How does porn affect your brain?

Pornography has been with us since the beginning of time.

Our prehistoric ancestors made erotic drawings on cave walls. The ancient Greeks erected statues with a high erotic component, as well as pictorial representations of sexual acts in vases. All of this happened long before the adult film industry started producing its first movies.

Thanks to the golden age of the Internet and telecommunications, frequent porn consumption has skyrocketed in the last decade. Does this mean that porn is harmless?

Some men decide to stimulate themselves by viewing pornography, thinking that it is just a quick and healthy way to relieve tension or to explore sexual tastes and preferences without leaving the couch. This can be relatively true and beneficial in the short term, however, it can easily become an addiction that could negatively affect our brain.

• Related article: "Parts of the human brain (and functions)"

The Effects of Porn Dependence on the Brain

The limbic system of the brain is responsible for rewarding us and making us feel pleasure when we have experiences positive, such as making love for the first time, winning a soccer game, or tasting our food favorite.

The hormones dopamine Y glutamate they are released in a controlled way every time we are subjected to positive stimuli. Dopamine is the hormone of happiness, while glutamate makes our body remember the experience.

When we stimulate ourselves with pornography, there is an exponential increase in the amounts of glutamate and dopamine released. This causes the body to react to this stimulus as if it were actually a very deep and real sexual pleasure, despite the obvious absence of another human being during this act.

This increase in the doses of dopamine and glutamate released by the brain, will make us need each time consume more and more varied content, sometimes prioritizing consuming pornography over others things. When this is not controlled, it can develop into a serious addiction, which can take years of therapy to complete rehabilitation.

No one is safe from porn addiction, which can be as serious as addiction to alcohol, tobacco, gambling, or hard drugs. When dopamine levels are out of control due to excessive consumption of pornography, the simplest things in life, that we used to before enjoy normally, such as a walk on the beach at sunset or a meal with friends, they become totally boring and tasteless when compared to the porn.

This addiction can also lower our libido and ruin our sexual relationships, since pornography can decrease our ability to orgasm and maintain an erection.

The habitual consumption of pornography makes our brain learn to let our body respond only to the images that we are used to seeing on the screen, which quite often are far from a sexual relationship conventional. When we are having sex with our partner, our body will no longer be able to respond in the proper way. This dysfunction often causes feelings of frustration, guilt, shame, and a lack of self-confidence.

Another big disadvantage of easy and unlimited access to this type of content is the lack of motivation to go out and meet people, network and build fruitful and lasting relationships. Regular consumption of porn will make that little by little, we close ourselves more contenting ourselves with instant pleasure and decreasing our chances of having a healthy relationship with other people. Due to this, our self-esteem will decrease, which will cause us to consume more pornography to redeem that pain with a temporary dose of dopamine, which will make us feel worse and worse. It is a vicious cycle that will turn us into distant and apathetic people if we do not stop it in time.

From the point of view of the individual, pornography is not a problem, the real problem is the addiction that it can generate. This is due to the lack of motivation, shame and lack of self-esteem that its habitual consumption causes.

Self-stimulation through viewing pornography may be a good way to relax for some people, however, when we use it without measure, as a means of escaping reality, it can become a problem more serious than you can imagine.

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My name is Javier Ares and I am an expert Psychologist in Cognitive Behavioral therapy, a therapy with scientific validity and that helps many people to be able to control their personal problems.

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