Anyone who watches porn, even rarely, wonders about the power of porn to create urges and influence behavior.
Why Is Porn Addictive? When does porn watching cross the line from being a casual habit to addictive behavior?
The answer to these questions lies in the chemical reactions that porn causes in your brain. Whether you are experiencing partnered sex or watching porn, sexual pleasure stimulates a unique combination of neurochemical reactions. These chemicals, like dopamine and oxytocin, are designed to create habit pathways to reinforce your romantic relationships. These chemicals create a craving for your partner.
But porn is hyper-stimulative. Its effect on your brain is much more magnified than that of real-life sex. As a result, your brain begins to crave more and more of porn. It’s like junk food messing up your appetite – porn shifts your sexual appetite in favor of digital stimuli.
The effect of porn on your dopamine pathways explains why is porn addictive. The phenomenon of porn addiction works similarly to how alcohol or heroin creates reward pathways that lead to compulsive behaviors.
The Science Behind Porn Addiction
In order to understand the science behind why is porn addictive, we need to know the effect of the various chemicals involved in the porn experience.
When you watch porn, your brain has a series of physiological reactions. A key reaction to porn happens in your brain in the form of stimulation of a potent neurochemical cocktail. Primarily, watching porn stimulates dopamine, which is associated with pleasure and craving.
Once the dopamine reward pathway is set, your brain begins to compulsively seek porn to satisfy its craving. Porn also triggers the release of Norepinephrine (adrenaline), endorphins, oxytocin, vasopressin, and serotonin. These chemicals create habit paths that result in a craving for porn to get the same high.
When you frequently expose your brain to these neuro-chemical cocktails by watching porn, your brain builds tolerance. So, you have to compulsively seek more and more porn to get the same high.
Your brain can rewire itself when it is exposed to new experiences. Excessive porn watching causes neuroplastic changes in your brain which lead to compulsive behaviors. The brain can alter your prefrontal cortex to compromise your cognitive function. So, when your decision-making ability and judgement are impaired, you will have difficulty in controlling the urges of porn habit.
Also Read: What Does Porn Do to Your Brain? 8 Scary Porn Effects on Brain
How Many People Are Addicted To Porn?
Studies suggest that 11% of men and 3% of women are addicted to porn. Global statistics show that nearly 13% of the global population is addicted to pornography. The numbers can seem insignificant compared to the total number of people watching porn, i.e. 98%.
But you should remember that the porn addiction statistics are self-reported. So, it is highly likely that the numbers are underreported because people often feel ashamed and self-conscious about their porn habit. Moreover, many people might refuse to admit to porn addiction because they do not realize it.
Is Porn Really Addictive?
Psychiatrists have stated that the addictive effect of porn on your brain is similar to that of heroin. Researchers have also classified porn as an erototoxin, meaning that porn is a sexually toxic substance.
But the medical community at large does not officially recognize porn addiction as a medical condition. Excessive porn watching is classified under Compulsive Sexual Behaviours or Problematic Pornography Use (PPU). But, the difficulty people face in quitting porn is an indicator in itself that will convince you of the addictive power of porn.
Impacts Of Excessive Porn Consumption
Research has linked excessive porn consumption with difficulty in sexual performance and achieving orgasm.
Excessive pornography also has a desensitizing effect. So real-life sex can become uninteresting compared to porn. Studies have shown that men addicted to porn prefer masturbating to porn over sex with their partner. Porn negatively affects the experience of sexual enjoyment and intimacy in real-life relationships.
Studies have shown that excessive porn consumption is harmful to your mental health. Porn is linked to issues such as stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness, social withdrawal, and low-self esteem. Porn also normalizes objectification of females, misogyny and sexual violence. Porn accelerates sexual development in teenagers and increases the probability of risky sexual behaviors later in life.
Porn also has a negative effect on your relationships. Pornography habit creates feelings of inadequacy, self-doubt, and anxiety in your partner. It can also affect emotional closeness between the two of you, leading to fractured relationships.
Also Read: 5 Best Porn Addiction Support Groups for Recovery
The Main Reason Why Porn Is Addictive
In order to find the answer for the question why is porn so addictive, you have to examine both biological and psychological factors. Here are the 3 main reasons behind the addictive nature of porn –
1. Porn is Habit Forming
Neurologically, research has shown that porn affects your brain just like an addictive substance. When you watch porn, it activates the reward center of your brain. Over time, your brain sets the pathways which act like a shortcut that creates an urge for porn to deal with everything. Once your brain has entered this habit cycle, it will rush to porn to satisfy even the slightest stimuli.
2. Porn manipulates your Dopamine Reward System
Whenever we have a pleasurable experience (food, physical activity, or sex), the brain releases dopamine. Porn is also designed to be hyper-stimulative – just like highly processed food. So it will give both an instant and intensive high. When you expose your brain to dopamine too frequently, it builds a tolerance. So, in order to get more and more dopamine, you will be compelled to watch more and more porn.
3. Vicious cycle of Guilt and Shame
Religion, culture, and social convention strongly condemn pornography as a taboo habit. So, even though you feel pleasure while watching porn, afterwards you will most likely feel guilt and shame. These negative emotions are overwhelming and painful. So, you feel the urge to escape the emotions by watching porn. When this cycle of porn – self-disgust – porn continues over a long period of time, the vicious cycle reinforces itself. So, it becomes harder to quit porn.
So, Am I Addicted to Porn?
If you have a regular habit of consuming porn, it is normal to wonder whether you are addicted to it. Also, you should pay attention not just to the quantity of the porn you are consuming but also to the nature or patterns of your consumption. The porn habit crosses the territory of casual to addiction when you observe the following changes in your behavior –
- Watching pornography affects your sexual appetite in real life. So, if you find yourself preferring masturbating to porn over partnered sex, it might be an indication of porn addiction. Excessive porn might also cause pornography-induced impotence, where you can not experience arousal and erections during real-life sex.
- When porn becomes an addiction, it is no longer a want but a need. So, whenever you have to go without porn, you feel ‘off’ and begin to crave porn without any real trigger. If you feel that abstaining from porn for a day or just postponing it for a few hours causes withdrawal-like symptoms, then you might have a porn addiction.
- There is a time and place for even watching casual porn. So, if you can’t help looking at porn in inappropriate contexts, then you likely have a porn addiction. For instance, if you take a break from work to look at porn or get a sneak peek while friends are around, then porn is disrupting your life, and you might be addicted.
- If you notice an escalation in the pornographic acts you watch, then you may be addicted to form. If you are looking for more extreme content compared to when you began, it’s an indication that you have watched too much porn and your mind has built a tolerance for it. So, it needs higher doses, i.e. more extreme content, to get aroused.
How does BlockP can help Break you From addiction?
Our reliance on the internet for work and play makes it harder for us to break free from the porn habit.
The internet makes it easier than ever to access porn. With just a few clicks, you can find the kind of content that gives you an instant dopamine high. Moreover, even if you do not intentionally search for porn, you are bound to come across graphic content on social media or Google.
While these are technically not porn, they can act as a trigger that creates the urge to consume porn. Apart from the explicit content, there might be other cues that are personal triggers to you. So, when you come across these triggers, you will be tempted to watch porn. At this point, the convenience of the internet easily wins over your willpower.
Porn blockers such as BlockP help to protect you from the intentional exposure and accidental temptations online.
BlockP’s custom filters block not only adult websites but also other images and keywords that might act as your triggers. So, with BlockP you don’t have to stress about runining into pornographic content on your digital devices. BlockP also gives you valuable insights into your online behavior. This input helps you understand your vulnerabilities and modify your behavior accordingly.