When Porn Takes Over Your Sexual Life
Porn addicts spend countless hours searching for and looking at pornography. And loss of time is just the beginning of porn’s negative impact on the addict and their loved ones. Porn addicts often couple their porn use with compulsive masturbation.
They may also link their porn use to other compulsive sexual behaviors, such as webcamming, sexting, casual hookups, affairs, prostitution, etc. That said, porn addiction can be and often is a standalone form of addiction.
Diagnosing porn addiction
Preoccupation to the point of obsession
Porn addicts spend hours, sometimes even days, fantasizing about, planning for, pursuing and eventually using pornography.
Loss of control
Most porn addicts, usually try repeatedly, to quit use of their pornography. Sometimes they even succeed for a short period. However, they often return to their use.
Negative consequences
Porn addicts typically experience issues at work or in school, relationship woes, shame, depression, anxiety, loss of interest in previously enjoyable activities, isolation, arrest, etc.
If you identify with these criteria, it is likely you are addicted to pornography. If you are uncertain, we suggest you take this test.
Not porn is still porn
For porn addicts “not porn” is imagery of people who are not nude and not actively engaged in sexual activity – ie. Not pornography – that is nevertheless used the similarly the way the addict uses porn.
In other words, a porn addict can use “not porn” to escape into a sexual fantasy land – a “bubble” in which stress, boredom, shame, fear and other forms of emotional discomfort disappear – just as he or she previously used actual pornography. When that occurs intentionally, such as surfing social medica sites to view provocative images, the addiction is alive, well and fully active in the addicts mind.
Porn addiction treatment is a specialty.
Porn addiction is treatable only if the addict is willing to seek help from others. Working with a professional that is familiar with sex addiction can be essential to freedom from the porn addiction.
Unfortunately, often many addiction providers, lump porn addiction with other addictions. This can create a “one size fits all” version of recovery. Porn addicts do not respond to this approach. It is only with specialized porn addiction treatment that the addict’s true problem and its underlying factors are addressed.