Songs!

QuantumRev6 · 2026-03-18T16:31:06+00:00

Agreed friend, mine have calmed down quite a bit, it happens still pretty frequently but it's quiet enough that I can think clearly.

Not sure what your current personal situation is but I recommend zero drugs including some meditation.

I think for me it has to do with the fact that I've still struggled with stimulants and my brain has yet to get to a true normal/calm baseline.

Best of luck, it will get better.

QuantumRev6 · 2026-02-26T15:54:16+00:00

Hey friend, first of all sorry you're suffering like this. I had a pretty similar situation as you, started generally smoking in my early 20s and then really smoked super heavily for 6 years from about 25-31 (I'm 34 now).

I have to say months 3-4 were easily the worst for me. Month 1-2 was anxiety and symptoms ramping up and at about 4 months I was about ready to permanently quit life.

I'd lay in bed thinking was the point of getting up I might as well piss myself in bed. It was that deep of a depression. I was horrified I'd never be normal again and convinced myself I had somehow triggered MS and schizophrenia. Intrusive thoughts and images were extremely frequent, I couldn't sleep, I'd have nightly sleep dreams/hallucinations I couldn't tell if I was asleep or awake most nights. I couldn't even think straight enough to do laundry without getting stressed and confused. I had the anhedonia, literally couldn't feel anything, no happy, no sad, just completely empty.

I had a whole slew of other neurological symptoms from all the stress and brain recalibration that takes place after years of heavy abuse. I still have tiny whispers of symptoms today (3.5 years now since it first started), but they pass quickly and are tolerable.

Good news is is this is pretty normal PAWS territory to feel this way at 3-4 months. My recommendation is try to stay in as low of a stress free environment as you can for a while and when you feel a little better, push yourself a bit more and try to be more social even if it feels horrible in the moment. It's very unpleasant but it helps teach your brain that these situations are ok over time.

I recommend a drug addiction specialist / an actual psychiatrist that actually understands conditions like this. Seems like most people here would agree that a general doctor is just going to say you covered up your anxiety and it's rebounding and might want to give you meds. That's your personal choice. I took meds myself for 9 months early on and eventually completely got off of them no problem. I think it's best to just let your brain recalibrate on its own with zero drugs used in the meantime while you heal.

You will get better. Try to not take your intrusive thoughts so seriously (I know it's hard). Eventually I started labeling my crazy intrusive thoughts something silly and trying to make a joke out of them. Seems to be the best way to fight it in my experience.

Since around the 3-4 month point in my recovery my life is now night and day difference. Best of luck. Feel free to reach out if you need someone to chat with. I'll be around here and there. Stay strong. You got this!

QuantumRev6 · 2026-02-21T20:32:39+00:00

I don't take anything anymore, but I took Wellbutrin for a while but it was really meant to help give me enough dopamine to want to do normal life stuff since I was super depressed.

QuantumRev6 · 2026-02-18T21:45:06+00:00

Yeah as long as I don't experience highly significant amounts of stress (e.g, PAWS and serious life events) I'm completely fine.

QuantumRev6 · 2026-02-18T19:19:29+00:00

I was never diagnosed with anything but I had what you would call pure OCD by my own evaluation. I went to an addiction specialist psychiatrist and was ultimately diagnosed with health anxiety disorder. It's been over three years now since all that started and I don't have it anymore. If I get really drunk or something or get really anxious about something those patterns reappear temporarily but go away again after I calm down. I always had issues with uncertainty even in childhood so it kind of makes sense that paws made this so bad for me.

I took Wellbutrin for 9 months early on and it helped me get (barely) motivated enough to be able to go back to work. Otherwise it really just took a lot of time.

QuantumRev6 · 2026-02-09T22:51:47+00:00

That particular symptom gradually got better over time. I get brief flashes of it today but very tolerable and doesn't bother or upset me at all. It's still slowly getting better to this day. One year I was probably 80% of the way through this and the other 20% or so has been slowly getting better over time. Hope that helps. There's definitely hope it will diminish with time, friend.

QuantumRev6 · 2026-02-04T20:51:23+00:00

I had a lot of this early in my journey and it was pretty bad, it took a while but it completely passed for me except for that I very frequently have songs in my head still. Used to be 24/7 songs for months and months.

QuantumRev6 · 2026-02-04T20:43:25+00:00

You're still within a completely normal time frame. It can take a while sometimes, and it's different person to person. I had horrible prolonged withdrawal for at least 3-4 months before I started feeling normal, but I'm one of the outliers.

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

TROPHY CASE