Recovery From Porn Addiction
Clinically Reviewed by Amber Stephenson, MSW, RSW, CSAT
Porn addiction can be a debilitating condition.
The effects of pornography addiction can wreak havoc on your life, especially if it goes untreated for a long time. It can have a range of severe psychological and emotional effects. It can damage the addicted persons relationships, their personal life and their professional standing. However, with the right support, lasting recovery from porn addiction is an achievable goal.
Although research on porn addiction statistics suggests that it could affect up to 5-8% of the adult population, very few people understand what it is, the effects of excessive porn use, and how to seek treatment for it.
If you are concerned that you or a loved one may be struggling with porn abuse, understanding this process can be a crucial step towards achieving recovery.
Heres everything you need to know about this disorder from a porn addiction definition to its effects.
We will focus on the requirements of recovery and the different phases of the process. We will also discuss the effect of porn addiction on the brain and how it can be reversed over time through treatment.
While sex addiction and porn addiction are often linked, they can also exist independent of one another. These blog posts focus exclusively on porn addiction.
Cry Out To God For Grace To Change
Apart from the grace of God, we are powerless to turn from sinful habits. Psalm 34:17 says, When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. If you find yourself burdened by the sin of lust, cry out to God for deliverance and the grace to change. Christ can give you a new heart, restored joy, a clean and restored conscience. True change cannot happen apart from Gods grace, so as you continue to read, pray for Gods grace to apply these principles.
Dopamine: The Fuel For Wanting
Scientists believe dopamine does not equate to pleasure or enjoyment. Instead, dopamine fuels our sense of wanting, seeking and craving. Dopamine is primarily released just before we engage in an activity that makes us happy, such as before we eat our favourite desert or before we have sex.
The final reward or feelings of pleasure arises due to the release of chemicals known as opioids. These are opiate-type chemicals produced in the brain. For instance, an opioid release occurs when we orgasm or once weve eaten a great meal. Even the relief we feel when we drink water involves opioids. Essentially, opioids make us feel satisfied to prevent our seeking and craving.
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For Families And Codependents
These meetings are for those who have relatives and friends with addictions and problem behaviors. In addition to these groups, there are often links to family recovery groups for specific addictions or behaviors on the sites for the programs dedicated to them.
- Adult Children of Alcoholics: Find an ACA meeting by location search. They also have online meetings and phone meetings.
- Alanon and Alateen: Search for an Al-Anon Family Group meeting by location in the United States and Canada. You can also use the site to find online meetings, international meetings, or phone meetings.
- Codependents Anonymous: A 12-step program for recovery from unhealthy relationships.
- Families Anonymous: Get a PDF file of FA meetings by state. This is a 12-step program for those who have a family member with an addiction or problem behavior.
- Nar-Anon: A 12-step group for friends and families of people with substance use disorders.
- Recovering Couples Anonymous: A 12-step group for couples who want to restore and maintain their relationship in recovery.
Sensitised Pathways Remain Even When You Quit Your Addiction
Thus, its really DeltaFosB that causes sensitisation and it does this by creating stronger and more powerful nerve connections in the brain. Long after an addict has quit using and DeltaFosB levels have returned to normal, these sensitised pathways remain. This explains why alcoholics who have been sober for many years may still suffer from strong cravings when they walk into a pub.
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Humility And Contriteness Are A Cure Period
No way around the hard way go through the honesty-door and trust there are good things on the other side. Evil spirits do not like to be reproved, but people that want to change do!
Have you heard the phrase, trust, but verify? Spirits of guilt and shame do not like that phrase because they want you to continue in darkness or get a superficial adjustment. The desire to walk in the light does not come naturally it is a supernatural choice before the desires kick in. Being reproved will not last forever . God will rebuild your life out of the ashes into a purity and joy that is worth celebrating.
Ways To Fight Porn Addiction
If you discovered a cancerous tumor in your body, you would do whatever you could to get it out of you, right? And if there was anything you could personally do to increase your chances of survival and healing, you would spare no expense, right?
Overcoming addictions is no less significant.
King Solomon once counseled his listeners: Guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. . The condition of our heart determines everything else about our life. Cancer can kill our bodies, but it cannot destroy our heart nearly as effectively as something like pornography, which weighs down and hardens our hearts.
