Understand Porn Addiction
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What you will learn from this blog post:
What is porn and its impact?
What is porn addiction?
Symptoms of porn addiction?
Pornography and Depression
Pornography side effects
How to avoid pornography, and how to overcome pornography addiction?
Pornography Treatment?
What is porn and its impact?
Pornography is all about nudity, sexual content, and the video related to sex. It consists of videos, images, personal channels, categories, and many more. They have myriad websites on the web now though it is banned in several countries but people manage to get it from different social media platforms. This content makes a person play with him or her to get sexual pleasure. Some use it to try new things while having sex.
In every society, you will find two perspectives on pornography. One will support it with rationality and the other will oppose it with rationality too. People go with whom their idea of pornography matches. They can be in the group of supporters or opponents.
The individual must be aware and rational about the long-term consequences of pornography as it is time taking, people spend a lot of time finding their best porn and every person has their own set of favorite porn star lists and it takes a lot of time for them to prepare it as they go through 100 of videos to select their favorite porn star and they do refer it to their close friends. They can’t share it with anyone because they have the concern of confidentiality. It is very common among adolescents.
When an individual is excited he/she forgets about the outcome of the pornography, everything seems casual to them and they start involved in it with time. After some time it becomes a regular habit to search for the best porn of the day. They spend a lot of time in their room or the washroom. Their time is compromised due to it and they can’t help it, and it becomes frustrating for them to cope with it as they can’t share it with anyone around especially at home.
Think about the situation when you are stressed and overloaded with work you can’t think about anything but stress. The same thing happens with people when they are occupied with pornography they try to imagine every single female or male with them to have intercourse. Tell me if I am wrong.
Why I am telling it with confidence because one of my clients imagines himself with his sister and mother even though he doesn’t want it, He knows it is wrong. He stated that due to the stepmom and stepsister content, I was forced by my mind to think about it even though I do not want to. It is always advisable to put your children and young people in physical sports like gym, gymnastics, swimming, etc. So, they can divert themselves from pornography.
It is hard for parents to check on their young people because children say we need privacy. I went to meet a client in Pune and I was sitting on the couch, the doorbell rang and two young girls comes inside one of them was holding a brown paper bag they greet the parents of the boy and suddenly while greeting a bottle slips out of the bag and hits the ground, It was a scotch bottle and along with it a packet of condom also fell on the ground. You can see the violation of privacy given by parents to a boy.
Parents think that they must be doing something productive but they end up watching content that is not good for them and their careers and doing something which is against the rules and regulations of government and home as well. Single people indulge in masturbating, it doesn’t stop here they do it 3-4 times a day or even more a male or female. You tell me is it good for health?
The porn industry is huge I think no one can stop it. So, it is advisable to approach pornography by taking care of all the consequences into consideration. It is completely up to you to decide whether you want to watch it or not, you want to get addicted to it or not. I do not think that anyone wants to get addicted to anything but it just happens.
Pornography does have an impact on your attitude and perception about the opposite partner, it increases your expectations from your partner and when they fail to perform your fantasy you become sad and it starts impacting your relationship. So, beware when you finalize your decision.
What is porn addiction?
Porn addiction is one of the major setbacks for young age individuals. Sometimes they find it hard to come out of this trap.
Have you ever seen someone around you who doesn’t like to touch anything until it is germ-free? What if that person touches something accidentally? What happens next? That person washes hands 3-4 times and makes sure he/she doesn’t touch anything again.
Now let’s talk about porn addiction. Imagine you are sitting in a school, college, or at home and constantly thinking I promise myself that from now onwards I will not watch porn this is what we call obsession. This is a good insight that you developed for yourself but what happens whenever you are alone you find yourself consuming porn content which may lead to porn addiction and if you do not watch it you find yourself in trouble.
So, to stop all the thought process and mental pressure you start watching porn and this is what we call compulsion. So, you have the compulsion to watch it even if you wanted to stop it. This is where you start entering the trap of porn addiction. I give you a set of questions to ask yourself to get more clarity on porn addiction. Ask these questions to know whether you have a porn addiction or not.
