Porn changes the brain

On the surface, cocaine and porn don’t seem to have a lot in common but studies are showing that viewing pornography tricks your brain into releasing the same pleasure chemicals that drugs do. What’s more is your brain actually begins to rewire itself because of this artificial stimulation. It may sound crazy, but it’s true.

  • To your brain, porn has the same effects as drugs.
  • Porn hijacks the reward pathway in the brain.
  • Just like drugs, you build up a tolerance so you need more porn for the same effects.
  • Withdrawal symptoms can occur when you try and walk away.

How Porn Changes the Brain

Neurons that fire together, wire together. Just like other addictive substances, porn floods the brain with dopamine. That rush of brain chemicals happening over and over again rewires the brain’s reward pathway ultimately changing the makeup of the viewer’s brain. This can result in an increased appetite for porn.

  • Watching porn lays down new neuro-pathways in your brain.
  • The more you use, the stronger the neuro-connections become and the more difficult it is to stop.
  • That doesn’t mean you can’t stop. You can rebuild those pathways by avoiding pornography and seeking healthy alternatives.

How Porn Can Become Addictive

It wasn’t very long ago that doctors and researchers believed that in order for something to be addictive, it had to involve an outside substance that you physically put into your body, like cigarettes, alcohol, or drugs. Science is now showing that different types of behaviors can cause addictions too, and viewing pornography is one of them.

  • Porn can be addictive because of the level of neuro-chemicals released into the reward pathway.
  • A tolerance can be built to porn and you end up needing more of it in more extreme forms

How Porn Affects Your Sexual Taste

Many porn users find themselves getting aroused by things that used to disgust them or that go against what they think is morally right. And once they start watching extreme and dangerous sex acts, these porn users are being taught that those behaviors are more normal and common than they are.

  • Porn users tend to think that what they see in porn is normal and even expect it from their partner.
  • Habitual users have more accepting attitudes of violence and report feeling less empathy for rape victims.

Why Watching Porn Is an Escalating Behavior

Because of its addictive nature, in order to just feel some sense of normality, an individual usually needs an ever increasing dosage of porn. The material that they seek out also evolves. Over time, their appetite pushed them to more hardcore versions to achieve the same level of arousal.

  • Most users start on free porn, but it doesn’t end there.
  • You begin to need more extreme versions of pornography and more often to get the same effects.
  • Turning to porn becomes the user’s preferred solution to stress.

How Porn Kills Love

In real life, real love requires a real person. Research has found that after men are exposed to pornography, they rate themselves as less in love with their partner than men who didn’t see any porn. On top of that, 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.

  • Real love means real people.
  • Porn makes real relationships more difficult and less satisfying.
  • Porn can make you cynical about real love.

Why Porn Is Full of Lies

In porn, everything from the way people look to how and why they have sex is a lie. Porn users often get so obsessed with chasing something that isn’t real, that they miss out on actual relationships.

  • Porn is nothing but a production.
  • Porn makes you miss out on the best parts of actual relationships.
  • Porn is like sexual junk food

How Porn Damages Your Sex Life

Porn often leads to less sex and less satisfying sex. And for many users, porn can eventually mean no sex at all.

  • Porn leads to less sex and less satisfying sex.
  • Extended porn use can cause ED for men even in their 20s

How Porn Can Hurt Your Partner

Several studies have found that partners of porn users often report feeling loss, betrayal, mistrust, devastation, and anger when they learn that the other half of their committed relationship has been using porn. Many show physical symptoms of anxiety and depression.

  • Porn increases negative feelings in relationships.
  • No serious research has proven that porn improves relationships.
  • Porn makes women feel like they are never enough.

Why Porn Leaves You Lonely

The more pornography a person consumes the harder it becomes for them to be aroused by a real person or a real relationship. As a result, many users start feeling like something’s wrong with them; they don’t know how to be turned on by a real person, much less form a deep personal connection with one.

  • Porn lessens your ability to connect in real relationships.
  • People are often secretive about their porn use, separating them further from others.
  • Porn can contribute to or increase other psychological problems in users.

The Porn Industry’s Dark Secrets

To viewers, pornography can appear a fantasy world of pleasure and thrills. To those who create and participate in making pornography, however, their experiences are often flooded with drugs, disease, rape, and abuse.

  • The porn industry is plagued with drugs, violence, and rape.
  • Many victims of sex trafficking are used to film pornography.

How Watching Porn Can Lead to Violence

A few years ago, a team of researchers looked at the most popular porn films and they randomly picked 50 and analyzed them. Of the 304 scenes the movies contained, 88% contained physical violence. On top of that, 49% contained verbal aggression.

  • Most mainstream porn contains violent sexual behavior against women.
  • Watching violent porn makes people think violent sex is normal.
  • Studies show that after viewing porn, even non-violent, men’s attitudes toward women change.

How Porn Warps Ideas About Sex

Whether they want to or not, the majority of teens are getting some of their sex ed from porn. Researchers have repeatedly found that people who have seen a significant amount of porn are more likely to start having sex sooner and with more partners, and to engage in riskier kinds of sex, putting them at greater risk of getting sexually transmitted infections.

  • Porn has become a fictional version of sexual education for most young people.
  • The porn industry has become more extreme
  • Sexual preferences of porn viewers have become heavily influenced by pornography.
  • Porn edits out the consequences of unhealthy sex practices.

How Porn Can Harm Families

Research has found that marriages in which one person has a porn problem or sexual compulsion are often plagued by less intimacy and sensitivity, as well as more anxiety, secrecy, isolation, and dysfunction in the relationship. And since many porn users end up losing their jobs as a result of looking at porn on a company computer, these marriages often end up with less financial security as well.

  • Marriages with porn problems have less intimacy and sensitivity.
  • Porn use increases the likelihood of infidelity.
  • Children of porn users experience less parental involvement.

Written by Heather White, Life’s Vision Manitoba