Porn is freedom from relationships and the stress they bring. I can dedicate myself to work and running and hobbies. Rub one out and go to sleep. Simple. Sorry DJT, I will vote for you but not follow you down the anti-porn road.
Feminists attempting to ban porn is the equivalent of male Conservatives trying to ban female sex toys. The difference is that when men try to ban women from buying dildoes, they are derided as puritanical fruitcakes and it's a feminist issue and all the white knights come on board. When women try to stop men from watching porn, it's hard science and protecting vulnerable women, and all the white knights come on board.
Anything that produces dopamine is potentially addictive. Period.
In the non-medical world, sure, I guess.
In the medical/mental health world, no.
“Addiction to substances, for example, not only activates your brain's pleasure circuits, it actually changes your brain chemistry so that you can no longer release feel-good chemicals like dopamine as effectively without the help of the drug you're addicted to.“
Sex/porn have not been proven to change brain chemistry, which is why it is not labeled as a disorder like drugs/alcohol/gambling.
It’s open and shut. You can religiously or socially disagree with it, but there’s no medical basis to support your argument.
You are only touching on chemical addiction. Are you going to tell me that people aren’t addicted to things like food, Tiktok, video games, gambling, social media etc? People even get addicted to actions like lying because of the satisfaction of getting away with it.
As someone that actually studies this stuff rather than just citing the first article that agrees with my stance, I promise my claim that any behavior that produces dopamine can form addictive tendency’s is 100% true and based in science.
I know people that will have a meltdown and a severe anxiety reaction if they can’t check their phone every 30 minutes or so.
Your statement that porn doesn’t alter brain chemistry is blatantly wrong. Did you ever have the urge to masturbate before you did it for the first time? Did you ever have the compulsive urge to go watch porn and masturbate before you did it for the first time? The answer is no, and that the compulsion exists because of rewiring of the brain.
When dopamine is released through performing an action, your brain says “hey, I liked that, let’s do it again!” So you do it again. When you get a dopamine hit as big as the one most people get after orgasming, your brain goes “holy crap, that was awesome!” And starts to give you the impulse to do it more often, especially when it’s so easy to do for what you are getting out of it. You eventually get to the point where true chemical addiction forms, and this isn’t exclusive to porn, it’s anything that gives you instant gratification.
I like to point to something like the “No Nut November” trend for teens and young adults. Almost every guy I know commits to no porn and no orgasm for the entire month of November, and the majority fail in the first week if not the first day. If not an addiction, than why is this? If you are not addicted to the way something feels, than why can’t you bring yourself to stop doing it even when you want to stop? That is by definition addiction.
Most people are just unwilling to admit that because they feel bad that they aren’t in control.
As someone that actually studies this stuff rather than just citing the first article that agrees with my stance, I promise my claim that any behavior that produces dopamine can form addictive tendency’s is 100% true and based in science.
Really lol, ‘you study this stuff?’ What year undergrad are you?
I trust the APA, how’s that? And they rejected ‘porn addiction’ for the latest DSM. You know the book that EVERY competent professional EVERYWHERE has on their desk.
It’s not just some rando paper on pubmed. It’s the collective wisdom of the best health professionals in the world and they definitively say that compulsive sexual behavior is not on the same footing as drug addiction.
There is term known as ‘process addiction.’ If you want some papers on it to understand better, I’ll be happy to provide them, but you’re way out of your depth here.
As someone that actually studies this stuff rather than just citing the first article that agrees with my stance, I promise my claim that any behavior that produces dopamine can form addictive tendency’s is 100% true and based in science.
Really lol, ‘you study this stuff?’ What year undergrad are you?
I trust the APA, how’s that? And they rejected ‘porn addiction’ for the latest DSM. You know the book that EVERY competent professional EVERYWHERE has on their desk.
It’s not just some rando paper on pubmed. It’s the collective wisdom of the best health professionals in the world and they definitively say that compulsive sexual behavior is not on the same footing as drug addiction.
There is term known as ‘process addiction.’ If you want some papers on it to understand better, I’ll be happy to provide them, but you’re way out of your depth here.
