Weed withdrawal - erectile dysfunction

Hey Sparkfly2, thanks so much for sharing your progress.
What do you think are the reasons for your progress from what you have noticed?
Do you know if porn could also be a factor in low libido, have been reading a lot about NOFAP and porn being as damaging as drugs to dopaminergic system and neurochemistry.
I am now into my 11th month since quit and still don't feel normal libido wise. My sleep is not the best but getting better.
I am going to start running, exercising, meditating and eating right. But could you say what are you observations on whats most effective and what I should expect for the next 6 months.

Porn was not a huge factor. I do/did watch porn when I was going through it paws, about the same amount I do now. It certainly didn’t/doesn’t help but I don’t think it hurt either. Keep in mind, I didn’t overuse/abuse porn - I used it maybe 1 time a week.

I did try abstaining from porn/masturbation during paws, but I didn’t find it helped much. It made me feel like I had a higher sex drive temporarily, but I still had erection problems. And once I did ejaculate, it was back to 0 libido for a while.

For me it was only time. There were a few weeks over the past couple years where it started to feel like it was coming back, but then just disappeared. It wasn’t till the past couple months that things have been pretty much normal again, at 2.5 years for me.

When you say normal libido wise......do you not need viagra anymore? Like if you or your girl wanted to have sex everyday, are you able to get hard on demand like that? I ask as I notice a visible difference in my abiltiy to have an erection even while trying to masterbate now.
Also mentally do you feel happier or charged up without weed? The whole theory about dopamine receptors and levels normalizing in 14 months. Wonder if depression and just age now is having an impact as I see that lots of males are able to maintain their early 20's libido much later in life too. So just worried about not enjoying a healthy sexual life has kept my mind engaged since a year now.

quitweedforgood wrote:When you say normal libido wise......do you not need viagra anymore? Like if you or your girl wanted to have sex everyday, are you able to get hard on demand like that? I ask as I notice a visible difference in my abiltiy to have an erection even while trying to masterbate now.
Also mentally do you feel happier or charged up without weed? The whole theory about dopamine receptors and levels normalizing in 14 months. Wonder if depression and just age now is having an impact as I see that lots of males are able to maintain their early 20's libido much later in life too. So just worried about not enjoying a healthy sexual life has kept my mind engaged since a year now.

Yes, I mean that I dont use viagra anymore; and I have a drive/urge to have sex. I dont know if I could get a hard on every day for more than a few days... Im not in my 20s anymore and I dont think that is something that I would expect myself to do.

Im still not through this; there are some weeks where I get PAWS symptoms and Im borderline with ED and dont have much drive to have sex. I also notice these days that I have some trouble with erections when masterbating. But the weeks when I feel normal, I dont have these issues.

SparkleFly12 wrote:

quitweedforgood wrote:When you say normal libido wise......do you not need viagra anymore? Like if you or your girl wanted to have sex everyday, are you able to get hard on demand like that? I ask as I notice a visible difference in my abiltiy to have an erection even while trying to masterbate now.
Also mentally do you feel happier or charged up without weed? The whole theory about dopamine receptors and levels normalizing in 14 months. Wonder if depression and just age now is having an impact as I see that lots of males are able to maintain their early 20's libido much later in life too. So just worried about not enjoying a healthy sexual life has kept my mind engaged since a year now.

Yes, I mean that I dont use viagra anymore; and I have a drive/urge to have sex. I dont know if I could get a hard on every day for more than a few days... Im not in my 20s anymore and I dont think that is something that I would expect myself to do.

Im still not through this; there are some weeks where I get PAWS symptoms and Im borderline with ED and dont have much drive to have sex. I also notice these days that I have some trouble with erections when masterbating. But the weeks when I feel normal, I dont have these issues.

Good to hear that you are getting better. Do you guys use any supplements, vitamins etc. ?

No, I dont use suppliments or vitamins other than Vitamin C for immune health. I do have a moderately healthy diet and get exercise at least every week. I do notice that regular exercise makes a difference in libido.

Hi guys !

I would like to say hi as I have been reading your post for a few months now. I'm 31 and also facing libido issues after quitting weed.

Life has been tough with Covid, lost my job, lost my 7 years girlfriend, and last year I started smoking weed in March, until January this year.

Never during the day, but always one joint before going to bed. Out of the 280 days period, I think I smoked around 140 days. The issue was that I was also watching porn while I smoked, and was having a nice time every time. That was the main reason why I was smoking, to "enhance" my alone time. I thinking this f***ed up my brain even more, as it was recurring on several months.

In January, things got better and I stopped smoking. I started feeling my libido going down, and for two weeks nothing. Then it started more or less again, and my first reaction was "Ok it's back, I can smoke one again from time to time".

And I did a bit this circle where I lost my libido and it came back every two weeks until March (So like 5-6 joints in 2 months). But then the libido didn't really come back and I started having much less semen, or almost nothing coming out.

Went to the doctor, went to the Urologist, got tested, semen, urine, nothing.

I went to the neurologist to get an MRI, nothing.

Since then, I noticed that it comes back from time to time. It will be 2 days where I feel normal, and then 10 days where nothing happen. I tried to understand what was triggering those 2 days.

