By Dr. Randall F. Hyde & Mark B. Kastleman
The mountains of clinical data and visual evidence as millions continue their out-of-control porn use despite consequences of divorce, loss of employment, destroyed reputations, prison time, etc., shouts the obvious: “YES, PORNOGRPAHY IS ADDICTIVE!” And just in case there are still out there a few stubborn hold-outs, research is currently being conducted by some of the world’s leading experts in the neuroscience and neuropsychology fields that will provide the clinical evidence required to officially enter sex and pornography as “addictions” in the DSM (Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders).
Some cringe with labeling pornography as “addictive” because they believe doing so affords the porn user an excuse: “I can’t help myself, I’m addicted.” This is a preposterous position. When someone is addicted to alcohol, do we excuse his behavior because “he can’t help it?” Just because someone suffers with an addiction doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a choice.
For many years, my colleagues and I (Dr. Hyde) have worked in our clinics helping individuals break free from pornography and many other addictions. There is always a choice when it comes to breaking free from addictive behaviors.
The more important question is not “Is pornography addictive?” but rather, “Is pornography a drug addiction? Does pornography use lead to a chemical dependency commonly experienced with illicit street drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and prescription drugs? Is pornography use “substance abuse?”
Immediately, there are some in the scientific, medical and psychology fields who fire back, “How can you classify pornography as a drug or a substance? It doesn’t come in a liquid, powder or pill form. You don’t ingest it or inject it.”
My response is two-fold:
1. When an individual ingests or injects a “drug,” that chemical travels to the receptors in the brain and other parts of the body, seeking to “mimic” the body’s own natural neurotransmitters. In effect, the drug tries to “fake” the body into releasing its own natural or endogenous chemicals. For example, Prozac triggers the body to release its own natural serotonin. Likewise, pornography “mimics” sexual intimacy and “fakes” the body into releasing a tidal wave of endogenous chemicals, which is exactly what pharmaceutical and illicit street drugs do. Can pornography not then be referred to as a “drug”?
2. For those who insist on precision in the use of scientific terms such as “drug,” allow me to put your minds at rest. Can we agree that pornography viewing triggers the release of the body’s own endogenous chemicals, just as sexual intimacy does? And that the porn viewer can become addicted to these internal chemicals just as he would if the release were triggered by a pharmaceutical drug? Is this not chemically-induced addiction?
As renowned psychologist M. Douglas Reed states: Addiction [can] exist within the body’s own chemistry.1
And Howard Shaffer, head of Harvard’s Division on Addiction declares:
I had a great difficulty with my own colleagues when I suggested that a lot of addiction is the result of experience-repetitive, high-emotion, high-frequency experience. . . . But it’s become clear that neuroadaptation-that is, changes in neural circuitry that helps perpetuate the behavior-occurs even in the absence of drug-taking. 2
One of the world’s leading researchers in the field of pornography as a chemical addiction is Dr. Judith Reisman. For decades she has worked closely with some of the best minds in neuroscience and neuropsychology to prove that pornography should indeed be considered a drug, a chemical dependency, a form of substance abuse. Consider some powerful statements from her and her colleagues in a widely published research paper:
A pornographic psychopharmacological flood yields epinephrine, testosterone, endorphins (endogenous morphine), oxytocin, dopamine, serotonin, phenylethylamine, 3 and other pharmacological stimuli. In her book published by the Institute of Medicine, Sandra Ackerman notes that epinephrine alone gets the “vertebrate brain” “high” on its own self produced morphine or heroin.4 Pornography, designed to alert the procreation instinct to the need to immediately respond, would be especially likely to cause users to self-medicate, kick-starting these endogenous LSD, adrenaline/norepinephrine, morphine-like neurochemicals for a hormonal flood, a “rush” allegedly analogous to the rush attained using various street drugs. 5
Arousal dependence [through pornography] may be compared to biochemical alterations related to excessive amphetamine use. Satiation effects [hours looking at Internet porn] may be compared to those related to opiate use. Fantasy behavior can be related to such neurotransmitters as dopamine, norepinephrine, or serotonin, all of which are chemically similar to the main psychedelic drugs such as LSD. 6
Vanderbilt University psychiatrist Peter Martin’s research on “normal subjects” finds the brain activity experienced in sexual arousal of his normal subjects “looks like that accompanying drug consumption.” 7
Addiction [can] exist within the body’s own chemistry. Any activity that produces salient alterations in mood can lead to compulsion, loss of control and progressively disturbed functioning. 8
Pornography is not like a drug, it is an endogenously processed poly drug providing intense, although misleading, sensory rewards. 9
However you choose to say it, Pornography addiction is a chemical addiction, or, if you prefer, Pornography causes the body to release endogenous chemicals which the viewer becomes addicted to. The bottom line is: “pornography is a drug.”
