People are watching more porn now than ever. Due to the powerful effect it has on someone’s brain, it can easily develop into a pornography addiction.
After multiple studies, they found out that there are usually underlying reasons why someone struggles with porn addiction. There are lots of negative consequences of watching too much porn, and more men are seeking therapy to help them overcome their addiction and change their life.
Here, you can learn more about what pornography addiction is, the symptoms of it, treatment, and how to overcome the problem and find freedom. There are many resources available to help, including therapy and podcasts to give you additional tools and strategies to be successful.
What Is Pornography Addiction
Porn addiction is a behavioral addiction where someone excessively watches or is preoccupied with searching for pornography and is unable to stop, despite negative consequences and repeated attempts to quit.
According to the World Health Organization, people struggling with hard-to-control porn use can be diagnosed with “compulsive sexual behavior disorder,” and it’s something that affects many men around the world. Watching an excessive amount of porn can lead to profound consequences.
Here are some of the latest pornography statistics from the USA.
- Over 40 million US adults use internet pornography sites regularly.
- Over three-quarters of porn scenes contain physical aggression.
- Almost half of the porn scenes contain verbal aggression.
- 20% of searches on the internet from mobile devices are pornography related.
- Happily, married men are around 60% less likely to watch porn.
- A quarter of men admit to watching porn at work.
Is There Such a Thing As Healthy Porn?
You can find it a highly debatable subject, as there isn’t a straightforward answer. Some individuals, experts of sexual medicine, and communities agree that watching porn at any level will negatively affect your life.
However, others suggest you can set a healthy dose of porn to watch, so long as negatively affect your life and relationships. There are vast numbers of individuals who watch porn showing no signs of hypersexual disorder or behavioral addiction through any level of problematic pornography use. Below are some signs and symptoms of excessive porn consumption:
Watching Excessive Amounts of Pornography
The definition of “excessive” depends on what you consider healthy, or when your porn consumption shows negative effects on your or another’s life.
- Watching pornography affects regular daily behavior and responsibilities.
- You spend more time watching pornography and even searching for something more stimulating to get you aroused or climax. Your tolerance to conventional porn increases.
- If you stop watching porn, you feel emotional distress or withdrawal symptoms.
- You continue with watching sexually explicit material despite recent consequences such as loss of job, failed relationship, or contracting sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
Compulsive Masturbating
- Sexual dysfunction can stem from premature ejaculation or impotence, and extra visual stimulation is required.
- Use of pornography and sexual images adversely affects your relationships like:
- Your partner can’t arouse you as easily.
- Any romantic and sexual behavior with your partner moves away from normal to disconnection, aggressive actions, or you become more dominant.
- You want porn because of the feeling it gives, or you use it to mask anxiety, depression, or the effects of another actual addiction.
What Leads to Pornography Addiction?
Porn addiction, like substance addiction, such as drug and alcohol abuse, can be explained through classical conditioning.
When this happens, there are certain actions and reactions such as watching too much pornography are rewarded, or feelings are reinforced, thus making a repeat action enjoyable. The same thing happens with drug use, as individuals are keen to find their next high.
Pornography is negatively affecting someone’s ability and desire to connect with real people. When individuals need to remain home or are isolated, they can still feel the thrill of climax without searching for a partner or relationship to fulfill the same desires.
It is when any form of sexual pleasure is excessive, or impulsive, and comes at the expense of other areas of your life or behavior, it is here, one can be said to have a porn addiction. There are, however, other triggers that could influence porn addiction:
Biological Porn Triggers
- Because of biological/psychology factors or genetic predisposition, you may be inclined to impulsivity, mood dysregulation, or sensation-seeking behavior.
- You may be prone to other characteristics associated with sexual addiction, such as worry or despair.
- As you may expect, higher levels of sex hormones like testosterone or estrogen can affect libido.
- If you are prone to impulsive behavior and have excessive amounts of sex-related hormones, you may be more likely to engage in excessive or obsessive porn watching.
Psychological
Some of the underlying qualities involved in porn addiction could be linked to circumstances during early life. Physical abuse or exposure to sexual images are two key factors.
Other areas found through advice diagnosis or treatment can be found linked to a mental challenges:
- Mental health or lack of sex education.
- Anxiety and Depression.
- Personality disorders.
- A lack of control or impulse (porn consumption).
- Performance anxiety.
- Other mental health issues might lead toward porn addiction treatment from specific behaviors.