In order to defeat addictions like the disease they are, we need to attack them with a multi-sided strategy. We need to treat them like Stage 4 cancer.
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Brain Changes Associated With Internet Porn Addiction
Below we list the four brain changes that occur when you become addicted to Internet pornography:
The Truth Love And Power Principle
GoldJacketLuke explains the high-level concept. This is a great way through which to view life and to create the life you want in all aspects of your life. This is just an introduction and has been passed down through many different people, but it looks like people accredit Steve Pavlina to coming up with the way this model is shown today.
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The Sacred Sexuality Project
Mark Queppet did a series of videos around this topic and their just a great paradigm on how we should view ourselves and our bodies and live a higher expression of our sexuality while helping men turn their lives around.
He also now has an academy which is actually pretty costly, but if you want to fully commit to something, putting some money on the line definitely will help put some skin in the game and get you on the right track.
Pursue A Deeper Love For Both God And The Gospel
The root of all porn struggles is idolatryyou love to lust more than you love God. Seek to develop a deeper love for God and a deeper appreciation of His love to you in the gospel. Worship Him for His holiness and grace. God not only provides us saving grace in the gospel, He provides a sanctifying grace that prepares us for service, which is integral to who we are in Christ . Ask God for a deeper love for Him and deeper understanding of your place in the gospel.
An important part of loving God is rejoicing in the goodness of Gods good design for sexuality: sex between one man and one woman who are committed to each other in covenant for life.
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Financial And Acquisition Problem Behavior
Support groups for financial and acquisition problem behavior include:
- Debtors Anonymous: 12-step program for compulsive debtors.
- Gamblers Anonymous: A group to support recovery from problem gambling and are guided by 12-step principles.
- Spenders Anonymous: A 12-step program for those who want to recover from compulsive spending and taking on debt.
- Workaholics Anonymous: WA meetings include phone meetings, online meetings, or in-person meetings in the United States or internationally. This is a 12-step program for those who are compulsive about work.
Internet Pornography And The Coolidge Effect
The below graph illustrates these same mechanisms hold true for the human brain when we watch Internet pornography. Arousal is skyrocketed exactly when new pornographic material is introduced:
The above spike in arousal occurred when researchers switch to porn that the users had not viewed before. Without novelty and the Coolidge affect, there would be no spike in dopamine and no Internet porn addiction. Endless sexual novelty clearly means Internet pornography is a super-normal stimulus in that it amplifies qualities we find especially compelling. Modern junk food and video games are another form of super-normal stimulus.
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Install An Adult Site Blocker
The easiest way to stop watching porn is to make it impossible for you to do so.
You can easily install porn blockers on your browser. There are various options to stop your computer from even being able to visit pornographic sites. Some of the more popular options are:
Once youve made it impossible to satisfy your pornography habit on your electronic devices, the next step is to live transparently. You need to make sure that you use your computer in front of people at all times.
When its impossible to browse internet porn on your own and youre constantly in front of other people, then youll break your internet porn habit by sheer force. It will be impossible for you to watch in private and youll never get a chance to anyway.
Eventually, the urge will leave you.
The 4 Cs Of Addiction
The term addiction is abstract for many people who are learning about the topic. Fortunately, the 4 Cs model has been developed to help define an addiction in concrete terms. Specifically, the 4 Cs model is a screening test to diagnose whether an addiction has or has not arisen.
Below we apply the 4 Cs model to Internet porn addiction:
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Why Do People Get Addicted To Pornography
How does porn addiction start?
While plenty of people understand the addiction to alcohol or drugs, not everyone realizes why sexual imagery or videos can be addictive especially since its not a physical substance that youre putting in your body.
But sex can still activate regions in the brain that are associated with motivation and reward such as the dopamine system.
During the act and after, you may feel heightened pleasure, which is the result of a dopamine rush.
Like sex, pornography can also activate the dopamine system, and lead to that same dopamine rush.
However, over time, your body stops providing as much dopamine when you engage with porn which means you may have to watch it more often or view more extreme pornographic scenes to receive the same pleasure.
There is some controversy surrounding porn addiction but in one study, researchers found that people who sought treatment for problematic porn use had changes in their brain chemistry that were consistent with other kinds of addiction.
Their brains also reacted differently to sexual content than the brains of people who werent seeking treatment.
