I've watched a lot of porn in my time and I have managed just fine when I've been on business trips or holidays for one or two weeks without seeing porn. I had plenty of other things to pass the time and function without any issue.
After those excursions, I could rub one out or have sex without any issue so I'm afraid to say your "experiment" is an abject failure.
Has a medical professional certified you as having an addiction or a compulsive disorder or are you using the word as a nice fashionable, cute little label? Has a medical professional linked your ED to pornography or is there another underlying cause you haven't mentioned here?
While there is a wealth of knowledge and information out there, I once read that Abraham Lincoln said you should believe everything you read on the internet.
I may as well listen to an anti-vaxxer's "evidence" that vaccinations cause autism.
Yes, three medical professionals have diagnosed me as having an addiction. I didn't come up with this myself. And it's great that you can go two weeks without. Not everyone is affected the same. I have a friend who watches porn daily and still does fine in the bedroom with his girl. And then I have other friends who watched daily and their brain gets hooked. Sex becomes more than a chore. Everybody is wired differently. No compulsive disorder here. If someone is posting about being worried about having an addiction blowing it off isn't good. The person should seriously consider it possible and at least try to reduce how much they're watching/masturbating.
If you could do that then good for you. I mean that seriously. Some people can't. Moderation is key and for certain folks moderation is an issue. I've been to a sex therapist and two separate urologists. Each one I spoke to told me about the growing issue of young men coming into their office believing they have erectile dysfunction. After testing and trying different treatments it all came down to one issue. Too much porn overstimulating the brain.
Again, I stress that I am not anti-porn. I still watch from time to time and have no grudge against the industry or any performer. But the fact of the matter is that porn addiction is a real thing for people. If you don't have that issue then that's good. Enjoy yourself. If it starts causing you problems in the bedroom with real human beings or if day turns to night, hours have gone by, and you still have five different windows open on your browser of porn, there's an issue.
I know I can do it because I've done it. Let me give you two examples:
1) I used to smoke cigarettes, but I quit - cold turkey. Was it hard? Did I suffer from withdrawal? No, because it wasn't an intellectual exercise, it was a visceral reaction, and my medula oblongata understood that message just fine.
2) Some time ago, I decided to fast every other day. Now, this was obviously something my body would have to adapt to, but I found it easy to do because I was confident that I could exert my will over the old lizard brain.
Would I have had that confidence had I not quit smoking so easily? That's hard to say, but the larger point is that you can take control of your behavior, you just need the confidence and the motivation.
That's quite the U-turn acknowledging that not everyone is affected the same and that we are wired differently after you came here confidently stating that if we abstain from pornography for one or two weeks that we would be unable to masturbate to completion without porn, implying that it is the case for everyone who watches a lot of porn. Have you only acknowledged that people respond differently to certain stimuli or the absence of them because somebody who isn't that one in a million refuted your initial claim?
You hadn't answered my second question directly. Did any of the three medical professionals who said you have an addiction link it directly to your ED or did you make that conclusion yourself?
I don't deny porn addiction outright. I disagree with the convenience and overuse of a term that risks belittling the effect it's had on those who became dysfunctional.
I didn't U-turn. I never said it would affect everyone the same. And yes, they diagnosed my ED as having to do with porn. Once I was able to cut back heavily on porn and masturbation I regained back functionality in the bedroom. (I went nine months with no porn and masturbation while I became functional in the bedroom again). I had no issue maintaining erections while masturbating to porn, only sex.
I don't know why some people seem to be taking offense to this standing, it's not meant to denigrate anyone for watching. It's just that it can become addicting to some. If it starts to impact your sex life or you find yourself watching everyday for hours on end then there's a problem. I personally had a huge problem. If others are too then they should reach out for help.
^ So why did you ask us to take part in the experiment expecting us to have the same trouble masturbating as you had experienced? If you knew the outcome had the possibility of not being the same, why put that challenge out there?
I don't see anybody having taken offence or that your comments were intended as denigrating. To question an argument or explicitly disagree with it/dismiss it doesn't constitute or even imply taking offence. Nobody denied there can be a case of watching too much porn. The disagreement is over the eagerness to call it an addiction when there could be other problems at play. Nobody even hinted that you shouldn't seek help if you think you have a problem. You're barking up the wrong tree with in too many conclusions.
I asked because it's what I had to ask myself. I kept saying I didn't have a problem until I tried to stop and realized I couldn't at first. It took me months and months to get to a point where I was able to stop.
If you can stop whenever then congratulations you don't have a problem. If you can't stop and on top of that you have ED when it comes to sex then there is a problem. If someone is consistently choosing porn over intimacy with their spouse there may be an addiction issue.
Have you tried going without music for two weeks? Or reading? Or football? Or whatever socially sanctioned activity gets your rocks off? Probably not because no one asks you to nor shames you for engaging with it. And that's the core of "porn addiction."
