By Ashlyn Baker
When it comes to putting stuff into our bodies and what we consume, most people would say they have a pretty good regulation of what they allow themselves to indulge in. Counting calories, limiting alcohol intake, and putting time limits on our apps are all examples of this personal regulation; some people will devote their life to knowing exactly how what they are consuming affects their body and mind.
However, this self-regulation seems to come to a halt when in reference to a different, more personal kind of indulgence. Porn in and of itself is a topic most people wouldn’t love to discuss, and although studies like one conducted in 2023 by Psychology Today find that more people visit porn sites each month than TikTok, Zoom, Netflix, or Amazon, many still consider it their own dirty secret.
What differentiates porn from other types of visual media is that it is typically watched alone, at home, with no judgement, leaving no physical indicators to show anyone the addiction. Even if it is kept secret, it’s still important to know how the abusive and consistent intake of explicit content can negatively affect someone’s well-being mentally, physically, and socially.
Watching porn affects the brain surprisingly similar to a drug and, like with many drugs, habitual use can lead to addiction. Because of the fact that our brains thrive off of the high that dopamine provides, the dopamine hit that can come from viewing porn causes a temporary high. According to the addiction reformation collective Integral Life Center, the brain then remembers the high it got from the dopamine and can crave it later, causing more explicit content indulgence as, in time, the overuse of dopamine release will cause receptors in the brain to shut off, diminishing the pleasure gained from the content.
Continuing in this cycle can lead consumers down a rabbit hole of increasingly brutal content in chasing the quick and easy pleasure the first time provided, a phenomenon colloquially termed “chasing the dragon.” When it comes to porn, “chasing the dragon” can desensitize users to content they may once have been appalled by, encouraging them to find more intense and/or violent content.
Another way porn consumption affects health may not be the way most people would expect. It may be hard to believe that something that is not even technically consumed into the body can leave lasting changes to it, but this seemingly harmless pleasure does do damage.
In a study performed by the National Institute of Health (NIH), 45 percent of men with high porn addiction were found to be suffering from erectile dysfunction. Additionally, using all modalities of pornography and using a sample of 1,392 people, the NIH found that 91.5% of men and 60.2% of women admitted having had consumed porn in the past month. Considering how common it is to watch porn these days, this is an important growing issue that many are giving themselves unknowingly.
An additional effect is sporadic arousal, or someone randomly becoming aroused at inconvenient times. While this may not be a life-or-death problem, it can still cause unwanted distractions at work or schooling, which makes it difficult to remain productive in everyday life. Both changes are inconvenient issues caused by a lack of self-control, having the potential to greatly impact someone’s relationships with a spouse, friends, or coworkers.
The most taxing effect porn has on the body is its ability to change the way you interact with other people. Both casual and violent porn have been shown to increase aggressive behaviors, especially in sexual relationships. One possible factor towards this behavior is the fact that most readily-available adult films feature actors exaggerating feelings and reactions, creating a false image of how sex is in reality.
This causes individuals who do watch porn, primarily violent content, to feel the need to be more aggressive in their sexual experiences. Licensed professional counselor Dr. Christopher Taylor concludes that the desensitization of receptors in the brain will also cause someone to be majorly unsatisfied with in-person sexual interactions, causing the individual to resort back to pleasure through the screen.
According to Brigham Young University, 1 in 6 of married couples said that porn usage was a main conflict point in their marriage. Porn indulgence supports addictive tendencies and, because its physical and psychological effects are not generally clear early on, pushes the idea that one more time won’t hurt.
This ideology can then be applied by individuals to other pleasures: alcohol, drugs, abusive behaviors, or self-harm, for example. It also supports the tendency to hide or keep an addiction a secret, as many would find themselves embarrassed if people they know found out they had this kind of addiction.
The intake of explicit content is a rapidly increasing indulgence that many consume without making themselves aware of the negative effects it can have on someone’s well being if this habit is abused. It is important for anyone who does partake in it to be aware of the risks it opens your body to; perhaps knowing these possibilities would help people gain the motivation to regulate their indulgence in this secret pleasure.
