Your Brain on Porn (2 page)

It is a basic assumption of addiction research that when people describe themselves as experiencing the detrimental effects associated with pathological addictions, there is good reason to think that they really are addicted (in the more troubling clinical sense of the term). Few people will endure the humiliation of confessing to a pathological addiction which is not real. It is the reverse strategy, of denying an addiction that is obvious to loved ones, which is much more common. It is very clear, from the reports of the large number of individuals who suffer from it, that internet porn addiction is a real phenomenon. It is also clear that, in at least some cases, it takes a very severe and debilitating form.

The first-person accounts you will read in this book and collected on Gary’s website of the same

name will, and should, trouble you deeply. It is truly frightening to learn the degree to which internet pornography can damage and alienate individuals who have become badly addicted to watching it. At the same time, one of the most striking features of these reports is how they reflect a reversal of the damaging effects of internet porn addiction. It is truly beautiful to see people who have lost themselves in this addiction turn their lives around. Instead of compulsively masturbating in private, they have come to find meaning and genuine social connection through selfless attempts to help others caught in a similar trap. It all happens on the internet, both good and bad. Within this same technological medium, a medium which often threatens to make us impersonal, this group has found a way to move from an activity which is completely solitary and detached to something that is deeply altruistic, brave, personal and meaningful. It is time that the rest of us took note of what they are saying. Many physicians and researchers have dismissed and undermined these reports. However, that strategy is simply not ethical. We must respect the wisdom of their experience and the humility they show by sharing it. Anyone who pretends to care about the social and sexual health of others has a duty to better understand this phenomenon and find creative ways to reduce the damage it is doing.

Dr Anthony Jack

Professor of Philosophy, Psychology, Neurology and Neuroscience and Research Director at the

Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence, Case Western Reserve University

Introduction

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the

hardest victory is over self.
Aristotle

You might be reading this book because you're curious why hundreds of thousands of porn users

around the globe are experimenting with giving it up
.[2]
But more likely you're reading it because you are engaging with pornographic material in a way that you find troubling. Maybe you have been spending more time online seeking out graphic material than you want to, despite a settled determination to cut back. Maybe you are finding it difficult to climax during sex, or you're plagued by unreliable erections. Maybe you're noticing that real partners just don't excite you while the online sirens beckon constantly. Maybe you've escalated to fetish material that you find disturbing or out of alignment with your values or even your sexual orientation.

If you’re anything like the thousands of other people who have realised that they have a problem, it has probably taken you a while to connect your troubles with your porn use. You might have thought you were struggling with some other disorder. Perhaps thought you had developed unaccustomed depression or social anxiety or, as one man feared, premature dementia. Or maybe you believed that you had low testosterone or were simply getting older. You might even have been prescribed drugs

from a well-meaning doctor. Perhaps your physician assured you that you were wrong to worry about your use of pornography.

There are plenty of authoritative voices out there who will tell you that an interest in graphic imagery is perfectly normal, and that therefore internet porn is harmless. While the first claim is true, the second, as we shall see, is not. Although not all porn users develop problems, some do. At the moment, mainstream culture tends to assume that pornography use cannot cause severe symptoms.

And, as high-profile criticisms of pornography often come from religious and socially conservative organizations, it's easy for liberally minded people to dismiss them without examination.

But for the last seven years, I have been paying attention to what people say about their experiences with pornography. For even longer, I've been studying what scientists are learning about how our brains work. I am here to tell you that this isn’t about liberals and conservatives. It isn’t about religious shame or sexual freedom. This is about the nature of our brains and how they respond to cues from a radically changed environment. This is about the effects of chronic overconsumption of sexual novelty, delivered on demand in endless supply.

Until about half a dozen years ago I had no opinion about internet porn. I thought that two-dimensional images of women were a poor substitute for actual three-dimensional women. But I've never been in favour of banning porn. I grew up in a non-religious family in Seattle, the liberal Northwest. ‘Live and let live’ was my motto.

However, when men began showing up in my wife's website forum claiming to be addicted to porn it became clear that something serious was going on. A long-time anatomy and physiology teacher, I am particularly interested in neuroplasticity (how experiences alter the brain), the appetite mechanisms of the brain and, by extension, addiction. I'd been keeping up with the biological research in this area, intrigued by discoveries about the physiological underpinnings of our appetites and how they can become dysregulated.

The symptoms these men (and later women) described strongly suggested that their use of pornography had retrained, and made significant material changes to, their brains. Psychiatrist Norman Doidge explains in his bestseller
The Brain That Changes Itself
:

The men at their computers looking at porn ... had been seduced into pornographic
training sessions that met all the conditions required for plastic change of brain maps. Since
neurons that fire together wire together, these men got massive amounts of practice wiring
these images into the pleasure centres of the brain, with the rapt attention necessary for
plastic change. ... Each time they felt sexual excitement and had an orgasm when they
masturbated, a ‘spritz of dopamine’, the reward neurotransmitter, consolidated the

connections made in the brain during the sessions. Not only did the reward facilitate the
behaviour; it provoked none of the embarrassment they felt purchasing
Playboy
at a store.

