Porn Addiction

a. Compulsive physiological and psychological need for a habit-forming substance: a drug used in the treatment of heroin addiction.

b. The condition of being habitually or compulsively occupied with or involved in something.

The word �addiction� is often associated with the concept of powerlessness, unmanageability, illness or disease. A non-clinical definition of the word addiction reads, �devotion: a great interest in something to which a lot of time is devoted.� There is another definition that suggests that being addicted is to devote oneself habitually or obsessively.

Both of those definitions suggest that addiction is a choice and that if someone is habitual about their use of pornography to the point where it is having adverse affects in other areas of their life then they must also choose at some point to get help in abandoning their behavior. If someone has become heavily involved in using pornography they will more then likely have a difficult time giving up the behavior without some sort of outside support or intervention. They must however, choose to receive this help if the interventions are to be successful.

One of the obvious debates around whether an individual can become addicted to pornography is the lack of something �physical�, like a drug or some sort of substance. How can someone become addicted to something that has no �physical� form? If there isn�t a substance, a drug, going into the body, then what can cause a pornography addition?

The addiction comes from the individual who uses pornography to get a form of sexual satisfaction/pleasure. From this, they can develop a psychological relationship with this mood-altering experience and therefore wanting more of it.

Another possible explanation for some type of physical dependency on pornography may be examined when an individual engages in self-stimulation while using sexual imagery. The satisfaction/satiation from this practice creates an association linking the pornography to the temporary euphoric feelings caused by the chemicals released during sexual climax. A person therefore becomes dependent upon the entire experience in order to obtain the �high� or the �fix� they desire. The same is true about a cocaine addiction. It isn�t so much the cocaine that they are addicted to, so much as the enzymes, the dopamine, that is released by the brain when they use cocaine. Individuals may use pornography as a means, or a trigger, to achieve their ultimate euphoric feeling. This result may be why many producers (manufacturers) of adult content encourage self-stimulation so the consumer will engage in a behavior that will powerfully reinforce the continued use of pornography as a trigger for the subsequent mood-altering experience.

In order to find the cause of pornography addiction, we must first look at the human brain. Most addictions involved some form of outside chemicals/substances being introduced into the body, pornography, combined with masturbation, uses the body�s own chemicals/substances to produce this high. There are several chemicals involved: epinephrine, adrenaline, and dopamine. All of these chemicals are produced naturally by the body and are used for good and necessary functions, but when abused, they can lead to addiction � including pornography addition.

Epinephrine is used when creating/forming memories. When there are intense situation, or when adrenaline or dopamine levers are high, a higher amount of epinephrine is released into the body. You may know someone, or it might even be yourself, who has had an intense situation, or a near death situation, that you can still remember to this day as if it had just happened � as if you are watching the tape of that memory. Your brain releases higher amounts of epinephrine from the intense situation, and even from when you become aroused, burning those images into your mind. The chemical cause long-term �scars/wounds� and struggles with pornography, even after it is no longer being viewed.

Just about everyone is familiar with adrenaline, the rush, the �hyped� up feeling that you get from a thrill (ie. rollercoaster ride, before a game, etc.). An adrenaline rush is simply a good feeling. The term �adrenaline junkies� applies to people who strive for an adrenaline rush. When a person practices masturbation, adrenaline is released which causes one to become an �adrenaline junkie� or a pornography addict.

The chemical dopamine is one your body uses to make you feel satisfied. Your brain releases dopamine after you eat, or drink, or have sex. It is also heightened with the practice of masturbation. The problem with dopamine is that when there are large or excessive amounts of it, your brain has to change it physiology in order to accommodate the high levels. Dopamine collects in the synapses in your brain and generates the creation of more receptors. Therefore, the more receptors that are created, the more dopamine you need to produce the same feeing you are used to. So, for the pornography addict, the need to watch/view more pornography increases as the number of receptors increase.

Today, we live with more stress, pain and anxiety than perhaps any other society in the world�s history. Viewing porn, even engaging in cybersex chat, along with masturbation, cause the brain to release these chemicals back into its own nervous system. It�s no wonder so many people are becoming pornography addicts. It is a cheap means to achieve one of the body�s most powerful peak experiences! Pornography has been placed in direct competition with illicit drugs!

Viewing pornography and engaging in sexual chat are ways to �feel good� by passing time in an all-consuming activity that blocks out the trying realities of life, all the stress, the difficulties that people deal with every single day. It is a part of life. But for pornography addicts, exacting, time-consuming rituals leading up to the �main event� become a major part of the process. A man may make up some elaborate excuses for his wife as to why he is spending so many late nights at the office. He may put stacks of files in his briefcase and bring them home, saying how �swamped� he is. The longer and more elaborate the ritual, the lie, the more time he can pursue his �addiction� to forget the pressing realities of his life.

Whether the motive for watching, viewing pornography is sexual appetite, escape/self-medication, or even a combination of the two, engaging in these addictions causes the brain and body to �endogenously� produce and release chemical drugs into its own system, just as if they had been injected with a needle. This at-the-push-of-a-button drug injection is dragging millions of troubled victims along in its destructive wake.

Therefore, the persistent accessing of pornography not only provide the addict with sexual arousal, but offers a way to �self-medicate� in order to escape the realities of life and, if only temporarily, �make the pain go away.� What better way is there when, after an extremely stressful day at work, etc., then to relax with some pornography and achieve sexual, emotional, and physical satisfaction?

If you think about it, in many ways pornography is preferable to traditional drugs. For one thing, it can more easily be hidden from view. If you achieve your high through porn, do you stagger around, slur your words or pass out? After an porn fix, how likely is it that you will be pulled over and cited for DUI? What other drug can you sample for free as long as you like? (There are enough �free� and �sampler� porn available through basic Internet services to keep a pornography addict occupied for years.) And if the free or sample drugs aren�t strong enough, what other drug could you purchase in large enough quantities�not to mention a constantly changing variety to satisfy your changing mood, craving or preference�for just the cost of your Internet connection?

Pornography addiction follows a similar pathway as the traditional drug addiction. In order to mask, numb or deaden the pain of life, the porn addict seeks a quick mood change, some sort of stimulation, an escape from reality.

Eventually, though, he becomes powerless. He further spins out of control as the compulsion, the need, takes over his life. Even severe threats to job, family or health cannot slow down the obsession. He is caught in a cycle of the need for mood change, stimulation, escape and temporary relief, a vicious gripping cycle that both repels and draws him, repulses and arouses. Often the addict wants to change, in fact knows he must change or succumb to disaster. Virtually every porn addict reaches the point where he realizes the craving is simply too powerful; he cannot stop without help.

As an alcoholic gets the shakes from withdrawal, a porn addict�s world begins to shake apart. When they stop using pornography as their �coping� mechanism, the can begin to think that they are going crazy, and just want that �one more fix�. It is a lot easier for a porn addict to find and access their �fix� then it is for the alcoholic or the drug addict. Complete abstinence seems to be the key, which in this day and age in our society, if virtually impossible to do. No matter where you turn, there is some form of pornography waiting and taunting the porn addict to seek it out, to try just �one more time�.

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