-Neuroscience evidence is mixed on the effect that pornography may or may not have on the brain.

-The area of the brain that goes off with porn is related to the same area that goes off with cuddling puppies, eating sugar, drugs, watching sunsets, anything that triggers desire and dopamine. 

-“No data have demonstrated that porn is different from any other ‘liked’ activity or object”

- Georgiadis and M.L> Kringelbach. “The Human Sexual Response Cycle: Brain Imaging Evidence Linking Sex to Other Pleasures”, Prog Neurobiol. 2012; 98(1):49-81. doi:10.1016/j.p-neurobio.2012.05.004

-Bruce Carpenter, researcher at BYU “There is no evidence, not a single study of pornography use showing brain damage or brain change” 

What to look out for in research claims that neuroscience proves porn damages the brain: 

-Claiming certainty

-Studies on tiny populations

-Misunderstanding of the complexities of neuroscience 

-No explanation for people who watch a medium or large amount of porn WITHOUT becoming addicted, compulsive, self-destructive, or sexually dysfunctional 

-Catch 22's - If brain activity goes up, it means addiction, if it goes down, it’s called “reduced sensitivity” because of pornography. 

Let's be clear: harming and hurting women or other people? Wrong. Non-consensual sexual activity? Wrong. Hard line.

And the research shows little to no evidence that viewing porn increases rape culture. 

(Borgogna et al., 2022b)

-Neither pornography viewing, nor hardcore pornography viewing, were related to rape myth acceptance when controlling for sexist attitudes among men.

-Indicated hostile sexism to be a significantly stronger predictor of all rape myths examined compared to pornography viewing or hardcore pornography viewing in men and women. 

-Suggested hardcore pornography viewing as a significant exacerbating factor for the relationship between hostile sexism and “she asked for it” rape myths across genders.

Our Summary: Men who are sexist are more likely to believe rape myths like “she was asking for it,” compared to men who are not sexist but view pornography. AKA, watching pornography does not make men more likely to believe in rape myths; being sexist does. 

Read the study:

 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2019-25331-001   

 One case of rape is too many. 

-We still have a lot to do to combat sexual crime.

-Research shows little to no correlation between people who view porn and people who contribute to rape and aggression.   Instead of blaming porn, let’s get deeper to the real causes. 

-Lack of sex education

-Sexist beliefs

-Systems that favor men over women in court

-Believing rape myths (e.g. she was asking for it, what was she wearing?) https://risenow.us/impact/what-were-you-wearing/

-Trivializing sexual violence

-Policing  sexuality

-Lack of accountability/covering up abuse

-Sexist power advantages in work environments, church environments, etc. 

-Cultures that believe men over women. 

Another interesting study: 

More egalitarian views towards women in porn users:

 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00224499.2015.1023427 

Research suggests that addiction models may not be effective for treating problematic pornography use, whereas mindfulness based programs have shown a lot of success.

Pornography addiction is not a classified disorder in the DSM-5 or the ICD-11

-Thousands of professionals from the most prestigious body of psychiatrists in the world reviewed decades of data, opinions, and clinical charts and came to this conclusion: “There is insufficient peer-reviewed evidence to establish the diagnostic criteria and course descriptions needed” to include sex addiction or porn addiction as actual disorders. 

-This does NOT mean that you are making your experience up. This does not mean there is not pain and even compulsions around your porn use. 

-What this does mean: 

-There is little to no evidence that addiction models for quitting pornography work in the long term, whereas the mindfulness-based models shows a lot of efficacy (as seen in above sections of this page)  

-It’s not your fault you haven’t been able to quit, it’s like you’ve been fixing the microwave with the manual for the fridge.  

-There is a lot of hope 

-Your experiences, your hopelessness and feelings of out of control are very real.  

Our Approach: 

-Labels are powerful. 

-Use the labels that help you the most. 

-If the addiction label helps you, use it.

-If it doesn't, drop it.  

Additional Studies to Read on this Topic: 

 Addiction and Mindfulness; Pornography Addiction and Mindfulness-Based Therapy ACT: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10720162.2019.1576560  

Self-reported addiction to pornography in a nationally representative sample: The roles of use habits, religiousness, and moral incongruence: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30632378/

 Addictions: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2021-23706-006

-Again - we do not use the term "Child P*rn", we use SEM, Sexual Exploitation Material. SEM is wrong and we  hard line.

-We do not condone illegal material such as SEM. If you have come across SEM, please report to the United States Justice Division (For US residents) or your local Criminal Division. 

