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What Happens in Your Brain When You Watch Too Much Porn?

By BobPosted on

What Happens in Your Brain When You Watch Too Much Porn?

Did you know that consuming too much online pornography can be bad for your brain?

And I mean really, really bad!

In this article you are going to discover exactly what happens inside your brain when you watch too much porn.

There are two things you should know before we start…

  1. Some people can get away with watching porn without becoming addicted to it. Others can not.
  2. If you do become addicted to it, your brain will look a lot different from those who haven't developed an addiction.

Sex – Porn And Dopamine
Why One is Good And The Other…Not So Much

Both sex and porn release the brain chemical dopamine.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is responsible for keeping us motivated to do things that maximize our chances for survival and reproduction.

So if both porn and sex release dopamine, how come porn bis bad for you while real sex is healthy?

Ahh, the million dollar question right there.

Well, you need to understand that today's online porn is as different from real sex than what checkers is to the modern video games.

Dopamine on demand…

Dopamine levels in the brain spike for each new porn clip…

The problem with today's porn sites is that you yourself can control your dopamine levels with the click of a mouse.

As soon as one porn clip gets boring (dopamine levels are dropping) you instantly click to another one, and another one…and another one. For each new clip dopamine spikes up again.

By doing so you can keep your dopamine levels elevated far longer than your reward system came equipped with being able to handle.

You see, with real sex your dopamine also spikes, but here you can't keep them elevated for as long as you can with internet porn.

For a better understanding, watch this video I made on my YouTube channel, a while back.

Why porn fries your brain, and why stopping can give you an edge over other men:

I hope you watched the whole video, as the information is really important.

Why does the dopamine spike with each new clip?

The video is informative and interesting, but it didn't tell you exactly the reson for why your dopamine spikes with each new clip.

Enter; the coolidge effect!

The coolidge effect is a biological phenomenon whereby males get renewed sexual interest whenever a new female is potentially available for impregnating.

This is mother natures way of making sure we maximize our chances of spreading our DNA to the next generation. And as long as willing females are around, we need to hurry up and get the job done quickly.

This means sexual novelty spikes dopamine.

Or to put it in another way, your brain interprets each new porn clip as a new mating opportunity and thus you dopamine shoots up again.

You can't click to a novel partner in the middle of real sex…

The problem is, this can't happen in real life.

You can't use the click of a mouse to change partners in the middle of having sex with your girlfriend.

Even if you are the worlds greatest seducer, and you had 5,6,7 or maybe even 8 girlfriends in your bedroom at the same time, in terms of novelty, reality still pales in comparison with porn. Today's online porn sites have unending novelty.

Now, you probably don't have several women rolling around in your bed at the same time, but even if you did, reality still loses in the dopamine battle against porn.

On top of that, you can't have multiple tabs open, fast forward to your favorite scenes and watch all kinds of 10 out of 10 hotties do all kinds of crazy stuff there in your bedroom ( or different genres like you find on pron sites).

In short: in one single porn session, you can see more hot babes than your ancestor could do in several lifetimes.

So it's no wonder all that dopamine can start messing up your brain.

Dopamine is the learning chemical…

On top of all of this, dopamine is a “learning chemical.”

Since dopamine is involved with survival (for example finding food) and reproduction (sex), whenever it's elevated  your brain is going to make sure to remember exactly what's going on at that exact time so that it can repeat the action later.

This also means that, as your dopamine levels are constantly high during your porn sessions, a lot of guys are literally learning to become MORE aroused by pixels on a screen than by real life women. This is, by the way, one of the biggest reasons behind porn induced ED (PIED).

Can you mess up your dopamine system without being addicted?

If you watched the first video, a few paragraphs up, you are perhaps wondering if it's possible to become desensitized without being addicted to porn.

The short answer is: yes.

You don't have to be an addicted in order to knock out your dopamine receptors, however, it happens more aggressively in those with an addiction.

Can you develop PIED without being addicted?

What about porn induced erectile dysfunction, is that just something porn addicts suffer from?

Short answer: most guys who suffer from PIED are addicted to porn, but not all of them.

So, yes, it is possible to develop PIED without having a full blown addiction.

What Happens To Your Brain if You Have a Porn Addiction?
The 4 Brain Changes:

What follows here are two videos, explaining the four major brain changes that happens inside your brain if you develop a real addiction to online porn.

I highly recommend you watch both videos to get the full picture.

PART 1

In part 2 I'll talk more about what a disrupted dopamine system can do to you.

I talk about the 2 last brain changes and…

…you will also discover what to do to help reverse those brain changes.

PART 2

The webinar I talked about in the end of part 2 can be found right here.

As you can see, if you watched the videos, addictions are serious business and nothing to play around with.

Backed by real science from more than 50 brain studies

If you watched the three videos above you now have a pretty deep understanding on what's going on inside your brain when you're overconsuming porn. And especially if you become addicted to it.

Perhaps some of you are a bit sceptical, thinking; can porn really cause a real addiction, with real addiction related brain changes?

