Beginners guide: PORN ADDICTION

What is porn addiction?

We characterize porn addiction as a phenomenon of the brain marked by compulsive use of pornography which proves difficult to stop despite negative consequences, and which often worsens over time. To date, the American psychological community has yet to officially recognize porn addiction as a disorder. However, a building body of scientific evidence and thousands of personal stories from our community leads us to conclude that the unprecedented availability of pornography in the era of the Internet has resulted in an undeniable problem, one that is destructive to individuals and, consequently, society as a whole. This problem has come to be called “porn addiction” by many, including those of us in the community here at NoFap®.
Our understanding of porn addiction is largely compiled from analysis of our surveys and the thousands of personal stories our users have posted to our forums, as well as reports gathered from other porn recovery websites. We bring to bear as much current brain science as we can to this body of anecdotal evidence. [1]

Here's a great animation to fully understand porn addiction​

What are the markers of porn addiction?

• An increase in pornography use over time.
• An increase in the intensity of pornography used.
• An inability to easily stop pornography use despite negative consequences. [1]

What are the symptoms of porn addiction?

• Sexual dysfunctions, such as erectile dysfunction and delayed ejaculation
• Decreased sensitivity from overstimulation
• Fatigue
• Low self-esteem or -confidence
• Sense of shame
• Low mood or agitated mood
• Lack of motivation
• Decreased libido
• Disinterest in sex in favor of porn
• Clouding of consciousness, or “brain fog” [1]

What is a trigger and how does it work?

The physical structure of the brain can be changed by repeating behaviors due to a mechanism called neuroplasticity. For instance, when a top athlete trains at jumping hurdles on a track, she is training her muscles, but also rewiring the synapses of her brain to more quickly respond to her thoughts and environment when jumping hurdles on a track.​

Similarly, a person who habitually uses pornography when he is bored in his bedroom is priming his neural circuitry to more quickly think of pornography whenever he is bored in his bedroom. A person who uses pornography to distract herself from feeling lonely late at night is training her neural circuitry to more quickly crave pornography whenever she feels lonely late at night. Through the mechanism of neuroplasticity, these people have literally reshaped their brains to the point where it’s difficult for them to think of anything except pornography in certain situations. This is why certain situations become triggers the prompt porn usage.​

Addiction makes a full circle when the addictive behavior causes conditions which then trigger the need to once again act out the addictive behavior.​

For instance, John uses porn when he’s bored or lonely. Feeling lonely on a Friday evening, instead of calling up some friends, he goes to his favorite porn site and masturbates for a couple hours. Since he looked at porn, he missed his chance to find friends to hang out with, so he just watches videos for another hour or two until he feels bored enough that he turns to his go-to solution for boredom: more porn.​

Other compulsive or addictive behaviors can be added to this cycle. Candice uses porn when she feels ashamed of herself. Saturday morning she sleeps in and misses an appointment. Ashamed, she goes to her favorite erotic fiction site and spends a couple hours reading pornographic stories. Afterwards, she feels ashamed of wasting the day reading stories on her favorite taboo subjects, so she makes herself feel better by shopping online. Regretful of once again giving into her shopping compulsion, she spaces out from her guilty feelings by reading more porn.​

At this point, porn addiction has become a snake eating its own tail. [1]​

What is rebooting?

The process of abstaining from pornography, masturbation, or even orgasm altogether to overcome sexual addictions is dubbed rebooting. By allowing the porn addicted brain to unplug from pornography, much of the damage inflicted by heavy pornography use may be repaired. This is almost like restoring your brain to “factory settings” – hence, a reboot.​

The science behind the brain’s ability to heal from addiction is based on the same science behind the ways the brain gets twisted by addiction. Neuroplasticity is a double-edged sword, able to shape our neural pathways to create unhealthy behaviors, but also able to reshape our brains back to normal functioning. [1]​

How to deal with it?

• Understand healthy sexuality
• Identify signs of internet addiction
• Decide what needs to change
• Combat underlying problems
• Build your coping skills
• Combat boredom
• Deal with loneliness
• Strengthen your support network
• Overcome trauma
• Use an internet censor
• Log your internet usage
• Use a timer to monitor internet usage
• Use the computer in a public location
• Cultivate a better environment
• Talk to a therapist
• Check out specialized resources
• Want to change [2]

What are some methods to deal with the urges?

Just take a look at [URGE KILLERS INDEX], there's a huge resource of ways to face the urges.​

References:

1. nofap.com/porn-addiction
2. wikihow.com/Deal-With-Porn-Addiction​