Have you ever wondered how many people are watching porn as you read this? Hint: it’s a lot. Take any given year, and the statistics will alarm you. In 2017 alone, Pornhub got a whopping 1000 visits in a second. This provides insight into the high levels of porn dependency in today’s digital age.
Online pornography usage has become staggeringly high, which is no surprise considering its ‘Triple A’ influence, i.e. accessibility, anonymity and affordability. This means that porn usage can easily translate into porn addiction, which is just a little short of becoming an official psychiatric disorder.
Porn Addiction
Porn addiction, just like any addictive disorder, is the compulsivity to keep watching porn. High-speed internet has made porn so easily available that now, around 200,000 Americans classify as ‘porn addicts.’ These numbers aren’t very reliable and we’re looking at a deeper pothole since porn addiction isn’t yet officially recognized as a real condition.
However, porn addiction is real, and it is adversely affecting people through various facets of their life, mainly personal relationships. Given the detrimental effects that too much of anything can have, this habit needs to be curtailed. But is that easy?
Porn Withdrawal
Just like any addiction, giving up porn isn’t that easy, that too without any help. Watching porn stimulates the reward circuit of the brain, releasing high levels of dopamine. This chemically rewires the brain, making it reliant on the activity that caused this ‘pleasurable experience.’
This is why it can often be so hard to quit porn. Let’s explore some withdrawal symptoms from porn addiction.
1. Anxiety/Irritability/Depression
When people begin relying on porn for gratification, there is no other way to experience that level of pleasure. Sexual gratification often releases high levels of dopamine, which can be hard to match with other reward activities.
When you’ve been watching porn for years, watching porn becomes your way of feeling pleasure, either to numb pain or even benign feelings like boredom. When you don’t get that dose of dopamine, you start feeling anxious, irritable and depressed.
2. Brain Fog
Avid porn users often complain that it is very hard to quit, almost as if their body doesn’t listen to them. Unfortunately, the effects of porn on the brain show that this might be true. Thanks to the 21st-century culprit, aka the internet, there is no dearth of pornographic content for you to view. As a result, dopamine creates new neural pathways as you watch more and more porn videos.
When you stop watching porn, you immediately experience dopamine deficiency, at least compared to before. This leads to a common phenomenon known as brain fog, which is characterized by feeling sluggish, lack of concentration and a general disinterest in everything around you.
3. Low Libido
Porn and relationships have developed a strained relationship. The reason behind this is simple. Porn establishes unattainable standards of sex in the minds of people. As a result, they find it hard to derive that ‘unrealistic’ expectation they harbour from watching ostentatious and exaggerated porn videos.
When their body and brain are wired to receiving gratification from such elaborate content, they won’t experience that high a drive or desire for sexual activity. This is a common occurrence even after you quit unless you seek professional help.
Porn Addiction Relapse
Each of these withdrawal symptoms often causes relapse, and recovering porn addicts may feel forced by the above-mentioned effects to revert to porn usage. But does this mean you stop your path to recovery? Absolutely not!
Porn addiction treatment will often result in relapse, but these symptoms can be overcome with time and professional porn counselling. Research shows that porn addicts reduced their porn viewing by 86% after 3 months of treatment, which also factors in relapse. If you experience porn relapse, here are 3 things that you should do immediately:
- Go take a walk to clear your mind and reflect on how its made you feel.
- Start engaging in another rewarding and productive activity to avoid getting caught up in shame based thinking.
- Make and appointment with your counsellor
Conclusion
Since porn addiction is like a habit, you need to require your brain to break its dependency. Breaking a habit or addiction depends on several factors, but with dedication, the right therapist and time, you will break the shackles and soon get out of the vicious porn cycle.
Get treatment for porn addiction and improve your mood, personal relations to regain control over your life.
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