Q1. How much time do I use to watch porn?
Q2. How do I feel after watching and masturbating? Did you feel shame or guilt?
Q3. Did I try to stop it several times but was unable to stop using pornography?
Q4. Did I avoid or postpone any friend’s meeting, or family meeting because of porn?
Q5. Out of 7 days, how many days do I watch porn?
Q6. Did I find it difficult to stop watching porn?
Q7. Did I search on the web about porn addiction or pornography addiction?
Q8. Did I search on the web about porn addiction treatment or pornography addiction treatment?
If you give honest answers to yourself, you will find yourself whether you have a porn addiction or not, and further you will not need any validation from anyone. Even if you want to check your score of porn addiction then do visit this website.
Some people ask Is porn addiction real? I hope after reading the blog until here you got the answer about porn addiction.
Symptoms of porn addiction?
Instead of giving you a straight answer, I want you to do the brainstorming by asking a few questions yourself, you may find it a little bit similar to the question you answer in the porn addiction section. Let’s begin:
Q1. Whenever I find the opportunity I don’t miss it to watch porn?
Q2. Do I spend a lot of time watching porn even though I have roles and responsibilities?
Q3. Do I find it difficult to control watching pornography?
Q4. Do I neglect or avoid personal or professional work or relationships because of pornography?
Q5. Do I watch porn instead of watching videos related to my work or syllabus more?
Q6. Do I become resistant to less porn content, have I started consuming more porn content?
Q7. Do I feel frustrated or irritated if I don’t get time to consume porn because of personal, professional, or family work?
Q8. Do I consume porn whenever I feel alone, emotionally distressed, or feeling boredom?
If you gave “Yes” as an answer to most of the questions then you have your answer about the symptoms of porn addiction. I always help my clients to find answers themselves instead of suggesting them anything directly. I think it is the best practice.
Porn Addiction and Depression
I have studied articles by researchers and I found that few researchers suggest that watching porn can help you overcome stress and depression, and on the other hand other researchers suggest that watching excessive porn can lead to depression. See, both of the research are proving their point. You can also read the articles on Pubmed, Google Scholar, or any other platform of your choice. You will get the idea about the same.
What I feel about porn addiction and depression then I would suggest, If you have answered all the questions I mentioned above and most of them indicate that you are addicted and have symptoms of pornography addiction then there are chances that you may find yourself depressed because I advise watching porn to overcome stress or distress is not a healthy coping mechanism.
I suggest you get in touch with any licensed mental health professional near you to get the proper line of treatment and not feel bad about it. I hope they will not judge you and will maintain confidentiality.
Side effects of watching porn/side effects of porn addiction
There are many side effects of watching excessive porn. I am going to talk straight about it:
- Time Consumption: Porn consumes a lot of time when someone starts exploring it by putting their roles and responsibilities aside, they give importance to the virtual world to seek pleasure and to satisfy their compulsion.
- Low productivity: Putting work aside and giving time to pornography snatches your quality time and thoughts which you can put into your work to boost your career and image but indulging in pornography takes it all away.
- Impact on physical appearance: Watching fit porn stars in pornography makes you think about your body shape and leads you to start hating yourself.
- Impact on self-capabilities: Watching porn stars having intercourse for hours leads you to think about your duration time and may put you under a lot of pressure while having intercourse.
- Comparison: It applies to both genders that they compare their body, and performance, sometimes even they compare their bedroom and feel bad about it.
- Porn Addiction: We already discussed it above but remember it impacts your time, relationships, attitude, and perception, and creates a lot of distraction.
- Problems in relationships: People do not accept it but when they watch porn they want to have the same intercourse with their partners or fantasize about it. It is for both genders. Reel life and real life are completely different. There is always a gap between reality and expectation.
- Mental health challenges: Excessive porn leads to frustration, irritable mood, anxiety, and depression. We already discussed it above.
Distraction: Pornography is one of the greatest distracting tools because without consuming it you can daydream about it all the time with anyone of your choice and no one can catch you. When you are not daydreaming you can watch it without any restriction, and even if you have restrictions you find a way to consume pornography.
