No More Porn For Me

I was too lazy to read the whole thing but eventually I will. But I watch porn A LOT probably too much time spent on the net browsing porn EVERYDAY. It doesn’t affect me much because I still get uncontrollable erections or semi erections when I’m around women, especially dancing. I still have that problem but don’t know why. Maybe it could be other things that is affecting your body.

Although I do need some stimulation when I PE, I generally try keep my viewing to a limit. With or without porn I am a sexually charged individual , there have been times in the part where I can say I was wasting too much time with it but I have not lost sight of the truth porn can never compare with real sex not for me.

Hard to say for sure, but this link might help. http://www.reun … .info/node/3228

This is my own opinion. You’ll reboot your brain faster if you simply abstain from all forms of porn, masturbation and orgasm. The main neurohormone at work in porn addiction is dopamine. There are others at work too such as seratonin but dopamine seems to be the key player. Overexposure to porn causes dopamine receptors in the brain to decrease and long term depletion of dopamine levels. This is what causes things like social anxiety, loss of energy and an inability to appreciate lifes small pleasures etc. Dopamine is also the "wanting" or "anticipation" neurohormone. It’s associated with sexual arrousal as well as orgasm. So, in my opinion, it’s not just orgasm that’s the problem, it’s getting arroused to porn/masturbation.

You could compare porn addiction to gambling addiction. Problem gamblers don’t just get the huge rush from winning. They become addicted to the moments before the outcome, win or lose. It’s those precious seconds in a high stakes game before the dealer deals the river card or the ball settles on the roulette wheel that gives them the buzz. The actual result of the game, while important, is secondary to the ancticipation as far as dopamine is concerned. I noticed this with porn too. I could masturbate to porn for hours and not orgasm and be on this constant rolling high. When orgasm finally did arrive, it felt good, but it was actually a let down compared to the edging.

6 weeks of total abstinence seems to be the point where a lot of people feel they’ve turned a corner. This is true in my case. I’ve just reached 6 weeks of total abstinence and I feel like I’ve got control over my addiction. Note that I didn’t say, "I’m cured" or "I’ve beaten my addiction." What I’ve learnt is that addicts never really are cured, they can only learn to live with and manage their addiction. This means you have to keep watching out for triggers and avoid the BLAST states for the rest of your life. I’ve read cases where alcoholics who have been more than 10 years sober suddenly saw a beer commercial, walked into a bar and, before they realised what was happening, they relapsed and got drunk.

People seem to be able to recover, while still masturbating, but it takes longer than with total abstinence. There’s also the question of what happens if you orgasm but don’t ejaculate (sperm retention), which it would be interesting to explore the effects of.

That’s not a problem. That’s called being a normal, healthy, horny, red-blooded male. Don’t view your perfectly normal libido as a “problem”. You should be happy that you can get raging erections. I totally understand the horny high school kid trying to hide his boner in class. I’ve been there. But those kids should proudly tuck their boner into their belt and be proud that they can produce such raging boners at the drop of a hat. I used to view my constant horniness and arousal around hot women as a problem too and I used to porn to stifle my desire. Now I really wish I hadn’t done that because of the damage if does to libido.

Maybe we need to change the acronym? :-P

BLASTED

Bored
Lonely
Angry
Stressed
Tired
Emotional
Drunk

Definitely agree and can relate to the “rolling high” of edging. With sex I can only keep myself right on the brink of cumming for maybe 15 minutes (and it usually takes 10 minutes to actually reach that point). With masturbation, I can reach that point in 1 - 2 minutes, & keep myself there for hours.

“social anxiety, loss of energy & inability to appreciate small things in life” … if this is caused from a long term depletion in dopamine levels from porn addiction, surely the same dopamine depletion would happen after having regular sex? …

You’re absolutely right. The same thing can happen after normal sex and does to a lesser extent than with porn/masturbation.

