How many times have we resorted to pornography to relax on an evening alone at home or to ignite our fantasies as a couple ? Whether it’s productions starring the most famous stars of this world or amateur videos like those shot by users of the A69 community, porn content is in fact among the most sought after on the web, as demonstrated by the statistics periodically published by the agencies of market analysis and from the same companies that deal with porn streaming like PornHub. However, there are those who rail against this habit, considering it risky for health and capable of creating a real form of Addiction: but is it really like that? Is there a Porn Addiction or is it an unfounded alarm?
Porn Addiction: What Is It?
Experts define Porn Addiction as the compulsive search for sexual content to obtain pleasure, an activity that has become significantly more frequent with the spread of the internet in homes and on mobile devices around the world. Within DSM 5, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , this form of Addiction is considered as part of the more general sex addiction, therefore not recognized as a disorder in its own right but still attributable to a very specific area of study .
In reality, the scholars themselves have not always agreed on this point, considering in some cases the Addiction to Porn a real disorder to be studied separately and to be included in the new forms of addiction developed in conjunction with the greater availability of contents of this type on the web.
Is watching porn really risky?
If we consider the statistics regarding the use of online porn content alone, we realize how much the phenomenon is increasingly widespread: in fact, only a few years ago it was estimated that the most popular site alone managed to total almost 4 and a half billion visits per month while other more recent data state that every minute the first three portals in the world have almost 135,000 accesses, impressive numbers that no other sector can reach. Faced with such a vast diffusion of pornography, especially in the most technologically advanced countries (79% of the daily traffic on PornHubcomes from only 20 countries in the world), one could therefore think of a real cultural and social emergency, but in reality the theme must be tackled in a different way.
Millions of people look at pornographic photos and videos every day , yet everything starts and ends within a few minutes (an average of 18 spent on genre sites for each session); however, the problem arises when from use you pass to abuse and when you can no longer help but look for hot content or even when you can’t reach excitement except with this type of stimulation. These situations, which only affect a small percentage of those who regularly view porn, can be classified as cases of Pornography Addiction and require the help of an expert to recover a correct view of sexuality.
The risks in particular increase in the younger ones , who, not having great practical experiences, risk entrusting their knowledge of sex to scenes that do not reflect the truth, lacking an adequate educational fabric on the subject , and in those weaker subjects, for whom Pornography it can be a way of not facing reality.
How does Porn Addiction manifest itself?
That Porn Addiction exists is a fact and this is also testified by many stories of famous and non-famous people, who speak of the difficulties arising from the continuous use of pornographic material. Although the excessive consumption of pornography is not comparable, according to the DSM, to that of other substances such as alcohol and drugs, it is also true that the brain areas stimulated during viewing coincide with those activated by the use of drugs, creating precisely the Dependency mechanism.
But how to tell if from the simple “passion” you are becoming addicted to porn? The symptoms can be different and concern both the mental and the physical aspect: in the first place, those with a Porn Addiction dedicate themselves for a long time and several times a day to the search for these contents, almost always denying that they have entered this spiral. Beyond the frequent use, which usually coincides with compulsive masturbation , other situations of varying complexity may occur, such as those that concern the worsening or cancellation of one’s “real” sex life, problems of couple, the appearance of feelings of guilt and risky behavior, such as watching porn in “dangerous” places such as the office and public transport. Not only that, the Addiction to Pornography leads the person to want more and more, increasing from time to time the level of “perversion” of their searches.
Alongside all this, obviously, there is the fact of not knowing how to give it up, despite the fact that there is often the awareness of having to bring the focus back on one’s affections and one’s real life.
Porn addiction: can it be cured?
Realizing that you are addicted to pornography is certainly the first step in getting rid of this problem and recovering a more natural relationship with sexuality. If you are not in a particular form of weakness towards this world, it can often be sufficient to decide autonomously to eliminate or at least greatly reduce access to porn sites , perhaps with the help of special software that allows you to block pages preventing them from functioning, but in some cases it may be useful to resort to the psychological support of a specialist , who can prescribe precise exercises and create a path that leads to identifying the cause of the addiction.
Obviously each case is independent and it is therefore impossible to provide a solution to the problem in a few lines, however it can be said with great confidence that Porn Addiction is solvable, provided you follow an individual approach capable of getting upstream of the problem and re-establish the person’s normal priorities.
Don’t worry, though: loving Porn doesn’t necessarily mean being addicted to it, on the contrary for most people, pornography is a tool to get excited without losing contact with sex in the flesh, which remains the most pleasant one to experience and to be explored in all its possible forms.