The Science of Addiction
Dopamine is a multifaceted neurotransmitter that motivates us to complete tasks our brain considers to be integral to our survival and welfare. It plays a major role in keeping the pleasure and reward system of our brains functioning properly, and is also a pivotal neurological constituent that keeps our well-being in check by regulating our mood, memory, cognition, and a host of other things.
Addictive substances indirectly take advantage of dopamine production by generating an overabundance of neurotransmitters that make a user feel intense amounts of pleasure and euphoria. If our brain is reminded of the addictive substance or given the opportunity to use it again, due to the supernormal and overwhelming amount of stimulation given by the drug the first time around, in addition to our body being unable to predict how pleasurable the drug will be for us the next time we use it due to its exceptional nature, an excessive amount of dopamine will be produced in response to motivate us to take the drug so we can feel the same sense of euphoria again. However, since our brains aren’t equipped to handle such large amounts of dopamine being present in our nervous system, repeated use inevitably leads to the downregulation of dopamine receptors by the brain as a means of preventing excess dopamine from making us experience decreased motor functioning and a whole range of other issues caused by an imbalance of dopamine.
After downregulation has run its course following a drug’s introduction into the body the first few times, our ability to get dopamine from other common sources is hindered considerably, and this becomes a problem because being below a certain dopamine threshold can also cause a multitude of issues to arise. As such, by this stage of addiction, a person’s established dependence on their drug of choice forces them to continue using by inducing cravings so that they can get their levels back to normal, even if only for a moment. These cravings can become overbearing not just because our brainwashed minds make them so powerful, but because mere anticipation by just thinking of doing the activity again is enough to raise dopamine levels to get you to do it. And to make matters worse, because the reward system of your brain is closely tied to memory, it also takes note of environmental cues such as what time of day you took the drug, where you did it, who you were with, etc. and those associations can become enough to raise your dopamine levels to get you to do the drug again.
Severing the Link Between Pleasure and Porn Consumption
Neurological basis for addiction aside, if brainwashing remains then it is incredibly difficult for someone to escape from addiction. Therefore, deconstruction of erroneous beliefs is an essential step toward becoming free from addiction.
Among the most debilitating misconceptions regarding porn addiction promoted and disseminated by mainstream media and society is that PMO is actually a pleasurable activity that just happens to have negative drawbacks. There are a variety of reasons for why this inaccurate perspective is held by many, but mainly it is because many users struggle to separate porn consumption from masturbation and orgasm since they have almost exclusively masturbated only when watching porn. In turn, porn consumption is a pleasant experience for a user but only because it puts a stop to an aggravation that the very act you’re taking part in created. Hence, it cannot be considered pleasurable, as the only real enjoyment you’re deriving is from the act of touching yourself and from the sexual relief you think you’re receiving.
A more difficult obstacle to overcome that leads to thinking porn is pleasurable is being misinformed about dopamine. Although there are a ton of websites that cite that dopamine is a pleasure hormone, that’s completely incorrect. Dopamine merely incentivizes us to undertake certain actions because it knows that completing such tasks will reward us with actual pleasurable hormones such as oxytocin, endorphins, serotonin, etc. or benefit our survival and well-being. In the case of porn addiction, we continue to consume porn because our brain is not able to tell the difference between pixels on the screen and actual women. As a result, we get aroused by viewing porn because our brain mistakes the women on our screen as a potential mate, and so produces a surge of dopamine to get us to have sex and orgasm/ejaculate because doing so increases our chances of producing offspring, which is a biological imperative.
The key takeaway here is that porn only increases our dopamine levels, and continues to do so because it presents us with tons of new women every second, but we only feel actual pleasurable sensations from the act of stimulating our private parts and during orgasm. Looking at a nude woman or images of one alone doesn’t produce genuinely pleasurable sensations, since the mere act itself doesn’t benefit us and our body would thus not reward us for it. After all, if doing something so simple could provide pleasure then our bodies would never have evolved to make stimulation of our private parts feel so good.
Why do we sometimes go on hour long sessions at a time then if it’s not the intense pleasure prompting us? Well, it’s because the longer a session goes on the more our dopamine levels increase and the greater the reward our brains believe it will receive, in addition to our body not wanting to end the session because it knows we will experience a sharp drop in dopamine that will feel uncomfortable and disagreeable. It has nothing to do with pleasure, but with putting an end to the empty feelings that dopamine withdrawal induces in us.
