Can someone help me with combatting PAWS, Im clean but still going through hell

[neversickanymore]

^I agree

 

[Moreaux]

I have a belief about PAWS that isn't orthodox. I'm throwing it out cause it might help, not to engage in controversy.

I believe a lot of reported PAWS isn't really post acute withdrawal syndrome. I think very often a person's compulsive substance use was masking or inadequately treating mood disorders or other psychiatric problems.

I also think sometimes, when people have used many substances for many years, the state of not using anything can be very uncomfortable for a while.

Another thing, if someone has been using continuously from their teens and now their in their late thirties, or later; you likely didn't feel your age when you were always on the hunt or high. Sober in the late thirties plus involves some realizations about aging you've been ignoring while using.

Anyways, not a complete critic of PAWS, but sometimes other situations are a better explanation, imo.

I think PAWS exasperates existing mental health issues. I have yet to see an instance of addiction that did not involve an existing mental health issue, (even in cases of chronic pain where the individual gets addicted to pain meds, there is usually an associated depression focused around chronic health issues that then drives the addiction) and while substance use may help mask some of the mental health symptoms, it also tends to force the body to work harder to compensate for the substance's effects. When the user quits the substance there is often rebound affects that occur along with untreated mental health symptoms which lead to more severe and unpleseant symptoms as experienced in PAWS, which persist as the body works to get back to baseline. Many definitions of PAWS directly included the mental health aspects of quitting substances so I am not certain I understand what you are saying...

It takes time for the body and mind to adjust to no longer having the substance and I think the very definition of PAWS is a catch all term to explain the symptoms of that adjustment period, which encompasses both the mental and physical.