Porn Addiction
Porn has been a part of human sexual exploration for thousands of years. Humans unique ability to project themselves into situations that they are observing, but not physically participating in, has given pornography the platform it needs to evolve. From fantasizing over stone statues in Ancient Greece to today’s high-speed internet porn which allows 20 tabs open on your screen, each with a different porn star in a different scenario fulfilling any fetish you may think of.
Viewing porn is widely deemed socially acceptable in much of western society and often can be seen as a macho activity. However, the strength and potency of modern porn seems to be creating problems for many users, leading to compulsive viewing and then ultimately addiction.
Studies Have Suggested
• Everyday 68 million internet searches are related to porn
• As many as 28% of people who use computers at work watch porn in the workplace
• 25% of search engine requests are related to sex.
• 35% of downloads from the internet are pornographic
In the United States alone the porn industry generates $16.9 billion dollars
• Every second 28,258 users are watching pornography on the internet
• Every second $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography
The Impact Porn Has
Most people put off getting porn addiction help until there is a significant consequence affecting their life. Here are some areas of your life porn addiction can impact and the consequences.
Relationships
A porn addict may choose to view porn and masturbate instead of having sexual relations with their partner.
Consequence: The partner feels rejected and becomes both distant and suspicious resulting in the breakdown of the relationship.
Family
A porn addict may not attend events with their family such as a kid’s footy game or a parent’s dinner to have the house to themselves.
Consequence: Loss of opportunity for genuine family memories and strained inter family bonds.
Social life
A porn addict may turn down invitations to meet up with friends or decide not to turn up to sports training in favour of bingeing on porn.
Consequence: The porn addicts friends stop inviting the addict out resulting in social isolation, furthering the intensity of their problem or they get dropped from their chosen sports team.
Financially
A porn addict might spend money they cannot afford on subscriptions to many porn sites or engage in chat and cam services.
Consequence: The porn addict has no money left over for essentials such as food and rent, resulting in them borrowing money from a quick, high interest loan site.
Work/Academics
A porn addict may stay up until 3am bingeing on porn all night despite having an important meeting early the next day.
The addict oversleeps, missing their meeting resulting in them getting let go from their job.
Emotions
The porn addict feels guilty and hopeless over their inability to stop viewing porn.
Consequence: The addict sinks into depression and struggles to find joy in anything outside viewing porn.
Am I Addicted to porn?
“Addiction is an uncontrollable compulsion to repeat behaviour despite its negative consequences.”
The following criteria can be useful to help you determine if your porn usage is an addiction. Generally, if you fit into three out of the ten categories it is a good indicator that you may need treatment.
1. Reoccurring failed attempts to control impulses
2. More extensive and longer viewing of porn than intended
3. Withdrawals after not watching porn for a period of time
4. Inordinate or inappropriate amount of time obtaining, viewing, or recovering from porn
5. Feeling preoccupied with sexual thoughts, sexual fantasies, and preparatory activities
6. Viewing pornography takes significant amount of time away from obligations domestic, academic, occupational, and social
7. Continuation of behaviour despite negative consequences
8. More frequent and intense pornography is required to achieve the same result due to a build up in tolerance
9. Distress, restlessness, or irritability occur if not able to view porn
10. Sensitivity to porn related cues such as being home alone which gives you an uncontrollable urge to watch porn
Why are so many people addicted to porn?
And why you're normal if this is happening to you!
Addiction is commonly known as a disease of your reward circuit. Your reward circuit is involved in every decision you make, from deciding what colour socks you will were today to deciding to binge on porn for 5 hours. A chemical called Dopamine is responsible for powering the reward circuit. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that motivates us to want, desire and seek.
This has been important for our survival as a species for thousands of years. Dopamine is responsible for making us want to build shelters for protection, desire sexual mates for reproduction and seek food sources to sustain us. Elevated levels of Dopamine can feel pleasurable and exciting.
Modern-day porn can skyrocket our Dopamine through the roof, to levels that are completely unnatural, this results in a massive high for the user. This becomes problematic when the user wants to replicate the high over and over again.
Porn effects the brain in the same way dr*gs do, it effects the same structures initiated by the same signals. In fact, c*caine and m*th activate the same nerves cells in the brain that sex and masturbation do. If a dr*g user takes c*caine repeatedly, over time they will need to take more of it to achieve the desired affects.
This is no different with porn. We start needing more intense, harder porn to get our Dopamine levels elevated enough to achieve the desired high. For some people this has led to sexual tastes changing over time and the inability to get excited by a real-life partner.
Here are some experiments that have been conducted where animals have chosen to mate with artificial stimulus instead of a real mate.