The thing about sex is that it’s usually fairly vanilla, factory equipment only, repeated with a single partner and that partner is a normal woman, not a plastic porn actress. Porn on the other hand saturates our craving to be with (at least in our minds) a plethora of different sexual partners with perfect bodies, willing to do all sorts of crazy sex acts. Porn also tends to be more rough/violent than normal sex.

All these things combine to produce dopamine overload, which you can’t compare to normal sex with your girlfriend. She’s only one woman and she has limits, no matter how beautiful and talented you think she is. Porn has no limits. It’s an endless supply of variety in carnality that no single woman could hope to compete with. It’s a lot easier to overdo it with porn/masturbation, but a five orgasm fuck fest with a woman would definitely leave you at least a little dopamine depleted.

The other difference between sex and masturbation is the release of oxytocin which is associated with a partners touch, which you don’t get with masturbation. You still release oxytocin when masturbating, but not nearly as much as with a woman who you can experience intimiate body to body touch with. I’m convinced that sex with a partner and masturbation are different neurochemically in our brains, which is part of the reason why guys who exclusively use porn for a long time can have trouble performing with a real woman.

^Good & reassuring explanation in regards to oxytocin release- because after all, if we end up with the same compulsions & general mental negatives from regular sex, what’s the point? We’ve just traded one for other, & might as well become monks & just give it all up now.

Yeah definitely not advocating giving up sex. Sex and masturbation are different things, in my opinion with affects on the body/brain. I believe, there are two key differences between sex and masturbation to porn.

(1) The levels of dopamine released by the brain is far higher when watching porn and masturbating than when having normal sex.

(2) Using porn and masturbating doesn’t release as much oxytocin as when having normal, full contact sex with a partner.

I’ve read studies regarding addiction to junk food. It’s interesting that our limbic brains cannot tell the difference between a real plate of food in front of us and a picture of a plate of food in front of us (not taking into account other senses like smell). When we see a picture of food, on TV for example, our limbic brain is triggered, dopamine is released, we get a craving (remember dopamine is the “wanting” neurohormone) and then we start salivating against our conscious will. Marketing people exploit this response in all of us when they show us those mouthwatering commercials of tasty-looking but shitty junk foods. Hint: if you need help stopping eating junk food, stop watching commerical TV.

In the same way our limbic brain cannot distinguish the difference between naked women and pictures of naked women (not taking into account other senses like touch). The problem with porn is that there’s a never ending supply of different, beautiful, willing, horny women who will do anything we desire. In a single session of watching porn, you could easily have “sex” with 10, 20 or more different women. As far as your limbic brain can tell, this is what’s happening. This saturates the brain with dopamine, which leads to decreased numbers of dopamine receptors in the brain and depleted dopamine levels over the long term. Our human brains are simply not equipped to deal with this level of sexual stimulation. In real life you’d be lucky to have sex with 2 different women in one session, nevermind 10, 20 or more. Technology has surpassed what normal women can offer our limbic brains. Porn exploits this vulnerability in the limbic brain, particularly the male brain. Of course, there’s more to sex, and indeed, life, than what can fulfil our limbic brains.

Hmmm, there’s no way more dopamine is released from masturbation to porn than the act of fucking a woman. Even after I jerk off, I still have that ache in my nuts that only is ebbed after physically being with a woman. The longer I go without fucking, the greater the ache gets. It’s led to some less than respectable fucks, but afterwards I feel a sense of testicular clarity that I don’t get from schlepping one off.

Your "sense of testicular clarity" is one thing. Research is another.

http://www.reun iting.info/meas … ouis_lajeunesse

You (and your balls) are entitled to an opinion though. ;-)

That research has nothing to do with me honestly. If you get more of a drive from jerking off to goats ramming wax sculptures of stand up comedians than you do being with a woman, than i don’t think it needs to be backed by any type of credential. You know how you feel and I know how I feel. I’ve watched alot of porn in my day, but I would say that i’m far from an addict, so my opinion on this is most likely void on this subject anyway. If you’re defining addiction as a release of chemicals in your brain based on the magnitude in which it’s released, then I would consider addiction in this case to be completely relative. Porn isn’t a substance, so I would say it’s replacement of sex is less like an addiction, and more like a replacement of sex.

