(Stillness in the Storm Editor) As one who studies consciousness, through many venues, such as psychology, philosophy, sociology, and socio-biology, it is clear that porn affects us deeply. Studies continue to demonstrate, presented in the below book, that a great many psychological issues can form as a result of chronic porn use. The following article describes what’s called pornosexuality, or a term for those who’ve had their sexual process distorted through pornography, making them incapable of experiencing normal sex with another person.
Buy Book Your Brain on Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction
The following are insights gleaned from the above book, along with cross research in the field of psychology.
One of the things chronic pornography does is distort sexual tastes and desires. Unlike what many believe, your sexual tastes are not genetic. There is a huge amount of plasticity surrounding the sexual attraction, which means your tastes can change depending on what you expose yourself to and engage in. This is because sex is a holistic behavior incorporating ancient biological urges, brain and body regions, as influenced by personal tastes and culture. While mainstream psychology is still grappling with what sex actually is, there’s enough data in the field of research observations to make some clear conclusions.
Pornography, especially online video porn, often employs what’s called infinite scrolling. This is when you go to a site that hosts videos, and you can keep scrolling down, never getting to the bottom of the list.
This system was developed to hijack the exploratory mechanisms in the brain. Your brain is designed to reward you for exploring the world, and most especially, pursuing a goal you value. When you go looking for something you really want, your brain is flooded with norepinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin, evincing the positive anticipation response. That feeling of excitement you get when you’re about to do something really fun and exciting is this anticipation response.
With the infinite scroll of online porn, your brain is rewarded most when you’re looking for a video—not when you’re watching it. But this reward is overly exaggerated, producing more reward hormones than normal. As a result, your brain starts rewiring itself to become better at rewarding you for looking for and watching porn. But it has to alter the natural processes, which means while you’re becoming a better porn watcher you’re becoming a worse lover, partner, or self-confident person in general.
What many chronic online porn users report is that their sexual tastes changed from fairly normal to progressively more violent and distorted—primarily because they felt more excitement with “fringe” topics. This makes sense neurologically.
The brain can condition any experience to felt as positive, look to sadomasochism as an example. The “taboo” nature of some porn activates the curiosity response, which also triggers the anticipation response. At first, you might never look at more freaky porn, but you know it’s there. Eventually, you get used to the rewards from normal porn, and in that moment, the freaky porn becomes a bit more enticing. Eventually, you’ll push through the resistance, and experience a cathartic excitement from finally exploring that taboo porn you’ve been avoiding. From then on, your brain is rewired to indulged in taboo because it is the most exciting.
Users report that within only a few months of chronic porn use, their sexual tastes were almost completely distorted.
Some users reported feeling uninterested in same-sex porn, at first, only to find themselves exclusively watching it later, due to the fact it came with taboo excitement. And these same users report feeling incredibly uneasy about discovering these tastes within themselves.
As you might imagine, if you think your sexual tastes are hardwired—you’re born with them—then the discovery of your desire for taboo, even violent porn, would be quite jarring.
What users also report is that stopping porn use often rapidly resets their desires, returning them to “normal” after a fashion. But make no mistake, the identity crisis one experiences as a result of this destabilizes them in a profound way.
Chronic porn users also report severe social anxiety along with a loss of interest in normal relationships. Some users report spending all their time watching porn, and this is the only “safe” activity they can engage in, whereas others make them feel insecure and embarrassed.
What’s happening here?
Since we’re social creatures, we’re hardwired for social attachment. Our brain is constantly assessing our social status in relation to other people. In this regard, sex is one of the most powerful social attachment enforcing activities, for obvious reasons. When you engage in sex with another, you are being accepted by the other in an extremely intimate and personal way, which is self-validating at a deep level.
Related Should We Call Addiction Attachment Instead?
This is why good healthy sex with a partner that you have a good relationship with often feels incredibly revitalizing, imparting confidence. This is because, during the act of sex with another, your brain triggers the circuit that manages personal worth with respect to another person. Literally, at a hardwired neurological level, you feel more self-confident as a result of giving pleasure to another in a mutually beneficial and rewarding way. This also the circuit that triggers when you hug and, successfully, physically console a friend or family member in need.
So what happens when you’re getting off on porn?
Unlike sex with another person, masturbating to porn is done alone. It’s a voyeuristic activity.
While you know your only looking at pictures on a screen, your brain thinks you’re looking at another person as if they’re in the room with you, but you don’t have a good relationship with them. From a social attachment theory perspective, any person you become aware of that you don’t form a healthy working relationship with is considered a psychological threat, increasing your stress levels. What’s more, this other person isn’t just someone you don’t care about, it’s someone you desire at a deep level—but you can’t, ever, form a relationship with. Your brain wasn’t designed for this situation.
For almost everyone, chronic porn use imparts feelings of low self-worth and inadequacy because it is effectively a ritual that convinces your subconscious that you are unable to form a relationship with someone you value.
Think about it.
If you were to sit in a room with someone for an hour, and they completely ignored you, but you knew of their existence, how would you feel?
You’d probably start to feel uncomfortable as if they were judging you or avoiding you for some reason you don’t understand. You might even form the paranoid belief that there’s something wrong with you.
