Is Porn Addiction Harming You? [Top 10 Signs]

Top 10 Signs of Porn Addiction Problems

While some people may dismiss porno addiction as a ridiculous condition to have, given the notoriety among young adults, it's still a severe condition that must be addressed once and for all.

Luckily, there are signs of porn addiction that you can easily notice if you look closely. If you're concerned that a loved one, family member, friend, or co-worker suffers from addiction to porn, these signs can help you identify the problem early on. You should also inform licensed mental wellness and health professionals.

Inability to stop watching porn

It just means that no matter how hard you try to stay away from your laptop or smartphone, you're being pulled into a wicked spiral to watch porn 24 hours s a week, without much strangling. This can even affect their personal relationships with family members, coworkers, and friends.

Insatiable appetite for viewing porn/porn use

Porn addiction is no different from drug addiction. When under withdrawal, you are at your most vulnerable and may feel like crashing because of your impulse to view porn. People with unhealthy relationships with porn often has this mental condition. Sometimes, people may tend to sneak away just to fill the need of watching porn. Often when someone gets called out, they start becoming defensive about their behavior.

School and work are starting to take a toll

Because of excessive and illogical amounts of internet pornography, one might neglect their commitments and obligations. In the case of people with behavioral addictions such as porn, their performance at school or in work may be severely impacted. It's not surprising to see someone flunk their grades or see a dip in their productivity especially when they can't accomplish a task or an assignment due to too much porn consumption.

Reduced interest or drive to have sex

When someone sinks in deeper and deeper into porn addiction, they tend to develop impossibly high standards or feelings towards their personal relationship with sex. Some people may find their partners less exciting or attractive and may tend to be unresponsive when it comes to the romantic/sexual advances made by their partner or significant other.

Unreasonable demands before and during sex with compulsive sexual behavior

As someone develops unrealistic ideas towards sex brought about their mental disorders, they may appear to be more demanding and get easily frustrated when it comes to sex. The bad impact this may have is alienating their partner as this progresses. Sex is an intimate bond that involves a lot of emotion and feeling, once this is affected, a person may feel physically and emotionally uncomfortable.

Developing low self-esteem due to excessive and compulsive porn use

People who consume porn in unreasonable amounts may also possess low self-esteem and have own issues coming to terms with their own bodies due to the unreasonable standards that pornography has instilled in one's mind. The person may experience performance issues in bed due to their own insecurities, or maybe even drive their partner to feel unwanted because of the feelings of dissatisfaction they have with the quality of intimacy they're experiencing in real life.

Experiencing physical symptoms due to excessive online porn addiction

As a mental health condition, addiction to pornography may bring about physical side effects that may hurt an individual longer term. Here are some of the physical symptoms of excessive online porn addiction:

• headaches
• eye strain from excessive digital use
• wrist, neck or bank pain
• migraines
• insomnia (difficulty sleeping)

Finances taking a toll from porn extreme porn addiction

It's quite possible that when someone exceeds the normal amount of porn use, they tend to spend more money when consuming high quality adult content. Excessive memberships or subscriptions to porn videos or exclusive digital porn media means higher expenses. When someone can't keep up with the cost of their addiction, this may ultimately lead to their own financial ruin.

Isolation due to excessive porn addiction

As a person's fixation is solely on porn alone, they tend to detach yourself from reality. It's not surprising to see someone become isolated from work, family, and friends because of their unhealthy relationship towards sex. People with this type of sexual dysfunction, may lose important connections with important people in their lives as they drift away due to this reason alone.

Developing aggressive behavioral addiction

Being able to consume porn on-demand makes this unhealthy habit convenient to the point that it causes impatience and irritability when someone is not able to get their porn fix. A person may become more irritable than usual and short-tempered which may develop into aggressive behavioral issues. This should be addressed early on to avoid developing other mental conditions.

What is Pornography Addiction?

WebMD defines pornography addiction simply as "when you can't stop looking at porn even if you want to." The urge to watch pornography non-stop comes to a point where in it negatively impacts one's source of living, lifestyle, and relationships.

Under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders (DSM-5) by the American Psychiatric association (APA), it is proposed that porn addiction be added as a subcategory under hypersexual disorder (sex addiction).

Although porno addiction is not recognized as a clear diagnosis, it has some similar traits with addiction, such as substance abuse. People suffering from addiction to pornography may have impaired control and social problems as a result of their addiction.

What are the Causes of Being a Porn Addict?

There are many possible factors causing a person to develop porno addiction. It's important to review these factors especially as signs of porn addiction start to manifest. Some of the usual factors attributed to the development of this addiction include:

Existence of other mental issues - People struggling with other mental conditions, such as substance use disorders may develop and are more likely to engage in problematic use of pornography.

Relationship problems -People who are dissatisfied with their own sexual experiences with their partners or are struggling with their own sexual issues may fall prey from these developing excessive porn consumption.

Societal and cultural impact - People exposed to unrealistic and unhealthy attitudes brought about by mainstream culture may be highly likely to succumb to extreme amounts of pornography use.

Biological factors - The chemical make-up and structure of the brain may influence how people develop addictions, such as with porn.

Is Porn Addiction a Mental Health Issue?

As it shares similarities with other process addictions, such as gambling or alcoholism, porn addiction can be qualified as a genuine mental health issue. Studies have also shown this in how the brain functions when engaging in excessive porn viewing.

As a valid mental health concern, people should consult with mental health professionals for the proper diagnosis and treatment for porn addiction. It may be hard for most people to do but with proper guidance and support, especially from their loved ones, it can be done.

How to Recover from Porn and Sex Addiction?

Apart from receiving inpatient or outpatient treatment and behavioral therapy from a certified sex addiction therapist and treatment center, effective addiction treatment involves healthy coping to avoid relapse from happening.

Sober coaching is one way to help a person in recovery to get the ample support they need in terms of forming the right mindset once treatment has finished. They should also be able to practice the following:

• Pursue worthy hobbies or passions - Learning a new skill such as playing an instrument, sketching, or joining a book club or cooking class are not only productive but helps you divert your attention from porn.
• Join a support group - Group therapy is often the best way for some people to process their addiction problems and other mental health conditions. Relating with people who share the same story while encouraging each other to self-improvement is always a welcome and healthy practice.
• Change of environment - Sometimes, past habits could be triggered by the environment in which the person first developed their addiction to pornography. Improving the surroundings and changing the settings of digital devices are important so as not to encourage viewing of porn.
• Build on goals and aspirations - Part of improving your behavior is setting your goals and finding ways to achieve them.

Can Transcend Recovery Community Help me?

Apart from professional treatment, what you need in your quest to improve your attitude towards addiction is to find a mental wellness advocate and support system to complement the care you receive from your treatment provider. Transcend Recovery Community achieves just that.

With its sober living arrangements, through its recovery homes, people in rehabilitation can get better and focus more directly on their self-improvement as they are surrounded by a motivating environment that encourages positive thinking and employs a holistic approach (spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical aspects) in their recovery.

Contact us today to help you get started on your journey towards recovery. Our Addiction Recovery Specialists will help you with that first big step to get you on track with long-term sobriety.

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