Shocking Truth Revealed: Is it Normal to Watch Porn or a Sign of a Hidden Addiction

Last Updated on February 27, 2023

Watching porn is something that everyone does once in his/her lifetime. But then comes a time when some of us get addicted to it and question ourselves, ‘Is watching porn normal?‘ Should I stop doing this? and much more.

I am sure that some of you reading this article are in that phase and feel guilty about overdoing it. But watching porn is normal as everyone has watched it.

If it is normal, then why do I regret it? And if it is harmful, then why are there people who write about or make videos about the benefits of watching porn when actually it ruins your health?

In this article, you will learn if watching porn is really ‘normal’ or is something that you should avoid because it will ruin your brain, body, health, and life. So, without any further ado, let us get started.

Note: Do share this article with everyone who you think needs to know about porn addiction. No matter if he/she is under 18 or not, we know that nobody gives a damn about their age before watching porn.

Is It Normal to Watch Porn?

I know many of you have searched this query on google at least once in your lifetime.

I did some research on this topic and found many interesting websites stating some interesting yet bullshit things.

Some of the articles have said many positive things about porn.

One of those was from times of India on this topic, and I found this:

This article which was posted in The Times of India, states that “it is good to watch porn for your physical and mental health if you do not overdo it”, which doesn’t make sense at all. When you indulge in porn, you can hardly avoid it, which increases the chances of over-watching it by 99%.

If you think you are the only one who watches excessive porn, then don’t worry. There are a large number of people who do it, and I am not saying in any sense that, this is “OK”.

Data shows that 89% of Indians watch porn, so it is safe to say that boys are not playing PUBG in the toilet. Globally, porn gets 500 crores (5 billion) more hits than last year. 

Porn is the most searched term on the internet. 25% of all search requests are pornography, 35% of all downloads include pornographic, and every second 28258 users view porn. In 2019 42 Billion people visited the Porn hub.

Is watching porn really normal? Ask yourself? Is this not a waste of your precious time?

It is normal to watch porn but not good enough to do it every day.

Watching porn has many disadvantages which affect the human brain and lead to erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation, and loss of interest in a partner.

Many of you watch porn, and I know you will think about what is wrong with it?

You would be thinking that I am not having sex with someone, or at least I am not asking for it, but let me assure you that these small recurring mistakes or habits have more significant consequences in the long term. 

So yes, you are not alone in watching it, and it is also not normal to watch porn.

It affects your brain, and physical and mental health substantially.
Let us know how porn affects your brain and body and why you should stay away from it.

How Does Porn Affect Your Brain, Body & Health?

Porn not only negatively impacts your brain but also your body. Honestly speaking, it ruins everything. Many of you will be facing negative changes in yourselves because of porn addiction.

It is a fact that nobody watches porn just to watch it, everybody watches it to jack it off. 

That’s the reason why it affects the whole of your body and not just the brain. You get addicted to masturbating, and you suffer the impacts like depression, laziness, and the list goes on.

First, I will tell you the impact of porn on the brain and then on your body.

Effects of Porn on The Brain: Dopamine The Real Culprit

Porn is addictive because of Dopamine secretion in the brain, the downside is that sexual stimuli are the most Dopamine inducing activity.

Now you will ask that if dopamine makes us feel so good, what is wrong with that?

The issue is that when you do something like eat your favourite food or have sex, the brain releases dopamine. Because of this secretion, the brain forces you to crave it more because you ‘feel good’. Now relate this to porn.

Has it been a day (if you are a porn addict) that you slept before craving an orgasm? No! I know that your brain told you to just do it once. You did it. You regretted doing it. And then you promised that you would not repeat it.

But still, it happens, and this cycle goes on. This cycle makes you addicted to porn and, honestly speaking, not just porn. It can be anything you do in excess.

Researches have found that internet porn and addictive substances like tobacco have very similar effects on the brain.

Many surveys suggest that many men regret watching porn and want to get rid of it but can’t. So I will give you the reasons why it is bad for your whole body, and why you should stop it.

5 Phases Of Pornography Addiction

Phase 1: Exposure To Porn

The first step towards porn addiction is just exposure to it. There can be several reasons for how you were introduced to it, and that does not matter.

Some see it because of their friends, sexual abuse, etc.

There is no girl in reality which has the so-called “Perfect Body” which you watch in porn.

But once you get introduced to it, going back from it is hard and gradually becomes more challenging. This leads you to the second phase of addiction.

Phase 2: Addiction

When you get introduced to porn, you desire to see more of it. Once you get involved in it, you visit the same site for more and more. After getting addicted to it, you watch it every day, every hour or some people ruin their lives because they think about that stuff every time.
Porn slowly becomes an integral part of your life, and it gets harder to avoid it.

We often talk about addicts as though they simply have “quantitative problems”. They “use too much”, and should “cut back”. But porn addictions also have a qualitative component: they change the sexual taste.

Source: The Guardian

Addiction leads to the third phase, which ruins everything, which consumes your brain and your judgment-making ability, creativity, and distinguishing power between good and evil.  This phase is escalation.

