Myth Busting: Porn Addiction

It should not surprise anyone that there is a significant amount of misinformation circulating about porn. Many people feel uncomfortable talking about porn and this provides the perfect environment for the topic to become distorted and misrepresented. The myth we are going to bust today concerns the existence of porn addiction, one that I have heard for years on end, not only from people outside the industry, but also from those who make adult content.

What is an Addiction?

Although the term “addiction” is thrown around in pop psychology, it has a very specific definition.

When a behavior (such as gambling) or substance (such as alcohol and nicotine) becomes “addictive” it leads to significant changes in a person’s brain. Addiction works along reward and reinforcement pathways in the brain and is helped by the neurotransmitter, dopamine. People who are addicted to a substance, or behavior, will have changes in their pre-frontal cortex that result in them being hypersensitive to related things in their environment. This means their attention becomes focused on getting the reward from the behavior or substance to the point that it has a major impact on their day-to-day functioning.

Another feature of addiction is that the person will continue to pursue the behavior or substance even if it is causing them significant distress or harming them physically. Because addiction functions along reward and reinforcement pathways with the boosting of dopamine, people will become tolerant to it and will require more in quantity and more intensity to get the same positive feelings.

Why Doesn’t Overuse of Porn Qualify As An Addiction?

Although some people believe that watching porn is bad, this is based on moral concerns rather than any scientific evidence.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), which guides psychologists and psychiatrists in the assessment of mental health issues does not recognize sex addiction or porn addiction; there simply is no clinical evidence showing that porn has addictive properties. Furthermore, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Classification of Diseases which includes diagnostic criteria for Compulsive Sexual Behaviors, explicitly rejects notions of “sex addiction” and “porn addiction.”

Although the anti-porn proponents will cite studies including brain scans and other seemingly impressive data, the consensus in the psychological community is that these studies are poorly constructed, they conflate correlation and causation and they simply do not consider the complexity of human sexuality.

What is the Real Story?

Human sexuality is extremely complicated and many factors come into play when people are experiencing distress connected to sexual thoughts and activities. As with any activity, there can come a point where people feel they are overdoing it and feel upset as a result. As opposed to an addiction, most clinicians believe this is more like compulsive behavior that someone will engage in to escape other unpleasant feelings (such as depression, anxiety or loneliness).

The issue with porn is the stigma that is associated with it, and that it is something that most people engage in in private. So, if a person is using porn as escapism from depression, anxiety, or feelings of detachment from others, the stigma of porn only makes addressing these core issues harder. The effect of cultural, moral, and religious beliefs on people’s self-assessment of their sexual desires and behaviors cannot be understated, and has been the basis of psychological studies.

Experts in this field say the focus needs to be on creating a sex positive culture, improving sex education, and exploring one’s own beliefs when it comes to sex. Rather than porn being the problem, the focus should be on individuals, how they conceptualize sex and what underlying issues are leading to compulsive behaviors.

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Rem Sequence is an Australian adult content creator, blogger and internationally published alt model. She has a background in psychology, philosophy and political science and has worked in health and sex education, youth work and trauma counseling for almost two decades. Contact Sequence via rem@ynotcam.com and visit her on Twitter at @remsequence.