1. Paper presented to the National Family Foundation Convention, The Role of Pornography in Compulsive or Addictive Sexual Behaviors, November 10, 1990 in Pittsburgh, PA, Psychologist M. Douglas Reed, p. 15, 1, 3
2. Dr. Judith Reisman, The Psychopharmacology of Pictorial Pornography, Restructuring Brain, Mind & Memory & Subverting Freedom of Speech, The Institute for Media Education, 2003, p. 23
3. Candace Pert, cited in Bill Moyer’s Healing and the Mind, Doubleday, New York, 1991, p. 177
4. Sandra Ackerman, Discovering the Brain, Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1992, p. 76-77
5. Dr. Judith Reisman, The Psychopharmacology of Pictorial Pornography, Ibid., p. 21
6. M. Douglas Reed, The Role of Pornography in Compulsive or Addictive Sexual Behaviors, Ibid.
7. Dr. Judith Reisman, The Psychopharmacology of Pictorial Pornography, Ibid., p. 23
8. M. Douglas Reed, The Role of Pornography in Compulsive or Addictive Sexual Behaviors, Ibid.
9. Dr. Judith Reisman, The Psychopharmacology of Pictorial Pornography, Ibid., p. 23
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Aaron
June 5, 2009 • 1:31 pm
Wow, it is different looking at it that way. I just always thought that there was something wrong with me, in that I did this, and even worse, couldn’t stop doing this. Every day I wish with all my heart that I could get out of this trap.
Bill
June 5, 2009 • 4:07 pm
Thank you for trying to explain how this addiction is like drug addiction. It helps me to know that it is possible to free myself from its power. Thanks again.
john
June 6, 2009 • 4:22 am
Thanks,
You know this morning I wanted to find out for myself what triggers this behavoir. I am comforted to know that I do have a choice, and it is nice to know that someone out there is providing all this information to help us with this addiction.
Many thanks
tjfulton
June 6, 2009 • 5:47 am
It is interesting to note that not only is pornography an addiction and a drug in the ways mentioned here, but also in the power and frequency levels in the dependence department. What I mean is that with a publicly defined “drug” the first time usually takes very little to give the user a high, and therefore the same with a sexual addiction. It took me very little to “get high”, and from then on not only was I hooked but also trying to get that original high but it continued to take more and more until I was into the dirtiest smut and filth ever.
Mother of an Addict
June 6, 2009 • 6:15 pm
This is so important for people to understand. I am wondering if there is any research currently being done on the effects of pornography on the adolescent mind. My son became addicted to pornography at age 11. We had no understanding of the kind of harm pornography could do to him, chemically and behaviorally. If you could direct me to any resources I would greatly appreciate it. I am so thankful that Candeo exists to help those who struggle with this addiction.
wife of an addict
June 8, 2009 • 8:23 pm
Thank you so much for this article. I completely agree that porn is an addiction, especially with what I’ve witnessed first hand with my husband. Just as with any addiction if affects the mind and ones reasoning ability. Likewise with drugs, alcohol or porn, due to the chemical releases (as mentioned) eventually what used to satisfy no longer does the trick and the risks one is willing to take to satisfy what their body craves become higher and higher. The only difference I see is that in the case of alcohol and drugs one CAN eventually overdose resulting in death. So medically there is a difference as to the threat of life in a drug and alcohol versus a pornography addiction. But to watch someone you love lose their ability to reason and to justify what you know they never would if they were in their right mind,(along with other devastating and destroying effects) it is just as painful regardless of what kind of addiction they may have. It is interesting that it was noted that some psychiatrist do not agree that it is an addiction. The current one my husband is seeing has this view. From a mental aspect it can be helpful for some with the bad habit to NOT be labeled as one with an addiction, since for some it may in “their” mind put them in the “hopeless, lack of control” category. But for a mate or family member who see its power and control of their loved one it IS very helpful to view it as an addiction.
