The Destructive Effects of Porn Addictions

If you are a man struggling with a porn or sex addiction, you are not alone. There are many men and women who struggle with these types of addictions, and addictions are hard to break without professional help. If you are experiencing problems in life from this addiction, you shouldn't be surprised. Porn addictions can be very destructive, and here are some of the effects they can have on your life.

Relationship Problems

The first problem you might experience, if you are married, is problems with your marriage. Your wife probably knows about your porn addiction; however, she might not have a clue as to how severe it is. When spouses find out about porn addictions, it can lead to a variety of problems in your marriage:

• Questions – Spouses will wonder what is wrong with them and why this is happening.
• Self-esteem issues – When one partner in a marriage is viewing porn, it can lead the other spouse to develop issues with self-esteem and self-worth.
• Intimacy issues – Intimacy in a marriage requires full and complete transparency. When a spouse is addicted to porn, this will completely interfere with this important part of a marriage.
• Trust – It can be hard to trust a spouse who is addicted to porn, and trust is a hard thing to earn back once it's lost. The spouse who is not viewing porn can often feel cheated on, even if there is no physical contact with other people. Just the thought of the person's spouse viewing porn can be a horrible feeling.
• Shame – The person addicted to porn often feels a sense of shame after viewing it, and the feeling of shame can cause depression and lead to issues in the marriage, and the other spouse may have a hard time understanding this if he or she does not know the full extent of the addiction.

Porn can harm your marriage more than you think. If your marriage is valuable to you, it will be important for you to find a way to break your addiction.

It Changes Your Brain

Like any addiction, porn addictions change the brain. Each time you view porn, your brain produces dopamine, which is a chemical that causes you to feel good. As this occurs more and more, your brain will be trained only to produce this chemical when you view porn. This will cause you to return to porn over and over just to feel normal.

As this is happening, other things will also result. One of the common results is that it will be hard for you to desire your wife. When viewing porn, you are training your brain to need variety. In some cases, depending on what you view, you might be training your brain to need unusual types of sexual acts to become aroused. Over time, this can lead to problems with impotency. The only way you may be able to get an erection might be to have sexual relations with other women all the time.

Once your brain is trained to do these things, it will not be easy to change your brain, but it is possible. You will have to get help from a professional, but it will be worth it.

It's also important to know that viewing porn can have the same effects on your brain as heroin. This may seem impossible, but studies show that both of these addictions have very similar effects.

It Leads To More

The other thing you should understand about porn addictions is that it doesn't always stop at just watching porn. A porn addiction can lead to sexual addictions, which actually involve people acting upon the sexual urges they have from viewing porn.

If you currently have a porn addiction or a sexual addiction of any nature, seek help now before your addiction destroys anything else. There are centers that offer porn addiction treatment, and you should not be embarrassed to seek help for this. A lot of people struggle with these types of addictions, but there is hope. To learn more, contact a center, such as The Mindful Habit, that offers porn addiction crisis support in your area.