and sighing, ‘bad idea, but I can't stop you’. Dysfunctional stress circuits would be screaming, ‘I NEED something NOW to take the edge off!’
These phenomena are at the core of all addictions. One recovering porn addict summed them up:
‘I will never get enough of what doesn't satisfy me and it never, ever satisfies me’. Recovery reverses these changes. Slowly, the addict relearns how to 'want' normally.
Withdrawal Many people believe that addiction always entails both tolerance (a need for more stimulation to get the same effect, caused by desensitisation) and brutal withdrawal symptoms. In fact, neither is a prerequisite for addiction – although today's porn users often report both. What all addiction assessment tests share is, ‘continued use despite negative consequences’. That is the most reliable evidence of addiction.
This book has already offered many accounts by porn users who sought more extreme porn as their brains grew less sensitive to pleasure (tolerance). What about withdrawal symptoms? First, as stated, a person can be addicted without experiencing severe withdrawal symptoms. For example, cigarette and cocaine addicts can be thoroughly hooked but will typically experience mild withdrawal symptoms compared with alcoholics or heroin addicts .[115]
However, in the forums I monitor ex-porn users regularly report withdrawal symptoms that are reminiscent of drug withdrawals: insomnia, anxiety, irritability, mood swings, headaches, restlessness, fatigue, poor concentration, depression, social paralysis and cravings. Some also report more startling symptoms, such as shaking, flu-like symptoms, muscle cramps or the mysterious sudden loss of libido that guys call the flatline (apparently unique to porn withdrawal).
December and January were tough, and I mean tough! I had serious
depression...absolutely no libido at all. Distressing thoughts would run through my brain all
day and night and I found myself crying like a baby. My poor little man was a permanently
flaccid, useless addition to my body that simply didn't want or fancy real female attention.
Internet-porn withdrawal symptoms haven't been studied in isolation, but in 2013 Swansea and Milan universities reported that internet addicts suffer a form of cold turkey when they stop using the web, just like people coming off drugs .[116] Most of the addicts studied were accessing porn or gambling .[117]
Not everyone who stops using pornography will suffer withdrawal symptoms, but some do:
My symptoms after quitting: extreme exhaustion, restless sleep, muscle aches, joint pains
and fever, mild disorientation, tension in the chest/tight breathing and anxiousness.
*
My withdrawal symptoms are restless legs. My legs won't stay still when I'm sitting in my
chair. Disrupted sleep. I'm having trouble sleeping, or I wake up in the middle of the night with my heart beating fast and can't get back to sleep. Headaches. I have a sore throat and
feel generally run down.
To repeat, internet withdrawal symptoms sometimes resemble drug withdrawal symptoms
because all addictions share specific neurochemical and cellular changes (as well as producing additional, unique changes). Withdrawal initiates a cascade of neurochemical alterations, although brains experience them somewhat differently. [118]
Isolating Cause and Effect
Addiction naysayers generally insist that porn users who develop problems all had pre-existing conditions, such as depression, childhood trauma or OCD. They insist that excessive porn use is the result, not the cause, of their problems. Of course, some porn users do have pre-existing issues and will need additional support.
However, the implication that everyone else can use internet porn without risk of developing symptoms is not supported by research. For example, in a rare longitudinal study (tracking young internet users over time) researchers found that ‘young people who are initially
These phenomena are at the core of all addictions. One recovering porn addict summed them up:
‘I will never get enough of what doesn't satisfy me and it never, ever satisfies me’. Recovery reverses these changes. Slowly, the addict relearns how to 'want' normally.
Withdrawal Many people believe that addiction always entails both tolerance (a need for more stimulation to get the same effect, caused by desensitisation) and brutal withdrawal symptoms. In fact, neither is a prerequisite for addiction – although today's porn users often report both. What all addiction assessment tests share is, ‘continued use despite negative consequences’. That is the most reliable evidence of addiction.
This book has already offered many accounts by porn users who sought more extreme porn as their brains grew less sensitive to pleasure (tolerance). What about withdrawal symptoms? First, as stated, a person can be addicted without experiencing severe withdrawal symptoms. For example, cigarette and cocaine addicts can be thoroughly hooked but will typically experience mild withdrawal symptoms compared with alcoholics or heroin addicts .[115]
However, in the forums I monitor ex-porn users regularly report withdrawal symptoms that are reminiscent of drug withdrawals: insomnia, anxiety, irritability, mood swings, headaches, restlessness, fatigue, poor concentration, depression, social paralysis and cravings. Some also report more startling symptoms, such as shaking, flu-like symptoms, muscle cramps or the mysterious sudden loss of libido that guys call the flatline (apparently unique to porn withdrawal).
December and January were tough, and I mean tough! I had serious
depression...absolutely no libido at all. Distressing thoughts would run through my brain all
day and night and I found myself crying like a baby. My poor little man was a permanently
flaccid, useless addition to my body that simply didn't want or fancy real female attention.
Internet-porn withdrawal symptoms haven't been studied in isolation, but in 2013 Swansea and Milan universities reported that internet addicts suffer a form of cold turkey when they stop using the web, just like people coming off drugs .[116] Most of the addicts studied were accessing porn or gambling .[117]
Not everyone who stops using pornography will suffer withdrawal symptoms, but some do:
My symptoms after quitting: extreme exhaustion, restless sleep, muscle aches, joint pains
and fever, mild disorientation, tension in the chest/tight breathing and anxiousness.
*
My withdrawal symptoms are restless legs. My legs won't stay still when I'm sitting in my
chair. Disrupted sleep. I'm having trouble sleeping, or I wake up in the middle of the night with my heart beating fast and can't get back to sleep. Headaches. I have a sore throat and
feel generally run down.
To repeat, internet withdrawal symptoms sometimes resemble drug withdrawal symptoms
because all addictions share specific neurochemical and cellular changes (as well as producing additional, unique changes). Withdrawal initiates a cascade of neurochemical alterations, although brains experience them somewhat differently. [118]
Isolating Cause and Effect
Addiction naysayers generally insist that porn users who develop problems all had pre-existing conditions, such as depression, childhood trauma or OCD. They insist that excessive porn use is the result, not the cause, of their problems. Of course, some porn users do have pre-existing issues and will need additional support.
However, the implication that everyone else can use internet porn without risk of developing symptoms is not supported by research. For example, in a rare longitudinal study (tracking young internet users over time) researchers found that ‘young people who are initially
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