This is effectively what chronic porn use does—it changes the way you value yourself by way of juxtaposition to someone you can’t actually relate to.
And these are just a couple well known and verifiable negative affects of porn use.
– Justin
by Staff Writer, December 6th, 2019
Estimates indicate that 66% of men and 41% of women watch porn at least once a month. These people might be afflicted by pornosexuality and it keeps them from building genuine intimate relationships.
Pornosexuality occurs because relationships between human beings are increasingly digitalized. That is, we seldom connect with other people through a direct encounter. Instead, we do so through intermediaries. In other words, through a device between one human being and another. The Internet era enhanced this phenomenon that has now reached dramatic proportions. Shaping other types of phenomena, such as porn.
There’s been pornography and people who seek it for a long time, but new technologies have considerably facilitated access to it. To an extreme degree, in fact. This is what’s given rise to what’s now referred to as pornosexuality. That is, to a commitment to pornography as the axis of one’s individual sexuality.
There are no fully reliable statistics in this regard because this condition is still a problem issue that not everyone recognizes. However, a study called “Brain Structure and Functional Connectivity Associated With Pornography Consumption”, published by the Journal of the American Medical Association says otherwise. According to it, 66% of men and 41% of women watch pornography at least once a month. However, it isn’t clear how many of them truly fit into the “pornosexual” category.
“Pornography is to sex what McDonald’s is to food; a plasticized, generic version of the real thing.”
-Gail Dines-
Buy Book Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions (Series in Affective Science)
Pornosexuality and postmodernity
One of the most relevant features of postmodernity is the explosion of diversity in the field of sexuality. Clear manifestations in this regard now cover a wide range. It’s increasingly clear to everyone that there are multiple ways of experiencing one’s own sexuality and that all of them are perfectly respectable.
What’s not very clear is whether pornosexuality is another preference, a trend, or an actual problem. Strictly speaking, pornosexuals are people who only and exclusively achieve sexual satisfaction when they look at porn. There’s no other way to experience sexual pleasure for them. They’re not occasional users of x-rated movies. Instead, porn is essential to the enjoyment of their sexuality.
In progressive and postmodern terms, this is only an expression of the wide sexual diversity that exists today. However, from a psychological point of view, the question is whether this behavior isn’t a way of avoiding a real relationship. If so, then this isn’t a form of free expression as such, but a mechanism that hides a problem.
Buy Book Psychology (Comprehensive Book on Psychology and Science)
The problems associated with pornography
Everything seems to indicate there’s an upward spiral in the consumption of porn. People begin as occasional spectators and, progressively, the behavior becomes repetitive. Then, they come to a point in which they can only enjoy sexuality through pornography. This is because, apparently, porn numbs the desire for a real partnership and its enjoyment.
Pornography creates superficial sexual situations. And, this superficiality isn’t harmless because it conditions expectations, which are important and mediating elements. In addition, they strip one’s sexuality of all the contradictions of an authentic loving relationship. Thus, porn ends up becoming a substitute for sexual intercourse for those who have difficulties coping with the ups and downs of privacy.
Pornosexuality stagnates psychosexual development. In order to have a partner and achieve satisfactory intimacy, it’s necessary to cultivate and develop social skills and psycho-affective dimensions. In many cases, the obsessive relationship with porn prevents that evolution.
A serious topic
Some studies suggest that pornography has enough potential to modify the structure and functioning of the brain. This is because strong dopamine shocks occur when you watch an x-rated movie. When a stimulus provokes such responses, there’s an increased risk of developing an addiction.
Likewise, frequent exposure to pornography changes the brain’s reward center. It incites a person to watch more porn but produces less pleasure. The effect is exactly the same as that of addictions. That is, a person needs to consume more of a substance to obtain a level of pleasure similar to the one they previously obtained.
The most worrying thing about pornosexuality is that it deprives people of direct intimate contact with other human beings. They replace it with a screen that most likely hides a fear of building genuine relationships while still inciting such a fear. And, as with most addictive behavior, it ends up digging a hole from which it won’t be easy to get out of in the long term.
Stillness in the Storm Editor: Why did we post this?
Psychology is the study of the nature of mind. Philosophy is the use of that mind in life. Both are critically important to gain an understanding of as they are aspects of the self. All you do and experience will pass through these gateways of being. The preceding information provides an overview of this self-knowledge, offering points to consider that people often don’t take the time to contemplate. With the choice to gain self-awareness, one can begin to see how their being works. With the wisdom of self-awareness, one has the tools to master their being and life in general, bringing order to chaos through navigating the challenges with the capacity for right action.
– Justin
Not sure how to make sense of this? Want to learn how to discern like a pro? Read this essential guide to discernment, analysis of claims, and understanding the truth in a world of deception: 4 Key Steps of Discernment – Advanced Truth-Seeking Tools.
Stillness in the Storm Editor’s note: Did you find a spelling error or grammatical mistake? Send an email to [email protected], with the error and suggested correction, along with the headline and url. Do you think this article needs an update? Or do you just have some feedback? Send us an email at [email protected]. Thank you for reading.
Source:
https://exploringyourmind.com/pornosexuality-what-is-it/
Leave a Reply