Porn addictionThe decline in how many couples are getting married has been blamed on a whole host of reasons – but late last year media latched on to new research which pointed the finger at a new culprit: online porn.

The findings, which were published in The Institute for the Study of Labor in Germany, claimed that free internet pornography was not just correlated to the fall in the number of young adult men who aren’t tying the knot, but also proposed that porn was actually contributing to the trend.

The researchers used data from the General Social Survey (GSS) to analyse how 1500 18-to-35 year-old men used the Internet between 2000 and 2004.

“We asked ourselves, what is helping determine whether people are married or not?” said Dr. Michael Malcolm, a professor at the University of West Chester, Pennsylvania, and one of the study’s authors. “One of those things, we thought, could be the use of pornography.”

The internet is packed full of research into whether pornography is a highly addictive, harmful substance akin to alcohol or cocaine or an unavoidable manifestation of modern sexuality and technology.

Websites such as yourbrainonporn.com push the damaging research saying pornography is a health issue not a freedom of speech issue, while others – like this blog on psychologytoday.com – claim sex addiction theory to be the result of high libidos.

This interesting article by psychiatrist Norman Doidge in The Guardian details how pornography can actually alter the way our brain works and change our sexual tastes by altering how we deal with the brain’s reward centres. He also draws attention to the irony that many of the features of “adult” sites actually work on the type of infantile complexes which Sigmund Freud described – mothers, spanking and oral and anal fixations.

All these features indicate that porn’s dirty little secret is that what distinguishes “adult sites” is how “infantile,” they are, in terms of how much power they derive from our infantile complexes and forms of sexuality and aggression. Porn doesn’t “cause” these complexes, but it can strengthen them, by wiring them into the reward system.

But from a therapy perspective the important aspect of addiction to porn – as with any addiction – is how it affects someone’s ability to function. At the point where it impacts on everyday life, that is where it becomes problematic and where treatment can yield positive results.

The Robert St Clinic website has a great explanation of how addiction works and what can be done to treat it, as well as this checklist to determine whether your use of pornography has become a problem – many of the symptoms – such as causing problems with a partner, keeping it secret and spending less time with friends and family – are similar to addiction to drugs or alcohol.

Frequently when people seek help for any addiction they need help to solve other problems in their lives, and need to re-learn skills to help them manage their emotions and close relationships.  All our therapists are trained in techniques that can assist you to better manage your emotions and your relationships.

If you have any concerns about your use of pornography, or feel you may be struggling with an addiction it helps to talk to a professional trained in addictions.

Contact us or call us now on 09 973 5950 to talk about how we can help you decide if use is a problem or if you are worried about a friend or family member.