As I look back on my 30+ years as an “in the trenches” therapist, I can tell you that my clients suffering under the burden of pornography use and other sexual addictions, have come from all walks of life. There has never been one, single set of identifying characteristics under which I could place all those who struggle with this addiction. While I have known about this diversity for many years, our Candeo online recovery training program has brought this to light in ways I never imagined.
People are often surprised to learn that we have individuals (we call them Candeo Students) engaged in our addiction recovery training program from all 50 states in the U.S. and in 32 countries! But the diversity is not just geographical. Candeo Students come from a wide variety of cultures, backgrounds, religious affiliations, education and economic levels. We have both men and women on our program, and they range in age from 13 to 80. Our recovery students hail from many different professions including teachers, doctors, business owners, military, clergy, therapists, CEOs, politicians and a lot more. Many of our Students are also students in colleges and schools across the globe. Does this diversity surprise you? What is it about pornography addiction that allows it to cross all boundaries and entrap men, women and children world-wide?
Many have assumed that the common denominator is religion—people are disturbed and obsessed about their porn use because of their religious beliefs. While this is certainly a contributing factor, it is far from being the rule—we have a significant number of Students who are non-religious. Some claim that this is strictly a “male addiction”—a growing number of our Students are female. It would seem to make sense that internet porn addiction is more prevalent among the younger generation who are more “tech savvy.” While many of our Students are in their 20s and 30s, we regularly help those much older. So if predicting porn addiction can’t be confined to age, gender, culture, religion or profession, then what is the common denominator among those who become entrapped? Taking the risk of sounding over-simplistic, or even ridiculous, I’ll tell you what it is: the common denominator among pornography addicts is that they all have a brain.
Now, before you dismiss this as “silly,” or assume I’m making an inept attempt at humor, stay with me for a moment. The reason pornography can titillate, entrap and enslave people of all types all over the world, is because of the effect porn has on the human brain. We all have a brain. We all are “sexual beings.” Built into the very fabric of our DNA coding is programming that causes us to respond in some way to the sexual stimuli and queues that are all around us. This incredibly powerful force motivates us to seek relationships, pair off and propagate our species. In so many ways, sexuality is an amazing gift to be embraced and enjoyed. While sexual processes are carried out in many parts of the body, nowhere are they more numerous, complex and powerful than in the human brain. During sexual intimacy, the brain releases remarkable and very potent neuro-chemicals, which allow us to narrowly focus our attention, feel pleasure, release stress, connect and bond, and receive many other benefits. Many neuropsychologists have referred to sex as a “drug” because it triggers the release of chemicals that are in many ways identical to those released during drug use. Any way you look at it, sex has a big impact on the human brain and the entire nervous system.
So what does all of this have to do with pornography? According to research in neuro-science, psychology and the latest brain scanning technology, the viewing of pornography creates the same type of brain response that having sex does. In fact, from a neuro-chemical standpoint, when porn viewing and masturbation are engaged in, the brain believes the body is actually having sex. So, at the push of a mouse button, any time of the day or night, any individual across the globe with an internet connection can instantly engage in sexual process. He or she can flood their brain and nervous system with powerful neuro-chemicals that in many ways have the same effect as street drugs. They can instantly produce pleasure and self-medicate their stress, loneliness, boredom, anger, fear and any other negative emotion. Now do you see why the one universal, common denominator among porn addicts world-wide is “they have a brain”?
The good news is, the Candeo Online Recovery Training Program was designed to help anyone across the world with pornography addiction. All you need is an internet connection and basic skills with the English language. Just as pornographers tap into and take advantage of the brain and its built-in sexual processes, Candeo teaches individuals how to harness and direct the brain’s incredible power for change. Everything you need to break free is already built in to that magnificent brain of yours! And that remarkable ability for positive change is something that is universal to every person on the planet.
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Candeo is Devoted to Helping Pornography Addicts Start Down the Path of Healing
Candeo is an online organization whose mission is to educate and train individuals about the realistic, scientifically proven nature of Pornography Addiction.
It is estimated that in the U.S. alone, there are more than 60 million individuals, including men, women and children, caught up in Internet Pornography Addiction at some level. Pornography use is having a dramatic impact on their individual lives, families and society as a whole.
Candeo’s groundbreaking training system is an online Pornography Addiction Psycho-Education & Training System. This website contains many resources to help you learn more about this exciting new approach to helping those who are Addicted to Pornography.
To learn more and sign up for a FREE sample mini-course click HERE.
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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Candeo is Devoted to Helping Pornography Addicts Start Down the Path of Healing
Candeo is an online organization whose mission is to educate and train individuals about the realistic, scientifically proven nature of Pornography Addiction.
It is estimated that in the U.S. alone, there are more than 60 million individuals, including men, women and children, caught up in Internet Pornography Addiction at some level. Pornography use is having a dramatic impact on their individual lives, families and society as a whole.
Candeo’s groundbreaking training system is an online Pornography Addiction Psycho-Education & Training System. This website contains many resources to help you learn more about this exciting new approach to helping those who are Addicted to Pornography.
To learn more and sign up for a FREE sample mini-course click HERE.
