9 things you should consider before watching porn

“Because the human brain is the biological anchor of
our psychological experience, it is helpful to
understand how it operates.” says William M.
Struthers, associate professor of psychology at
Wheaton College. “Knowing how it is wired together
and where it is sensitive can help us understand why
pornography affects people the way it does.” Here are
9 things you should know about pornography affects
the brain.
1. Sexually explicit material triggers mirror neurons in
the male brain. These neurons, which are involved
with the process for how to mimic a behavior,
contain a motor system that correlates to the
planning out of a behavior. In the case of
pornography, this mirror neuron system triggers the
arousal, which leads to sexual tension and a need
for an outlet. “The unfortunate reality is that when he
acts out (often by masturbating), this leads to
hormonal and neurological consequences, which are
designed to bind him to the object he is focusing
on,” says Struthers . “In God's plan, this would be his
wife, but for many men it is an image on a screen.
Pornography thus enslaves the viewer to an image,
hijacking the biological response intended to bond a
man to his wife and therefore inevitably loosening
that bond.”
2. In men, there are five primary chemicals involved
in sexual arousal and response. The one that likely
plays the most significant role in pornography
addiction is dopamine . Dopamine plays a major role
in the brain system that is responsible for reward-
driven learning. Every type of reward that has been
studied increases the level of dopamine transmission
in the brain, and a variety of addictive drugs,
including stimulants such as cocaine, amphetamine,
and methamphetamine, act directly on the dopamine
system. Dopamine surges when a person is exposed
to novel stimuli, particularly if it is sexual, or when a
stimuli is more arousing than anticipated. Because
erotic imagery triggers more dopamine than sex with
a familiar partner, exposure to pornography leads to
“arousal addiction” and teaches the brain to prefer
the image and become less satisfied with real-life
sexual partners.
3. Why do men seek out a variety of new explicit
sexual images rather than being satisfied with the
same ones? The reason is attributed to the Coolidge
effect , a phenomenon seen in mammalian species
whereby males (and to a lesser extent females)
exhibit renewed sexual interest if introduced to new
receptive sexual partners, even after refusing sex
from prior but still available sexual partners. This
neurological mechanism is one of the primary
reasons for the abundance and addictiveness of
Internet pornography.
4. Overstimulation of the reward circuitry—such as
occurs with repeated dopamine spikes related to
viewing pornography—creates desensitization. As
Gary Wilson explains , “When dopamine receptors
drop after too much stimulation, the brain doesn't
respond as much, and we feel less reward from
pleasure. That drives us to search even harder for
feelings of satisfaction—for example, by seeking out
more extreme sexual stimuli, longer porn sessions, or
more frequent porn viewing—thus further numbing the
brain.
5. “The psychological, behavioral, and emotional
habits that form our sexual character will be based
on the decisions we make,” says Struthers.
“Whenever the sequence of arousal and response is
activated, it forms a neurological memory that will
influence future processing and response to sexual
cues. As this pathway becomes activated and
traveled, it becomes a preferred route—a mental
journey—that is regularly trod. The consequences of
this are far-reaching.”
6. What makes Internet porn unique? Wilson identifies
a number of reasons, including: (1) Internet porn
offers extreme novelty; (2) Unlike food and drugs,
there are almost no physical limitations to Internet
porn consumption; (3) With Internet porn one can
escalate both with more novel “partners” and by
viewing new and unusual genres; (4) Unlike drugs
and food, Internet porn doesn't eventually activate
the brain's natural aversion system; and (5) The age
users start watching porn. A teen's brain is at its
peak of dopamine production and neuroplasticity,
making it highly vulnerable to addiction and rewiring.
7. Men's exposure to sexually explicit material is
correlated with social anxiety, depression, low
motivation, erectile dysfunction , concentration
problems , and negative self-perceptions in terms of
physical appearance and sexual functioning.