You're a porn addict, aren't you? How to determine an unhealthy craving for adult films

Is there such a thing as porn addiction? If it exists, does it prevent you from living and is it worth getting rid of it? Let's try to understand this difficult, but very interesting question, from a scientific point of view and taking into account the opinion of the porn addicts themselves.

If we consider such a phenomenon as pornography on a global scale, then it is impossible to call it an unambiguously destructive element of modern culture. Yes, the history of this genre in cinema intersects with crime in some places. The first "adult" films in the United States were sponsored by the mafia, and in In Japan, there have been cases when girls were drawn into this business by deception, presenting shooting in porn as part of a modeling career.

In recent years, shooting porn films is a completely legal business. Major porn studios are engaged in this business, and the names of the directors are known to millions. There are no recent statistics, but it is known for sure that 4 years ago the porn industry generated almost $ 13 billion annually in the United States alone.

From the point of view of perception by the brain, porn is unique. It is known that animals masturbate as well as people, but, unlike us, they do not use visual images or fantasy. For a person, videos of a frank nature are similar to real sex, especially if it was filmed in the first person.

It is also known that men and women perceive porn differently. In 2011, American journalists interviewed random passers-by and found out that if the process itself is more important for the representatives of the stronger sex, then the ladies are interested in the appearance of the actors, as well as the plot of the film.

Research conducted by scientists suggests that people are faced with porn products quite early. The organization Culture Reframed found out that at the age of 14, 94% of teenagers are already familiar with porn films. With the advent of high-speed Internet, pornographic magazines have replaced videos for boys, while the materials have become more accessible, and their choice is much wider.

Nowadays, it turns out that the process of puberty takes place under the influence of content created by Private and Brazzers studios, taking into account the preferences imposed by them. Children learn what sex is, but immediately find themselves trapped in disappointed hopes, because real relationships are completely different from those that are offered to us by the plots of adult videos.

Is it possible to get a porn addiction?

After watching a porn movie, not everyone becomes dependent on adult movies. But after watching a few — it is already quite possible to get such a habit. The fact is that while watching movies, the brain believes that a man is performing an act of reproduction and every time he thinks that real sex is happening.

Watching porn triggers the production of neurotransmitters in the brain — the well-known endorphin and dopamine. It is these substances that are responsible for pleasure and satisfaction. The brain very quickly gets used to daily or even more frequent pleasure, and here we can already talk about the appearance of addiction.

When today one short video with a blowjob is enough, and a week later the soul asks for several videos with group sex - then this is tolerance. The portion of porn is constantly growing, as the brain no longer responds to small doses. What is a habit? This is completely different. A habit is if you lock yourself in the toilet every day to watch a porn movie.

We can say that porn addiction is more of an addictive behavior than a real addiction. Despite this, it is definitely worth paying attention to. If a teenager watches 2-3 explicit videos at one o'clock in the morning, he quickly gets reliable neural connections. It's so easy and pleasant to escape from real life into the beautiful and dissolute world of adult cinema, where men always get what they want, and women are well-groomed and compliant.

Moreover, such dependence does not require special efforts. If a drug addict needs narcotic substances, an alcoholic needs alcohol, and a workaholic needs a lot of work, then everything that a person with a porn addiction needs is as accessible as possible. The Internet, a computer or a mobile gadget, a little privacy — all this can be obtained very simply.

How to detect porn addiction in yourself?

However, it is impossible to compare dependence on porn films with drug addiction, alcoholism or even tobacco smoking. We are not talking, as in the cases listed above, about a painful condition caused by poisoning the body with a toxic substance. In 2013, American scientists made another attempt to add porn addiction, as a kind of hypersexual disorder, to the main list of mental disorders requiring treatment (DSM-5).

Here you need to make a digression and report that in Representative studies on the topic of porn addiction have never been conducted in Russia, the number of people suffering from addiction is unknown and nothing is likely to change in the foreseeable future. We simply do not deal with the issue, considering that there are more important things to do. Well, maybe it is.

How to determine your porn addiction? Easy as pie! If you watch porn 1-2 times a week, choosing random videos with different actors and plots — then there is no question of any addiction. But if masturbation with watching porn videos occurs daily, or even several times a day, and you know the actors by name and have your favorites and favorite categories of adult videos, then this is already a serious reason to talk about a persistent habit at least, or even about a full-fledged addiction.

Are there any specific signs that will help you recognize an addiction to porn?

British scientists (yes, and who else besides them?), having conducted a number of studies at the Castle Craig Clinic, specializing in the rehabilitation of patients with addictions, have deduced several classic signs of the problem:

Why is it not customary to talk about this?

Porn addiction can be called the same age as addiction to games or aimless Internet surfing. These three concepts appeared almost simultaneously with the advent of computers and the Internet in our lives. All three misfortunes have the same "digital" origin and are relatively little studied. This often causes panic, because the media like to scare us with the unknown, and doctors are in no hurry to give an adequate scientific assessment of this phenomenon.

Meanwhile, although it is not customary to talk about it out loud, but porn addiction has been a common problem for more than a decade. In 1994, the Christian organization Promise Keepers conducted a survey among male parishioners and found that 50% of them had watched porn as recently as last week.

In 2014, 65% of men admitted to watching a specific video in the same survey. Here it should be taken into account that the question was not anonymous and was conducted among believers. What the study would show if people were asked questions incognito and not near the church, we can only guess.

What is the threat of this?

First, you can start your addiction in such a way that you become like the hero of the actor Joseph Gordon Levitt in The Passion of Don Juan. That is, to love porn so selflessly that it will interfere with building relationships with real people.

In real life, there are also cases when people quit a good job because they did not have the opportunity to spend time watching porn content in the workplace. There are also precedents when a passionate habit of watching porn movies destroyed relationships. This can happen if the partner does not share and does not want to understand such a hobby.

It is absolutely known that porn addiction does not lead to mental disorders and certainly does not make a person a sexual maniac. But, if you lose control of yourself, unpleasant consequences, alas, can not be avoided:

How to deal with this?

First of all, you should always remember that there are specialists who can help in solving your problem. In any major city, you can easily find at least a dozen good sexologists and sex therapists. It is more difficult to find a specialized doctor on the periphery, but it is still possible if you set a goal.

In extreme cases, you can always go to an appointment with a psychotherapist, who, if he himself can not help, will certainly tell you where you can find a specialist on your question. Of course, independent work on yourself is also important. There are several points that work exactly if you follow them exactly:

But in order to successfully overcome porn addiction, you need not be afraid to admit to yourself that you have it. This will be the first step that will help you finally break out of the world of sexual illusions and start living "to the fullest".