Porn addiction: top facts

Porn addiction is similar to drug or alcohol addiction

The brain activities of compulsive porn-consumers was found to be very similar in its patterns to drug and alcohol addicts, according to research by Cambridge University. This underscores the fact that porn addiction is a real kind of addiction and not a fancy term floating around in the media.

Just like any addiction, porn addiction can come with its set of threats to one’s self-control and mental health.

Porn addiction can affect your sex life

Sounds surprising, doesn’t it? But too much porn is linked to chronic loss of the neurotransmitter dopamine, research suggests. Dopamine is responsible for the body’s response to sexual pleasure.

This obviously means that as time goes by, ordinary sexual experiences and acts fail to satisfy one’s urges. That’s because the threshold for sexual arousal is set too high by porn. It will take something wildly out of the ordinary to make one reach that sexual high again. Which can make one lose interest in regular sex.

Your ‘real’ bed-skills might take a hit

Yes, you read it right! A compulsive addiction to pornography can not only make one lose interest in everyday sex but also make one lose your skills at the game.

Due to all the porn over-exposure, one loses out on the capacity for an emotional connect and intimacy that plays such an important role in a good sex life.

More often than not, pornography is consumed in isolation. So, excessive porn viewers are obsessed to satisfying their urges in isolation; they become indifferent to the needs of the partners.

Excessive porn can trigger infidelity

Porn addiction in can bring bad news for the overall health of a relationship, various studies have shown.

Excessive exposure to porn can increase the amount of negative communication in a relationship.

Porn addiction can be the culprit for excessive desire to replicate the sexual acts being watched. It can also be responsible for having multiple sex partners at once.

Too much porn is not that great for mental health

Consuming too much porn can ultimately take its toll on your mental health, further leading to low productivity at work or school, for example. Daily consumption of porn puts one at a higher risk of depression and anxiety, studies have concluded.

Increased secrecy, lesser intimacy and greater feelings of guilt and depression have been commonly reported among compulsive porn addicts.

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