What causes porn addiction

Pornography addiction can seriously damage relationships and take precedence over important functions and responsibilities in someone's life. If you have a porn addiction, the behavior is compulsive. What separates a porn addiction from a keen interest in porn is the negative consequences of your behavior. With porn addiction, you spend an inordinate amount of time watching porn instead of interacting with others or completing important tasks. The behavior persists even if it harms your career, relationships, or state of well-being.

While some of these addictions, like gambling addiction , are much more accepted than others, like sex addiction, there is still a great deal of controversy from medical professionals on where addictions end and compulsions begin. Regardless, there are people suffering. So, whether it is an addiction or compulsion, people should still need help. One of the most reported addictions is porn addiction.

Pornography addiction is an addiction model of compulsive sexual activity with concurrent use of pornographic material, despite negative consequences to one's physical, mental, social, or financial well-being. Problematic Internet pornography viewing is viewing of Internet pornography that is problematic for an individual due to personal or social reasons, including excessive time spent viewing pornography instead of interacting with others. Individuals may report depression , social isolation , career loss, decreased productivity, or financial consequences as a result of their excessive Internet pornography viewing impeding their social life.

And if this unstoppable urge is causing legit problems in your life, you may think, in fact, you do. Some research suggests that uncontrollable porn consumption may be more of a compulsion than an actual addiction. Take our short Porn Addiction quiz to see if you may benefit from further diagnosis and treatment. According to statistics, 40 million Americans regularly visit porn sites, and then you count COVID, so who knows how many more are tuning in. While both addiction and compulsion involve a lack of control and can be uncomfortable for the person dealing with it, an addiction is generally a persistent dependency on a particular substance or behavior in order to cope with life, while a compulsion describes an intense urge to do something.