Home-Based Treatment Plan for Porn Addiction
4-week intensive virtual program:
Remove Sources Of Temptation
Fighting our sinful habits means not leaving provision for our flesh and removing sources of temptation . In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus illustrated the importance of this with the hyperbolic command to tear out your eye if it causes you to sin . This could mean setting up filters on your computer, phone, or TV, and throwing out anything that stirs up your flesh. Dont tolerate your sin any more than you would tolerate an armed killer living in your house. You are weak and need to lay straight paths for your feet so that in a moment of weakness you can stand firm in Gods strength.
Be killing sin or it will be killing you. John Owen
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Creating A Healthy Mindset
Make A Game Plan Against Possible Temptation
We need to take our fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil seriously. A good athlete studies his opponents on film and replays his own defeats, trying to find moments of weakness he can learn from and strengthen.
We should be as crafty as we can formulating strategies to fight acting out on lust. Brainstorm what lies you have believed and counter them with truth. Analyze your life and common times you are susceptible to temptation, and structure your life in a way that allows you to fight back. In Christ, you are not a slave to sin but have everything you need for living a godly life and overcoming temptation .
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How Desensitisation Affects Internet Porn Addicts
The below image illustrates how desensitisation affects Internet porn addicts. On the left of the diagram, we have sensitisation caused by the addiction and on the right we have desensitisation to everything else we experience in life. Any cues associated with the addiction cause the reward circuit to reward you with dopamine. However, everything except the addiction begins to trigger far less dopamine. This means you are motivated to engage with Internet pornography, but you are de-motivated to engage in other healthier activities such as sexual attraction to real people or engaging in hobbies and other social events. Thus, addiction to Internet porn creates an imbalance between cravings for Internet porn caused by sensitisation and the ability to experience pleasure from everyday activities caused by desensitisation.
Desensitisation involves low dopamine signalling for everyday activities. This is known as reward deficiency and numbered pleasure response. This causes the Internet addict to engage in dopamine releasing activities e.g. watching more Internet pornography. Unfortunately, sensitisation reward pathways caused by Internet porn addiction provide the easiest route to a guaranteed dopamine surge.
What Are The Consequences Of All This Dopamine
If you have managed to read this far, you may be wondering what damage all of this dopamine has on your brain. The consequences are mainly in the form of brain changes. These changes cause the symptoms and conditions listed earlier. These symptoms and conditions are physical and psychological in nature.
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Cure #3 Be Washed And Cleansed
Participating in water baptism can help you die to the power of the sin of porn. Death is final. As believers, God provided a way to die to sin, but physically stay alive. Water baptism is a sacrament
It is an act of obedience with spiritual benefits. I also see water baptism as an introduction to deliverance from sin.
Porn is unclean, and when habitually used, the individuals eternal position is in jeopardy if not reconciled. A cleansing for all sin has been provided before the judgment is finalized. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 1 Corinthians 11:31. Maybe you have been water baptized, but you did not understand what it was about at the time.
Fading Unhealthy Pathways And Strengthening Healthy Pathways
What about sensitised porn pathways that are behind your addiction to porn and cravings? The good news is that nerve cells that form this pathway will slowly but surely begin to disperse from one another. However, the bad news is this pathway for Internet porn addiction will never completely untangle, although it will fade and weaken. This explains why you will experience cravings even after years of abstaining from Internet porn use.
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Dont Allow An Impure Thought Tomove Past The First Creation
Every thought has the potential for two creations. The first creation is mental and the second creation is physical.
Dont allow an impure mental thought like I want to view porn, the first creation, to become a physical action like actually viewing porn, the second creation.
Just because you have a thought doesnt mean you need to act on it. Put your foot on the impure thoughts throat and crush it. Dont allow it to have oxygen. Suffocate it! Give it absolutely no chance to live.
Too often we think its okay to dwell on the impure thought. After all, were not actually acting on it physically yet.
But thats the problem. Dwelling on the impure thought is sin, and it can easily give birth to acting on it physically. No matter how innocent the thought feels initially, its incredibly dangerous and can lead you to taking a step youll regret forever.
Dont dwell on the initial impure thought. Put it out of your mind immediately. Dont allow the first creation, the impure thought of wanting to view porn, to get to the second creation, actually viewing porn.