Why Arousal Isn’t Enjoyable
Sexual arousal can be defined as the anticipation of sexual satisfaction, but only when it serves it natural role to incentivize us to go out and have sex so we can pair bond and form relationships, not to PMO. Those activities can actually lead to fulfillment, but PMO cannot.
The easiest way to get across that being in a state of arousal is not enjoyable is by way of comparison; if you were starving, you would feel a strong degree of anticipation for food. Although being in this state might be invigorating, no one in their right mind believes that they gain any pleasure from starving themselves. Likewise, we also become aroused in anticipation of an orgasm, yet we seem to believe that being in a state of arousal is an inherently enjoyable experience. The reason behind why we believe being aroused is pleasurable is because physical touch on our genitals is pleasurable; but if we were to take away masturbation and remember that we only become aroused to receive orgasm and ejaculate, then all belief that arousal is a pleasurable state is suspended. After all, if it were not for physical touch producing pleasurable sensations, and the dopamine high we get putting an end to our aggravated state, no one would stay in a state of arousal for longer than is necessary to get an orgasm, as you’d be staving off sexual relief for no reason at all.
The Lack of Satisfaction We Receive
You will never achieve any sense of satisfaction from indulging in your porn addiction. In fact, it’s not just a difficult task, it’s an impossible one, by definition, considering that sexual satisfaction is “an affective response arising from one’s subjective evaluation of the positive and negative dimensions associated with their sex life.”
These guidelines make it clear that It’s simply impossible for a user to remain content while indulging because they abhor themselves for not being able to quit, despite being aware of the fact that their addiction is sabotaging their actual sex life and relationships. As a result, a user’s own evaluation of themselves is diminished and remains as such because they know that their sexual escapades can never bring them the fulfillment a partner and a relationship could. In other words, what you receive from taking part in a session is not sexual satisfaction, but relief from the ending of an aggravation occasioned by your exasperating urges. What you’re mistaking sexual satisfaction for is sexual relief, but in this instance a user usually doesn’t receive sexual relief either since they mainly continue using to placate their addiction, not to release pent up sexual frustration.
It’s also illogical to assume that PMO could ever lead to sexual satisfaction given that it’s an unnatural process, and one where we’re never fully satisfied because we know that there could always be another video around the corner that is more extreme and capable of raising our dopamine levels higher. Furthermore, every single human before the internet was invented managed to function perfectly fine without PMO. And that’s because sex is just a vastly superior and more fulfilling experience than PMO could ever be, and is what actually leads to sexual relief and satisfaction. PMO is just a cheap imitation that hurts more than it could ever help.
To further hammer down the point that you get zero satisfaction from PMO all one needs to do is to better illustrate the situation by way of comparison. When you’re hungry, you gain a sense of satisfaction from eating food that provides sustenance. However, if you’re hungry, but instead choose to eat junk food with little nutritional value, you would cease to be hungry but remain dissatisfied because you wouldn’t be getting the necessary sustenance required to stay healthy. Choosing to PMO is like choosing to feed your body junk food instead of real food (sex), and is why you never truly feel complete after a session. We were evolved to have sex to pair bond and form relationships, and in the absence of that PMO does virtually nothing to contribute toward our fulfillment.
To reiterate - the search for satisfaction is only ever enjoyable if you believe that it will eventually come to a satisfying end. Once you understand that there will never, ever be a satisfying end, you can no longer be deceived that you are enjoying the search. This is the illusion of enjoyment all porn addicts have really fallen for - the illusion that an eventual satisfying end exists.
Afterword
Taking part in addiction will never lead to fulfillment because addiction itself is predicated on a person’s misery and suffering. After all, every single one of us continues using, in part, because we’re profoundly miserable and just trying to fill the hole in our hearts with meaningless consumption. However, we won’t ever be capable of becoming whole unless we free ourselves of this addiction and begin to grow. But never forget that addiction is just a symptom of unhappiness and distress, and that even if you escape from addiction you will still feel empty if you don’t ever make the attempt to find out what the source of your torment is and try to remedy it.
