Can porn cause brain damage like heroine or cocaine can? I have heard that pornography is as addictive as cocaine
I didnt deal neither with cocaine nor heroine, but I can confirm that its fucking hard to get off, and can cause physical symptomes. Brain damage too I guess because of dopamine.
Yes. Porn addiction has been proven scientifically to cause a condition called hypofrontality. Moreover, the damage to the prefrontal cortex in sex addicted subjects was just as bad as that seen in cocaine or heroin addicts under scanners. We're talking actual brain shrinkage and damage to the central nervous system. Substances ultimately target the same neurotransmitters involved in behavioral addictions. Porn is one of the few 'natural' things that can trigger an absurd amount of excitatory neurotransmitters like dopamine, resembling drug addictions.
Yes it does. Hence why this entire forum exists. This is life changing-stuff here. Don’t let PMO take any more of your life from you if it is.
Yes it can damage the brain if a person has been using it for a long time and kindled while having withdrawal symptoms. I've almost passed out when walking outside after relapsing. It can get really nasty, so quit while it's still easy for you.
Absolutely 100 percent yes. This will be a pandemic in the future mark my words. The withdrawal symptoms are absolutely insane if you go far enough mine are on were/are on par with people on benzo buddies (benzo forum) although not as severe in acute. It is no joke and I still have some symptoms hanging around after 21 months.
It can definitely rewire your reward system to the point of not working properly. As far as I know, the mechanism is basically causing a huge dopamine spike (with porn you can "get any girl" you want, even the nastiest and most out-of-reality genres are easily available, in real life this is not exactly the case, sex also causes a dopamine spike, but in a more natural way - you have to find somebody, etc). Cocaine for example causes a release of lots of dopamine. As somebody already mentioned, if this is done repeatedly over a long enough time, and especially when one becomes addicted, it can lead to long term negative changes. E.g. the brain will get used to these elevated levels of pleasant and rewarding neurotransmitters, which will lead to the amounts needed to feel normal becoming much higher. Porn might definitely be as addictive as cocaine for many people. Less physically damaging, sure.
When we talk about "brain-damage" do we talk about irreversible damage or undesired alteration to brain structures? There is no clear scientific consensus whether pron abuse causes irreversible brain damage, however, even the possibility that it may, alone, should be incentive enough to not tempt fate. Most studies conducted so far lack in clarifcation of causation and correlation. Meaning either porn abuse shrinks your brain or only people with smaller brains abuse porn. The causation and correlation isn't clarified so far. However, I do believe - and this is just a belief as there is no scientific facts to back it up - that porn does in fact have to power to alter your brain structure. it's called "neuro plasticity" It may shrink your gray brain matter. However, I also firmly believe that these changes can be reversed and undone, unlike with substance abuse like cocaine. Neuro plasticity and brain alterations caused by behaviroual addictions aren't all that well explored. Best not to find out by being it's victim.
Judging by all the success stories I think theres a lot of evidence that it can mostly be reversed. But just like alcohol, television, music, and social experiences everything is shaping our brain’s pathways to experiencing dopamine non-stop 24\7\365. This idea of a “clean” brain may not exist for anyone in the 21st century except maybe for the aboriginals in South America.
On your testosterone levels only slightly. But on your androgen receptors absolutely yes. Your androgen receptors help your body use testosterone. Also it’s possible that estrogen increases from frequent masterbation/sex. In addition if you frequently PMO’d as a teen and into your adults years it certainly possibly your body biologically will have to get use to using less energy creating sperm. Lots of interesting studies have been done on these topics with conflicting results. https://www.healthline.com/health/masturbation-and-testosterone#research In the end this forum is a community full of men living better lives because of nofap. And testosterone is a biological component that makes us who we are. I like to think my test levels have been impacted positively by Nofap.
So my question is if I’m masturbating all the time in my teen years, which is the time my voice starts getting deeper.. will I sound more feminine??
I couldn’t tell you that because nobody has ever done specific research on the affects of masterbation during puberty to my knowledge. However lots of people on this forum claim that their voice got deeper after a successful 90 day challenge.
Monastery monks like The Carthusian Order in France would be another exception, but pretty much one has to live a very isolated life in the mountains as a self-sufficient person living off the land to not be shaped by our society and dopamine overload. I'd also like to note that there have been scientific studies about the low testosterone levels and the usage of zinc supplements have helped men with low testosterone to gain normal testosterone levels in a few months. In conclusion, nofap and zinc is a good combo to become a real man.