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Pr0nLover Deactivated User
247 Posts 1/19
Posted - Jan 31 2020 : 11:57PM
Yes. I believe its real for all of the reasons Jacobsman91 mentioned. Also, I think that porn portrays sex in a very unrealistic manner. That's ok. It's like any other form of entertainment. But if you start having expectations that most of the women you meet are going to have sex with immediately, in all kinds of places, in all kinds of positions and are going to be totally into wilder stuff like anal of letting you cum on their faces you're probably going to be in for a big disappointment. Hopefully, you're not at the stage where only those things turn you on then ED or just plain disatisfaction may be a real problem.
"A 2014 study from Cambridge University found that addicts watching pornography experience the same compulsive brain activity as drug addicts when confronted with their drug of choice. Last year, 38-year-old Andrew Barnbrook defrauded his employer of $480,560 in order to fund his habit of talking to a sex-cam model.
Dr Thaddeus Birchard of the Marylebone Clinic has treated more than 1,000 men since 2001 and says porn tricks the brain into wanting something it doesn't need. "
I think using porn is quite simmilar activity like having a couple of drinks from time to time, or smoking weed, or having drugs rarely. It can overtake your life if you have nothing more to do, but as itself it's just another way of providing oneself some pleasure. Sadly, only porn enthusiasts are said to be disguisting so often, while binge drinking, smoking or having some pills are all tolerated if you don't do this constantly. I used to consider myself as an addict, but after I gave up conservative, catholic mindset, I admitted to myself, that I do just what I like. I stopped to hate myself and feel so sad just after zipping up my pants.
I do not consider it an addiction (in my personal case). I have a career, a marriage (moderately good), a full social life and work out 5/6 times a week. I just happen to enjoy porn. I have my sexual fantasies/desires and it helps me meet those.
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Laura_ Deactivated User
191 Posts 9/16
Posted - Feb 22 2022 : 7:18AM
^ I think what you're alluding to in your post is exactly how I see it, sure, I'm a frequent porn consumer and have been for years now but nowadays I make sure I don't allow to infringe on having a productive and rewarding life, and like you I am still able to enjoy all the important aspects of life; an active social life, keep fit and enjoying other hobbies.
Porn provides with a much needed outlet but these days I can turn the tap on and off easier than maybe earlier periods of life where admittedly I was probably addicted and did regrettably allow it to infringe on my life.
Anything can become compulsive. The idea of "sex addiction" is bullshit and concocted by a bullshit profession that until literally a few years ago thought gayness was a mental disorder and meditation was snake oil. Oh, and the profession is left, front, and center of the "reproducibility crisis" meaning that the majority of studies are likely bullshit.
There are good therapists and the like-despite the "science" of psychology which is nothing more than a propaganda tool.
It's hilarious (or sad) that their "consensus science" told the swinger guy he had a problem and was only 'cured' after he found a wife interested in swinging. Plus, being gay or lesbian was a mental illness until recently, like I mentioned, plus all kinds of ridiculous crap. Add in overtly idiotic sex education in many countries, including the US, and.man, just man.
I really, really hate Public Health. It is propaganda and ruinous to society.
George Washington issued a vaccine mandate for all soldiers under his command. In short, there's nothing new about vaccine mandates in the USA. Perhaps the problem here is not public health, but politically motivated interference in public health.
Yes, at one time, when I was a teenager, I constantly watched porn. I masturbated a lot, but then I came across an article on a website about sex. It was said that masturbating is useful, but you don't need to do it every day because a habit is being developed. And so it's better to find a girlfriend and have sex with her every day than to masturbate. Still, I couldn't get a girlfriend as a teenager, so I decided to concentrate on sports. I chose basketball for myself so I could always abstract for a while.
I like porn and the Golden Age of Porn 1947 Posts 9/21
Posted - Mar 14 2022 : 5:33PM
Teenagers spending all day watching porn. Is normal teenager shit. If it's not porn, it's a Sears or victoria's secret catalog. Teenagers jack off a lot
Ah, those teen years. I'd stand near the store entrance and wait until it was empty before going in to buy a Hustler or whatever. Pretty soon, I was fascinated by sex and the sex industry. I went to a strip club (outside) and talked to a couple of the dancers and asked them about the club and their dance routines. I wasn't old enough to go in the evening, but they thought I was cute and took me inside backstage and front of house outside of opening hours. I went to a massage parlor out of curiosity, hung out with the girls there over a coke and got to watch for free while one of them masturbated while I watched.
In all of that, the dumb librarian with the coke bottle glasses wouldn't let me check out a Tantra book. For fucks sake!!
Needless to say, my experiences around adult businesses early on was very, very positive. Mainstream type people and sex, negative. I hated the prudish aspect of our world. Still do.
Sometimes I feel like a hypersexual alien in a world with boring people. With porn I can be myself and explore what I like without scaring people away.
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Maxxx17 Deactivated User
2 Posts 5/22
Posted - May 12 2022 : 4:27PM
MOD: Coming back to edit your post to make it spam isn't going to fool people.