Phase 3: Escalation

As you watch more and more porn, your brain slowly damages the dopamine receptors, and when you get bored of the same porn. You tend to search for more fetishes, kinky stuff, and more explicit content, to get high turn-ons.

Worse, over time, a damaged dopamine system makes one more “tolerant” to the activity and needing more stimulation, to get the rush and quiet the craving.

Source: The Guardian 

Porn escalation is just the same as drug addiction. A drug addict tries different drugs once they do not feel that good with the same one they were taking.

This phase leads us one step higher, which is commonly called desensitization. 

Phase 4: Desensitization

In this phase of watching porn, a porn addict gets bored with the same porn he watched for so long. 

A point comes in his life where he watches the stuff that he avoided, like horrific and abusive porn, child porn, illegal graphics, etc.

According to Taylor Francis Online:

It is a common notion among many scholars and pundits that the pornography industry becomes “harder and harder” with every passing year.

Some have suggested that porn viewers, who are mostly men, become desensitized to “soft” pornography, and producers are happy to generate videos that are more hardcore, resulting in a growing demand for and supply of violent and degrading acts against women in mainstream pornographic videos.

The degrading and abusive porn he watched before doesn’t give him excitement, and because of this, he tends to search and watch other bad or say disturbing content to feel the same thrill.

Now, this desensitization leads us to the last stage of porn addiction, which is acting out.

Phase 5: Acting out

This is the last stage/phase of porn addiction, and I guess you understood it by its name. Porn addict tries to act out everything he/she saw in porn videos with their partners, and sometimes this leads them to become a rapist.  This phase is something that I think you would not like to jump into.

Pornography programs your brain to desire and seek the same amount of excitement, danger and shock that you see on screen. If you believe that in this real-world a girl will provide you with the same experience you watched in porn, my friend you are wrong.

This stage leads to some unaccepted behaviors which get worse over time.
For example:

• Child molestation
• Holding(downloading) child pornography
• Abuse
• Rape
• Other sexual behaviors involving brutality

See how slowly porn takes away your capabilities to make the right judgment?

You see how gradually it ruins your whole health which eventually turns out to be worse. So now, as I discussed the effects of pornography on the brain, I will share the effects of pornography on your body.

Effects Of Porn On Your Mental And Physical Health

Many people know that they get erectile dysfunction from porn but still indulge in it. I do not deny that there can be other reasons behind your ED or other illnesses.

But most of the time, a person suffering from PE, ED, etc., is due to excessive masturbation or porn consumption. 

But do you know that with excessive porn consumption, you can suffer from low self-esteem, depression, and anxiety?

These are just two examples. In reality, there are way more effects of porn on your body than you might think.

But, do you know the major ones?

• Premature ejaculation
• Erectile dysfunction.

Yes, the porn you watch because you think it is “sex education”, that porn takes away your “way” to do it.

Source

So what are they? Come, let us find out.

What are Premature Ejaculation and Erectile Dysfunction?

Premature ejaculation (PE), or early ejaculation, is a condition in which a man ejaculates sooner than he or his partner would like during sex.
You can entirely blame pornography for PE. PE is just an outcome of watching porn excessively. Your brain gets programmed to ejaculate, and you don’t need ‘sex’ to make it happen, in layman’s language (wet dreams).

Premature ejaculation is very commonly reported by heavy porn viewers. So this is premature ejaculation and the only treatment for such conditions is to avoid porn and masturbation as much as possible. These are just 0.2% of the problems that porn throws into your life and harm your whole body.

Erectile dysfunction, on the other hand, is a condition in which a man is unable to keep up the erection or have an erection. Having a partner with ED isn’t the primary problem most young women face with porn. The causes of ED can be many. It can be due to depression, smoking, alcohol, and porn. Let’s not get deep into this topic for now.

10 Signs That Porn is Harming You and You are Unaware

• You think every woman wants the same type of sex you saw in porn.
• You compare women to pornography.
• You remain moody and angry more often.
• You are not happy with anything.
• You feel less satisfied in your relationship.
• You forgot everything about “consent”.
• You are into excessive masturbation.
• You are insecure about your body.
• You feel depressed, less confident, and nervous.
• You can not focus on other things, but sex.

You can also read this article by YourBrainOnPorn if you want to know more about porn addiction and its bad effects.

Watch This

Conclusion

I still think it’s important to use discretion when consuming porn, even though it’s legal and widely available now.

Many people like porn as a healthy way to release inhibitions and act out their desires without experiencing any negative consequences. However, it’s important to be aware of the moral, psychological, and intellectual minefields that lurk behind porn. Which is why it is bad to watch porn.

Porn addiction is a new pandemic that slowly and silently affects your brain’s working, but I believe in you all who read this article, and I have faith that you will leave it, you will change, and you will become the man you wanted to be.

Porn does not remove your stress, on the bigger picture, it gives you stress and ruins your health.

Just promise yourself that you will take baby steps and you will avoid watching porn. Just do it for a week, avoid masturbation and porn just for a week, and promise you will feel the change.

So my brothers, just be consistent, and you will come out of this deep well of porn addiction.