Consuming Internet Porn Inhibits Male Performance and Rewires the Brain

New research suggests that men who consume internet porn perform poorly when with a real flesh-and-feelings woman. This seems to especially be a problem for guys under 25 years of age - they have grown up with internet porn the ways guys in my generation grew up with Playboy. The problem for them is that the internet does different things to the brain when sex is concerned.

Lots of guys, 20s or so, can't get it up anymore with a real girl, and they all relate having a serious porn/masturbation habit. Guys will never openly discuss this with friends or co-workers, for fear of getting laughed out of town. But when someone tells their story on a health forum, and there are 50-100 replies from other guys who struggle with the same thing. This is for real.

According to the new study:

[E]rectile dysfunction due to excessive Web porn begins for many men in their teens. 70 percent of those young men who came to seek help for performance issues said they were Web porn habitues.


The weary and wise might offer that this problem must be psychological. Yet the researchers declare: "Hold on there, big brains."


For their belief is that Web porn simply numbs men's pleasure receptacles, desensitizing responses to the neurochemical dopamine. This is a chemical associated with reward and, in young men, researchers believe that gorging on Internet porn simply shuts down the physiological sense of reward from sex.

But it goes in a much different direction from here.

Men who look at a lot of internet porn find themselves becoming habituated, just like a cocaine user who needs more and more to get the familiar high that they crave. In the world of porn, this is reflected in men who start with pictures of of young women and then, from there, it escalates in directions they would never have imagined before they began consuming porn.

One young man said:

Anthony: I started looking at porn, on a regular basis, about five years ago. First there were the beautiful women, then the hardcore porn, then the weird insertions, then the transvestites, then critters, then the hermaphrodites, then the teen porn, then the younger models and now prison (soon to go). As the years passed I became less and less interested in masturbating and more and more interested in "novelty" searching. Looking back, I just don't see how I failed to recognize that I had a problem.

One of the best explanations for this phenomenon comes from Norman Doidge's The Brain that Rewires Itself. In this Psychology Today article, they quote his book:

What if the porn to which you once happily fapped no longer does the job? Could this be why viewers who would never harm others are viewing violent porn? Why gay porn viewers are feeling baffled by their tastes for straight rape porn or lesbian porn? Why straight men are bewildered by their tastes for transsexual or gay porn?


Psychiatrist Norman Doidge explained in The Brain That Changes Itself:

The content of what [patients] found exciting changed as the Web sites introduced themes and scripts that altered their brains without their awareness. Because plasticity is competitive, the brain maps for new, exciting images increased at the expense of what had previously attracted them. (p.109)

Do a viewer's most recent porn tastes reveal his "deepest urges and most uninhibited thoughts," as Ogas and Gaddam claim? Does his sexual orientation change along with what he views? Or does cyberporn manufacture superficial tastes, sometimes unrelated to sexual orientation? Most likely, the latter.

I am not so sure about the claim at the end of that paragraph. In the sex addicts I have seen, there is more fluidity in their sexual preference than in non-addicts who use porn to self-medicate (for escape, to relieve stress, etc.).

One of the outcomes of these brain changes is desensitization:

Over time, a user's brain can physically change. Signs of fundamental brain alterations (as contrasted with short-lived habituation) may include: chronic weakened impulse control, craving spikes in response to cues he associates with porn use, and decreased sexual responsiveness. He's no longer registering pleasure normally; his desensitized brain is desperate for the dopamine hits from stimulation. To climax, he needs to watch for longer or move to new genres of porn.

One of the outcomes of this is that straight men start looking at gay porn, or violent porn, and eventually transsexual porn (the operator of one site claims in that Psychology Today article that ALL of the visitors to his site are straight guys).

But if a brain's wiring can be changed in this way, as Doidge illustrates, it can - fortunately - be changed back with time and some serious dedication to not viewing porn and not masturbating.

Unwiring plastic changes


As a porn user's addiction progresses, masturbation habits may tell him very little about his actual orientation. However, guys on our forum have discovered that if they (1) give their brains a rest from porn, porn fantasy (and ideally masturbation and orgasm), and (2) replace their former habits with socializing, exercise, meditation and other comforting activities, they can start to see changes in their sexual tastes surprisingly quickly. Here's Ryan's report after only a month:

I spent the last year of high school jacking off to Internet porn compulsively, and escalated to gay porn several months ago. I found it disturbing to watch; it fueled my OCD and subsequent depression.