Well, if you want to take an even deeper dive still, you can check out these 57 brain studies, all supporting the addiction model. Those are real studies, mind you, and not just some shallow questionnaire that someone posted on a forum for people who loves different types of erotica.

How do I know if I'm addicted?

When guys start to look at their own porn consumption they often ask…

….“how much time spent watching porn on a weekly basis is considered an addiction?”.

The truth is, it's not that easy.

An addiction is defined by the brain changes you saw in the videos above, and not by the amount of time you spend on it. This is because some guys can watch just a moderate amount and still be addicted, while others can watch quite a lot without developing an addiction.

There is, however, a pretty solid porn addiction test, you can take.

I have created the test myself by using a modified version of what real addiction experts are using to asses other addictions.

If you're curious, you can take the porn addiction test right here.

For an even deeper understanding, you can also read the article porn addiction symptoms.

How do I overcome my addiction?

You overcome your addiction by doing a so called PMO reboot.

This means you stop consuming any artificial arousing content and develop new, healthy habits instead.

Now, that is easier said than done, but thousands of men have done it, and so can you.

That said, a lot of guys do need help and here are a few options for you…

Is moderation possible?

So after you have managed to quit, can you go back to using porn sites in moderation?

Almost nothing in life is impossible, but let's put it this way…

I would estimate that at least 98% of people who have developed addiction related brain changes can not go back to moderation. In the majority of cases that always leads back to full binging again. It's kind of like how most sober alcoholics need to stay away from even having one single drink in order to avoid sliding back into the hell hole again.

What about moderation if I'm not addicted?

Here too we can think of the alcohol parallel.

Some people can drink a six pack here and there without becoming addicted. Is it healthy for them? Probably not, but they can still get away with it without developing an addiction.

Likewise, some people can watch quite a lot of porn without becoming addicted to it. Is it healthy for their brains reward system? Probably not, but they can get away with it without developing an addiction.

What Happens To Your Brain When You Watch Porn
Final Words…

So there you have it. I hope you watched all the 3 videos on this page because they really give you a good understanding on what's going on inside your brain when you watch porn.

Remember now; porn affects you a bit differently depending on if you become addicted to it or not. But even if you don't it can still mess with your brain.

Some people get away with watching it, sure, while other are not that lucky. But since this post is more of an educational post than a recommendation, whether you choose to have internet porn in your life is totally up to you.

Personally I have kicked it out of my life for good can say and one thing is for sure, I'll never go back to it.

Thanks for reding,

Scandinavian Bob

PMO Frequently Asked Questions

 

Q: I’ve noticed a lot of anxiety driven people saying on forums that they will never heal and they gone 200+ amount of days and seen no improvement. People are also saying that it’s permanent and they will never heal which is pretty nerve racking. That being said do you think they aren’t doing it properly, or that performance anxiety lingers far after they rebooted? It’s a shitty problem to deal with. Just thought i’d write you and ask your opinion and gain a sense of hope from all this.

A: I'm sure there are some who keep shooting themselves in the foot by doing inapproriate things that slow down or stall their rebooting progress. But not all of them. Unfortunately there are guys who take a really long time to heal. Some of those do indeed have other problems as well, like anxiety, depression or some other mental problems, so after many months in, it becomes difficult to know what the biggest problem really is. Particularly performance anxiety can be an issue. And no wonder; if you failed several times due to PIED, it's only natural to start worrying about future performances. Mood problems are also often an issue. They are potent enough to kill libido on their own. So it can be a bloody mess, and I do recommend they look at their recovery from every possible angle. Some guys are also not rewiring properly due to social anxiety. A holistic angle is often needed here, all while they keep staying away from porn and try to spend more time around real life people.

Q: Is it possible to have low energy and mood even if you overcome your addiction are over 300 days of NoFap?

A: Of course it is. Even if an addict overcome his addiction he still has to cope with life. That's called living. Now, that said, the chances of having low energy, drive and mood in the midst of a PMO addiction are much bigger than after you quit. But again, just getting rid of one bad thing in your life does not necessarily mean all bad things are fixed. NoFap isn't the one and only solution for every problem there is.

Q: Hi bob, I've got these compulsive tendencies that are very annoying. Every time I watch a video and lets say a guy talks about a favorite song from his favorite artist i always feel the need to look the song up and see how it sounds. Or if i don't understand what a word means i feel the need to look it up otherwise i start thinking about it for a couple minutes and and have this annoying feeling that i didn't look it up. When i was younger before i was doing pmo i did have these compulsive tendencies where i felt the need to like touch a certain place on a door or like touch the floor and stuff. However these behaviors are completely gone and they only exist when i scroll on social media or as i said with looking up words i don't understand. I have been reading pmo could cause this, but what do you recommend for me and think about this?

A: It's true that PMO can cause things like that, but it may also be a part of your personality. And there's no way for me to know if it is. However, what I can tell you is that meditation can often help with things like that. Meditation IS in fact training to let thoughts go without following them. And the more you train, the better you become at not following those impulses in other areas of life as well.

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