Pornography was bad---I knew that. In fact, that's all I knew. I had no idea how harmful pornography actually could be. And at the time, I don't think many people did.
We didn't understand pornography because before the internet, it took a lot more work to find it. It took actually leaving your house and going to a video store or finding a magazine. It wasn't available in the same magnitude as is now available.
Because of the internet, pornography is available in your home, on the electronic devices you use, and on the electronic devices your children use---but there is hope. There are protections you can take to keep your home a safe haven for your families. But let's save that discussion for another day.
Today, I want to focus on why pornography harms.
In mainstream media, pornography is portrayed as normal, healthy, and fun. How often do we hear about the other side of pornography, the side that states pornography causes real addiction and harms relationships?
Fight the New Drug states that pornography harms in 3 ways: the brain, relationships, and society.
So today, let's talk about the brain.
Researchers used to think that addiction was caused solely by outside substances that are physically put into a person's body {drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, etc}.
"Once we got a peek into the brain, however, our understanding of how addictions work changed. It turns out, cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs have more in common than you might think. Sure, on the outside, some are poured into a glass while others are lit on fire and smoked. But once they’re in the body, they all do the same thing to the brain: flood it with a chemical called dopamine. That’s what makes them addictive. And porn does the exact same thing." source
Pornography causes the "reward pathways" in the brain to react, in the same way cocaine does. And as you probably know with addiction, things don't get better before they get worse. People with addiction often consume more and more because they feel like they need it. They have to have it.
"Setting your brain up for an overload of feel-good chemicals might sound like a good idea at first, but just like with junk food, what feels like a good thing, in this case isn’t at all. Because porn use floods the brain with high chemical levels, the brain starts to fight back. Over time, the brain will actually cut down on its dopamine receptors—the tiny landing docs that take the dopamine in once it’s been released in your brain. As a result, porn that once excited a person often stops having the same effect, and the user has to look at more porn, look at porn more often, or find a more hardcore version—or all three—to get aroused." source
Scary. That is the first word that comes to mind when I read the above quote.
Think about a fully developed brian on porn and then think about the damaging effects that pornography can have on the developing brain of a teenager. The damage is different. The brain develops in a different way when an undeveloped brain is exposed to pornography.
"...for teens, the risks are especially high, since a teen brain’s reward pathway has a response two to four times more powerful than an adult brain—which means teen brains release even higher levels of dopamine." source
SCARY.
The effects pornography has on the brain cause addiction.
Addiction is a hard thing to overcome.
But in case you were wondering or feeling hopeless right about now, addiction is possible to overcome. Resources are available. Help is available.
Hope is available.
If you are as worried as I am about how readily pornography is available to our society, help me take a stand against it.
Join the Street Team.
Learn how to keep your home safe.
And talk.
Talk with others about how harmful pornography is. Stand up against the pornification in our society.
Watching pornography is not the norm and even if it was, it is still harmful. It is still ruining relationships and brain development and societal views.
Keep the conversations going about how harmful pornography can be. Keep speaking up about why this is NOT OK.
Fight with me, friends.
Fight the new drug.
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