks and tracking my symptoms.

My main questions

1. Has anyone here experienced long-term or almost continuous POIS-like symptoms?
2. Has anyone continued to have symptoms even after weeks or months without ejaculation?
3. Could frequent ejaculation potentially cause repeated episodes that make it feel like the symptoms are continuous?
4. Has anyone noticed specific foods, especially rice or grains/carbohydrates, making their POIS symptoms worse?
5. Does anyone experience the kind of severe cognitive dullness / feeling mentally “blocked” that I'm describing?

I'm not claiming that I definitely have POIS or that rice is the cause. I'm mainly trying to understand whether anyone has experienced a similar pattern and what helped them identify their triggers.