Video Transcript: Pornography Addiction Test: Your Brain on Porn
This is an addiction test. If you say yes to three or more of these questions, then you have an addiction, at least according to the American Psychiatric Association. I want to admit that this is slightly abridged, I had to take some things out. And the reality is, it's used for substance abuse, not for porn addiction. If you say yes to two or less, then you can just stop the video and click on to your favorite site. Let's go over each one. Tolerance. That's a strange word, but it means has your use increased or escalated over time? In other words, do you watch it for more hours? Or have you escalated to more shocking or more extreme porn? Withdrawal? It's not necessary to have withdrawal symptoms if you have an addiction. But most users on our forum do experience some symptoms when they quit. It varies a lot could be anxiety, irritability, fatigue, depression, those are the most common, but some also experienced physical symptoms like cold and flu symptoms, the headaches, the inability to sleep and others. Number three, difficulty controlling your use. So do you use for a longer time than you'd like to? I think that's pretty clear, self explanatory. Number four, do you understand the negative consequences it does to your mood to your health? porn use has been associated with anxiety disorder and sexual dysfunction. Number five, neglecting or postponing activities it means are you doing porn instead of life? Number six, the desire to cut down now? Most addicts say they can quit anytime, but they don't. If you've had unsuccessful attempts to cut down that would be a yes to that question. And last one. Number seven. spending significant time or emotional energy obtaining using concealing, planning or recovering from use. Have you ever concealed your porn use? I think everyone can say yes to that. Here's an explanation on behavioral addictions. It's common knowledge that dopamine raising substances like alcohol, cocaine or meth can cause brain changes that lead to addiction. But what about so called behavioral addictions? These are such things as food, gambling, sex, video games shopping? Do they cause brain changes that lead to addiction? Well, of course they do. That's why they are addictions. Recent research on gambling, and especially food has shown brain changes that mimic drug addiction, Internet porn, no one wants to study it. Also, there hasn't been time for many study because it's a very recent phenomenon. Now, you tell me which is more stimulating, eating cheesecake, or masturbating to porn. It's known that sex masturbation orgasm raise dopamine levels far higher than eating food, which can you spend more time doing in a day eating or edging to porn? Let's talk about natural reinforcers natural reinforcer is a fancy word for a non drug activity that causes dopamine release. That includes food, sex, gambling, video games. Now, if you look at the data, about only 15% or less of drug users, this includes animals to ever become addicted. Obviously, genes are in play as our childhood experiences. If you look at natural reinforcers, and of course, food is a powerful one, we have a much higher percentage of people who can become addicted, though it takes a lot longer than it would with addictive drugs. Now, if you think about it, few people want to be fat. Yet in modern Western cultures, most people are now rats, on the other hand, don't care if they're fat. When they eat Western food. Almost all of them over consume become obese, not just fat. This suggests two things when it comes to natural reinforcers our reward circuitry evolved. It's evolved to drive us toward food and sex and not drugs. That's why so many people can potentially get addicted to food and Internet porn. And the other thing is that highly stimulating versions of food and sex can hook us even when we're not genetically susceptible to substance addictions. Here's the question, when can natural reinforcers become addictive? Number one, when they are a highly stimulating version of what our ancestors found really irresistible. Number two, when something is available in limitless supply, number three, it comes in lots of varieties, which is the novelty factor. Number four, we binge on it without realizing it's triggering brain changes. Now I think modern food and Internet porn fall into all four categories. Both can override old brains natural
satiation mechanisms, the I'm done feeling and that's because calories and fertilization opportunities really our genes top priorities, our limbic systems top priority