Porn Addiction: is this actually a thing? Is Porn even bad for you? Let’s find out
Is porn even bad for you? Let’s take a look at the basics and decide.
I first heard of porn addiction, not through reading any online articles about medical conditions, but after randomly browsing through celebrity gossip. The piece which drew my attention was about Terry Crews, the former American Football linebacker who has forged a lucrative career as a comedian and movie star. He has now become well-known for his YouTube series Dirty Little Secrets. These videos detail his struggles to control an obsessive porn habit.
So what constitutes porn addiction? This is a subject which is hard to quantify, especially since huge numbers of men (and women) watch porn on a regular basis without any issues. How many exactly? According to a recent report, a sample survey revealed 73% of women and 98% of men admitted to hooking up to Internet porn sites in the last six months.
Porn sites attract more traffic than Twitter, Wikipedia and Netflix combined. The profits generated by porn outstrip Hollywood and the music industry. Obviously, just because a lot of people like doing something doesn't automatically make it a problem. The reason so many people use porn websites is simple. To borrow an oft-quoted phrase from the mountaineering community “because it's there.”
In the early 21st century porn is perfectly suited to our obsession with screen interaction. The footage is invariably filmed in ultra-high definition. And thanks to the world-wide-web, anyone can access their favorite site simply by typing that four-letter p-word into their search engine. I just did that and received 2 billion results in 0.31 seconds. In many cases, viewing porn isn't done slyly. It can become an integral part of a relationship, with couples browsing through video clips together, snuggling closely, perhaps with a jug of popcorn to hand as if they're watching the boxset of Game of Thrones.
So at what stage does regularly accessing all this freely available porn ceases to be a voyeuristic diversion and become an addiction? And if porn addiction is a thing, what differentiates this behaviour from someone who merely likes watching a lot of porn? Assuming people can become addicted to using porn, what are the remedies?
One potentially problematic area is down to human nature. We are all naturally inquisitive, but some people are driven to pry. For some, porn can be equated to a gateway drug, the draw from a spliff which immediately sparks curiosity about a stronger hit. A potential ‘addict’ might feast their senses on one site, then feel compelled to embark on a trawl through the Internet to unearth ever more explicit material. There are no horizons with porn, just endless novelty and access to unlimited material from a global background. Somebody might commence their journey into this virtual dimension by entering amateur adult streaming sites or chat rooms. As their demands grow ever more insatiable, they could initiate cybersex. Progressing from this, they might well move beyond the 2D environment into the 3D universe of interactive motion-controlled porn and sexual avatars.
But this brings us back to the question, is any of this behavior actually damaging? In which case the answer is resolutely no. A lot of the 3D stuff almost seems like glorified video gaming. The psychiatric community also remains divided about the subject, with one commentator stating “sex and porn addiction are pop psychology concepts with no legitimate scientific basis.” (Dr David Ley, The Myth of Sex Addiction.) On the other hand, in 2018 the World Health Organization recognized compulsive sexual behaviour as a mental disorder.
Whether or not psychiatrists can agree on the subject, one Harley Street therapist, Rob Watt, has reported a 100% increase in referrals, with patients ranging from teenagers to the elderly. Couples are reporting for treatment together. “We are increasingly seeing more people presenting with a compulsive behaviour on pornography and, in the younger generation, this is becoming more pronounced. With porn, you can find bigger, better, faster, harder consistently. Dopamine is the neurochemical of desire and you might as well be on coke, having one line and not putting it down until the bags finished. There's a tolerance level that develops - in other words, what did it for you yesterday doesn't do it today, and there's some pretty dark stuff going on out there.”
What’s being described here can certainly justify the label addiction. But, again, there are grey areas. Porn itself is demonstrably the most popular human leisure pursuit of all time. Porn addiction is subjective. A partner discovering an Internet history peppered with hardcore sites might see this as a shocking revelation, in its own way, akin to discovering a clandestine drug stash. But is their significant other an addict or merely someone they need to have a conversation with about keeping secrets?
For those who have developed an uncontrollable urge to access pornography, at the expense of a ‘normal’ physical relationship with their partner, therapy is the answer. Unlike alcoholics who can be prescribed librium, or heroin addicts being administered methadone, there’s no clinical cure for a porn addict. But therapists can recommend cognitive-behavioural therapy, as well as a lot of objective communication between partners, not to mention accepting filters to curtail access to porn sites.
Where does the IconicMan sit in all this? Where sex addiction is concerned, the crucial attribute is possessing the intelligence to acknowledge there is absolutely nothing wrong with appreciating the adrenaline-provoking and aesthetically pleasing aspect of pornographic videos. The movie clips on porn websites are what they are. None of the actors are ever going to be nominated for Oscars, but then, that's hardly the point. This isn't about social commentary, it's about pleasure, pure and simple. The producers of all these films understand how easily human beings can be stimulated by this type of activity, and as long as there's no exploitative element and the couples (or however many participants are involved) are having consensual sex, no one should ever feel ashamed of indulging in a porn habit.
In conclusion, an IconicMan should be able to view the question of porn addiction objectively, be aware of the potential dangers posed by boundless access to explicit material, but also able to appreciate that the vast percentage of those enjoying online porn, do so without any issues whatsover.
For those who have developed an uncontrollable urge to access pornography, at the expense of a ‘normal’ physical relationship with their partner, therapy is the answer. Unlike alcoholics who can be prescribed librium, or heroin addicts being administered methadone, there’s no clinical cure for a porn addict. But therapists can recommend cognitive-behavioural therapy, as well as a lot of objective communication between partners, not to mention accepting filters to curtail access to porn sites.
Where does the IconicMan sit in all this? Where sex addiction is concerned, the crucial attribute is possessing the intelligence to acknowledge there is absolutely nothing wrong with appreciating the adrenaline-provoking and aesthetically pleasing aspect of pornographic videos. The movie clips on porn websites are what they are. None of the actors are ever going to be nominated for Oscars, but then, that's hardly the point. This isn't about social commentary, it's about pleasure, pure and simple. The producers of all these films understand how easily human beings can be stimulated by this type of activity, and as long as there's no exploitative element and the couples (or however many participants are involved) are having consensual sex, no one should ever feel ashamed of indulging in a porn habit.
In conclusion, an IconicMan should be able to view the question of porn addiction objectively, be aware of the potential dangers posed by boundless access to explicit material, but also able to appreciate that the vast percentage of those enjoying online porn, do so without any issues whatsover.
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Loves writing articles, as well as his own fiction. A passionate fan of movies and box-sets, he also dreams of penning a highly-acclaimed screenplay or two. Away from his laptop, he plays guitar, synth and sings in a rock band, and dreams of heading the bill at the Glastonbury Festival.