Saturday, March 23, 2024

How To Treat Pornography Addiction

Deltafosb And Genetic Survival Via Memory And Repetition

Escaping Porn Addiction | Eli Nash | TEDxFortWayne

Sensitisation begins with high levels of dopamine. This tells our primitive brain that this activity is really valuable and you should engage in this activity again and again. Dopamines goal is to have us remember and repeat behaviours that further our genetic survival. Dopamine achieves this by triggering a protein known as DeltaFosB. DeltaFosB remains in the brain for around eight weeks following your last binge.

DeltaFosB also activates certain genes that change the physical and chemical structure of the brain. As DeltaFosB levels rise, this protein begins to rewire the brain to crave for the substance or behaviour that led to a rise in DeltaFosB levels in the first place. This creates a circular process where wanting causes doing. This causes a surge in dopamine which leads to even more DeltaFosB being accumulated. As DeltaFosB accumulates, so does the urge to engage in the behaviour that created its accumulation in the first place. And so this cycle continues until you make a conscious effect to cease the addictive behaviour.

What Does If Thy Right Eye Offend Thee Pluck It Out And Cast If From Thee Mean

The most notable example of a believer’s eyes causing him to sin is King David in the Old Testament . Note here the progress of sin at first David simply glanced down and saw Bathsheba bathing herself, but he continued to look upon her and saw that she was very beautiful then he lusted after her – he made enquiries as to who she was and arranged for her to visit him this gave birth to sin – he then committed adultery with her. And this is exactly how the Bible says it will happen . There is no sin in being tempted – the sin is in yielding to temptation. When inner lusts respond to outward enticement, sin is spawned . Christians must be particularly careful always to abstain from taking pleasure in scenes of immorality such as those shown in films, television or pornographic literature .

Understand The Nature Of The Battle

There is more knowledge about how the brain works now than ever before. Sexual addiction is not just a moral problem it is also a brain problem.

We can develop a brain problem with moral implications that cant be healed by moral solutions alone. We cannot just read our Bibles more, pray more or attend more small groups. We must be transformed by the renewing of our minds, and we must find healing for our wounds.

So where is healing found?

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Activities That Speed Up Your Reboot

Hypofrontality also reverses, but this takes time. You may speed up this process by engaging in activities such as meditation that are known to engage your frontal lobes. This will help reverse hypofrontality and thus strengthen your willpower. This will mean urges will become easier to ignore and healthy choices such as exercising and socialising will become far more appealing.

Finding The Root Cause Of Compulsions In Treatment

Treating Pornography Addiction: The Essential Tools for Recovery ...
  • Acknowledging common contributors to intimacy disorders such as deep-rooted attachment, enmeshment, neglect and trauma` issues that typically begin in early childhood
  • Exploring the fear of vulnerability that may have prevented you from being present in intimate relationships
  • Owning up to problems in current relationships
  • Recognizing how addiction has impacted your personal and work life

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Seek More Than We Are Satisfied

However, our dopamine system is stronger than our opioid system. This means that we seek more than we are satisfied. Seeking is more likely to keep us a live compared to sitting around in a satisfied heap. In summary, dopamine compels animals into action. This is why scientists refer to dopamine as the seeking circuit. Dopamine provides the motivation for us to pursue our wants and desires.

We receive a bigger burst of dopamine when we look at foods containing a bigger proportion of sugars and fats. This is because these foods are most likely to keep us alive when we are threatened with starvation. This is why you believe you are full until the waiter offers you that chocolate pudding. The anticipation for that pudding is fuelled by dopamine. Dopamine surges thus override feelings of satiety.

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Psychological And Emotional Needs

It is important to remember when working towards recovery that your addiction is routed in complex emotional and psychological causes.

You may need to alter your life in other ways to help you in your recovery. There may be certain relationships or habits in your life that jeopardize recovery.

It may also be necessary to consider how you process and express emotions and how you communicate with those around you. A professional treatment centre will help you to do this.

Unsure Where To Start Take Our Substance Abuse Self

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Take our free, 5-minute substance abuse self-assessment below if you think you or someone you love might be struggling with substance abuse. This evaluation consists of 11 yes or no questions that are designed to be used as an informational tool to assess the severity and probability of a substance use disorder. The test is free, confidential, and no personal information is needed to receive the result. Please be aware that this evaluation is not a substitute for advice from a medical doctor.

