Porn-addiction destroys you!

[topdog]

What I have problems and pretty big problems with is all the addictive rhetoric of addiction and all the pseudo-scientific rhetoric of brain damage, which - as ihno writes about in this thread - isn't much more than updated and modernized versions of good old christian fear and hatred of desire and the "nice" 18th century discourse of the extreme health dangers of masturbation.

I see your point about what things are inherently addictive. No, porn is not addictive in itself. Not like, say, heroin, nicotine or crystal meth. Porn is pleasurable and enjoyed by most people without any adverse affect. Or, to put it another way, porn doesn't cause "porn addiction".

But porn can be used by an addict to drown their negative feelings. And since it can't make the bad feelings go away, the addict has to keep hitting "play" over and over so the stimulation numbs the feelings they don't want to face.

Many other things can be used this way: food, shopping, work, gambling, to name a few. None of these things are bad, or addictive in themselves. It's the addict that makes them his "drug of choice".

In our youth, such an addiction wasn't really possible. You had to go far off the beaten path to obtain porn. Actually, it was easier going to a bath house and drown your sorrows in 12 hours of real sex, than obtaining 12 hours of pornography.

Times have certainly changed! We now have vast quantities of erotica at our fingertips. For someone that wants to leave reality and stay in a dopamine bubble, digital porn is an easy fix. You don't have to buy drugs from shady characters; there's no hangover; you can find an endless supply for free so you won't drain your bank account.

I think the fact that some people are addicted to porn, doesn't mean that porn is addictive. It isn't describing porn, it's describing what the person is doing with it.

 

[gorgik9]

@ topdog
You make a very useful distinction between "people being addicted to porn" versus "porn being addictive"; and being addicted to porn isn't describing porn, it's describing what the person is doing.

So I guess I'll agree with you on your main point!