The Science of AddictionDopamine is a multifaceted neurotransmitter that motivates us to complete tasks our brain considers to be integral to our survival and welfare. It plays a major role in keeping the pleasure and reward system of our brains functioning properly, and is also a pivotal neurological constituent that keeps our well-being in check by regulating our mood, memory, cognition, and a host of other things.Addictive substances indirectly take advantage of dopamine production by generating an overabundance of neurotransmitters that make a user feel intense amounts of pleasure and euphoria. If our brain is reminded of the addictive substance or given the opportunity to use it again, due to the supernormal and overwhelming amount of stimulation given by the drug the first time around, in addition to our body being unable to predict how pleasurable the drug will be for us the next time we use it due to its exceptional nature, an excessive amount of dopamine will be produced in response to motivate us to take the drug so we can feel the same sense of euphoria again. However, since our brains aren’t equipped to handle such large amounts of dopamine being present in our nervous system, repeated use inevitably leads to the downregulation of dopamine receptors by the brain as a means of preventing excess dopamine from making us experience decreased motor functioning and a whole range of other issues caused by an imbalance of dopamine.After downregulation has run its course following a drug’s introduction into the body the first few times, our ability to get dopamine from other common sources is hindered considerably, and this becomes a problem because being below a certain dopamine threshold can also cause a multitude of issues to arise. As such, by this stage of addiction, a person’s established dependence on their drug of choice forces them to continue using by inducing cravings so that they can get their levels back to normal, even if only for a moment. These cravings can become overbearing not just because our brainwashed minds make them so powerful, but because mere anticipation by just thinking of doing the activity again is enough to raise dopamine levels to get you to do it. And to make matters worse, because the reward system of your brain is closely tied to memory, it also takes note of environmental cues such as what time of day you took the drug, where you did it, who you were with, etc. and those associations can become enough to raise your dopamine levels to get you to do the drug again.Severing the Link Between Pleasure and Porn ConsumptionNeurological basis for addiction aside, if brainwashing remains then it is incredibly difficult for someone to escape from addiction. Therefore, deconstruction of erroneous beliefs is an essential step toward becoming free from addiction.Among the most debilitating misconceptions regarding porn addiction promoted and disseminated by mainstream media and society is that PMO is actually a pleasurable activity that just happens to have negative drawbacks. There are a variety of reasons for why this inaccurate perspective is held by many, but mainly it is because many users struggle to separate porn consumption from masturbation and orgasm since they have almost exclusively masturbated only when watching porn. In turn, porn consumption is a pleasant experience for a user but only because it puts a stop to an aggravation that the very act you’re taking part in created. Hence, it cannot be considered pleasurable, as the only real enjoyment you’re deriving is from the act of touching yourself and from the sexual relief you think you’re receiving.A more difficult obstacle to overcome that leads to thinking porn is pleasurable is being misinformed about dopamine. Although there are a ton of websites that cite that dopamine is a pleasure hormone, that’s completely incorrect. Dopamine merely incentivizes us to undertake certain actions because it knows that completing such tasks will reward us with actual pleasurable hormones such as oxytocin, endorphins, serotonin, etc. or benefit our survival and well-being. In the case of porn addiction, we continue to consume porn because our brain is not able to tell the difference between pixels on the screen and actual women. As a result, we get aroused by viewing porn because our brain mistakes the women on our screen as a potential mate, and so produces a surge of dopamine to get us to have sex and orgasm/ejaculate because doing so increases our chances of producing offspring, which is a biological imperative.The key takeaway here is that porn only increases our dopamine levels, and continues to do so because it presents us with tons of new women every second, but we only feel actual pleasurable sensations from the act of stimulating our private parts and during orgasm. Looking at a nude woman or images of one alone doesn’t produce genuinely pleasurable sensations, since the mere act itself doesn’t benefit us and our body would thus not reward us for it. After all, if doing something so simple could provide pleasure then our bodies would never have evolved to make stimulation of our private parts feel so good.Why do we sometimes go on hour long sessions at a time then if it’s not the intense pleasure prompting us? Well, it’s because the longer a session goes on the more our dopamine levels increase and the greater the reward our brains believe it will receive, in addition to our body not wanting to end the