Completing my bachelors at the end of this semester, thanks for asking.
You’re totally correct in saying that it’s not on the same footing as drug addiction, the two aren’t the same. Drugs involve physical withdrawals and porn doesn’t. However, the first thing you learn in psychology is that most of it is not particularly solid and that our understanding of how mental illness and conditions work is always evolving, and that disorders based in the DSM are constantly added, changed and removed. It’s not gospel, it’s merely used as a reference point.
The problem is that in making that claim you’ve completely misunderstood what I said.
Again, those that attempt to quit porn over and over again but consistently fail, and feel awful about it every time, is that not addiction? It’s a very uncomplicated argument, yet people love to dance around it. Addiction is defined as a compulsion around the abuse of a substance or action that can’t be easily quit. Did you not just admit that porn is a compulsion? Is there not plenty of evidence and experience to suggest porn is extremely hard to quit? That is your answer. It’s that simple. Doesn’t matter if it’s in the DSM or not. By definition, the compulsive use of pornography is an addiction.
As a healthcare professional Im not entirely sure we can tease out just yet whether pornography itself causes maladaptive sexual functioning or distress. But what I can say is those who suffer from mental health disorders such as anxiety, depression, etc and consume pornography regularly may have maladaptive sexual functioning due to an underlying psychiatric condition that predisposes them to that anyway.
In a few years once more data is gathered and more studies are done perhaps we will arrive at a different conclusion. For now I can say if your partner has a problem with you watching porn then either find a new partner or stop watching it.
Again, those that attempt to quit porn over and over again but consistently fail, and feel awful about it every time, is that not addiction? It’s a very uncomplicated argument, yet people love to dance around it. Addiction is defined as a compulsion around the abuse of a substance or action that can’t be easily quit.
I don’t know why people do any manner of things that are harmful repeatedly. Why do people cut, pull their hair, masturbate, gamble, shop, etc despite the negative consequences?
Some sexually deviant behavior is informed by trauma. Other is purely pleasure-seeking. Some has harmful consequences, other behavior almost has none other than the emotional response that it produces. You seem to be lumping a lot together here
If you paint with an overly broad brush and pathologize behavior that is otherwise normal, then you will do more harm than good in the long run. This area requires much more thought and careful study of the brain - I’d suggest you look at recent work with fMRI scans during compulsive behavior. This is why the understanding of these kinds of mental health problems is fundamentally different than drug addiction, despite the parallels.
I’ll use an easy-to-understand analogy: think about arthritis. There are many forms, but the two most common are rheumatoid and psoriatic. They have much in the way of overlapping symptoms. But treating one as the other could potentially be serious, and ineffective at minimum.
So you're saying you're a porn addict that gets angry at anyone who talks about taking away your fix?
Nah porn, at least in the modern form, is pretty cancerous. I'm not morally against masturbation or anything, but you'd be an idiot to assume porn (at least in it's modern form) can't be destructive if you let yourself become addicted to it. This is true for anything that gives you extreme, instant gratification with no work involved to get it.
Does this mean I shouldn't have electricity in my house? Or heat? Ahhhh instant warmth! Should I only warm up by cardio?
Anyway what kind of porn was he into?
Zinger! How could no one pick up on this? One of the great logic retorts ever! Damn! Zingerrrrrr!
Actually. . .yeah. I mean, what's so bad about blowing your tube every now and then by watching some good old fashioned busty milf's? I jack my noodle about 7 times a day, and you know what? I feel great man! This dude seriously campaigned against porn for what? Porn has been around forever, and when your woman doesn't do her job, what else can you do! You gotta get you noodle wet sometime or another. I once found my grandpa's nudy mags that were dated from in the 60's when I was about 6 years old. I started thinking: what the hell are these. I felt that these babes were smokin' hot, and I started to bust to them when I was about 7 or 8. Before every meet, I bust a fat load into a sock and then I go out and almost win my county race. It's a pretty big accomplishment. The other day, I set a new pr on my 5k after shooting the load: 23 minutes. That's pretty impressive. I am only a junior, but I know that I will make it to state this year if me and good old willy shoot the pooch everyday.