Porn Addiction

[Marvinteck]

Let me start out by saying I have no ill will towards porn or those who choose to view it. In fact I love porn. The suggestion that porn can be addictive is often met with a bit of skepticism by some people. I used to be a skeptic as well when I was younger. I can personally vouch porn addiction is a real phenomenon since I am in recovery myself. Here is a excellent video series that explains porn addiction in layman terms.

[Sil]

This is really rather interesting.

I used to love porn when I was younger after finding my dad's stash; this is days before the internet even became widespread, all VHS.

because of my age I did come to associate sex with porn, and as such that stopped me from going out and seeking actual sex. I mean why would you go out and make an ass of yourself over and over when you could rub one out?... it was an awful mindset but one that my brain seemed quite happy with, so these videos above make a lot of sense.

Porn also gives people ridiculous attitudes towards their body, other people, and sex. I often wonder if the number of men satisfied with their penis would increase in the absence of pornography, similarly with women and cosmetic enhancement.

This guy puts it better than I ever could -

[Genersis]

I know porn addiction is a real problem for some people. :frown:
But the religious tend to make out to be A LOT worse and widespread than it actually is.

[zeon]

I used to watch alot of porn but i got bored of it and prefer the real thing lol

[Marvinteck]

I have a friend who is in recovery from addiction to porn. That was all he used to do, was watch porn. I'm talking 18 hours a day. Thankfully, he found the help he needs.

I was watching it anywhere from 20 minutes to two hours a day, five to six days a week.
I justified it because I was single and did not have a partner.

I know porn addiction is a real problem for some people. :frown:
But the religious tend to make out to be A LOT worse and widespread than it actually is.

I agree religious conservatives do make mountains out of mole hills when it comes to sex.

I used to watch alot of porn but I got bored of it and prefer the real thing lol

I got bored with porn as well but my social anxiety got in the way of me meeting new people. Of course real sex is preferable over masturbating to porn but in my circumstance I was not able to find a suitable partner. I think the worst part of social anxiety is the lack of touch. A socially isolated person can hop online to fulfill some of there social needs however one thing a person can not get from being online is the physical touch of another person. I was talking to another friend online not to long ago. I told her that if I ever got into a relationship with a person that it would be for the love and companionship. Sex is good and all however the thing I crave most is the physical closeness and emotional intimacy that goes along with being in a relationship.

[OrphanPip]

There is little empirical evidence that porn addiction, if it even exists beyond being an invention of language, would function similarly to substance abuse, like what is described in the video. Certainly, porn can have negative effects on people's perception of sex and of themselves. However, when we start medicalizing behaviour, we're really into a realm of social control. Why do we need to define porn addiction if our intention is not to limit and regulate the consumption of it. Who is making the decisions of what is too much, some would say any is too much. There is little evidence of any social harm or physiological addiction caused by pornography, which leaves this concept of porn addiction in a problematic position of mostly being generated by an organized effort to restrict the production and distribution of pornography.

[LateBloomer]

There is little empirical evidence that porn addiction, if it even exists beyond being an invention of language, would function similarly to substance abuse, like what is described in the video. Certainly, porn can have negative effects on people's perception of sex and of themselves. However, when we start medicalizing behaviour, we're really into a realm of social control. Why do we need to define porn addiction if our intention is not to limit and regulate the consumption of it. Who is making the decisions of what is too much, some would say any is too much. There is little evidence of any social harm or physiological addiction caused by pornography, which leaves this concept of porn addiction in a problematic position of mostly being generated by an organized effort to restrict the production and distribution of pornography.

Well, I'm no doctor, or head shrinker even, but I'm pretty sure addiction can have a *physical* component (nicotine) and a psychological component (gambling).

Some people simply have addictive personalities. I don't. And although I think in the past (my virginal years) my porn viewing was excessive and I probably developed a *dependency* on porn, I don't think I was ever addicted.

I found out, that when I'm involved pretty steady with someone, my porn viewing goes to almost zero.

Now that I'm recently dumped, my porn habit has once again reared its ugly head.

[OrphanPip]

Well, I'm no doctor, or head shrinker even, but I'm pretty sure addiction can have a *physical* component (nicotine) and a psychological component (gambling).

Or are we using language to draw nominal links between separate phenomena? And, where do we draw the line between something which is enjoyed, and something which is an addiction? These are problems that even if we had perfect knowledge of the science become difficult to answer, because it ultimately comes down to the biases of the powers that be in determining what counts as addiction or not.

[Pix]

I've always had a problem in telling the difference between an addiction and a habit. Sometimes it seems to me that what people call addictions are actually just bad habits (that is, habits they wish they didn't have, or other people wish they didn't have). And then there are those who become obsessed, but is that an addiction or just a type of fanaticism? And are people who constantly look at their text messages addicts or simply doing something mindless and easy while bored? And do people who view porn excessively simply looking at what interests them when nothing else interests them more (ie, addiction, or preference)?

I really don't know. I've seen enough pathetic drug addicts yet at the same time I've known people who did even hard drugs like H and yet led normal lives and seemed to be able to quit when they had to. I know more than one who claimed they were able to give up smoking with only a little discomfort. And both of my parents are alcoholics yet I don't seem to have an addictive personality at all (though back when I experimented with E I stopped pretty fast because it felt so good that I was scared I'd become unable to stop).

I've even read a book (The Plug In Drug) that brilliantly describes how PHYSICALLY addictive watching TV can be. I wasn't fully convinced but there did seem to be strong evidence that any kind of passive entertainment (not just porn) affected the brain creating addiction and hurting the ability to interact with others in a meaningful way.

Oh well, just for fun here's a very short YT clip that kinda reminds me when I first saw some very hard core porn mags when I was 13 or 14 years old (it was real close to my birthday and I can't recall if it was before or after):

[LateBloomer]

Or are we using language to draw nominal links between separate phenomena? And, where do we draw the line between something which is enjoyed, and something which is an addiction? These are problems that even if we had perfect knowledge of the science become difficult to answer, because it ultimately comes down to the biases of the powers that be in determining what counts as addiction or not.

It's a good question, and I agree, sometimes the line gets blurry.

But I'm a simple guy.



I like to keep it real easy. My feeling is (and I admit this is totally subjective) if I can CONTROL my behavior (drinking, smoking, gambling, porn, etc...) than it's just a habit (as Pix alluded to above). But if my behavior controls ME, then I have a problem.

For example, I like to drink. What can I say? I like wine and liquors...

:biggrin:

But I can't go to work drunk.
I can't watch my friend's kids when I'm drunk.
I wouldn't get drunk on a first date.
I wouldn't show up at a funeral drunk.

See? I control my drinking.

If my drinking controls me, now I'm going to work drunk (or missing work), my friends stop bringing their children to my house, I never get past a first date and people ask me to leave the church at a funeral because I'm drunk.

So for me, the litmus test is control.

Can I control my porn habit? Or has my porn addiction become so OVERWHELMING it's starting to affect other areas of my life that it shouldn't.

I hope I didn't ramble too much there, I'm in a bit of a hurry and don't have a lot of time to form a perfect thought.