Help With Porn Addiction
With the ease of availability, porn consumption is becoming more and more frequent these days. An average of 87% of men in the U.S. have admitted to watching porn on a weekly basis, and around 20% of the mobile searches are about porn.
With so much availability, it is easier for porn viewers to slip into an addiction. When the addiction settles, it is time for addicts to seek porn addiction help.
What Is Porn Addiction?
Porn addiction is an uncontrollable compulsion to watch porn, even if the person knows they are already abusing their consumption. While the addiction has not been given an official diagnosis from the American Psychiatric Association (APA), this subcategory of sexual addiction will still affect a variety of individuals.
Accessing porn in itself is not considered to be an unhealthy behavior. However, once it begins affecting your life negatively, a casual interest will turn into an actual addiction. In the long run, porn addiction may affect not only your personal life but also your professional life.
Porn addiction leaves the individual with a lack of control in their porn-viewing habits. The average porn addict will keep watching porn, despite their best intention to interrupt their activity. Once it reaches that stage, it is necessary to obtain porn addiction help.
What Causes Porn Addiction?
Porn addiction can start in someone’s teen years, sometimes as early as 12 years old. It starts as a curiosity, after which you continue watching because you like it. Due to the pleasure and release that the person feels after watching porn, the brain will begin to produce more dopamine, which is the “feel good” transmitter.
The more porn you watch, the more your body will crave that dopamine release. It’s not the porn itself that you crave – but the rush of hormones that are released into your brain. Eventually, your brain will begin to rely on that rush of dopamine, no longer being able to obtain it from other sources – which will cause you to continue watching porn.
As you keep watching porn, you will build a tolerance, and your brain will no longer produce dopamine in the way that it used to. Therefore, it will cause you to watch even more porn than you originally started with. The urgency to get your dopamine rush will cause you to watch porn in places that you shouldn’t, compromising your lifestyle.
How Do You Know You Are Addicted To Porn?
Porn addiction comes with its own signs. If you suspect you or a loved one is being affected by porn addiction, then you might want to look out for the following signs.
- Excessive porn consumption, which is more than what you started with
- Watching porn at risky moments – for example, when you are at work or school
- Using porn to get over feelings such as sadness, anxiety, and pain
- Engaging in risky sexual behavior with your partner so that you may recreate the scenes you see in porn
- No longer finding satisfaction in regular sexual intercourse
- Hiding your porn habits, even from those that would not have judged you normally
- Extreme shame after watching porn, but still being unable to quit the habit
- Moving onto more extreme forms of porn in order to find your release
- Feeling angry when you are being advised to reduce your porn consumption
- An inability to quit, despite your best efforts
If you notice these symptoms, then you might want to seek porn addiction help.
The Effects of Porn Addiction
Porn videos have become easily accessible over the Internet, which means that anyone with an interest in porn can develop an addiction. Left alone, without the proper help, porn addiction may have the following effects in the long term:
- It may affect the intimacy between partners, as the addict tends to pull away emotionally
- It can lead to low self-esteem, especially in the partner, as the addict chooses porn instead of them
How Porn Addiction is Treated
As porn addiction is not considered to be an actual addiction, like substance abuse, but rather a behavioral disorder, there is no specific course of treatment for it. However, several options have been adopted in order to treat it like any other addiction.
First, therapy is offered for those in need of help. Outpatient therapy can be provided to those that can’t manage their porn cravings on their own. However, if porn addiction is more severe, then inpatient therapy might be recommended instead. This way, the stressors will be removed, and the patients will receive the supervision they require.
Depending on the circumstances, medical detox may also be recommended. This is usually the case for those who have a chemical imbalance in their brain as a result of the withdrawal, such as depression or anxiety. Porn withdrawal help is given to improve the psychological health of the patient.
Treatment in The Long Term
Unlike other addictions, porn addiction may need longer-term treatment. Withdrawal often occurs within a month, but for some individuals, it may take weeks until the worst of the symptoms show up.
Porn addiction help may take up to 12 weeks, and the individual or couple therapy may need to extend even after that. It is important to discuss with your rehab professional, so that they may give you the care that you need.
How Real Deal Therapy & Wellness Can Help
At Real Deal Therapy & Wellness, we will provide you with the type of therapy that you need in order to get past your porn addiction. Whether you are in need of inpatient or outpatient therapy, we will offer you the support that you require.
Based on your needs, we may also provide medical detox to assist you with potential psychological problems. Both short-term and long-term help will be offered, so that you may get past your addiction as swiftly as possible.
Do not let your porn addiction affect your lifestyle. Contact us at Real Deal, and we can help you overcome this issue!