Can porn permanently damage your dopamine receptors?

According to my knowledge of dopamine systems, when you engage in high dopaminergic activities like porn or masturbation, it does not damages your receptors, actually it floods your brain with dopamine. Now as you know, our body needs to be balanced, in order to control this issue of excessive dopamine, your brain simply makes more receptor so more dopamine gets processed per time. This basically means you will need more dopamine to be satisfied next time. As normal activities of life don't give much dopamine, you soon lose interest in them and slip into the bottomless pit of PMO.

Luckily it is completely reversible change, you know your body needs to be balanced, last time you created imbalance by excessive dopamine, this time do the opposite! This is called dopamine fast or dopamine-detox. Basically abstain from all pleasurable stuff for some time. Due to this your dopamine levels will drop below normal. This will create a imbalance but the exact opposite one. So your brain will balance dopamine levels by removing receptor from your brain making you take less dopamine for satisfaction, so life will become more enjoyable!

But looks like abstinence didn't worked for you. Most likely it is not caused by some dopamine problem but something else. I guess after a long streak you might have improved by a lot but now you have again relapsed, those benefits have suddenly disappeared, taking you to such situation.
Best luck for your recovery!

 

@Gavalar09 , I doubt you're permanently damaged. Just keep away and stay away from porn. Your dopamine receptors are still affected and you can't watch porn ever or this will happen again. Once you got PIED, it's permanent in a sense that it leaves a blueprint/shortcut neruocircuitry for inducing porn changes in your brain - unless you stay away from porn. You need to focus on improving your life.

You can do it!

 

What about dopamine desensitization? How does that factor in?

 

Follow this advice and you’ll be alright.

 

This sounds like part of the rebalancing process. Try not to feel bad after a relapse because it can drive you to use repeatedly. Try to get back to abstention. You already have some good experiences.

 

Not sure because it varies for people. But the longer you are off porn, the better it will get. Sometimes you have to build up time with a relapse here or there. Just don't beat yourself up and keep at it.

 

I think this is where a lot of guys mess up, me included. You will always LOVE porn so every time your brain sees it, it latches onto it every stronger because it knows that you are trying to separate it from porn. So occasional use will mess you up. I know it's really hard to accept, but you will probably always have PIED problems until you cut out porn for good.

 

I was doing good 6 months ago. My old self started to come back. Then it took 1 relapse to get me confused and back to square one. #NotWorthit

 

90 days is nothing if you were a hardcore pmo abuser. Also I was addicted for 7 years. And I went 16mo hardmode mid 2018 to the end of 2019. I wasn't healed at all.... So this rule above doesn't apply.

 

Nah bro give it a couple of days. You are freaking yourself out

 

Bro still that rule is bull...