Your Brain on Porn – Part 3: Porn Addicts are Drug Addicts

As we continue our series about the brain and how porn impacts it, we discover that porn addicts are actually drug addicts. 

Chemically, Pornography Is Nearly Identical to Heroin Addiction

Can that be true? That seems like a stretch! Well, according to several specialists in the neural science field, it is accurate. Here is a quote by Dr. Donald Hilton, a highly respected neurosurgeon: “The underlying nature of an addiction to pornography is chemically nearly identical to a heroin addiction.”

In addition to the chemical similarities, behavioral similarities between the two types of addiction are astoundingly similar.

Look at where pornography and heroin addiction cross paths:

• intensity of difficulty to stop
• reduction of moral and personal judgment
• depression and withdrawal from friends and family
• creation of a “self-focused” attitude and personality traits
• chasing the “dragon” phenomenon

Recall in our last article “Your Brain on Porn – Part 2: When Pornography is Consumed” [hyperlink], we compared watching porn to putting a screwdriver in the microwave?  Well here are the effects of watching porn (the screwdriver in the microwave)

Side Effects

The resulting effects are damage to the frontal lobes in the brain. The reduction of dopamine production causes multiple physiological and biological side effects:

• degeneration of frontal lobes
• reduced willpower
• inhibited moral compass
• reduced concentration
• increased anxiety
• erectile dysfunction
• depression
• blurring of reality
• inhibited ability to learn/decreased IQ

God designed sex to be powerful and to forge a long-lasting bond within us. Sex is the most powerful natural experience we can have. The resulting bond with a spouse is supposed to be an experience of union that is a glimpse of the spiritual union with God. And when we pervert sex, abuse it, and do not follow God’s plan for our creation, we suffer in a big way.

When sex is misused, it is incredibly addictive. When the bonding isn’t there and the dopamine is repeatedly flooding the brain, the results are staggering.

When bonding develops between two people, the pleasure centers of the brain are satisfied, and the cycle is complete. (Remember what we discussed a few weeks ago in God’s plan for sexuality?”) Without that sense of completion, the addictive cycle begins, and porn falls into the same category as other drugs.

The following is a summary of the research on the spike of dopamine in various experiences and drug consumption. Start with the baseline of zero of a healthy person without any type of stimulation. These numbers represent the spike in dopamine units when the listed item is experienced:

Dopamine Chart

• Sex: 100 units, then at orgasm + 200 units = 300 units for full sexual experience
• Cocaine: 250–300 units
• Heroin: 200+ units
• Food: 50–100 units
• Nicotine: 50–100 units
• Sharing yourself intimately with others (nonsexual, such as in a men’s group): 100 units
• Spiritual ecstasy during meditation: 200–300 units
• Meth: 1,200 units

As you can see, the full sexual experience, including orgasm, is as powerful in the brain as cocaine and heroin use. This is important to emphasize again: God designed us as sexual beings. We are “hardwired” to connect to another person, a spouse – not only sexually but in an intimate bond. The act of intimacy (nonsexual) results in a spike in dopamine (as illustrated above). You may also notice that acts of sharing oneself creates a boost of pleasure as well as engaging our God-designed connection with one another.  

We are wired for sex and bonding, not for using cocaine, heroin, and other addictive substances. As a result, the addictive properties of sex addiction are reported by scientists and world-renowned addiction professionals to be more difficult to break free from. Think of how much harder it would be to break free from a heroin addiction if God designed you to use it? This is just the side effect of misusing God’s most powerful and life-giving “drug.”

How the Brain Impacts Recovery

You may not be surprised to find out that heavy porn addicts develop a chemical dependency. This dependency fuels the addiction even after education, inner healing, and limiting access to porn. Another interesting fact is that the brains of youths between the ages of 12 and 20 are dramatically more inclined to become addicted. This is the result of neuroplasticity at that age, making it more vulnerable to damage from the factors discussed above. Neural pathways are established dramatically more quickly in youths than in adults.

The result however is that at any age, addiction is a chemical dependency. Without efforts to rewire neural pathways (and even then), physical withdrawal symptoms are likely. Common symptoms include increased anxiety and irritability, difficulty focusing – and, in advanced cases, increased heart rate and blood pressure, cold sweats, abdominal pain, insomnia, fatigue, headaches, nausea, depression, and feelings of profound loss or abandonment.

Depending on how deeply your brain and physiology has been affected, these symptoms will vary. Most people will experience at least some on a mild level. You may even experience flashback symptoms if some traumatic event happens in your life and the brain instinctively wants to recall the old methods of dealing with the stressful event.

As a point of reference, the book Treating Pornography Addiction: The Essential Tools for Recovery, by Dr. Kevin B. Skinner, lists the stages of pornography addiction:

1. Mild exposure—once or twice a year, no effect on regular life

2. Pornography use does not indicate addiction—occasional looking at pornography with

increased interest

3. Signs of trouble—a person looks about once a month, usually tries to avoid, but

occasionally urge gets so strong that cannot be controlled and person gives in

4. Individual notices increased sexual fantasies and attempts to control them, which results

in stronger withdrawal symptoms

5. Pornography affects day-to-day living with a significant portion of the day spent

thinking about pornography

6. Pornography dominates most of a person’s day-to-day life, affecting work, school, and

personal relationships

7. Pornography and acting out consumes most of an individual’s time, leaving him feeling

completely out of control

From a godly perspective, even Stage 1 is a misuse of God’s design for us and could potentially be a sign of deeper issues.

As we’ve discussed, overcoming porn addiction involves rewiring your neural pathways. This means creating a different neural pathway superhighway; creating new on-ramps that relate to the old triggers that currently lead to the porn neural highway. We guide participants of the Restoring God’s Foundation program through this process.

One more thing I find very interesting. In reference to the dopamine units chart above, we might say that dopamine is just a natural human biological design, where it the proof that God is part of it? You will then notice that the two highest “natural” dopamine items on the list are sex and spiritual ecstasy. Do you think this is an accident? The two things that give us humans the biggest pleasure boost are sexual union with our spouse (sex) and spiritual union (spiritual ecstasy) with Him. Both of these are Godly engaged activities. The intimate sharing and emptying ourselves to another person or God. God’s fingerprints are clearly all over this! 

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Need help with pornography? If you or someone you know is battling the scourge of sexual sin, pornography or other, I invite you to try for free, our unique recovery program – Restoring God’s Foundation.

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