WHY DUMP PORN?
Your relationship with porn may start out as intoxicating but for many it becomes simply poisonous.
Toxic for our relationships, self esteem and physical health.
dependency
“You told me you were tender but I knew you had a venomous touch, because I felt way out my depth, but it was never enough.”
Online porn can cause dependency, compulsive behaviour & ED
A growing body of research highlights the similarities between porn use and drug use including loss of control, compulsiveness to seek out the activity despite negative consequences, withdrawal and a development of tolerance which leads to an increased pornography use or use of more extreme material. Internet pornography acts as “supernormal stimuli”. Rather than providing the brain with the usual reward that visual sexual stimulation can provide, the endless variety and novelty that can be instantaneously accessed online can be become powerfully addictive.
Neuroscientists have recently published studies demonstrating the impact that pornography has on the brain. Researchers hypothesize that, due to the intense stimulation of the brain’s reward system through pornography, significant changes occur in the brain, similar to that seen in drug addictions. In 2014 a German study found three significant addiction-related brain changes (sensitization, desensitization and hypofrontality) correlating with the amount of pornography consumed .[1] A recent Cambridge University study[2] found the same brain activity in compulsive pornography users as seen in drug addicts and alcoholics. It also found that pornography addicts fit the accepted addiction model of wanting "it" more, but not liking "it" more. The researchers also reported that 60% of subjects (average age: 25) had difficulty achieving erections/arousal with real partners, yet could achieve erections with porn.
One of the recovering pornography users that Naked Truth has worked with puts it like this:
“Looking back, it is clear that not only did porn negatively shape my view of females and sexuality; it also replaced all of my intimacy needs. Before I knew it, porn had become a readily available powerful anaesthetic to treat any form of anxiety, boredom, stress, loneliness or sexual desire that came my way. I was watching porn multiple times a day, and as porn usage increasingly controlled my day-to-day living, it became clear to me that I was dealing with an addiction that was having a massively damaging effect on my life."
distortion
“Told me other girls weren’t good enough and I could only get what I need from you. That I would never find a relationship worth its cost and complication, so I should make self-gratification my pursuit and destination.”
Porn can distort how we see ourselves and others.
According to a study from the University of Sydney among 800 regular pornography users [3] 20% said they prefer watching pornography than being sexually intimate with a partner. In another survey [4] 56% of men said their taste in porn has become “ increasingly extreme or deviant”, often creating problems in their real relationship.
One study cites a survey of divorce lawyers in which 56% of divorce cases involved one party having an “obsessive interest” in pornographic websites. [5] Another study found that, after being exposed to pornographic images, people were more critical of their partner’s appearance, sexual curiosity, sexual performance, and displays of affection [6]
“I have also seen in my clinical experience that pornography damages the sexual performance of the viewers. Pornography viewers tend to have problems with premature ejaculation and erectile dysfunction. Having spent so much time in unnatural sexual experiences with paper, celluloid and cyberspace, they seem to find it difficult to have sex with a real human being. Pornography is raising their expectation and demand for types and amounts of sexual experiences; at the same time it is reducing their ability to experience sex.” – Dr Mary Anne Layden [7]
Maybe right now your relationship with porn seems ok, but if that ever changes...you know where we are.
There is help if you need it.
For more information visit www.yourbrainonporn.com or if you want something aimed at young people try http://learn.ftnd.org