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Nerve Cells That Fire Together Will Wire Together

Sensitisation and learning are governed by this simple principle: nerve cells that fire together will wire together. When nerve cells experience pleasure, nerve cells carry that message to the reward centre by join together. Overtime, this pathway that carries this message becomes fixed. When a memory or cue activates memories related to this pleasure, a powerful craving arises because the pathways that allow this pleasurable cue to reach your reward centre are well established.

This is illustrated by the image below:

If Youre Concerned About A Loved One

It may be a problem if you notice that your loved one:

  • watches while at work or at other inappropriate places and times
  • is unable to keep up with their social, occupational, or other important obligations
  • is experiencing relationship difficulties
  • has tried to cut back or stop, but cant keep themselves away from it

If someone you care about shows signs of a compulsion or addiction, it may be time to open the lines of nonjudgmental communication.

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Meet The Coolidge Effect

Internet porns endless supply of sexual novelty is an unnatural stimulus exploiting something thats been termed the Coolidge effect. This effect is best explained by an example. When you drop a willing female rat into a males cage, the male will continuously mate with the rat until he becomes bored. However, when you drop a different female rat into the cage, the males sexual appetite is awoken once more. You may repeat this process over and over again until the male rat collapses in exhaustion.

Why do the males become bored with the same female? Well, because the brain excretes less and less dopamine in respect of the current female, but a surge in dopamine occurs in the males brain when a new female is introduced. This mechanism helps promote genetic diversity and ensures no female goes unfertilized.

What Are The Consequences Of All This Dopamine

Treating Pornography Addiction The Essential Tools for Recovery ...

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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Acceptance And Commitment Therapy

ACT is similar to CBT in that it helps you identify thought patterns that affect addictive behaviors, but ACT emphasizes acceptance as a way to manage negative thoughts.

Group therapy is also a helpful option for anyone who is dealing with compulsive sexual behavior. Research has found that connecting with others who are experiencing similar issues can make you feel less alone, and decrease shameful feelings.

Neuroplasticity: How New Reward Pathways Arise

Forming new brain pathways in this manner is known as neuroplasticity. This is how we learn and how we become addicted. Overtime, old brain pathways weaken. This is known as forgetting or breaking a bad habit. Creating or weakening brain pathways is often known asrewiring the brain. Thus, neuroplasticity allows the brain to adapt as a result of experience.

Although they didnt know it, they had been seduced into pornographic training sessions that met all the conditions required for plastic change of brain maps.

If youre looking for addiction recovery books, check out our guide on the best books on addiction recovery »

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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.

The Reward Circuits Of The Brain

Why it’s important to recognize compulsive sexual behavior disorder | Casper Schmidt | TEDxAarhus

The reward circuit of the brain is also known as the limbic system or primitive brain. This refers to our evolutionary ancient structures contained in the brain. These structures are involved in almost all emotional and physical function you may think of. These structures essentially keep us alive.

Changes in the reward circuits may affect any aspect of behaviour and may even physiological functions. The reward circuit shapes are moods and colours our emotions. Fear, joy and rage all arise from these evolutionary ancient structures. Most of our desires and drives arise in the reward circuit, such as hunger for food, power or sex. The reward circuit also allows us to become addicted to certain behaviours.

Alterations to the reward circuits are responsible for most mental disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, depression and social anxiety.

Reward circuit structures such as the hypothalamus and the Amygdala influence or control major functions such as male sexual behaviours, erections, the autonomic nervous system and endocrine system. The bottom line is that chemical or structural alterations to the reward circuit may result in wide and varying effects.

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Compulsion Vs Addiction: How Can You Tell The Difference

One of the reasons why the term âpornography addictionâ is so controversial is because many medical professionals consider it more of a compulsion than an addiction. What is the difference between the two terms?

Here is some information to consider as you ponder whether or not you have a problem.

How Desensitisation Occurs

To understand desensitisation, you must understand how individual nerve cells communicate. Dopamine-producing nerve cells affected by desensitisation originate from the beginning of the reward circuit and make connections with other nerve cells in the reward centre. Nerve cells send messages using chemicals such as dopamine. Nerve cells bond to each other to form a reward pathway.