session because it knows we will experience a sharp drop in dopamine that will feel uncomfortable and disagreeable. It has nothing to do with pleasure, but with putting an end to the empty feelings that dopamine withdrawal induces in us.Why Arousal Isn’t EnjoyableSexual arousal can be defined as the anticipation of sexual satisfaction, but only when it serves it natural role to incentivize us to go out and have sex so we can pair bond and form relationships, not to PMO. Those activities can actually lead to fulfillment, but PMO cannot.The easiest way to get across that being in a state of arousal is not enjoyable is by way of comparison; if you were starving, you would feel a strong degree of anticipation for food. Although being in this state might be invigorating, no one in their right mind believes that they gain any pleasure from starving themselves. Likewise, we also become aroused in anticipation of an orgasm, yet we seem to believe that being in a state of arousal is an inherently enjoyable experience. The reason behind why we believe being aroused is pleasurable is because physical touch on our genitals is pleasurable; but if we were to take away masturbation and remember that we only become aroused to receive orgasm and ejaculate, then all belief that arousal is a pleasurable state is suspended. After all, if it were not for physical touch producing pleasurable sensations, and the dopamine high we get putting an end to our aggravated state, no one would stay in a state of arousal for longer than is necessary to get an orgasm, as you’d be staving off sexual relief for no reason at all.The Lack of Satisfaction We ReceiveYou will never achieve any sense of satisfaction from indulging in your porn addiction. In fact, it’s not just a difficult task, it’s an impossible one, by definition, considering that sexual satisfaction is “an affective response arising from one’s subjective evaluation of the positive and negative dimensions associated with their sex life.”These guidelines make it clear that It’s simply impossible for a user to remain content while indulging because they abhor themselves for not being able to quit, despite being aware of the fact that their addiction is sabotaging their actual sex life and relationships. As a result, a user’s own evaluation of themselves is diminished and remains as such because they know that their sexual escapades can never bring them the fulfillment a partner and a relationship could. In other words, what you receive from taking part in a session is not sexual satisfaction, but relief from the ending of an aggravation occasioned by your exasperating urges. What you’re mistaking sexual satisfaction for is sexual relief, but in this instance a user usually doesn’t receive sexual relief either since they mainly continue using to placate their addiction, not to release pent up sexual frustration.It’s also illogical to assume that PMO could ever lead to sexual satisfaction given that it’s an unnatural process, and one where we’re never fully satisfied because we know that there could always be another video around the corner that is more extreme and capable of raising our dopamine levels higher. Furthermore, every single human before the internet was invented managed to function perfectly fine without PMO. And that’s because sex is just a vastly superior and more fulfilling experience than PMO could ever be, and is what actually leads to sexual relief and satisfaction. PMO is just a cheap imitation that hurts more than it could ever help.To further hammer down the point that you get zero satisfaction from PMO all one needs to do is to better illustrate the situation by way of comparison. When you’re hungry, you gain a sense of satisfaction from eating food that provides sustenance. However, if you’re hungry, but instead choose to eat junk food with little nutritional value, you would cease to be hungry but remain dissatisfied because you wouldn’t be getting the necessary sustenance required to stay healthy. Choosing to PMO is like choosing to feed your body junk food instead of real food (sex), and is why you never truly feel complete after a session. We were evolved to have sex to pair bond and form relationships, and in the absence of that PMO does virtually nothing to contribute toward our fulfillment.To reiterate - the search for satisfaction is only ever enjoyable if you believe that it will eventually come to a satisfying end. Once you understand that there will never, ever be a satisfying end, you can no longer be deceived that you are enjoying the search. This is the illusion of enjoyment all porn addicts have really fallen for - the illusion that an eventual satisfying end exists.AfterwordTaking part in addiction will never lead to fulfillment because addiction itself is predicated on a person’s misery and suffering. After all, every single one of us continues using, in part, because we’re profoundly miserable and just trying to fill the hole in our hearts with meaningless consumption. However, we won’t ever be capable of becoming whole unless we free ourselves of this addiction and begin to grow. But never forget that addiction is just a symptom of unhappiness and distress, and that even if you escape from addiction you will still feel empty if you don’t ever make the attempt to find out what the source of your torment is and try to remedy it. https://ift.tt/Mhf8FyP6J https://ift.tt/54nsShwpJ
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