Confessions of a Porn Addict
June 12, 2009 • 5:55 pm
Porn def gives me a high, it never used to in the beginning. At first i used porn weekly, that was before the internet so it was never a big deal. With the internet i started watching 3 a 4 times a week, straight normal stuff which really didn’t give me any high whatsoever. It all started when i watched more extreme forbidden taboo stuff…the more shocking,the more the reward..and BAM, i was hooked. Like tjfulton says, to get that same response or “high”,you will go looking for more stuff you would never watch in the first place. When you “sober” up, you will be disgusted at yourself and say..”what the hell was i thinking”? But that’s just the first couple times, after weeks,months,YEARS, you just don’t care..gotta get that fix!!
Now i still haven’t quit for good doesn’t mean i haven’t tried. I too was in denial at first if it was really an addiction so i decided to quit. OH BOY, the withdrawals! I couldn’t sleep,antsy,triggers everywhere and you get these flashbacks..well dunno how to call it but you actually remember every image or movie you have seen and they just pop up once in a while..it’s very disturbing.
Anyways, i’m still an addict. Porn is free , available anytime and it feels great. I always tell myself: when i have a girlfriend again, i will quit..but deep down i won’t even bother looking for one, why should i? Honestly,it’s better than sex how sad is that? Oh yeah i’m not anti porn, it’s not because porn has a bad influence on me it’s bad for everyone. Same for food ,gambling etc etc…
ex wife of an addict
June 13, 2009 • 8:59 pm
Unfortunately and disheartened I am an ex wife of an addict, and to this day he denies he is an addict even after therapy and trying to stop several times. It does effect there reasoning skills, and by all means no one should enable this behavior it destroyed our family (his reasoning was so bad that he decided to hide from me that he was moving out and we were days away from having our second child, 2 days after he moved out I had her and he didn’t even know). I kept hoping after this devastating situation he would wake up..but to no avail. Because of this he increasingly has gotten worse. I pray that people open there eyes and see this addiction is smack dab in our faces…don’t ignore it, it will not go away on its own it can only get worse.
pedro
June 28, 2009 • 9:37 am
I finally broke down and had a long talk with my wife. She could sense that I had a problem every time we tried to talk i would not answer her. Over the years she learned to accept until now. she will be moving out . even though i think I’m moving forward with my recovery it is going to be difficult. I just hope I can make it. I mentioned to her that suicide is always on my mind . The pain i have is becoming to hard to handle.She say,s I’m looking for the easy way out.
Jessica
September 2, 2009 • 8:46 am
Finding out that pornography is actually like a drug addiction makes perfect sense to me. My husband has had an addiction to pornography since he was about 13 years old. When I found out about it i thought all the same things anyone would think “scumbag” “pervert” ect. I was pissed off and even thought of leaving him but after talking to him and finding out that he really wanted help I decided to do some reasearch on addiction/pornograhy and came across this website. I now understand this is not who he is it’s an actual addiction to chemicals that are released into his system that he is addicted too not the pictures or films, he has said that the porn disgusts him and now i believe that. Anyway i am grateful for this site & for learning the truth about this addiction!
john
July 21, 2010 • 11:22 am
I have had this addiction for a while:
If I am looking at it on the computer I completely lose my apetite and can look at if for hours never getting tired. I could literally stay up for days and probably not eat a thing. If that is not an addiction I don’t know what is.
bp
August 9, 2010 • 2:30 pm
thank you so much for the take on this addiction that it is actually a drug. I am currently taking a drugs class, learning about drugs and was researching a topic to write on and hoping to find someone who believed like i do that it is just as bad as a drug. I was engaged to a man who was addicted since he was 12 and has had recovery on and off and finally at the age of 34 realized that he was addicted and it wasn’t going to change unless he did. there were times within hours of each other that he didn’t want to quit and then 2 hours later he did. It is a battle he will always face and unfortunately i have dated at least 5 guys that I know of who are good upstanding citizens who have this same addiction. It is a threat to everything I hold sacred and taunts even the best of people. I believe that the ‘freeness’ of it should be put to rest and like any other drug should have a limit and a law. People are free to choose, but from what I have seen the majority of people choose it when they are in their early teens and have no concept of what actual freedom and consequences entails. This “drug” should have limits and bounds and not be available to my children or yours.
Asher
January 19, 2011 • 3:50 pm
There should be anti-porn campaigns taking place at the same level as anti-drug campaigns. Kids need to be warned about what this can do. I got addicted as a teenager myself. I heard all the warnings about drugs and knew to stay away. But no one ever warned me about this.
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July 27, 2011 • 4:41 am
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