Can watching porn reduce stress? Frequent porn watchers claim this to be true. Many people say that porn helps them unwind at the end of a stressful workday. Or that porn helps with emotional regulation when they experience stress and anxiety.
In reality, watching porn reduces stress, like eating a donut reduces hunger!
When you eat a donut, it gives you an instant sugar high that masks your body’s actual nutrient needs. And when your sugar levels inevitably crash, you go back to being hungry and miserable again.
Similarly, porn acts as only a temporary distraction from stress. As long as you do not address the root cause of stress (toxic work environment or a mental health issue), it will persist. Every time you use porn for stress relief, you are actually postponing the real recovery.
So, let’s take a closer look at the link between porn and stress. Let us examine can watching porn reduces stress and also understand how to reduce stress healthily.
Why Watch Porn?
Sexual arousal and gratification is the primary motivation for watching porn. Both men and women often use porn as an aid for masturbation.
The most common second motivation is emotional regulation for managing feelings such as stress, anxiety, depression, and boredom. Porn also acts as a coping mechanism for managing mental health issues and effects of trauma.
Many people use porn as a safe way to explore their sexuality and also learn about sex. Perceived lack of satisfaction in their real-life relationships can make people turn to porn to find intimacy.
Porn can be habit-forming, just like alcohol or other addictive substances. So, many times people become dependent on porn to get their neurochemicals high.
Can Watching Porn Reduce Stress?
Now, let’s answer the key question – can watching porn reduce stress? The answer is both Yes and No!
In the short term, porn can help in mood regulation and find relief from excessive anxiety and stress.
When you watch porn, your body experiences the physiological responses of sexual arousal and orgasm. So, it releases a neurochemical cocktail of dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and so on. This post-porn high induces a feeling of pleasure and relaxation that provides temporary emotional relief from stress.
However, in the long term, when you examine, can watching porn reduce stress? The answer is no, and it might actually cause more harm. Research has shown that using porn as a coping mechanism puts you at a higher risk of developing uncontrollable and problematic porn usage patterns.
Eventually, the daily habit of porn and stress relief can become a cause of stress itself. Studies have identified a cyclical pattern where stress results in porn use, which will actually make you more stressed, making you develop problematic consumption habits to deal with the increased stress. Porn use also leads to guilt and shame, which can add to the stress instead of relieving it.
Another toxic effect of porn and stress is the pattern of tolerance, dependence, and withdrawal.
When your brain becomes habituated to porn, it builds a tolerance, and you need to escalate your porn use. When you develop a dependency, the discomfort of withdrawal causes relapses and reinforces the addictive loop of porn consumption.
Porn use for stress management also makes you lonely and withdraw from intimacy. The fantasy of porn can feel more convenient than the messiness of real-life relationships. Secretive porn use results in stress and emotional disconnect in romantic relationships.
Other Practical Ways to Reduce Stress
Can watching porn reduce stress? The answer is no. So, here are 5 practical ways to how to reduce stress to help you –
- Twenty to thirty minutes of physical activity (walking, dancing, or hiking) releases feel-good hormones and provides healthy stress relief.
- Mindfulness and meditation help you reach a relaxed emotional state and observe your emotions rather than reacting to them.
- Poor time management induces anxiety and panic. Breaking down your tasks into small chunks and reorganizing your daily schedule can avoid stress.
- Making time for self-care, hobbies, adn social connections supports your mental health and helps you recover from stress.
- A nutritious diet and 7-9 hours of daily sleep help your body and brain to recharge and cope better with stressors.
How to Stop Watching Porn?
Quitting porn is a challenging and long-term journey. Here is how you can make it easier –
- Get a porn blocker to filter pornographic text, images, and videos from your digital devices.
- Engage in physical activity to mimic the dopamine and oxytocin high of porn and to minimize withdrawal symptoms.
- CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) and DBT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), along with counseling, can support recovery.
- Join porn addiction support groups such as Porn Addicts Anonymous or join an online support community.
- If you are watching porn to deal with mental health issues or trauma, get professional support to resolve them.
How does BlockP help stop Porn Addiction?
BlockP is the best porn blocker for filtering porn on your digital devices. It protects you from accidental exposure to porn that might trigger a relapse into porn addiction.
- BlockP uses advanced AI filters to analyze web pages and Apps in real time. It blocks all types of explicit content – text, images, and video.
- The porn blocker lets you block specific adult websites and also other sites that might contain triggering content.
- For 100% protection, BlockP also works in incognito mode. It has password protection to prevent you from unblocking and uninstalling.
- The whitelist feature of the porn blocker helps you add websites for uninterrupted access. So you can streamline your content consumption.
- The focus mode on BlockP lets you block distracting Apps during work hours and boosts productivity.
FAQs on Can Watching Porn Reduce Stress
1. How do I stop seeing adult content?
The simplest way to stop seeing adult content is to install a porn blocker on your devices. The Internet provides convenient access to pornography on adult sites. Moreover, other websites and social media also contain explicit and triggering content.
So, even if you do not visit adult entertainment websites, you are bound to get accidental exposure to porn. The graphic content can trigger the urge to watch pornography and make you relapse into old porn-watching habits.
Having a porn blocker makes your phone and computer a safe space. You can work or communicate with loved ones without stressing about running into adult content. Porn blocker also blocks your access to adult sites – so even if you get the urge, you can not access porn easily.
2. How long does it take to quit porn
The porn addiction recovery timeline varies from individual to individual. Generally speaking, 2 to 3 months of focused efforts can help you see signs of freedom from porn. You might need to put in 18 to 36 months (or more) of consistent efforts to quit porn for good.
Immediately after quitting porn, there will be 2 to 3 weeks of withdrawal-like symptoms. During this period, it is normal to feel a strong craving for porn and depression-like symptoms.
It is also normal to have relapses as you try to quit porn.
The length of porn addiction recovery depends on a combination of factors such as How old you are? How frequently are you watching porn? What type of content are you watching? Do you have any co-occurring mental health issues?