Why You Should Stop Watching Porn Today

Porn is a massive experiment that we really don’t know the consequences of yet

Photo by Anwaar Ali on Unsplash

I have done a lot on my journey to grow, but the biggest impact came from quitting watching porn.

I used to be addicted to it, and it was holding me back in a lot of different ways. I struggled with depression, social anxiety, and low motivation. These issues were not only caused by a bad porn habit, but it was certainly a big contributing factor.

When I finally managed to overcome it, I got the strength and mental clarity to work on myself in other ways, and my depression and social problems went away.

It became way easier to connect with others, I became motivated again, and the dark clouds of depression evaporated.

I remember when I first started to suspect that watching online porn was holding me back. I had struggled with connecting with other people for years and had almost no interest in real girls, and I started to realize something was wrong.

Unfortunately, I come across mainstream articles claiming that watching porn is normal and even healthy. So, the problems persisted for years.

Eventually, I came across websites such as yourbrainonporn.com and fightthenewdrug.com, and they opened my eyes to the damaging effects watching porn can have. I am tremendously grateful that these websites acknowledged it as a problem.

So, why is watching porn harmful?

Here are some side effects that can be experienced by watching porn:

• An inability to connect with others

• Loss of motivation and drive

• Sex without intimacy

• Lack of interest in sex

• Loneliness

• Social anxiety

• Feelings of guilt and shame

• Sexual dysfunction

• Unrealistic expectations

• Objectification

  
  

Porn is incredibly accessible these days, and you can access an endless stream of porn in seconds with the internet. Having all that pleasure at your fingertips is quite scary.

A moment of weakness is enough to relapse. So, for me, there has been no other alternative than building mental strength and discipline to avoid it.

Since it is so accessible and abundant with nakedness these days, exposure to explicit images is practically inevitable. Just because we find nakedness everywhere online doesn’t mean it is harmless.

Porn can, in some ways, be more stimulating than sex with a real partner. Plastic surgery, HD, various angles, anime, lighting, and digital makeup contribute to this. We are exposed to angles and zoom, which simply wouldn’t be possible during normal intercourse.

With Internet access, you have the option to see more naked hotties in the next hour than our ancestors ever did in their entire lives. Think about that for a second. A lot of our motivation for accomplishing things is based on sexual drive. If you watch hundreds of strangers copulate online every week, no wonder you have less motivation to achieve something.

What is dopamine, and how does watching porn impact it?

Dopamine is a molecule in our brain that impacts our excitement, level of motivation, and willingness to push through discomfort to reach rewards such as money, food, or sex.

It is responsible for our motivation and willingness to complete small tasks in our daily lives. Simply put, a healthy dopamine system makes you less lazy and more productive.

With porn, you can keep your dopamine levels elevated for unnaturally long periods of time.

You can click on the next scene and see new content as soon as something stops being exciting. A lot of people consume porn that way, clicking on the next video and looking for the perfect scene.

Your dopamine spikes as soon as it sees something new, as novelty and variation stimulate dopamine.

This will cause a bad process in your brain. It can result in a reduction in the number of dopamine receptors in your brain. This is also called a numbed pleasure response, and it will cause you to feel the effect of dopamine less when it is released.

When I was in my early twenties, I went through long periods of no motivation to make anything of myself. That doesn’t make any sense for a person that age.

It was because my digital habits of watching a lot of porn and spending too much time on YouTube, social media, and so on had a very bad impact on my dopamine system.

My motivation and drive in life returned when I managed to cut down my screen time and overcome porn.

One thing that baffles me is that most people know that doomscrolling on TikTok or spending too much time on social media is bad for their brains and dopamine levels.

On the other hand, watching porn is surrounded by way more controversy.

But when you think about it, isn’t the way a lot of people consume porn with looking for the perfect scene, jumping from image to image, just a way more stimulating alternative to doomscrolling social media?

How quitting porn will make your life better

Avoiding porn will help you build strong willpower and great self-control.

It is going to aid you in all areas of your life. Whether you are studying for a test in school, working on a major project, or want to clean your house, having strong willpower will help you finish the task quicker with less mental effort expended.

In addition, when I stopped blasting my brain with endless dopamine from porn, my natural motivation and drive in life returned. You will get busy working towards real goals instead.

You don’t have to live like a monk, but by limiting your consumption of easy online pleasures like porn, you will fare a lot better in your life and have dopamine working in your favor, not against you.