Effects of Porn On the Brain

Put simply, porn’s effect on the brain can be broken down into two categories:

Sexual Conditioning

The first way porn conditions people sexually is by teaching them that, “This is how people have sex, and this is how I should do it.” Porn gives people all sorts of inaccurate concepts about sex: What women are supposed to like, what men are supposed to like, how a sexual exchange is supposed to happen. Even when knowing that what you’re watching is fake, it’s been documented how watching porn conditions people’s understanding and expectations regarding sex.

The second way porn conditions people can be summed up by is, “This is what turns me on.” Continued porn use provides porn-induced preferences/fetishes. People come to believe that certain kinds of people or things naturally arouse them, but that’s simply how they’ve been trained, especially if from a young age. Then, as porn use becomes more severe, people get to the point where porn is literally the only thing that turns them on. Porn becomes more exciting than real sex, and the only way to stay aroused is by clicking from one video to the next.

Addiction-related brain changes

You don’t have to experience a full addiction to experience addiction-like affects. The most universal impact that porn has on brains across all levels of use is called sensitization.

Sensitization occurs when the brain wires together the sights, sounds, smells, sensations, emotions, and memories associated with a big reward, such as masturbating to porn – creating a pathway that can blast your reward center in the future. When activated by cues or triggers, this pathway creates powerful, hard to ignore cravings.

Bingeing on anything that induces high levels of dopamine (porn, junk food, TV) gets interpreted by your brain as, “This activity is really valuable. You need to do it more often.”

Your brain gets sensitized to porn-use as a rewarding activity, which then gets reinforced by each use.

The info for this lesson comes from Gary Wilson’s work at Your Brain on Porn.

This is a fantastic article you can read to further understand porn’s effect on your the brain.

	Richard & Mari Curry have been Blessed in married since December 2005 and have four children. They love working together as a team and are passionate about caring for others, especially in the realm of marriage development. After Mari received her Masters of Divinity from Cheongshim Theological Seminary, she and Richard served as co-pastors in Florida. Since then, they moved to New Jersey and over the years have happily served in a variety of ministry roles from music to education. All the while, working together to serve the Blessed Marriage Project and now High Noon Couples. They were a part of the founding team in 2013 and have been a part of it ever since. They currently serve as the directors of Highnoon Couples. They love the Energize! Retreats because they help realize True Parent’s desire for healthy couples and reminds us of Heavenly Parent’s love and hope for us all! Contact Mari at: mari@kr.highnoon.org
	Crescentia & Leighton DeGoede have been Blessed in married since October 2010, and have three children. Crescentia is currently serving as the District Pastor of district 3 and local pastor of the Clifton Family Church. Previously Crescentia was the Director of the National Blessing and Family Ministry of FFWPU for six years. Both Leighton and Crescentia currently serve as Matching Supporters. Prioritizing their marriage, while juggling children, work, and community service has been an exciting challenge. But they continue to find that the more they invest in their marriage, the more they have to give in all areas of their lives. They love giving other couples the opportunity to infuse their marriages with love deposits through marriage enrichment programs.
	Christoph & Lena Yasutake have been Blessed in marriage since April 2002 and have three teenagers. They are both equally passionate about marriage education and helping blessed couples create happy and healthy families. The Energize! Retreats are one of their favorite ways to share this passion. They served in the Young Couples ministry for six years and are frequent guest speakers at Blessing Workshops.
	Kate Pugnoli has served as the Community Liaison and is also responsible for generating our monthly newsletter. A former journalist, she has a Masters of Religious Education from the Unification Theological Seminary where she took focused her studies on counseling courses. She has also had experience facilitating small groups. The mother of two sons, now Blessed in marriage, she lives in Tucson, AZ with her husband Simon Herbert. She is committed to working with the Blessed Marriage Project in hopes that marriage enrichment will be available to communities across the country and particularly to bring the Energize! Couples Retreat to as many couples as possible.