It’s like reality t.v. People love that shit because of the drama, why do they love the drama? Because they would never experience anything like that had a camera crew not filmed it and brought it directly to them, therefore a hole is both created and filled in one fell swoop. Before this drama was introduced they had no idea it existed, once the hole is created it can only be filled by the drama that is created when you stick alot of assholes in a confined area and serve them never ending amounts of alcohol. Is there a reaction in the brain? Absolutely. Can watching this bullshit become the only way for these people to fill the void it has created? Absolutely. Might they view life without this as more drab than they did before watching I if they allowed it to consume them? Of course. But it seems to me this is solely dependant on the person.

Take a substance. Force any individual to consume cocaine everyday for three months straight and they will become addicted. It forces it. Now, take that same person and allow M.T.V to infiltrate their minds with reality t.v. If his person’s life is already interesting enough/ more interesting than what they are viewing they will not pick up on it/ become addicted to it or whatever you want to call it. Or, if this person personally considers what they are watching to be crude and despicable, they will not pick up on it/ become addicted/ whatever. Porn is an addiction?…. eh. I view it as more of a weakness. The brain follows that process of releasing happy shit with everything. That’s like saying I can be addicted to camping just because I fucking love it so much, doesn’t mean i’m going to venture off into the woods and forget about my life… though i have thought about that, it would be weak of me, considering i have obligations in the real world, so i don’t. Or getting addicted to cartoons and having an inability to get a job or mature properly.

Anyway i’ve had a shit load of chianti, so if that made no sense, i couldn’t really care less. I wish you well with no porn though, moderation in everything, don’t wanna be too happy, they might label it as addiction and write research on it.

I was being a smart ass. I admit that. But my point is that it’s best to stick to statements that are quantifiable and measurable when debating. Dopamine levels, relative levels, and dopamine receptor count can be measured. Feelings cannot. I don’t know how you feel. I could never know how you feel. Only you know that and it’s totally subjective. Aruging feelings vs. anything gets us nowhere. All statements should be backed up by something otherwise it’s just opinion.

You compare cocaine and porn. If you were strapped to a chair for 4 hours a day and forced to watch porn and jerk off til you orgasmed for a long enough time, you’d be addicted. I admit that the high from coke far exceeds the high from watching porn, but given enough exposure to either, you’d be addicted. That’s probably not likely to happen to you. But it does happens to people who perceive they have no other outlet for sexual release.

I believe anything that releases dopamine and endorphins in sufficient quantities has the potential to be addictive, if circumstances conspire so that particular thing is the only or biggest (perceived) producer of that high. So I believe people can get addicted to many things including drugs, exercize, junk food, shopping, camping etc. in the right (or is that wrong) circumstances.

How did you do it if you don’t mind me asking?

For me, both represent problems, because both have the effect of lowering EQ. I experienced it so many times, that it is actually a rule. The scenario goes like this: I usually feel horny and can’t wait till the evening when I have real sex with the wife, so I watch porn. I exclude masturbation, because that obviously ruins sex for that day. So, I’m edging. In the evening, when it comes the time for real sex, I’m no more motivated mentally. It also adds the fatigue of the penis due to edging (long time with erection) and voila, low EQ! Then I have hard time getting hard and the sex doesn’t feel that good…
The problem is that I’m aware of all this shit and I still fall into the trap. That means addiction. Now I’m decided to put an end to this - it’s the 6th day free of porn :) !

Back to BigFatLuvRocket question:
I’m convinced that just watching porn, without ejaculating, is enough to lower your drive on long term! I mean the “natural” drive, for real women. You may feel horny while watching porn, but that only sets your mental sensitivity to a higher threshold which won’t be met by stimuli from real world sex. The sex drive is both mentally and physically conditioned. One can be in excellent physical shape and still lack drive, if there is no mental stimulation.