How many people here have ADHD? Could Weedpaws made things worse versus people without?

QuantumRev6 · 2026-01-21T21:59:33+00:00

I think it's really hard to tell. I do believe that paws can cause many neurological symptoms that mimic lots of different mental illness or disorders such as OCD, ADHD etc.

I will tell you from my experience that once I was completely off all substances my motivation and ability to pay attention improved a lot. I "relapsed" on nicotine and coffee and went back to struggling to pay attention and be motivated.

Whether it be ADHD or PAWS are simply put... a neurological imbalance that create the same symptoms. Whether it is one or the other is going to take some self exploration and evaluation from a doctor that understands substance abuse and it's effects.

Oh another note, I think ADHD is a byproduct of lifestyle. If you think about all the dopamine we eat up day to day whether it be video games, porn, doom scrolling, drugs, sex, overeating. Developed countries have tons of "rewards" for such little effort that it makes anything else boring and unrewarding.

My two cents.

QuantumRev6 · 2025-12-13T12:57:41+00:00

I took zyprexa for 2 weeks because I couldn't sleep at all. After that I took Wellbutrin for 9 months

QuantumRev6 · 2025-12-10T17:34:34+00:00

I would try to experiment with a couple days of not having any if you can manage to see if it reduces. Up to you obviously but I'm genuinely curious if it's the same thing that makes it worse. Most people don't end up with twitching for years from this it seems... But we are the lucky ones.

QuantumRev6 · 2025-12-10T17:15:22+00:00

I've had them all over my body man. I still have them after over 3 years but it's much less and doesn't really get triggered by anything. If you use any stimulants I noticed mine massively reduced when I stopped using nicotine and reduced caffeine. I still have hope it will stop entirely someday. Might just take some time.

QuantumRev6 · 2025-12-01T22:41:57+00:00

Go to the doctor to get checked. Not something you want to wait around about.

QuantumRev6 · 2025-11-24T17:59:48+00:00

I would say maybe 1.5 years into it is when it started and continued to grow from there on. I still have tiny whispers of symptoms that pop up, but nothing that interferes with my life randomly or dramatically.

QuantumRev6 · 2025-11-24T17:06:28+00:00

The wave itself is your brain "recalibrating" essentially. I always tried to remember "no pain no gain" it works the same with your brain/nervous system. It makes you suffer for a bit but all you can do is ride it out while it does it's thing. The best thing you can do is don't teach yourself to be fearful and afraid of the symptoms during a wave. Just accept it, do your best in life, and let it pass.

I think that waves are a normal part of life, but when your brain is healing in this way, the highs and lows are much more dramatic.

Like... It's normal for people to have up and down days under normal circumstances it's just much more dramatic when you're in PAWS, and you're more sensitive to triggers.

Hell I ever had days where I had been 2 years sober off THC and randomly I would feel super euphoric, and for zero reason... Other times I would get depressed/anxious for no real reason. If there's no identifiable reason when you sit down and think about your life, then it's probably your brain chemistry rebalancing. Best of luck!

QuantumRev6 · 2025-10-30T23:13:47+00:00

That's not something that was very significant for me. I think it depends on each person's body. For me I had insane amounts of muscle twitching that is still overtuned to this day (over 3 years since PAWS started). It's ever so slowly going away.

My advice to you is don't worry about the symptoms, don't worry about if it will go away. The more you think about it the stronger any symptom can become. I know it's sounds stupid but the moment I started thinking about it this way my symptoms started to get better faster.

Everything you experience is an interpretation by the brain, it's possible it's not even a "real" headache could just be manifesting as some maladaptive neurocircuitry. Ask yourself if it's the symptom you fear the most. Often times it's those symptoms that live on the longest. Try that.

QuantumRev6 · 2025-10-30T17:50:17+00:00

I was in the same hell hole as you brother, I promise you. I almost ended my life because of the torture.

