Thoughts on a theory for pornography addiction.

Hello all,
Just wanted to get a read on whether this rings true for people.
Background:
I consider myself as being addicted to p*. However, I am also a Psychology PhD student, aspiring therapist in my second year of training, and recipient of therapy in which we spend a lot of time discussing the addiction – as such I have both a personal and academic interest on the causes/predisposing factors towards overconsumption of p*.

I hypothesise a psychological model that assumes that aside from biological / physiological influencers (which are certainly valid, but tell only part of the story) there is a distinct psychological reason that a person turns to p*. In general the use of p* is for self-soothing, distraction, and numbing (much like any other addiction) – however I also believe there to be a distinctly social component to the addiction, intrinsically related to a sense of being socially ‘outcast’, ‘othered’, ‘shameful’, 'rejected' or ‘unattractive’ – or otherwise disempowered particularly in relation to potential mates. Keeping it as brief as possible, some signs of the socially disempowered component are revealed with accounts of people staving off the addiction through self improvement (i.e. going to the gym) or filling their day with meaningful encounters or activities.

This thought of course also comes in part from my own experiences with the addiction – namely, I believe it is in response to a feeling like a social outcast at the age of 14, and, whilst I have since become increasingly ‘normal’ (grew into myself, gained friends, got a girlfriend etc) an inner 14 year old who feels fundamentally different or broken remains, and turns to p* to remedy this feeling.

If we were to assume, then, that the use of p* is somehow in response to a sense of global social disempowerment (particularly in relation to, I would imagine, attractive women) then I wonder if p* might serve a secondary function of creating a sense of false empowerment in viewers by creating a sense of intimacy and/or attainment of women who due to a sense of being socially outcast for any number of reasons (low-self esteem, unattractive, lack of confidence, not being ‘normal’, neurodivergence etc) appear to be otherwise unreachable.

To start with my own anecdotal experiences – I noticed that when I see a woman I am attracted to I often have a sense of "I will never be able to be good enough for someone as beautiful or cool as her", or even “I won’t have the opportunity to try because I’m in a monogomous relationship” (adapt to your own situation as you will). Often this doesn't reach the level of 'conscious' thought, but will come about in a vague sense of hopelessness or longing.
This is quite quickly followed a want to sexualise the person in question, or more generally, to look at p*.

I feel that this is because my brain has found a way to subvert this automatic thought and its subsequent sense of hopelessness by forging a quasi intimate para-social relationship through the use of p*.

To get a bit abstract for a second – if you were to imagine a scale from 1-10 that measures an individuals attainability, and that this scale assumes that for attainment to occur, both individuals would need to be on the same point of the scale (i.e. both 7's, both 8's, both 5's etc) then in this encounter I might place myself at a 4 on this scale but place the attractive person at a 9 or a 10. This person is thus unattainable and I feel disempowered. However, through p* I can cheat this system in two ways.

a) symbolically bring her closer to my level

b) subvert the scale entirely and make it so that attainment doesn't necessitate being on equal points of the scale.

To explain:

Solution a) Bringing her to my level.

Extreme/hardcore/degrading/taboo p*, especially with women who are very attractive. - This theme exhibits attractive women performing extreme, painful, or degrading sex acts or indulging in ‘taboo’ roleplay such as ‘step’ sibling/parent plotlines. This serves to convey the following message/data – behind the scenes, a beautiful woman has agreed to perform an outrageous sex act through some kind of compensation, telling viewers that even beautiful, seemingly unobtainable women have a ‘price’ that will push them into being shameful, degraded etc. This makes generally beautiful women seem more obtainable on two levels, 1: “If a beautiful and unattainable woman will degrade herself for a price, then it’s possible that under the ‘right’ circumstances she would also have sex with me” and 2: it pulls them ‘down’ towards us by making them more shameful (i.e. we’re both shameful and degraded).

Solution b) Subverting the scale

Through the use of social media, Onlyfans, imagination (and in extreme cases voyeurism) one is able to attain a sense of intimacy or sexual gratification with the person in question. Due to the modernisation of p* it is becoming increasinbly possible (and often taken for granted) that is is possible to find sexual content featuring such 'unattainable' women. In this case, I believe there is something of a symbolic intimacy experienced, wherein you quite literally trick your brain into thinking there has been some kind of sexual encounter between yourself and the attractive woman. I.e. seeing somebody, performing sex acts, or generally being sexually suggestive historically necessitates a level of trust and companionship that can only come from familiarity and mutual attraction – however, through p*, despite the fact that we remain a '4' on the scale and she remains a '9' we have attained access these experiences. Thus here, p* remedies the sense of hopelessness by giving an alternative option 'beat the scale'.
This also applies on a more symbolic level, i.e. finding models who look similar to the person in question.

To apply this description in more concrete terms, I might describe the following sequence:
1. Scrolls social media.
2. See’s a beautiful, cool, or otherwise attractive woman appear in feed.
Feels an internal sense of distance/incongruence between ‘self’ (through the lens of low self-esteem) and the attractive woman – “I could never meet and attract this person”
3. Feels a vague sense of hopelessness, shame and possibly even anger at this distance and internally perceived rejection – (feels disempowered).
4. Temporarily escape discomfort and gain a sense of social empowerment through p* by a) reducing the perceived distance or b) subverting the need to 'attract' someone to attain intimacy.
5. Post-nut clarity ensues – sense of shame and worthlessness, increasing the sense of discrepancy between self and attractive woman/women and society as a whole.
6. Repeat

As such, p* serves to temporarily reduce a sense of social disempowerment by symbolically 'evening' the playing field for someone who otherwise has a sense of low self-esteem. When feelings of hopelessness or disempowerment come up (usually triggered by some external stimulus), p* serves as a reliable (yet temporary) remedy.
However because it is inherently 'maladaptive' and generates a sense of shame / hopelessness, it only serves to crystallise the sense of disempowerment in the long term, thus perpetuating our dependency on it as a tool for empowerment (thus a vicious cycle is formed).

Any thoughts, criticism, or points of personal-experiences on this would be appreciated!

Best.