Jack first saw porn on a school trip at the age of 9.
“It came up through things friends shared, then on flash gaming websites. I saw really bizarre things which evoked both arousal and curiosity. That gradually turned into just arousal, and then compulsion grew along with it,” Jack says in this Guardian article.
What started as something completely innocent developed into hours of isolated consumption and connection with a screen.
“The porn stimulus is intense, and it leads to desensitization to the small everyday pleasures that keep us sane and content,” he says.
Flash forward, and years later, Jack struggles in his sexual experiences with others.
“It was very difficult to maintain an erection. Real sex was less intense than the masturbation of a desensitized addict – which is what I was”.
In real life, you can’t simply keep clicking to experience something more extreme and stimulating.
While it can be challenging to determine the number of individuals who are “addicted” to pornography, Fight the New Drug receives countless messages from users who struggle with unwanted compulsions to pornography.
In May 2023 alone, one-third of all adults using the internet – viewed porn “Top Trends from Our Latest Look at People’s Online Lives.” Www.Ofcom.Org.Uk, 28 Nov. 2023, www.ofcom.org.uk/news-centre/2023/top-trends-from-our-latest-look-at-peoples-online-lives. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.Copy , and 64% of young adults actively seek out pornography weekly WiFi Talents. (n.d.). Alarming Porn Addiction Statistics: Impact on Society and Individuals Revealed. Retrieved September 28, 2024, from https://wifitalents.com/statistic/porn-addiction/Copy .
We’ve heard time and time again it’s challenging for many to quit porn. Recent evidence shows that, more often than not, those who consume it do so consistently rather than just once.
An Escalating Behavior
Psychotherapist Paula Hall tells the guardian that over her 30 years of experience working with those struggling with substance addictions is what makes pornography so addicting.
Hall says, “Porn use carries a risk of escalation, and that is what hallmarks it for me as an addictive behavior. It’s a condition that causes significant suffering. . . .”
Tony also self-identifies as a pornography addict and says his addiction has seriously impacted his life.
“I indulge in a compulsive behaviour that I feel totally unable to stop, despite severe negative consequences. I feel like an addict, I emotionally isolate like an addict, and I suffer the consequences like an addict. These websites are specifically designed to target addicts and keep them clicking…They tease our interests and kinks you didn’t know you had … You wouldn’t believe the number of mouse clicks you go through in a session sometimes. It’s not enough to watch the same few videos over again. It’s always more, more, more, new, new, new,” Tony says.
What Tony is experiencing is not new to many individuals who consume pornography. As your brain adapts and reacts to the dopamine highs it gets from consuming porn, it needs more to have the same reaction.
The New York Times best-selling author of The Brain That Changes Itself, Dr. Norman Doidge, says that when people who create pornography are spreading hype around something new, whether a new theme or trend, it’s not because they’ve suddenly decided to be creative, its because they have to. Users become desensitized and need a more novel experience.Doidge, N. (2007). The Brain That Changes Itself. New York: Penguin Books.Copy
The Darkness of Addiction
In Psychotherapist Paula Halls’s research, she found that more than 93% of users who report having a difficult time controlling their porn use report struggling with depression. What’s worse is that 40% of those people say they’ve “felt at times like ending their life.”
From the countless messages we’ve received and what our friends at Fortify have shared with us, we’ve heard all too often the mental toll pornography plays. We’ve heard from users all over the world who have experienced added depression and loneliness due to pornography consumption.
A report by the Institute for Family Studies shows that frequent porn consumption is connected to increased negative mental health outcomes.
“Frequent use of online pornography is linked to an increased occurrence of negative mental health outcomes among young adults. Nearly 1 in 3 young adults (32%) who watch pornography at least once a day report feeling “down, depressed, or hopeless” most or all of the time, compared with 19% of those who rarely or never watch porn.”Institute for Family Studies. (2023, October 1). Frequent porn use is linked to negative mental health among Gen Z and millennials. https://ifstudies.org/blog/frequent-porn-use-is-linked-to-negative-mental-health-among-gen-z-and-millennialsCopy
These statistics are alarming, and anyone struggling with a problematic pornography problem or addiction doesn’t deserve to feel this way. That’s why we at Fight the New Drug help spread awareness of the realities of pornography and its far-reaching impact on individuals, relationships, and society. If you are struggling, you don’t have to go through this alone.
Get Help
Thanks to neuroplasticity, the brain can change and create new neuropathways, so if you’re struggling today, it doesn’t mean you will forever. Fighters worldwide have found their own healing through various recovery tools like Fortify and Relay, therapy, discovering connection and community, lifestyle changes and improvements, and more. There are resources available, and healing and recovery are possible no matter how trapped you feel by pornography.
