Is it normal for withdrawals and brain rewiring to cause OCD symptoms?

I have been rebooting for 4.5 years. Prior to embarking on this journey, I had been severely addicted to PMO for pretty close to 20 years. I first got addicted when I was around 12 years old, and by the time I was 14, I was engaging in multiple edging sessions daily. I'm 36 years old now.

As you can imagine, rebooting has been a tremendously arduous process for me due to the fact that I got addicted during adolescence when my brain was undergoing crucial stages of brain development. This addiction is wired so deeply into my brain because my brain was so malleable and impressionable at the time. Rebooting has been a constant uphill battle, but I'm finally starting to notice some major improvements now.

Lately, I have been noticing a lot of very intense symptoms that are a combination of physical, physiological, and psychological in nature, and I attribute this to my brain going through a very rigorous phase of rewiring. The reason that I jump to this conclusion is because I have experienced very similar periods of these symptoms that will last for several weeks—or sometimes even months—prior to a major breakthrough in my recovery.

But this time, I'm noticing one disconcerting psychological symptom that I have never experienced before: OCD and intrusive thoughts. I find myself obsessing over things that I never even used to care about. It's like my brain is deliberately trying to find things for me to worry about and obsess over. If I resolve one intrusive thought, another one will soon come along to fill the void. And what makes this weird is that I have never suffered from OCD before at any point in my life.

Has anyone else here experienced this as either a withdrawal symptom or a side effect of brain rewiring? I know that it might seem weird to make a thread about this, but it's something I've been really concerned about lately, and I've never seen anybody else mention this particular issue before.

Any insightful replies would be greatly appreciated.

 

I'm not currently in a flatline, and I'm not currently experiencing genital numbness either. My flatlines were much more frequent during my first few years of rebooting, but the frequency and duration of the flatlines has subsided quite a bit. When I experience a flatline now, it usually lasts for a few days and rarely lasts for more than a week. According to other people who have successfully rebooted, the frequency and duration of the flatlines gradually subsiding over time until ceasing entirely is the most common pattern of recovery.

I'm almost certain that I'm just undergoing a very intense phase of rewiring at the moment, and that's why I'm experiencing so many extreme symptoms.

 

How severe was your addiction before you quit?

 

I have never had any issues with food sensitivity or allergies. I'm 100% certain that it isn't that.

 

Your timeline is very similar to mine. I got addicted during adolescence and was addicted for pretty close to 20 years. It's interesting that we have both been rebooting for the same amount of time too.

 

I just read through the post you linked me and immediately related to so much of it. I am going to reply in that thread at some point when I'm not as tired as I am at the moment.

"Obsessive-compulsive behaviour" is the fifth item on the list of symptoms on the Wikipedia entry for PAWS, so I guess that kind of answers my initial question. It must be somewhat of a frequent occurrence for other people if it's listed as a symptom.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-acute-withdrawal_syndrome