Butterflies pick mates based on the colour and size of their wings. Scientists made fake female butterflies out of paper with larger and more boldly coloured wings than their real-life counterparts. When given a choice, the male butterflies chose to mate with the fake butterflies and completely ignored the real ones.
Male jewel beetles will ignore real sexual partners in favour of trying to mate with a brown beer bottle. To a male jewel beetle, a brown bottle laying on the ground looks like the biggest, most attractive female its ever seen. The beetles are just responding to evolutionary cues that would give their species an advantage, but now, instead leads to a lifeless dead end.
This might all seem a bit out there, but is trying to mate with a beer bottle any different from trying to mate with a computer screen?
More Reasons Why Porn Is so Addictive
When we ejaculate, we get a massive rush of opioids, a chemical that makes us feel satisfied. The biggest natural opioid release you can get is at climax. Where compulsive porn users get stuck is, the Dopamine system is stronger than the opioid system which means we crave more than we are satisfied
To compound this further, there is a hormone called Prolactin that works to diminish sexual arousal and provide sexual satisfaction. This hormone is released 5 times less after masturbation than it is after sex with a real partner. This can lead users to obsessively seek out new material without finding a resolution to their cravings.
ⓘ Did You Know?
Did you know that excluding cigarett*s, only 10-15% of people who use dr*gs and alc*hol ever become addicted? This is because our reward system has not evolved to make us seek dr*gs and alc*hol.
Internet porn can hook pretty much anyone in as the reward circuit naturally craves:
• Sex
• Food
• Bonding
• Achievement
• Novelty
Supernormal versions of these natural rewards can hook more of us due to their genetically in-built nature. For example, our reward system is programmed for us to seek and desire high-calorie foods. With fast food so easily accessible, 67% of Australian adults are obese.
Given that sex is also programmed in our reward system and porn is so readily available, it’s no wonder so many users fall into addiction.
But...
Porn use is unique and potentially more damaging, as:
• It can be free, private and no one can tell that you are using, unlike if you were obsessively consuming to much food
• There are no limitations to consumption, you could watch porn all day long if you wanted to
• With food and dr*gs, you can only escalate by consuming more
• Porn can always be replayed in your head, giving you a hit of dopamine and reactivating brain pathways
• Internet porn can reshape your sexual brain circuits
Chronic porn use highjacks and then alters the reward system, both structurally and chemically. This can result in a host of unwanted emotional and physical symptoms, some of these are:
• Delayed ejaculation and decreased sexual enjoyment
• Brain fog and trouble concentrating
• Social anxiety
• Declining interest in real partners
• Escalation to porn that does not match the users taste
• Lack of motivation for activities previously enjoyed
• Lack of energy
• Irritability
ⓘ Did You Know?
Did you know when some chronic porn users abstain from viewing pornography, they can experience an extreme loss of libido also known as the flatline? This can cause the penis to become unresponsive and lifeless.
People can get alarmed and revert back to porn to try and stimulate their libido however, after a period of time without viewing porn, the user’s libido will return to normal. This can take from a couple of weeks to a few months depending on the extent of previous porn consumption.
The Good News Is!
The negative brain changes that occur during chronic porn use will start to be reversed, making way for more useful transcripts for us to follow. This will result in less intense cravings and improved self-control.
Many, if not all the symptoms related to chronic porn use, can be alleviated, or completely subside upon ceasing porn use for a period of time. The unhelpful neuron pathways that have kept us coming back for more will weaken and our rewards system will be put back in balance.
Once our brain is back on our side, working for us instead of against us, many other positive physical, mental, and behavioural changes will occur. Ways in which people report feeling better are:
• Improved concentration
• Increased energy/motivation (Dopamine)
• Improved work/school performance
• Decreased social anxiety
• Increased confidence
• Improved mood and easing of depression
• Improved ability to experience and regulate emotions
• Greater desire to pursue relationships
• Improved sexual performance and satisfaction
• Greater desire to be social and make connections with others
• Improved ability to connect with and understand women in a respectful manner
How we can help
Abstaining from porn can be extremely difficult, especially if you choose to go it alone. At Help hub, we are passionate about helping you take back control and improving all aspects of your life that porn has had authority over. Your expert counsellor will give you the tools you need to tackle your porn usage head on, allowing you to become the expert over your addiction.
Your counsellor will work with you to define what your version of sobriety looks like and together you will set some long and short-term goals. Once these have been established, you will learn more about your addiction and the mechanisms behind it because in this case, knowledge is power! You will work to uncover and identify triggers and develop blueprints to deal with urges and cravings in a productive way
If you're struggling with porn addiction we can help. Click the button below to book a session with your porn addiction counsellor today.
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