Porn Addiction Side Effects: How to Stop Now
You might not think porn addiction is a big deal, but it can have serious side effects on your life. Pornography has the power to create strong emotional and physical bonds in your brain that are very difficult to break. Porn will impact every area of your life including how you feel about yourself, how you communicate with others and even who you’re intimate with. Porn addiction is just like any other addiction; eventually, the individual must stop using pornography or suffer severe consequences. If you want to learn more about porn’s negative impacts on relationships and discover what steps to take if someone close to you has an addiction problem, keep reading!
Whether this addiction is bad or not of course will depend on the individual’s perspective. However, I will explain how it affects your reward center and how it affects your feelings towards other types of rewards.
Table of Contents
What is porn?
According to Meriam Webster, the definition of porn is “the depiction of erotic behavior intended to cause sexual excitement.”
Why is porn so addictive?
Porn use stimulates one of the reward centers that is called the ventral striatum. The ventral striatum motivates you to give, makes you feel happy when you gain a new social status, etc. It is also activated by cocaine usage.
The ventral striatum is also associated with intimacy, relationships, and falling in love.
The DSM-V diagnoses pornography addiction as being a part of a hypersexual disorder. The DSM-V is used by mental health professionals to diagnose different disorders.
Addiction occurs when our reward systems are too overstimulated and they lose balance and it can be detrimental to your overall wellbeing.
A recent study showed that the “preferred sexual images were triggering the ventral striatum response more than the non-preferred images”. (Brand et. al., 2016)
Is porn bad for your brain?
This is of course opinion-based, based on who you ask. There is a difference between receiving a natural reward and being addicted.
The sex industry has attempted to make it seem as though any objections to their industry are only from a religious standpoint and this is simply untrue.
It can be hurtful towards intimate relationships, creating unrealistic expectations and it can replace the need for “the real thing”. It can cause a reward in your brain that is replacing a genuine and good pleasure.
One of the many porn addiction side effects is that it can alter your perspectives and can change your brain.
Therefore you can develop withdrawal symptoms and have a need for “newer and better images”. This can make you less sensitive towards rewards or pleasures that you receive on a daily basis.
A recent study showed that even moderate porn users had decreased sexual responsiveness and reduced gray matter in the brain. (Kühn & Gallinat, 2014)
Porn Addiction Effects on Relationships
Studies show that some of the porn addiction side effects on a relationship can include symptoms of anxiety, depression, disinterest in relationships, and real-life problems with intimacy. (Wilson, 2017)
It can increase insecurities if your partner feels insufficient if they are not like the porn that you are watching. It can make them feel as if they can not be enough for you and it can cause real heartache and destruction.
Like many addictions, it can cause one to prioritize their addictions before relationships, work, and even food.
Signs of Porn Addiction
Addiction can actually alter the shape and makeup of your brain according to neuroscientists. There is trauma and shrinking of the frontal lobe. (Hilton D.L et. al., 2011)
A frequent need to be alone, in a bathroom in social situations, a lack of ability to perform in sexually intimate relationships, or a preference of the person on the screen rather than the one in front of you.
- Loss of control of urges
- Loss of behavior control and thoughts
How to stop watching porn
Find an accountability group, just like A. A is very effective for many alcoholics trying to get rid of their addiction to alcohol that is consuming their lives. For my undergrad, I was required to sit in some alcoholics anonymous and narcotics anonymous sessions and it was very eye-opening how life-saving it was for thousands of people.
Many of them said that being in that group is what gave them their lives back, allowed them to get their families back.
Technology addiction is a growing issue and keeping your phone put in another room at night can reduce the urge to grab it.
If you have a hard time putting your phone away, one of these lockboxes is a great option!
Be mindful of when you do it and replace it with another relaxing or rewarding habit like exercising or talking to friends.
Keep yourself busy, when you are working till you pass out or hanging out with friends, keeping your days very occupied. You will be so tired by the end of the day you will have an easier time resisting the urge.
Go to bed early this is similar to the keep yourself busy. However, a recent study in college students showed that students who stayed up late and played around with their friends late were twice as likely to indulge in pornography use. (Chowdhury et. al.,2018)
The use of cognitive-behavioral therapy could be very beneficial in coping with this addiction. Please seek help from a professional Licensed Mental Health Counselor.
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Porn and Depression
A research study showed the excessive use of just the internet alone to contribute to seasonal affective disorders, such as anxiety, depression, and ADHD. (Weinstein, A., & Lejoyeux, M. 2010)
Since there is overstimulation as a porn addiction side effect, a decrease in things that typically cause happiness through dopamine production can be minimized.
References:
Chowdhury, M., Chowdhury, M., Kabir, R., Perera, N., & Kader, M. (2018). Does the addiction in online pornography affect the behavioral pattern of undergrad private university students in Bangladesh?. International journal of health sciences, 12(3), 67–74.
Matthias Brand, Jan Snagowski, Christian Laier, Stefan Maderwald,
Ventral striatum activity when watching preferred pornographic pictures is correlated with symptoms of Internet pornography addiction, NeuroImage, Volume 129, 2016, Pages 224-232,ISSN 1053-8119,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.01.033.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811916000392)
Hilton DL, Watts C. Pornography addiction: A neuroscience perspective. Surg Neurol Int 21-Feb-2011;2:19. Available from: https://surgicalneurologyint.com/surgicalint-articles/pornography-addiction-a-neuroscience-perspective/
Simone Kühn and Jürgen Gallinat, “Brain Structure and Functional Connectivity Associated With Pornography Consumption:
The Brain on Porn,” JAMA Psychiatry (2014), doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.93.
Weinstein, A., & Lejoyeux, M. (2010). Internet addiction or excessive internet use. The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse, 36(5), 277–283. https://doi.org/10.3109/00952990.2010.491880
Wilson, G. (2017). Your brain on porn internet pornography and the emerging science of addiction. Commonwealth Publishing. Retrieved October 4, 2021, from https://images-insite.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/dunia_buku/koleksi-buku-neuro-science/your-brain-on-porn-internet-pornography-and-the-emerging-science-of-addiction-pdfdrivecom-60921577422537.pdf.
Originally posted 2021-07-04 06:12:00.
Megan Santiago
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