Porn is Not Addictive
To say that porn is addictive does a disservice to those who actually suffer from the disease of addiction. There are no credible, peer- reviewed studies that support the notion that porn is addictive in any medically accepted understanding of the term. No one has ever died from either an overdose of pornography, or by being denied access to it. No one has ever collapsed in convulsions, vomiting and shaking, from any lack of pornography. The etiology of any distress over its use is clearly emotional in nature and needs to be addressed at that level.
Even if the use of adult material began as pleasurable and relaxing but has, for some, become compulsive, distressing, disturbing, damaging, obsessive, regressive and otherwise inappropriate and unhealthy, as much could be said of many other indulgences to which the pejorative term “addiction” is not applied. As unhappy as a person might become over it, excessive porn consumption doesn’t rise to the level of true addiction, which is a physical disease in need of medical intervention. This is one habit where calling it quits cold turkey won’t result in a trip to the emergency room or a stay in detox. Social policy should not be made on the basis of sloppy and inexact metaphors.
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i was watching it and i became addicted to how it made me feel. I kept me watching. and I felt I had to watch it. I felt I needed it. It becomes like an obsession addiction. It calls you. So whatever it triggers in your brain, makes you want more and more. Or maybe it is just with those that have an addictive personality.
Well, I stopped watching it. I prayed and asked the Lord to take away this feeling of needed to watch.
And then the need disapeared. I was them free from those feelings of thinking I need to watch that stuff.
Now I am so happy to be rid of that desire.
It is awful to be trapped in need of something like that especially.
I won' t touch that stuff. It is like a web or a trap that sucks you in and won't let you go.
finally when it gets so disgusting, you are so far into it....what an awful industry. I hope it is destroyed one day. along with drugs.
I see the issue of porn being more a problem as it has become as present as the internet ...its now accesible in our schools..in our public libraries..at home on our computers...and even on our mobile phones.
This produces the sense of walls closing in where we can't get away from it if its something that our minds clearly are so attracted to...especially when its no more than a click away.
imagine anyone who has some sort of arousal response to porn with issues such as Adhd or depression or working memory deficits or just going through some sort of health problem that exhausts us enought that we dont have the strength to stay away from it.
also 2 out of 10 workers according to marcus buckingham's survey from the gallup poll organization say their job actually plays to their strengths ( meaning that it energizes them on a consistent basis) Therefore - 8 people out of 10 are drained by their jobs each day.
This leads to lower levels of self control as neurologist understand that our self control is only so limited. Any one who has ever seen a freind or relative become really angry over a certain situation or series of events should understand how our self control is limited. And while it varies, with porn becoming such a ubiquidous form of media avaliable to all any time of day anywhere - we are increasingly being set up by the porno industry to have it change our values against our will.
How might i argue that it can do so against our will.....having worked with people who have had trouble with this more than anything as technology has grown more ubiquidous in this world i can say that any one in a moment where their inhibitory functions are not at their best need only a second before they find them straying on to a porn site.
The process that tends to happen then is a pattern of shame every time it happens if such a person has many values - wheather they be against or porn neutral - as they find them selves straying on it for its dopamine release in their brain and the biological arousal they experience from it.
very quickly those people who have trouble resisting its constant pull will easily go from trying to constantly resist it despite how our enjoyment of it is so biologically based and wired into our brain to giving up due to a lack of executive functioning that would lead to consistently staying away from it if they wish.
at this point it can simply consume the person more and more as it eats up time in their life.
Over all, i belive porn to have a both positive and negative effect, though i have not explained the positive side, i will mention that it can help couples who know how to experience it and it can lead to a much more sexually open and less up tight society which can lead to creating a better climate around such issues as STD's and other reproductive problems that occur.
In the end though, the rise of technology has made porn something that is built up against many people and is set up to be an addictive form of media due to how it is hard wired in our brain and how it is accesible from anywhere.
should porn ever be banned...no...what should happen is we should support/create efforts to give individuals the choice as to wheather they have the instantaneous access to porn that technology has created for us.
i have read and heard others tell talk about how they wish they could just block porn out of their life for the whole year by going on the equivalent of a "do not make accessible to x individual" list because they can never seem to resist it when they are near it and they feel the shame that not being able to resist it in their lives is causing consistently both in their own personal life's and in their relationships.
Clearly how we deal with porn must be evaluated when its becomeing a trap that all to many cant find the strength to resist.
Having seen how there are so many activities our there from our jobs...the daily grind...to school in general which needs to change a whole lot to engadge people.
The definition of addiction must be changed to help those struggling to free themselves from whatever they are slaves to. As someone struggling with an addiction to porn, I am disturbed that Ms. Hartley and others lack empathy. Porn has significantly ruined my sexuality.
Her understanding of addiction requires that we deny that many kids today are addicted to video games. However, when I hear of children spending 8 hours a day at the computer or Playstation, I am saddened by the view that they do not have a serious problem in need of being addressed. If addiction is redefined, then those like them and me can be helped more effectively.
Professionals need to wake up and realize that harm to the body is not always worse than harm to the mind. Anyone who has depression knows exactly what I am talking about. Like that commercial says, "It hurts all over".
Some people ARE addicted to porn. That is a fact whether it exists in the literature or not.
"The etiology of any distress over [porn] use is clearly emotional in nature and needs to be addressed at that level." And of course emotion doesn't have anything to do with biology at all. Oh wait...I lie. During any stage of the mating process (from the beginning stages of lust, through the arousing phase of attraction and attachment, to the long term stage of frequent ejaculation/orgasm, the brain is subjected to more dopamine, phenylethylamine, norepinephrine (all amphetamines) than any crack cocaine addict will ever receive. Even if you're not attracted to the people who are doing it on your tv screen, your body will still produce oxytocin and endorphins if you jerk off (which many of us do) to a porno. You can go ahead and argue that not everyone responds to the stimulus of porn - but then those people aren't the ones watching it, now are they? Porn addicts are aptly described as such because when they watch a porno their brain produces a BIOLOGICAL stimulus which enhances their experience. How is that not the same as people who are addicted to any other substance?
For viewpoints from a real expert on this kind of thing, look up Helen Fisher.