Social
Relationship rejection in personal and social circles could lead to unhealthy ways of finding sexual gratification. Recent brain scans have found that rejection and physical pain are processed in the same area of the brain, which indicates how much human beings are affected by relationship disconnection.
Social isolation not only increases the risk of seeking inappropriate sexual gratification but also leads to a myriad of other concerns, such as depression and medical diseases, which can compound porn addictions or bad sexual habits.
You’re more likely to do something if others around you are doing it. Having a friend, or a group of friends, who watch too much porn, for example, can affect your behavior.
Sex Addiction and Hypersexual Disorder
In the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM-5), the manual that mental health practitioners read for the best medically reviewed research on mental health issues, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) attempted to categorize online porn addiction –
The American Psychological Association advocated that it is classified as a subset of hypersexual dysfunction. They have yet to formally offer this problem a diagnosis, the data is becoming more and more clear that hundreds of thousands of men are being affected by this problem.
While porn addiction is not recognized as a separate condition, it exhibits some of the same symptoms as other addictions. Someone who watches pornographic images obsessively may the symptoms that go along with it:
- Cravings for a certain activity, as well as failing attempts to limit or control it.
- Failure to finish major duties such as those at work, home, or school, and no longer try.
- Being unable to quit despite multiple attempts
- Experiencing negative consequences at work, home, in relationships, physically, and sexual performance.
For many people, porn or sex addiction can escalate to risk-taking behaviors, which can have serious consequences on someone’s health and law enforcement. Is pornography addictive? Yes, because just like drug or alcohol addiction, pornography and sex develop a tolerance in a person which makes it harder for them to feel sexual satisfaction, which means they have to find new and different, more explicit material to experience the same high.
Addiction as Brain Disease
Pornography addiction is not a brain disease, yet it has an affect on the way the brain functions. We know understand that the brain is able to develop new neuropathways through lots of use, and extinguish old ones by changing behavior. There are several causes that could be at play when it comes to how and why addictions develop.
Some people are more likely to gain addictions because of differences in brain structure or chemistry. Pornography addiction may also be influenced by unhealthy or unrealistic societal and cultural attitudes toward sex.
People with other addictions or who are dealing with a mental health problem are more likely to take part in problematic pornography use. Some people may seek out pornography if they are having less sexual satisfaction or are unhappy in their relationships.
It’s important to know that you can receive help if your porn viewing has become compulsive, is interfering with how you feel about yourself, and is affecting your ability to function in your relationships, at work, and in other facets of your daily life.
There are therapists and counselors who have training to help you overcome this addiction and repair the negative impact that it’s had on your life. Due to new research and understanding, there are new forms of treatment available to help people overcome addiction without you needed to attend uncomfortable 12-step groups, put filters on your devices, or be in therapy for years. You can find out about the steps that are needed to overcome addiction permanently here.
Dismissing obsessive pornographic viewing as “less of a problem” than other types of addiction might hurt your recovery. A mental health expert with experience with sexual dysfunction can assist you in addressing the effects of your behavior on your life and the lives of people around you.
Working with a therapist is an important part in many people’s journey because they can help you uncover the underlying reasons why you are struggling. The best kind of therapy addresses the root of the problem, instead of trying to manage the symptoms and control the behavior.
There are various causes and factors that contribute to someone struggling with pornography addiction, including:
- Not having effective coping mechanisms for negative emotions.
- Stress from work, relationships, finances, etc.
- Childhood trauma, sexual abuse, or other negative events.
- Chemo-brain imbalance, serotonin, and norepinephrine regulate mood. For example, excessive porn use is linked to elevated levels.
- New neural pathways can alter the way brain circuits work. Addiction means you need to view porn over and over to have the same release of chemicals.
Can Internet Porn Addiction Be Treated?
If you believe you are suffering from a sex or internet addiction, you must get therapy or support from a qualified treatment center or mental health professional. Because addictions stem from other areas, the underlying issue needs to be addressed in order to find total freedom.
There are many therapies available, such as individual treatment, group sessions, couple’s therapy, and inpatient therapies you can find.
Even though there might not be a formal diagnosis for internet porn addiction, if you’re experiencing harmful consequences in your life and have been unable to quit on your own, it’s important to seek help and get tools and resources designed to help you find freedom, such as podcasts, programs, or therapy. While not to provide medical advice at the same level as any treatment provider, here you can find a few ways that addictions, such as mental health or conditions, can be treated in a variety of ways.
