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Adolescents curiosity about sexuality is normal and a healthy aspect development of human development and the human brain is very pliable during adolescent age during which many new brain connections are made. Hence, this leaves teenagers vulnerable to the influence of their surroundings.

Pornography is easily accessible, inexpensive and easy to hide on the internet. Now if this alone does not terrify you, there are a lot more things going wrong with pornography. Porn are also portraying an unrealistic display of sexuality, body image and relationships. Porn is also promoting stereotyping gender roles and displaying violent sexual behavior.

Many teenagers are watching porn and masturbating, the brain is being shaped around a sexual experience that is isolating, irrational and completely revoked of any love or compassion.

Sexual Awareness

Lack of sex education and children move towards porn with a curious mind. While pornography does not educate adolescents about the reproductive aspect of sex and fails to teach about safe sex and managing relationships.

Attitude and Beliefs

Frequent use of porn is associated with a skewed view of the world from the teenager’s point of view like the normalization of sexual violence, sexual objectification, stereotyping general roles and sexism.

Sexual Behavior

Teenagers are seen to engage in the activities they see through pornography, such as engaging in sexual activities with protection or explicit sexual acts. Pornography also displays verbal and physical violence which conditions the child to hostility as well. 

Mental Health and Well-being

Exposure to sexually explicit images includes developing depression and low self-esteem. Other problems arise are the development of eating disorders, which stem from a negative perception of one’s body image. Young children can also feel pressured to engage in sexual activity and share images of themselves, which makes them susceptible to sexual abuse, harassment, bullying and sexual exploitation.

To learn more about Prerna Kohli click here

All images courtesy Pixabay

Just like alcoholism, there is no cure for porn addiction but only recovery. It is a continuous process that requires constant effort every day and consistently engaging with strategies that helped stop porn addiction.

Dr. Prerna Kohli

The path of recovery from addictions can be quite challenging since the addict has little or no control over their addiction, and no person should go through it alone. Addiction has severe effects on different aspects of the individual’s life. Porn addicts can have co-occurring mental issues along with the addiction, it adversely affects an individual’s personal and work relationships and the addict’s well-being. Hence, therapy is vital to help the individual’s through the process of de-addiction.

The therapist creates a non-judgmental and confidential space where the client can share their feelings without any hesitation. Therapy for porn addiction provides treatment in aspects of:

Treatment for co-occurring issues

Other mental illnesses and porn addiction can be co-occurring. Someone who has depression or anxiety could use porn as an avoidance mechanism and end up getting addicted to it. On the other hand, someone with porn addiction could manifest symptoms of depression because of the guilt & shame associated with it or anxiety as a withdrawal symptom. While, it is not sure what caused what, one thing is for sure i.e. such cases can be complicated to treat. So, the first step becomes to address the associated issues.

Individual therapy

Therapy not only helps the individual to navigate through porn addiction but also help maintain positive behavior in replacement for compulsive behavior, learn healthy coping mechanism. It also helps build up the client self-esteem, create awareness of their behavior patterns, set healthy boundaries. It also creates a better understanding of how the addiction is affecting them, what are the triggers and how to deal with it.

Family and couple therapy

Addicts often engage in hurtful behavior like lying and deceiving. It causes sexual dissatisfaction with real-life partners. Children of porn addicts might have stumbled upon explicit images which cause them damage and it can also cause discord in families. Family or couple therapy first of all help the family understand the addiction and then helps resolve all the presenting issues within the family.

If you or your loved one is going through porn addiction, do get in touch with an experienced psychologist to seek help.

To learn more about Dr Prerna Kohli click here

All images Courtesy Pixabay

Pornography seizes your brain’s reward circuit and it weakens your brain’s ability to exercise willpower over your addiction to porn.

I hear you asking “what is this reward pathway now?”

Well, our brains are full of neural pathways. Anytime we learn something new, a new neural pathway is created and every time we practice it more and more, the circuit grows stronger. Unfortunately, this also happens with porn addiction, it rewires your brain by creating a new neural pathway and it is growing stronger each time you watch more porn.

Now breaking this neural pathway is difficult and it requires a lot of willpower. However, for someone to move on from this vicious circle of porn addiction there has to be an insight into their problems faced and identify symptoms.

Signs and Symptoms of Pornography Addiction

• Excessive viewing of porn, so much so that there is a loss of track of time.
• Unable to quit watching porn and compulsive masturbation.
• Consumed with thoughts of porn throughout the day, causing distraction and an inability to concentrate.
• Feelings of guilt and shame after viewing pornography, or viewing porn in secret.
• Irritability, anger and urge to watch porn are some of the withdrawal symptoms.
• Spending an increasing amount of time and needing more explicit material to reach the same high from porn suggest the presence of tolerance in addicts.
• Porn is affecting your normal daily functioning, it has a negative impact on your personal, work and social aspects of life.

Why and Where of Porn Addiction

Approximately 28,258 users are viewing porn per second and not all viewers are addicts to porn. To differentiate between healthy viewing and at-risk viewing it is important to be aware of unhealthy porn consumption patterns. Once the signs of porn addiction are discovered, it is best to address the underlying issue of ‘why’ and ‘where’ this pattern is arising as soon as possible.

If you think you are unable to quit porn even after a lot of efforts, reach out to an experienced psychologist for help.

To learn more about Dr. Prerna Kohli click here 

All images courtesy Pixabay