Porn addiction: Top 5 facts

1. Porn addiction is similar to drug or alcohol addiction
   According to a research by Cambridge University, the brain activity of compulsive porn-consumers was found to be very similar in its patterns to drug and booze addicts. This underscores the fact that porn addiction is a real kind of addiction and not a fancy term being floated around in the media.
   
   Just like any addiction, porn addiction can come with its set of threats to one’s own self-control and mental health.
2. Porn addiction can affect your sex life!
   Sounds surprising, doesn’t it? But research suggests that too much porn is linked with chronic loss of the neurotransmitter dopamine. Dopamine, produced in our brain 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. This can easily make one lose interest in regular sex!
3. 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 organic, emotional connect and intimacy that plays such an important role in your sex life.
   
   More often than not, pornography is consumed in isolation. So, excessive porn makes one obsessed to satisfying their urges in isolation and they become indifferent to the needs of the partners.
4. Excessive porn can trigger infidelity
   Various studies have shown that porn addiction in one or both can bring bad news for the overall health of the relationship. Excessive exposure to porn can increase the amount of negative communication in a relationship.
   
   Porn addiction has sometimes been declared as the culprit for excessive desire to replicate the sexual acts being watched. It is also responsible for casualisation of having multiple sex partners at the same time. That is why it has been directly linked, on various levels, to lower commitment levels and higher infidelity rates in couples.
5. 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 among other problems. Studies have concluded that daily consumption of porn puts one at a higher risk for depression and anxiety.
   
   Increased secrecy, lesser intimacy and greater feelings of guilt and depression have been commonly reported among compulsive porn addicts.

Increasing clarity on the negative effects of porn addiction only goes on to underline the importance of having more awareness and open, healthy discussion around porn via education.

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About the author: Harish Pedaprolu is a writer and academic based out of Mumbai, India. He has been writing and editing content for the last 6 years. He has also been researching and teaching philosophy at the university level for the past 5 years. He can be reached out on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.