Lesson 1, Topic 1
In Progress

Porn Habits, Addiction and Emotions

https://youtube.com/watch?v=OBwJq3Ps0-g%3Fcontrols%3D0

There are a lot of factors that contribute to porn use. The most obvious are availability, and the hypersexualized culture we live in. Your partner may have been exposed at a young age, before they even knew it was bad for them. It’s estimated that 90% of today’s teens have been exposed to pornography at some point in their development.

Curiosity about sex is natural, even at a young age. But without proper guidance and protection, the combination of natural curiosity and internet porn can lead to addiction almost instantly. Watch this video that explains how the male brain gets trapped in a porn habit.

Emotions VS Intellect

Internet porn addiction is all about the emotional part of the brain being hijacked by a stimulus cycle. The cycle continues to feed and exercise the emotion/body parts of the brain, while the prefrontal cortex governing intellect and decision making gets weaker.

If you think about why we make most decisions in life you’ll realize we’re motivated by emotions. The intellectual and logical development of the brain happens at a slower rate than our emotional development. Think about a baby; they feel and respond not with thoughts, but through emotion.

Logical thought processes begin to develop around 3 years old. The precursor is the “Terrible Two’s” where discovery of cause and effect happens. But emotions are basic, instinctual need-based responses. The “feeling” part of the brain will always push us to get what it thinks it needs for survival.

Emotion Always Wins

It takes 21 to 25 years of love, support, guidance, and education from parents and others to raise a child to be a mature adult who can regulate their emotions with the logical part of their brain. A lot can go wrong in the process leaving most adults with a few emotional deficits. Add to that the stressors of modern life and you’ll notice that just about everyone is walking around with some kind of emotional baggage.

When introduced at a young age, the “feel good” drug of porn becomes the “go to” source of comfort for any emotion a young person doesn’t know what to do with. Then it becomes a pattern for dealing with everyday life stressors like these:

  • I’m bored
  • I’m mad at my friend
  • I don’t want to do my homework
  • I hate school/doing bad in school
  • My parents love my sister more than me
  • Our family never does anything fun

Growing up is hard enough to begin with, but internet porn has created a major emotional roadblock for many youth. On top of that, the hypersexualized culture we live in is sending out confusing messages about men, women, love, sex and relationships all the time. There are many factors that influence a porn habit or addiction, and it can happen at any age to anyone.

Religion throws in another conflict

Religious beliefs can be protective for some people, and not for others. The truth is, kids need to feel the love of God more than they need to learn doctrine. So, whether religion helps or hinders moral development is highly dependent on the emotions that get attached to it, as well as personality and personal experience.

Most people will get some sense of right and wrong from their religious upbringing, but many are left with conflicts between the “ideal” and the “reality” of the culture around them. Many religious youth have become addicted to porn and masturbation while thinking that it’s helping to protect their purity. Unfortunately, since the body follows the mind, purity must also begin in the mind. But in the case of internet porn, the mind has been tricked.

Resources

There are tons of publications on the topic of the brain and porn. We’re not trying to give a detailed explanation here, just some context for the problem. If you feel compelled to understand porn addiction in more depth please start with the sites and books below.