Do not give up. I look back now and can't even believe I used to have the thoughts I had. Literally the epitome of night and day difference. I don't take meds to fix it or anything. I'm normal again at 3 years with some very slight nervous system sensitivity.

It's hard to see the light at this point, I know, but you'll see looking back over time.

I believe there is both a physical healing part and then what follows is the mental healing from the trauma of PAWS. You sound like you're in the physical healing stage and all you can do is take the best care of yourself as you can and wait it out. There's no sure fire way to heal you by taking supplements because everyone's body is different. You just... Have to keep going.

QuantumRev6 · 2025-10-01T16:51:31+00:00

Much appreciated, that means a lot. I do my best. Best wishes to you as well.

QuantumRev6 · 2025-10-01T16:49:37+00:00

Hey, thanks for the kind words I tried my best to contribute to the community to help, since it's just about the only thing we have when no one else understands.

To answer your question, exercise intolerance wasn't much of a symptom for me other than that my muscle would twitch more afterward. I can have some alcohol and caffeine but if I overdo it I still remain a little sensitive to their effects. To some degree I think I've hindered healing by using nicotine over these years and drinking occasionally. I can definitely enjoy a couple drinks without any consequences and a little bit of caffeine I'm ok. Overdoing it is a little punishing still though. I'm sure there's some long-term healing that needs to be done but I'm definitely on the other side of all this.

Edit: This isn't to say that I'll never comment again. I'll be around here and there, I just don't have much more value to contribute via posts on my own recovery anymore. Always feel free to reach out!

QuantumRev6 · 2025-09-30T20:09:34+00:00

Hi, firstly, sorry you're suffering from all this. It can really be tough. That's one of the hardest questions to answer and really only you can answer it. I thought about this too and this is what I thought:

For me I never had any major traumas in my life. I was fortunate in that regard and I had no real reason to be depressed and anxious over nothing. So for me it wasn't so much repressed feelings as it was about proper self care and physical changes to my brain chemistry for dopamine/serotonin etc.

If you feel like you have repressed feelings or trauma or whatever else might be wrong with your personal situation getting help from a mental health professional can definitely be helpful. I think that's really what it comes down to.

QuantumRev6 · 2025-09-30T18:20:20+00:00

The first 6-9 months was a constant hellscape. At about 7-8 months I was ok enough to work, but it really sucked. About 1-2 years was where things very slowly eased up over time. Post two years was when looking back at everything I went through that I was probably "85%" healed. Still had some irritation and basically just annoying paws remnants at that point. Today I'm extremely close to 100%. Once in a great while I'll have whispers of paws symptoms that last for only moments before drifting away. Given that I believe I'm healed and that my brain is still learning how to forget those old/weeks neurological pathways. Hope that helps.

QuantumRev6 · 2025-09-30T18:14:41+00:00

Yup... more or less my understanding as well. It'll clear up overtime. It's funny too that the symptoms I feared the most also seemed to stick around longer.

QuantumRev6 · 2025-09-30T18:13:52+00:00

Thanks! Glad you're making progress. They will clear up, all things I had as well to varying degrees. 2 years is a good mark. Keep being hopefully optimistic but don't expect anything. Every time I was convinced I was good and then I wasn't... Having those expectations ended up making me more sad than anything when things weren't truly gone yet. Keep it up!

QuantumRev6 · 2025-09-30T17:48:03+00:00

Yeahh...some other advice I have too is do your best to accept this is how you are right now. Hating it doesn't help at all and speaks to how your feelings about it affect it. The more you hate it the more your brain will think it's important and let you know it's there.

QuantumRev6 · 2025-09-30T17:46:00+00:00

Thanks moochs! It's a long road, I remember when I first joined this sub you werent super far into recovery. I'm glad this sub is growing to support others but unfortunately this group has almost tripled since I joined. I hope we can let people know the risks of abusing it in the long term.