One thing I noticed : I'm living abroad, and libido was coming back when I got "home". But then I soon realise that it was because I was going out and seing friends a lot, but mostly drinking more alcohol.I would assume that alcohol stimulate the brain, and for a few days reactivates the libido before it goes down again.

I also did the stupid thing of going to a party and take mdma in early July, and I feel like it got an impact. I hadnt done in a few years, and I guess it didnt help.

Since then, I decided to stopp drugs forever (I was not using more than once every month or quarter until Covid). I realised that it's time to stopp playing with my health, and that I can be addicted to something. I always fell like I had control over it, but Covid made it tough.

So technically, I am weed / drug free since 1,5 month, and the situation down there is not good. A bit more semen, a little bit of libido, but more like 10% of what it used to be.

This 2 days period where everything is normal indicates that my brain can still work, so I'm gonna start waiting for things to improve and post a message here once in a while.

Thanks guys for the post, really helped me !

I’m in my early 30’s, otherwise healthy guy, smoked weed every day for the last 10 years with increased use in the last year, smoking blunts of high grade all day every day. I had an extremely high sex drive. In the last year I started having issues with erectile dysfunction, my dick was non-functional for short periods but would then recover. After eliminating weed use, my symptoms got way worse… my dick is shrunken at rest, I can’t get a full erection on my own or with any amount of stimulation, I had severe premature ejaculation, low semen volume, and most notably, ZERO libido or interest in women. Interestingly I also feel no emotion. I got my testosterone checked and it was normal, but lower end.

I’ve been clean for about 2 months and my symptoms are slightly better. I gotta take pills to get my dick up which is devastating for me.

This thread has been really reassuring for me. It just sucks that I might be experiencing this for the next few years… or possibly for life. If I knew weed could do this I would never touch it. Just wanted to share my story in case it reassures someone else.

@gummyworm, Hopefully you will only suffer through this for a few months. I am a pretty rare case (at least on this forum) where this has lasted more than a year (2.5). No one on this forum has had the problem for ever though, so I wouldnt worry about that. I suffered every symptom you mentioned; but I am almost better now. So dont worry, it will just take time.

SparkleFly12 wrote:@gummyworm, Hopefully you will only suffer through this for a few months. I am a pretty rare case (at least on this forum) where this has lasted more than a year (2.5). No one on this forum has had the problem for ever though, so I wouldnt worry about that. I suffered every symptom you mentioned; but I am almost better now. So dont worry, it will just take time.

Appreciate the reply brother . Your words give me a lot of reassurance. I also didn’t mention, my resting heart rate is so much higher than it used to be and I’m in great shape. Sometimes my heart is racing when I wake up. Crazy. Weed is not as safe as I believed - for someone with cardiovascular disease this would greatly increase chance of a heart attack

It just is so crazy that you can lose your dick like this. Even the urologist I was told me it was fine to keep smoking weed.

Thanks again . If I ever respect I will update on this thread . See you guys in a year ….

Has anyone else fully recovered from this?

I’m at almost 4 months clean. Still pretty numb and not as strong erections. Definitely better than the first month.

I hear from someone new every week about this same issue . Lots of people suffering

SparkleFly12 wrote:@gummyworm, Hopefully you will only suffer through this for a few months. I am a pretty rare case (at least on this forum) where this has lasted more than a year (2.5). No one on this forum has had the problem for ever though, so I wouldnt worry about that. I suffered every symptom you mentioned; but I am almost better now. So dont worry, it will just take time.

You’re at 1.5 years not 2.5 since you cheated and smoked dank in June 2020. Don’t mislead people here that haven’t read all of your posts. It’s right back to zero when you smoke no matter how much you think it sets you back. You sound like a complete hypochondriac btw.

People, if you want to stop your ED you have to stop destroying your dopamine with porn sex orgasms alcohol coffee etc. there is no free ride, it takes over a year in most cases.

Ok sure, bioactive.

So I'm at 2 3/4 years (with two takes taken at the ~1 1/4yr mark. But everything else is the same.

Your body isn't black or white, it responds in scale, so I disagree with your "right back to zero" comment. 3+ yrz ago I dtopped smoking then started again for a week, and that time it did bk right back to zero - but it didn't this time.

I'm hardly misleading people, but sure, if owning people on the internet makes you happy go ahead and do your thing buohack.

Nice ad hominem attacks, real mature of you. What’s hilarious is that you’re in full denial. You cheat and take puffs and think you’re nearly at 3 years! You’re a fraud buddy. You never even mentioned it until I brought it up. Fake. Fraud. You think you’re a year ahead of what you really are. Pathetic. Delusional really. Nothing to with owning, everything to do with honestly and accountability.

Appreciate the discussion guys . I think it’s a fair point that if you smoke, it resets your timer.

I just want to get better. I hope I do one day. I’m at 4.5 months clean. I am slightly better but I wish there were more recovery stories out there. I’ve had a lot of people reach out to me experiencing the same symptoms, women too.

I briefly was using nicotine vape at month 2 and it definitely set me back. So I think you guys are onto something