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How Our Helpline Works

For those seeking addiction treatment for themselves or a loved one, the PsychGuides.com helpline is a private and convenient solution.

We are standing by 24/7 to discuss your treatment options. Our representatives work solely for AAC and will discuss whether an AAC facility may be an option for you.

Our helpline is offered at no cost to you and with no obligation to enter into treatment. Neither PsychGuides.com nor AAC receives any commission or other fee that is dependent upon which treatment provider a visitor may ultimately choose.

For more information on AACs commitment to ethical marketing and treatment practices, or to learn more about how to select a treatment provider, visit our About AAC page.

If you wish to explore additional treatment options or connect with a specific rehab center, you can browse top-rated listings or visit SAMHSA.

Are There Treatment Options Available

Treating Pornography Addiction: The Essential Tools for Recovery ...

Many individuals benefit from who can help them overcome emotional difficulties and make positive changes in their lives. Usually, treatment incorporates:

  • : This therapy focuses on challenging and changing unhelpful cognitive distortions and behaviors, improving emotional regulation, and developing coping strategies that target current problems.
  • Individual therapy: One-on-one therapy sessions offer a unique and transparent space for those in recovery to express their challenges, emotions, and hopes.
  • Couples therapy: When behavioral addictions break apart relationships, both romantic and family ones, couples counseling can help restore trust and rebuild relationships, which can be essential for support in long-term recovery.
  • Group therapy: Speaking about challenges, emotions, and troubles in a group environment, can offer a sense of fellowship and support and provide a space to build sober relationships.
  • Self-help groups: Usually, addiction is a lifelong journey self-help groups can offer aftercare support once someone ends treatment. Usually, these 12-step programs provide a sense of structure that can help with long-term sobriety.

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Reward Circuits: Seeking Pleasure And Avoiding Pain

At its most basic level, the reward circuit allows us to seek pleasure and to avoid pain. Our very survival depends on the avoidance of pain and the repetition of pleasure. To this end, the reward circuit encourages us to engage in activities that either further our survival or the survival of our genes. These activities include sex, eating, bonding, achievement, play, novelty and taking risks.

We literally do not make a decision without consulting our reward circuit. The reward circuit emotionally justifies what we do like and what we dont like. When you are addicted to something, your reward circuit is out of balance. This affects your mood, your perception and your decision-making powers.

Access The Wound That Makes You Return To Unhealthy Addiction

We live in a broken, fallen world. You can grow up in a perfect family with tons of support and still get hurt. Some people can process their pain relationally with others, but many of us cant do that. We dont know how. We find ways to numb our pain, and those can become addictions.

Ultimately, you must go on the journey of exploring your own life and ask, “Where have I been wounded and how do those wounds affect me today?”

Have you been hurt by abuse? Divorce? High school? If we dont identify these wounds, well end up treating the symptoms rather than the root problems. You must explore your own story with safe people. Discover where youve been wounded and allow yourself to process that pain. Then you can find healing.

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Dont Beat Yourself Up If You Fall Off The Wagon

Trying to break a habit or recover from an addiction is a journey. Unfortunately, on that journey, you might find yourself slipping back into old habits. Whenever that happens, dont waste any time beating yourself up.

Do your research, try more coping mechanisms and treatment options and get back on the wagon.

What Is Sensitisation

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Sensitisation is a form of unique and powerful Pavlovian conditioning that alters the physical and chemical nature of your reward structure. Instead of salivating to the sound of a bell like Pavlovs dogs, your reward circuits are stimulated when you turn on a computer monitor or when you see a sidebar banner of a semi-naked women on a non-pornographic website.

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What Is It

Some people arent interested in it, and some are deeply offended by it. Others partake of it occasionally, and others on a regular basis.

It all boils down to personal preference and personal choice.

Since the existence of porn addiction is not recognized by the APA, no definitive diagnostic criteria guide mental health professionals in its diagnosis.

Well explore the difference between compulsion and addiction, and review how to:

  • recognize habits which may be considered problematic
  • reduce or eliminate unwanted behavior
  • know when to talk to a mental health professional

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