Here was a behaviour with no ‘punishment’, only reward.

The content of what they found exciting changed as the Web sites introduced themes and

scripts that altered their brains without their awareness. Because plasticity is competitive,
the brain maps for new, exciting images increased at the expense of what had previously
attracted them – the reason, I believe, they began to find their girlfriends less of a turn-on ...

As for the patients who became involved in porn, most were able to go cold turkey once

they understood the problem and how they were plastically reinforcing it. They found
eventually that they were attracted once again to their mates.

The men on the forum found such material and the research underlying it both comforting and helpful. At last they understood how porn had hijacked the primitive appetite mechanisms of their brains. These ancient brain structures urge us toward evolutionarily beneficial behaviours including an appreciation of novel mates, helping to discourage inbreeding.

However, our behavioural choices in turn affect our neurochemical balance in these same brain

structures. This is how chronic overconsumption can have unexpected effects. It can make us hyper-aroused by our favourite enticements, such that immediate wants weigh heavier than they should relative to longer term desires. It can also sour our enjoyment of – and responsiveness to – everyday pleasures. It can drive us to seek more extreme stimulation. Or cause withdrawal symptoms so severe that they send even the most strong-minded of us bolting for relief. It can also alter our mood, perception and priorities – all without our conscious awareness.

Armed with an account of ‘how the machine works’ that drew on the best available science, former porn users realized their brains were plastic and that there was a good chance they could reverse porn-induced changes. They decided it made no sense to wait for an expert consensus about whether internet porn was potentially harmful or not when they could eliminate it and track their own results.

These pioneers began to take control of their behaviour and steer for the results they wanted. They saw the gains from consistency without panicking about setbacks, which they accepted with greater self-compassion.

Along the way, they learned, and shared, some truly fascinating insights about recovery from internet porn-related problems – brand new discoveries that made the return to balance less harrowing for those following in their footsteps. That was fortunate because a flood of younger people, with far more malleable brains, were about to swell the ranks of those seeking relief from porn-related problems.

Sadly, many were motivated by severe sexual dysfunctions (delayed ejaculation, anorgasmia, erectile dysfunction and loss of attraction to real partners). Persistent porn-induced ED in young men caught the medical profession by surprise, but this year doctors have finally begun to acknowledge it.

Harvard urology professor and author of
Why Men Fake It: The Totally Unexpected Truth About
Men and Sex,
Abraham Morgentaler said, ‘it's hard to know exactly how many young men are suffering from porn-induced ED. But it's clear that this is a new phenomenon, and it's not rare.’
[3]

Another urologist and author Harry Fisch writes bluntly that porn is killing sex. In his book
The New
Naked,
he zeroes in on the decisive element: the internet. It ‘provided ultra-easy access to something that is fine as an occasional treat but hell for your [sexual] health on a daily basis.’
[4]

In May, 2014, the prestigious medical journal
JAMA Psychiatry
published research showing that, even in moderate porn users, use (number of years and current hours per week) correlates with reduced grey matter and decreased sexual responsiveness. The researchers cautioned that the heavy porn users' brains might have been pre-shrunken rather than shrunken by porn usage, but favoured degree-of-porn-use as the most plausible explanation. They subtitled the study "The Brain On Porn."

[5]

Then in July 2014, a team of neuroscience experts headed by a psychiatrist at Cambridge University revealed that more than half of the subjects in their study of porn addicts reported

that as a result of excessive use of sexually explicit materials, they had ... experienced diminished libido or erectile function specifically in physical relationships with women (although not in relationship to the sexually explicit material)
.[6]

But the pioneers I'm describing didn't have the benefit of any formal confirmation. They worked it all out by exchanging self-reports.

I've written what follows to provide a straightforward summary of what we now know about the

effects of pornography on some users, how it relates to the findings of neuroscience and evolutionary biology, and how best we can address the problems associated with pornography, both individually

and collectively. If you're experiencing internet porn-related problems, give me a couple of hours of undivided attention, and there's a good chance that I can get you on the road to understanding your condition and dealing with it.

Now, how would a guy know if his sluggish sexual performance is related to his porn use or stems instead from performance anxiety (the standard diagnosis for guys without below-the-belt problems)?

1. First, see a good urologist and rule out any medical abnormality.

2. Next, on one occasion masturbate to your favourite porn (or simply imagine how it was if

you've sworn off it).

3. Then, on another occasion masturbate with no porn and without fantasising about porn.

Compare the quality of your erections and the time it took to climax (if you
can
climax). A healthy young man should have no trouble attaining a full erection and masturbating to orgasm without porn or porn fantasy.

- If you have a strong erection in #2, but erectile dysfunction in #3, then you probably have

porn-induced ED.

- If #3 is strong and solid, but you have trouble with a real partner, then you probably have

anxiety-related ED.

- If you have problems during both #2 and #3, you may have progressive porn-induced ED or

a below-the-belt problem for which you will need medical help.

I begin the book with an account of how internet porn addiction first became an issue as massive

numbers of people with access to highspeed porn began talking about the problems they felt it had caused. I'll include firsthand accounts of how the phenomenon unfolded and the symptoms people commonly reported.