Pornography: Effects, Realities, and Overcoming Addiction

Pornography or ‘porn’ means sexually explicit material that is in written, or visual form, as in books, or movies. It could also be on social media and other forms of media. The content is made for the purpose of sexual gratification. Porn has a large market, and online video pornography is a massive industry that dominates a large portion of the internet.

There is a taboo on sexual education in our schools and our society. This combined with the fact that porn is so easily accessible, many people end up using porn as their go-to resource for sexual education.

Effects Of Pornography

Is watching porn bad?

People watch porn for one basic reason; it feels good. People watch porn for the feeling of sexual pleasure that it gives them, and some people also feel that it is a way to experience and break the rules without any consequences.

But the thing is, watching porn does have consequences and there are many negative effects of pornography. While it is normal for teenagers to be curious about their sexuality when they turn to porn as their resource on sexuality, many times it can lead to pornography addiction in teens.

Can porn change the way we experience sex?

In adolescence, your brain is growing very rapidly. Your neurons are multiplying and forming millions of connections. When you watch porn, you are teaching your brain to connect those images with how you experience sex. However, sex in real life is very different from porn and it is meant to be different.

With frequent porn watching, you can become dependent on it for experiencing sexual pleasure. Also, porn can set unrealistic expectations of how people are supposed to look naked.

Here are some facts about porn vs real life:

The average porn penis is 7 inches long, and the average penis size is 5 inches long. And plenty of penises are even smaller than that. The porn penis size sets an unrealistic expectation that larger = better. This greatly affects the body image of many teen boys.
Most female porn actresses have all kinds of body enhancements done: They may have their breasts enlarged, lips worked on etc. Most women don’t normally look like the women shown in porn films.
Nobody wears a condom in porn movies: In real life wearing condoms is a necessity for preventing sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancy. People watching porn mistakenly believe that wearing a condom affects sexual pleasure. This is absolutely not true, but because they get their sexual education only from porn they take the same expectations into the real world when they are having sex.
Submissive women and dominating men: Porn is mostly produced for a male audience, and as a result, depicts women submissively. This is not the reality of many sexual relationships.
Women actresses don’t have body hair: Most porn features women whose bodies and genitals are silky smooth and hairless. This can pressure young women to wax all the time leading to chronic skin issues.

So, when you watch a lot of porn, it affects your expectations. You connect these images with sexual pleasure and whom you might want to have sex or become intimate with.

Overcoming Porn Addiction

Like any other addiction, the first step to overcoming porn addiction is to acknowledge that you are addicted to porn. There are solutions out there if you think you are addicted to porn or find that your use of porn is compulsive. You must seek help mental health specialist with expertise in treating sexual dysfunction if you see the following three signs in your behaviour: