[Green]

Hi guys, hope the individual battles with POIS is going well. I've not been active on the forum for quite some time, not disappeared, just lurking in the background as, generally I don't have much to say. Working towards delivering my pledge. A big shout out to Observercenter and Victor for being brave enough to go in front of the camera's!

I am under the care of a Liaison Psychiatrist, so far it's been the same old tale of differences of opinion between patient and doctor. My Psychiatrist will not deviate away from a psychosomatic diagnosis, although he acknowledges the symptom, he doesn't believe in POIS, subsequently he will only treat me with CBT, which I've had in the past with very little results /bah.

[demografx]

My Psychiatrist will not deviate away from a psychosomatic diagnosis, although he acknowledges the symptom, he doesn't believe in POIS, subsequently he will only treat me with CBT, which I've had in the past with very little results /bah.

If you don't believe this yourself - please get rid of him!

Top 10 Reasons to Fire Your Doctor

http://arthritis.about.com/od/buildyourhealthcareteam/tp/fireyourdoctor.htm

[kurtosis]

My Psychiatrist will not deviate away from a psychosomatic diagnosis, although he acknowledges the symptom, he doesn't believe in POIS, subsequently he will only treat me with CBT, which I've had in the past with very little results /bah.

If you don't believe this yourself - please get rid of him!

Top 10 Reasons to Fire Your Doctor

http://arthritis.about.com/od/buildyourhealthcareteam/tp/fireyourdoctor.htm

Totally agree. Don't waste time and money on treatment that isn't working. As for Green's psychiatrist, what else is he going to say? To a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. He probably has an elaborate justification for whatever psychosexual problems he believes Green has. There's little chance of overcoming the psychiatrists' diagnostic bias

[Stef]

"To a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail."

WHAT A GREAT QUOTE, KURTOSIS!!!!!!  Thank you!

[Vincent M]

Thanks for the advice concerning my doctor. I agree that it was wrong of him to refuse me a testosterone test. I'll begin looking for another doctor, however I won't risk losing my current doctor completely as I currently need him for a medication that is somewhat difficult to get a script for.

Observer, great news about the newspaper.

[demografx]

Thanks for the advice concerning my doctor. I agree that it was wrong of him to refuse me a testosterone test. I'll begin looking for another doctor, however I won't risk losing my current doctor completely as I currently need him for a medication that is somewhat difficult to get a script for.

Vincent Marcus, I'm happy to hear that!

[kurtosis]

"To a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail."

WHAT A GREAT QUOTE, KURTOSIS!!!!!!  Thank you!

Wish I could claim it as my own.
Seriously though, there's a problem here for anybody looking to get their doctor to diagnose and treat POIS. If your general practitioner or primary physician rushes to send you to a psychiatrist then they're telling you that their working hypothesis is that your illness is psychological. The same happened to me and in retrospect I wished that I'd walked out and found another physician. The problem is that the DSM for generalised anxiety disorder manifesting suggests that psychosexual problems are a symptom. This is therefore an answer for your primary physician and the psychiatrist they referred you to. I don't think any of us believe it's the right answer but it lets the doctor off the hook and leads to long term psychiatric treatment such as anti-anxiety or anti-depression medication, CBT etc.
Some of this may be beneficial but has anybody been cured by treatment that assumes it's a psychological illness? Not me anyway.

I'm afraid until a physiological marker for POIS is found, the "all in your head" diagnosis will be the norm. This diagnosis leads to expensive drugs, expensive and time consuming CBT and diverts people from realising their illness has another cause.
I'm sure this problem has afflicted sufferers of other diseases NORD has researched so I'm wondering what the process is to "legitimise" a POIS diagnosis and how long it may take?

[demografx]

Excellent analysis of our situation, kurtosis.

[demografx]

Has anybody been cured by treatment that assumes it's a psychological illness?

Not me anyway.

Me neither.

And no one I've ever seen here at the forum since 2007 has ever cured POIS via psychotherapy/psychiatry!

[demografx]

kurtosis, maybe my old method of being obnoxious with certain docs in order to get POIS attention...is still necessary with some doctors.

[Green]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I have built up rapport with my Psychiatrist, he evasive around certain questions regarding POIS, and prefers to just put people like me in a basket along with other patients, where they have symptoms, gone through extensive diagnosis and no cause has been found therefore it's something that cannot be treated, and best managed with CBT. My opinions - IT DOESN'T WORK. POIS IS A REAL ILLNESS, as such Psychological support will only work with very limited effect, after all would you give a cancer patient Psychological treatment as a main cause of treatment, no. It's a shame in this day and age, that I have to self medicate. I have to remain with the Psychiatrist for the time being as atleast this way my thoughts and views and my ups and downs are noted fully in my medical history, should I need to fall back on it. I'm trying hard to maintain some sort of sex life, and a normal life, I'm not too far from there. If I can ejaculate once or twice a week and have a somewhat normal life, that's a cure for me

[Hoping]

I don't. This is an interesting point you raise, leo17.
POIS symptoms - for me - are extremely "unusual". Even the fatigue doesn't feel like normal fatigue, from say, exercise.

Ya It's like a mental fatigue, like a brain function just shuts off or is on standby until its gone.

Anything that give me a massive jolt of adrenaline with probably give me at least some minor pois symptoms

True, when I play online competitively and do really well I go nuts with excitement like the giants won the superbowl or something. Now I feel like crap, but even in my hardest workouts when I feel like dropping I never get this feeling. 

Leo17- it sounds like youve developed Constant Pois. I've had it now for about 6 months. Yes, it sucks. I would estimate about 5-10% of our members now fall into this category. For me, it didnt happen overnight, but rather over a 3-6 week period my regular pois deteriorated into it.   Im not sure what caused it, but one hypothesis of mine is that it corresponds with a slightly decreased libido. Im interested to hear if thats the case for u as well.  My recommendation is that u jot down all the details u can remember from that day and the couple days before it.  It might be a good list to look back upon one day.  Hopefully though, you snap back out of it soon. Please keep us posted of any progress.

I'm not sure if a blood test can confirm libido levels but my recent blood test came up good, everything was fine. I've been dealing with this since I was 14-15 and I didn't realize the problem until I did snap out of it and went back into it again at 18. I didn't know what was wrong with me and then I started looking for answers and POIS is the closest thing I found related to them. It's weird, the 2 things I pretty much mostly ever did (excessive gaming, masturbating) are the triggers that set these symptoms off.
Now I feel better than I did yesterday, but my thoughts still feel clouded and distant. Also when I"m laying down, or sitting down for about 20-30  minutes or more and I stand up, I get extremely lightheaded, dizzy and even my vision gets blurry for a few seconds. This only happens when I'm in POIS mode, has anyone else went through this?

This description is great (mental fatigue vs. physical fatigue). I also experience that dizziness when in POIS.
I'm not an avid gamer so I can't speak to that. I know that when I drink coffee is simulates POIS symptoms. Everything becomes inflamed, and it feels like my bones hurt to the touch. I become moody and depressed within about 12hrs of drinking it.

[Green]

Does anyone with POIS regularly drink alcohol? I don't like drinking at all, it stimulates POIS type symptoms.

[demografx]

Green, in my life I've seen 3 similarities in my abnormal "hangovers" :

1. POIS

2. Drinking

3. Jet lag

In all 3 cases it's a prolonged (several days worth) and severe physiological reaction.

And it's a body reaction I can't explain, but maybe it stems from the same root cause.

[kurtosis]

Does anyone with POIS regularly drink alcohol? I don't like drinking at all, it stimulates POIS type symptoms.

Me neither. It leads to serious brain fog

[observercenter]

Does anyone with POIS regularly drink alcohol? I don't like drinking at all, it stimulates POIS type symptoms.

Me neither. It leads to serious brain fog

I realized long time ago that alcohol was one of the most serious POIS antagonists. Alcohol - while in POIS- doesn´t lead to get drunk, it leads to be POIS-drunk, one of the worse feelings i have experienced!. I wonder if sugar content could play a role.

[GoingCrazy]

I´m trying this and it's not working for me.

Really, I´m feeling even worse.

This is a perfect example of the harm we can do by irresponsibly recommending a "cure" to anyone.

I did not recommend a "cure" to anyone.  Just stated what has been really helping me.  I guess I could agree with you if I had said to him "try this it is the cure" but I didn't say that.  I'm sorry if people misunderstood me.  Maybe I shouldn't even be defending myself as you're right, that could be the consequence of somebody recommending a cure.

Anyway Fidalgo and everybody else,  I've sinced stopped the Sea Salt and vitamin C since I ran out of vitamin C.  I am now taking nothing and surprisingly I am having very good sleep.  I am so exhausted right now and am sleeping very well.  So far I haven't had any orgasms but I will update in the future of the affects.  I actually feel better now than I was taking any vitamin C, claritin, or sea salt.  Sleep is like heaven to me, I haven't slept this well in quite a while.  Perhaps (in my previous posts), when my headache "left", POIS "left", but I will know soon.

I am not sure if it was the C and sea salt that has done this to me.  I am leaning toward the prolonged use of high doses of vitamin C that is making me currently immune to POIS, the sea salt and C I am not so sure about but it still was part of the equation and could have possibly played a role.  I will update in the future.

