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Does Porn and Masturbation mess with your mental health?

Discussion in 'Porn Addiction' started by Deleted Account, Oct 9, 2021.

  1. Every time I relapse, I get a wave of mental health issues. I know porn is bad because I’m supporting an industry that degrades people. But I wonder why my mental health is so bad after I masturbate. I get social anxiety and depression symptoms. You also don’t want to be bothered and everything feels like a chore.

    I woke up this morning and the weather was amazing. The sun came out and a breeze hit my face. The day started amazing until I saw a hot girl and it triggered my porn addiction. I went home and a few hours later, I relapsed to PMO. Even the amazing weather feel like nothing and I couldn’t feel anything for the rest of the day.
     
    Future Bloomer and Billybrasco like this.
  2. Yes, compulsive porn use can affect mental health pretty badly. Have a look at the below links if you haven't seen these already.

    https://fightthenewdrug.org/how-porn-can-contribute-to-an-unhealthy-cycle-of-stress/
    https://fightthenewdrug.org/how-porn-can-impact-mental-health-and-fuel-loneliness/
    https://fightthenewdrug.org/similar-side-effects-of-mental-health-issues-and-porn-struggle/

    It's definitely fueled social anxiety for me (once I accepted that I had a problem I started to wonder if other people could tell and that made me hesitant to engage with people) and that didn't help with depressive episodes. It also makes you feel ashamed of yourself as if you were unclean or unworthy.

    I've been at this a while now and have started to move forward. I don't feel ashamed about pornography any more because I know that I'm doing something about it and that it's a long road with many bumps. That's helped with social anxiety and depression as well. I know that none of the problems I have with this are problems that can't be overcome if I take the decision to work on them.
     
    Future Bloomer and AversioN like this.
  3. Share The Pain

    Share The Pain Fapstronaut

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    I have lot of mental health issues becouse of porn, stop it before it gets you to this point! It WILL ruin your life.
     
    AversioN and silex_jedi like this.
  4. skaterdrew

    skaterdrew Fapstronaut

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    Yeah edging and binging on PMO can definitely cause severe mental health issues. Actually when you chronically edge and binge on PMO for long enough, I would actually say this can cause worse mental health problems than you could possibly ever imagine.
     
    Last edited: Oct 10, 2021
    Anonymous86 and AversioN like this.
  5. IGY

    IGY Fapstronaut
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    I would suggest that porn and masturbation addiction can mess with your 'mental wellbeing'.

    I am willing to be corrected, but I am not aware of any diagnosed mental health disorders that are caused directly by this. For example, bipolar is not caused by this, personality disorders are not, clinical depression is not, schizophrenia is not. However, this addiction can exacerbate such disorders. For example, if you have GAD (generalized anxiety disorder), it is likely to worsen when this addiction takes hold. It can also aggravate depression and OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder).

    To use my own example, I have been PMO-free for well over two years. However, because of diagnosed, serious mental health disorders I still experience acute social anxiety and severe depression. You mentioned the weather. I seldom even know what the weather is. It can be a sunny day and my diagnosed mental disorders prevent me from even noticing it. It has nothing to do with PMO.

    In summary, I am not doubting your experience, I am saying that PMO is affecting your 'mental wellbeing' rather than causing any clinical illness. I hope that makes sense.
     
    silex_jedi likes this.
  6. sam30

    sam30 Fapstronaut

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    This plays with my anxiety I believe
     
  7. A8X

    A8X Fapstronaut

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    The psychological side effects of porn are similar to most addictions. In some areas it is milder compared to drugs in general, in some areas it is more noticeable.
     
    mdz likes this.
  8. There are so many factors at play here. Sure, porn affects your mental health. But name some things that do not, either for better or worse, and you can see the difficulty.
    Personally, porn & pmo was the avenue I ended up on, and I don't know why because it began when I was too young to know any better or different. But I have always considered my porn and pmo interests symptomatic of other things, not a disease.
    Still . . . ridding oneself of porn, however challenging, however difficult, is a wise decision. But it is important to deal with underlying issues too. Otherwise, the journey will just be circular, always coming back to Station PMO.
     
  9. WelcomeToReality

    WelcomeToReality Fapstronaut

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    I guess one of porn mental disease is schizophrenia. You want to watch porn , but in same time you want to stop.
     
  10. zx125

    zx125 Fapstronaut

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    Hi,
    I was also going to post about this subject. I have ocd and I definitely feel like pmo exacerbates my ocd. Anyone with ocd knows that when you have ocd your mind latches onto certain thoughts, usually worst case scenarios and finds it hard to let go. With me it's the thought of accidentally seeing something illegal while using the internet to pmo. While this thought causes me to feel anxious and I know that stopping pmo would be better as far as these thoughts are concerned, sometimes I find it hard to do so.
     
  11. mdz

    mdz Fapstronaut

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    I got rid of my social anxciety by just doing Nofap (it didnt happen overnight). Even my GAD dissapeared. And I didnt talk to any shrink or took any meds, just nofap. So porn itself is a quite strong factor to mental well being, although in some cases not the only one.
     
  12. mdz

    mdz Fapstronaut

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    If you have a longer streak and relapse, the excess dopamine will hit you harder since you have more dopamine receptors now. That can cause a stronger depression or anxciety due to the "kickback" hangover. Imagine a heroinist that after one year inject the same amount of drug.
     
    Phil45 and WelcomeToReality like this.
  13. I do not doubt for a moment the significance of getting rid of one's porn and pmo habits. I'm sure glad it worked out for you.
     

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