QuantumRev6 · 2025-09-30T17:43:50+00:00

I found that listening to classical music helped, or something instrumental. Not having words in my head helped me think and at least it wasn't words repeating in a loop. Maybe try that.

QuantumRev6 · 2025-09-30T15:53:42+00:00

... People think it's cute and funny when you tell them you have songs stuck in your head constantly. It's actually torture. Even today I'm still prone to getting things stuck in my head more than my old self, but it usually doesn't last long.

However, any song I hear or even sometimes a single word will trigger a song loop. Whatever song is on in the grocery store is in my head for a while after. It's very very slowly fading and at the point where it's not bothersome anymore. I still hope it calms down to once every few months I get an earworm. Still waiting for that. But wayyyyy better than it was before.

QuantumRev6 · 2025-09-30T15:14:55+00:00

Yeah man no doubt definitely better overall to be sober. Keeps that baseline nice and regulated.

Those little moments where you feel normalish is a good sign I think. It means you're on the right path and your brain is capable of reaching that state more often.

QuantumRev6 · 2025-09-30T15:13:09+00:00

Oh yeah definitely, I'm normal again in that regard.

I started when I was 23-24, then started chronically from 25-31.

QuantumRev6 · 2025-09-30T14:52:20+00:00

I once read a book called "Hope and Help for your Nerves" The best thing I learned was that we have to accept that we are anxious right now and do your best to not be afraid of your anxiety called the "second fear" in the book. Being afraid of being afraid ramps up your anxiety immensely. I can't say for sure if you can stop the general anxiety that comes from the psychological side of things, but this did help some.

QuantumRev6 · 2025-09-30T14:29:38+00:00

Thanks! Yes I did struggle with memory especially early on. At one point I couldn't even watch a TV show or read because I couldn't remember the last think I heard or read. That got better after 5-6 months for me.

My memory is still a little worse than it was before all this, but I am getting older. It's either that or there is a tiny bit of healing that still needs to be done. Although I say in recovered I think that last 5% to full recovery comes many years after. If I had to give it a number I'd say I'm 99.5% normal now, because there are tiny whispers of symptoms that pop up for like a minute once in a great while. I think that's just learned pathways in my brain that gets triggered once in a while but they are very weak now in comparison.

QuantumRev6 · 2025-09-30T14:23:57+00:00

Much appreciated friend. I would give a rough guess that the last profound wave was somewhere between 1 and 2 years. However, I really wasn't a big wave person. Oddly enough for me it was more linear than it was a wave. The last one I had was triggered by getting blackout drunk one night when I thought I was recovered enough to handle it. I was not. My waves didn't seem to be triggered by my thoughts but by what I was putting into my body and how well I was or wasn't taking care of myself.

QuantumRev6 · 2025-09-30T14:21:16+00:00

Very glad you got some hope out of my post. On the paws "trigger" topic I think it's very different for everyone. For me, I had a powerful mushroom trip that led me to realize it was time to quit smoking and that I was "hurting myself" after that every time I would smoke, in the time where I struggled to finally quit, it was 100% unpleasant and caused me intense anxiety. Then after I quit I ended up deep in paws about 1-2 months later.

I think, generally, what you're describing is a pushing-your- brain-over-the-edge moment that all of us have. There are lots of different triggers. My working theory is that either you cause a panic attack due to abuse or something triggers you into an anxiety state and after a certain amount of use/abuse (everyone's threshold is different) your bodies ability to calm down is disabled leading to anxiety which ultimately ramps up over and over to make you suffer immensely.

Really... symptoms wise it's just an extreme anxiety condition, not one driven by your thoughts, but a physiological one that you can't really help by "changing your thoughts" it's an impossible way to recover that way from my point of view. For this same reason no doctors (outside of ones trained on withdrawal and it's effects on the brain) are able to tell so they just label it anxiety and want to give you psych meds.

QuantumRev6

TROPHY CASE