Now I'm feeling almost like a new person. I've been through nearly 4 weeks of hell, and had to get my antidepressants adjusted. I've been biking daily and interacting with others at college. But I do not get aroused at gay porn anymore. It's like I have gotten rid of those circuits. The thought of lesbian porn is once again arousing. I am also slowly starting to get my libido back. It's not over yet, but I have conquered part of it.

You can read the whole Psychology Today article here.

In another Psychology Today article from September, they reviewed the new definition of addiction (it's about the brain, not about behaviors) and show how sex and porn can produce addiction in compulsive users (the key word being compulsive).

If you view porn, are you an addict or merely a user?


This question used to be a silly one for most porn users. Prior to the Internet, porn use (if any) bore some relation to authentic libido. When one had had enough, the magazine went back under the mattress. Internet porn, however, has the power to override natural satiety mechanisms in many brains. This increases the risk of the addiction-related brain changes ASAM addressed.  


With respect to porn, it's not time spent viewing or what you're looking at that determines whether your brain has changed. Instead, watch for these signs:

• Inability to abstain;
• Impaired impulse control;
• Cravings;
• Diminished grasp of one's problems; and
• Problematic emotional responses. (Detailed ASAM list)

Curious how these telltale symptoms might show up in today's porn users? We've culled the following questions from actual reports of self-identified porn addicts. Many users do not make the connection between their symptoms and their porn use until they abstain from porn for weeks, but these questions, and the remarks below them, may help you determine whether you need to seek help to reverse unwanted changes and restore your brain to balance.

• Have you tried to stop using porn and failed? Did you noticewithdrawal symptoms?
• Do you experience intense cravings when you have no access to porn for several days?
• When you use again do you notice rapid escalation to more extreme material?
• Have you noticed changes in your sexual tastes?
  • Have you explored new types of porn in order to attain earlier levels of excitement?
  • Are you viewing things that never turned you on?
  • Are you using porn that does not match your sexual orientation?
• Is porn viewing the most exciting thing in your life? Does life seem dull otherwise?
• Do you feel powerless to stop yourself from using porn if you see or experience something you associate with porn use, such as:
  • being alone in the house,
  • seeing a TV show with your favorite fetish hinted at or portrayed,
  • seeing news about a favorite porn star?
• Do you see potential mates differently—more as body parts than as people?
• Since using Internet porn, do you feel more tongue-tied, unsafe, awkward or anxious around other people—especially potential mates?
• Is it harder to connect with others? Do you feel lonelier? Are you more worried about what others think about you?
• Have you (or those who care about you) noticed you:
  • procrastinate more than before using, have lower motivation(don't care), chronic fatigue, brain-fog, or difficulty concentrating or remembering things?
  • have become more anxious, restless, impulsive, stressed, irritable, unhappy, pessimistic, emotionally numb, or depressed?
  • have become more secretive, or isolate more?
• Have you noticed declines in your sexual function during sex: more rapid ejaculation (PE), inability to maintain an erection without self-stimulation, porn or porn fantasy (even if you can get rock-hard to porn), delayed ejaculation (or inability to orgasm), less satisfying orgasm, need the lights on during sex to get aroused, not turned on by attractive partner, no desire for sex?
• Have you noticed declines in your sexual function duringmasturbation: unable to masturbate without porn or porn fantasy, need for more vigorous masturbation ("death grip," faster strokes), weaker (or rapidly fading) erections, climaxing with a semi-erection, more frequent urination?
• Since using Internet porn, do you feel like you've lost your "mojo," or sex appeal? Do you doubt your attractiveness or feel more anxious about the dimensions/appearance of your genitals?
• Does your voice feel more nervous, shallow, tight, or unnaturally high? Shallow breathing?
• Have you masturbated to the point of abrasions or other physical damage?
• Can you fall asleep without using porn? Do you have more troublesleeping soundly through the night?
• When under stress do you use more porn?
• Do you have intrusive porn flashbacks?
• Are you risking your job, education or relationship to watch porn, or spending too much money on it?
• Have you lost a relationship or job, or dropped out of school due to your porn use (or symptoms related to it)?
• After climaxing, do you notice more intense mood swings (irritability,depression, anxiety)?