Your Brain on Porn Read Online Free PDF Page B

porn viewing correlates with depression, anxiety, stress and social (mal)functioning, [16] as well as less sexual and relationship satisfaction and altered sexual tastes, [17] poorer quality of life and health ,[18] and real-life intimacy problems. [19] But so far, researchers seldom, if ever, ask about other phenomena seen regularly on the forums, such as impaired motivation and confidence, brain fog (inability to focus), loss of attraction to real people, sexual dysfunction, escalation to what users themselves describe as more extreme material over time, and so forth.
     
    In any case, people who have been using porn heavily since puberty rarely make the connection
    between their porn use and symptoms such as anxiety, depression or weak erections until after they stop using. No matter how miserable they are, porn seems like a way to feel good – a solution rather than a source of problems.
     
    Meanwhile, there's little point in a researcher asking such people if their porn use has caused their symptoms. Porn users have not been given any reason to consider that possibility. Society has already put their problems in neat little boxes that do not take account of internet porn use. Today's porn users are regularly diagnosed with – and prescribed medication for – social anxiety, low self-esteem, concentration problems, lack of motivation, depression, performance anxiety (even when they also can't achieve an erection or climax on their own – unless they use porn), and so forth.
     
    Some quietly suffer with panic that their sexual orientations have mysteriously morphed, or that they must be closet perverts because they eventually can only get off to fetish porn, or that they will never be able to have sex, and thus intimacy, because of their sexual dysfunctions. Not to be alarmist, but I read far too many recovery accounts that mention earlier suicidal thoughts. Disturbingly, recent research at Oxford University found that moderate or severe addiction to the internet was associated with increased risk for self-harm .[20] Here are comments by three guys:
    I have seriously considered suicide throughout my life because of these issues but I was
    able to cope until I found out porn was the problem. 115 days later I have finally broken free of its chains. It's still tough, but I know if I don't use it I'll be able to have sex with my beautiful girlfriend the next day.
    *
    Staying off porn really makes a difference! I thought it was impossible to quit porn to the
    point of contemplating castration and suicide. Here's one thing I actually didn't know that helped me out: People who view 'transsexual' porn do it because of all the stimulation, and
    even the producers admit that they make this fetish for a straight audience. My thoughts that I might have been bi/gay were more of an optical/psychological illusion.
    *
    As a child I was highly athletic, smart, and sociable. I was always happy and had a million friends. That all changed around age 11 when I downloaded KaZaA and progressed to
    nearly every type of porn imaginable (dominatrix, animal, amputee, etc.). I started having severe depression and anxiety. The next 15 years of my life were completely miserable. I was
    incredibly anti-social. I didn't talk to anybody and sat alone at lunch. I hated everyone. I quit all the sports that I played even though I was top rank in all of them. My marks plummeted to
    barely passable. As much as I hate to think about it now, I had even started thinking about planning my own 'Columbine style' exit to this world.
     
    After people quit using porn, the benefits they report are often staggering. Indirectly, their experience suggests that some brains have been profoundly affected by today's superstimulating highspeed porn. As we'll see, formal research is now starting to bear out their reports.
     
    Given the weight of first person testimony from these forums worldwide, the emphasis should be
    on further research that sheds light on the