How to avoid pornography, and how to overcome pornography addiction?
Remember you developed a porn addiction for a long time and it will take time to get over because no magic wand will fix the problem within a week or two. You are smart you know it already the difference is that you did not take any action yet. You have to make up your mind first then you can move further.
Trust me if you are not ready to take any step then no one can help you not even this article or any mental health professional. If you have even 1% will quit this addiction then we can work on it. Let’s discuss what you already know:
Cut down on pornography: You have to reduce the frequency of watching porn every day. For example, if you watch porn for 120 minutes every day, you have to reduce it by 30 minutes on the first day. Stick to this for a few days, not more than 7 days; now you are at 90 minutes.
Next week, reduce it by 30 minutes again and follow the same process. Now you have 60 minutes. If you follow it properly, then you will see the difference: from 120 minutes, you cut it down to 60 minutes. Now, reduce 30 minutes again from 60 minutes and follow the same process, and you will find that you are standing at 30 minutes.
Now, you watch porn every day for 30 minutes. Pick a day from Monday through Sunday and make it a no-porn day. Suppose you pick Thursday. So, make sure you do not watch porn on Thursday (I will tell you what you have to do when you have the urge to watch porn). Now, reduce 30 minutes to 15 minutes and select one more no-porn day. For example, you selected Sunday.Now, you watch porn for 15 minutes five days a week. Follow the process for no more than 6 days and make changes again Reduce the time from 15 minutes to 7 minutes and select one more no-porn day. For example, you selected Tuesday.
Now you watch porn for 7 minutes, 4 days a week. Now, reduce 7 minutes to 3 minutes and select one more no-porn day. This time, select a day of your choice; for example, you selected Saturday. Now you watch porn for 3 minutes three days a week, follow the process for 7 days, select a no-porn day again, and follow it for another week.
Now you are at a point where you watch porn for 3 minutes twice a week. Now, reduce 3 minutes to 2 minutes and select one more no-porn day. You select Friday, follow the same process for 7 days, and see that you are at the point where you watch porn for 2 minutes a day a week. Follow it for 7 days, and after that, just abstain.
- Find support: It can be hard because here you have to find support around you. Why I am asking you to do it because whenever you have a trigger to watch porn you can call that person or meet that individual in person and share your feelings to make sure this person is trustworthy.
If you find someone who is in recovery then get in touch with that person and ask him/her how did they do it. What helped them to overcome? How do they cope with the urges to watch porn? It is difficult but trust me it is the most powerful tool you will have in your pocket to overcome porn addiction.
- Develop good and healthy habits: I will tell you to join the gym until you have the finance and the proper mindset to hit the gym. Watch videos of Yoga on YouTube and start your day with it or do stretching, push-ups, lunges, or any exercise of your choice. Start eating healthy food including fruits and salad in your diet. Go for a 30-minute walk every day if you cannot exercise. Watch videos of meditation on YouTube and start it gradually. You can also do it when you have the urge to watch porn.
- Practice mindfulness: Stay alert and be in the moment and monitor your thoughts. Whenever you have the urge to watch porn just think about the consequences and stay disciplined, not casual because when you become casual you will lose it all.
- Schedule your day: It is always the best practice to schedule your day in advance. Work on your to-do list, start writing journals, read self-help books, your syllabus books, etc. Before sleeping monitor your day whether it went according to your plan or not. If not then what needs to be done the next day to get the most out of your plan?
Porn addiction Treatment?
If you tried all the things mentioned in the blog and nothing works out for you then I suggest you get the help of a mental health professional for porn addiction. Why I mentioned most of the things in the blog because first, an individual wants to try something by himself or herself until the problem is not severe then they ask for help when it becomes chronic.
So, I suggest you get proper help if you think you fall under the category of a chronic addict to pornography there is nothing wrong with it. You are not the only one who is suffering from it, you never know.
I hope it helps to get the idea about porn addiction.
It is a nice blog and it helped me to understand this topic closely. The questions you asked in the blogs are eye opener for me and my friends as well. Thank you sir for sharing your precious knowledge. Your techniques worked for me. A must read blog.