Anyways about the 2 weeks rule, yes I did wait 2 weeks, and even more than that, I've waited 2 months after taking high doses of vitamin C, and another 2 weeks while on the sea salt & C, I was just feeling so good that I had to say something.  I will update on my future O's

I've been doing the Vit-C and sea salt routine for a bit over a week now and I think its helping me. Its certainly not a 'omg this is fantastic' outcome, but i've felt a bit better than normal. I should point out I started taking P-5-P two weeks prior, which is helping with my sleep/dreams as well.
Both the sea salt + high dose vit-c could easily play a part in any improvement, but it may not be the same for everyone as a number of us could have other concomitant health issues....for instance parasites or mineral deficiences which the salt will help with.
I actually took high dose (30-40gm) Vit-C injections years ago as part of the treatment to recover from CFS. In later years I have also taken the Myers cocktail when really run down (high dose Vit-C,  Vit-Bs, Ca, Mg, Zn) and felt wonderful on them, very diminished pois symptoms. The catch with continuing to take these injections....I had to go to a special clinic an hours drive away, expensive ($150/wk), and there is no residual benefit...within 3-4 days of stopping you feel the same as you did before taking them.
I didn't think GC was irresponsible at all. These substances are hardly risky, and for those of us who have had pois for years, feeling temporarily worse for trying a new 'prospective' treatment is better than not trying anything beyond abstinence. I think its wonderful whenever I read of someone getting an improvment when trying something new (that I've never tried), as it gives me hope, even if its short lived. People here know the posters here are not medical professionals (and even then with my experience of medicos over the years they are not experts when it comes to something that is not in their textbooks). Its up to the individuals to read up on any substance or discuss it with their doctor or continue ignore it and wait till there is an official treatment protocol.

That is how I felt once I first started taking vitamin C 1500 mg every day.  It wasn't the "cure" in the moment, but I believe it led me to something.  I'm still not taking any supplements and sleeping very well.  I just "O'd" about 15 minutes ago.  Currently I have no POIS symptoms, just calm, I will update as time goes on.  I still have not had any POIS after that "headache" went away.  Maybe it's the continued use of vitamin C, and than adding in the sea salt.  I gave, what did I say, about 2 1/2 months just vitamin C and than for about 2 weeks adding in the sea salt.  Claritin may or may not have played a role in it.  I took claritin for about 2 months when I started the vitamin C.  Part of why I am feeling really good is that I am also sleeping really well.  I also forgot to state that my acne did clear up when I was taking the sea salt and C... I have very mild acne, but noticed an improvement.

UPDATE:  It's been a couple of hours since I've "O'd" 3 times and still no POIS, just calm and normal.  I, myself, actually believe I no longer have this... 100% honesty.  Normally, I would be in full blown POIS at most 30 minutes after "O".  It's just a miracle to me.  Believe me or not, this is how I feel.  I will make another update tomorrow about how i am feeling.

[Vincent M]

Does anyone with POIS regularly drink alcohol? I don't like drinking at all, it stimulates POIS type symptoms.

If I have an ejaculation with 2 or more beers in me I won't feel POIS while I remain intoxicated. I haven't tested this more than a few times, but I also feel less POIS than normal after the intoxication wears off. In addition on the 5 or 6 occasions when I got drunk I always felt much better the next day, but I didn't ejaculate most of those times-although I am always in moderate POIS since I usually "o" at least once a night. I suspect this effect of alcohol may be due to my extreme social anxiety and also perhaps the fact that my physical POIS symptoms overshadow my cognitive ones. I remember reading about one study that said something like people who drank alcohol had less chance of developing rheumatoid arthritis.

Just found the link to the article which mentioned the study: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/07/27/drinking.rheumatoid.arthritis/index.html

The main thing I remembered from that article was how one of the rheumatologists in it said "Alcohol reduces immune activity, at least to some extent..."
I'm not sure if that is correct or not, but it makes some sense to me. It struck me since I had never drank any alcohol prior to developing POIS.

My opinion is that alcohol reduces inflammation, but from a brief google search I now see that may be an unpopular theory. I did find one study which showed evidence that moderate drinking reduces inflammation. It's an old study from 2002, but here's the link to the news article that discussed it: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2002-11-17-heart-attack_x.htm

[manutao]

i recently discovered that the symptoms of "neurasthenia" are quiet smiliar to POIS symptoms.
newbielink:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurasthenia [nonactive]

also remarkable that freud saw masturbation and the depletion of libido as a possible cause of neurasthenia..hmm.

[observercenter]

That is how I felt once I first started taking vitamin C 1500 mg every day.  It wasn't the "cure" in the moment, but I believe it led me to something.  I'm still not taking any supplements and sleeping very well.  I just "O'd" about 15 minutes ago.  Currently I have no POIS symptoms, just calm, I will update as time goes on.  I still have not had any POIS after that "headache" went away.  Maybe it's the continued use of vitamin C, and than adding in the sea salt.  I gave, what did I say, about 2 1/2 months just vitamin C and than for about 2 weeks adding in the sea salt.  Claritin may or may not have played a role in it.  I took claritin for about 2 months when I started the vitamin C.  Part of why I am feeling really good is that I am also sleeping really well.  I also forgot to state that my acne did clear up when I was taking the sea salt and C... I have very mild acne, but noticed an improvement.

UPDATE:  It's been a couple of hours since I've "O'd" 3 times and still no POIS, just calm and normal.  I, myself, actually believe I no longer have this... 100% honesty.  Normally, I would be in full blown POIS at most 30 minutes after "O".  It's just a miracle to me.  Believe me or not, this is how I feel.  I will make another update tomorrow about how i am feeling.

GoingCrazy, how would you describe this "headache", did you have it during these POIS years? I am really glad that you are having success!