Is Pornography Addiction a Mental Health Disorder?
No, it’s not a mental health disorder, but there is a strong link between viewing porn and mental health challenges, including mood, anxiety, and personality disorders, according to medically reviewed research.
Pornography viewers have been proven in studies to have higher levels of depressive symptoms and a lower quality of life. Antidepressants can be helpful in taking the edge of the depression, but it doesn’t resolve the root cause of why someone is depressed in the first place.
Clinical depression, which is widespread among porn addicts, is a serious mental health condition that requires professional treatment.
Common symptoms include:
- Suicidal thoughts or attempts.
- Irritability and anxiousness.
- Feeling guilty or lacking any level of worth.
- Fatigue and unable to concentrate.
- Sleeping too little or too much.
- Loss of interest in hobbies and activities.
- Continually saddened and possess an empty demeanor.
Should you experience any of these symptoms and you think they are being made worst by porn, then it is important to get the proper help and support you need to work through the causes of the depression. Once people address the root issue, they can completely eliminate depression and the symptoms that are associated with it.
Do You Have A Pornography Addiction or Pornography Compulsion?
One of the most contentious issues surrounding excessive pornography is whether it is an addiction or a habit.
If you have any of the following, compulsive sexual behavior, such as porn addiction, may be more likely:
- Problems with drugs or alcohol, or family members that have them
- Other mental health concerns, such as depression or gambling addiction, are also common.
- Family strife
- A history of sexual or physical abuse or early exposure to viewing porn
- Inability to stop despite multiple attempts
- The consequences in your life have become more and more extreme
- It affects many areas of your life
Pornography Addiction Treatment
If you believe your porn use is causing you problems, there is help available. Therapy is the most common treatment to find freedom from porn and overcome the habit or addiction.
Eliminating Your Triggers and Urges For Porn
The best type of individual counseling focuses on helping men effectively deal with their triggers, because without knowing how to identify and eliminate them, you’ll always be vulnerable to another relapse.
For example, let’s say you see an attractive woman at the gym and it triggers you to think sexual thoughts about her. Later on at night it can turn into scrolling on your phone looking at pictures, which eventually leads you to porn. Before you know it, it’s already too late because the temptation is so strong and you mess up again and feel guilty about it.
The key to finding freedom after you’ve identified the trigger is to reprocess it internally in a way that eliminates the power it has over you. You might have any number of different triggers, but the process is the same.
Developing the ability to remove the intensity or emotional pull of your triggers is the only way to become free, because you can’t just avoid stress at work, quit going to the gym or grocery store, stop watching TV or seeing attractive women when you’re out. So if those external triggers don’t stir up the urge or desire to watch porn or compulsively pursue sex, you won’t ever begin the search in the first place.
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Sam Tielemans, has developed a unique approach to help men reprocess their triggers to eliminate their urges and cravings for pornography, which is often the reason why men end up relapsing, despite their best efforts to stay strong.
If you want help identifying and reprocessing triggers so you find freedom from your compulsive urges, check out this podcast episode that outlines the steps to this approach and try it for yourself.
Couples Therapy
Relationship or marital counseling can assist couples in addressing the negative impact that porn has had in their lives. Couples can learn how to repair their sex life and trust in their relationships through therapy, but it’s critical that you find someone who is trained in dealing with the affect porn has. Traditional couples therapy doesn’t work when it comes to repairing betrayal and broken trust due to pornography.
Psychodynamic psychotherapy
The goal of Psychodynamic psychotherapy is to become more aware of unconscious ideas and behaviors, as well as to learn about your motivations and resolve conflicts.
Medications
Medications can help regulate brain chemicals associated with obsessive thoughts and behaviors. They take the edge off of painful emotions, but they don’t resolve the issues that are causing the addiction or underlying problems.
12-Step Groups
Some of the other traditional treatment approaches include going to groups such as Sex Addicts Anonymous or Sexaholics Anonymous are two self-help and support groups.
However, many people find that attending a support group doesn’t help them find the freedom from urges and triggers because these groups aren’t led by trained professionals. Attending a group could be a source of support, but it’s not a proven treatment modality to ultimately find freedom.
There is Hope!
If you feel a loss of control or your addictive behaviors, such as compulsive porn viewing and fighting against temptation, reach out for help!
You can join the anti-porn movement that thousands of men are a part of so you can find freedom from addiction, create stronger connections in your relationships, and find fulfillment and meaning in your life.