-There is no evidence to back up ted talk claims of legal porn use turning into SEM.

-It's like sex - someone who really enjoys adult sex and has a lot of adult sex does not turn into a pedophile.

For some, there is genuine pain around pornography in their relationships.

And, research doesn't show a consistent correlation between pornography use and problematic relationships It's easy to blame porn, but we need to see what's under the surface. Is there lying, hiding, emotional disconnection, a lack of effort put into the sexual relationship, etc?

What is happening underneath the porn use is what is affecting the relationship. 

Biased studies declares porn use as a threat to marriage without comparing marriages in which porn is and isn’t used. The reality is that there are people who view porn individually and still have an intimate, close, honest, relationship.

The porn is much more neutral, it’s not that powerful - the relationship dynamics underlying the porn use is what’s going to cause issues.

Staley and N. Prause, “Erotica Viewing Effects on Intimate Relationships and Self/Partner Evaluations”, Archives of Sexual Behavior, 2013, 42(4), 615-624. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s10508-012-0034-4

Medline23224749https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/how-porn-affects-relationships

Let's be clear: harming and hurting women or other people? Wrong. Non-consensual sexual activity? Wrong. Hard line.

And the reality is that it is mostly non-violent. Porn can show female passion and specific fantasies and sexual acts that some people find icky and unacceptable (BDSM, Oral sex, anal sex, threesomes, etc), They might even call these acts violent and misogynistic.

“Most porn is violent” is not really about violence, and more about opinions on sexuality and what someone should like or do in regards to sexuality.

Just because one person would never do this or isn’t turned on by this or even finds it icky and demeaning, does not mean it is objectively demeaning to all women.

But it is not mostly violent. 

Some anti-porn activists make it sound like it’s everywhere and that most people watch it. This isn't true. It exists, but is the minority. Please ethically source your pornography, use paid sites that have systems in place to ensure only ethical (consensual) porn is shared. 

Learn more about "Violent porn coding": 

• Examples in “His Porn, Her Pain” by  Dr. Marty Klein, PHD Page 189

• In this book, we learn that there are certain things that some claim as “violent porn” when it may be something that is against their personal preferences or distasteful in their eyes.

• They use the term “violent porn” although these acts may not be inherently violent and are consensual. 

Pornography content regularly depicts women experiencing pleasure.

Additionally, women watch porn almost as much as men do. If all porn was only for men and their pleasure, the data would show that women would not be interested in viewing pornography. 

(Esplin et al., 2022) Pornography; Treatment, Stats, LDS.

The purpose of this study is to gather basic descriptive norms for pornography use in the state of Utah. 79% reported viewing pornography in their lifetime (85% of men, 75% of women). The most common frequency of pornography viewing was weekly or monthly among men, and monthly or every 6 months among women, which is comparable to national averages.  We demonstrate a relationship between higher levels of pornography use and higher perceived levels of pornography use as a problem or “addiction” and depression scores. Our results can provide a spectrum of pornography use, aiding a pornography user in treatment to be able to compare his or her use to this norm.Even those high in religiosity continue to use pornography.

Studies estimate that 3%-5% of the population experiences their pornography use as problematic; those who hold these perceptions are more likely to be religious.

Among the group of high above average pornography users (99th percentile), the majority were men who viewed pornography multiple times a week or daily for about 6 – 15 minutes at a time. Interestingly, the high above average pornography users were exposed to pornography at a younger age than the more normative users.

Despite coming from a very religious state, religion was less important to the group of high users. Typically, those who perceive their pornography use as problematic are higher in religiosity.

There is an important difference between high levels of pornography use and perception of problematic pornography use: (i) high levels of pornography use is rooted in physical behaviors, and (ii) problematic pornography use is rooted in how one perceives his or her use.

Thus, moral incongruence is likely to be a better predictor of perceived problematic use than frequency of use (e.g., Grubbs & Perry, 2019)

Our Summary: This study uses a representative sample from the state of Utah that matches census data, meaning the results can be generalized.

This study shows that approximately 56% of males viewed pornography at least once a month or more frequently, and 26% of females viewed pornography at least once a month or more frequently. Additionally, 25% of males reported never having viewed pornography in the past year, and 56% of females reported never viewing pornography in the past year. Those who used pornography the most frequently were exposed to pornography at a younger age than others.

Finally, in this sample, the people in the highest frequency of porn use group were less religious than those in less frequent porn groups.

This shows that the moral incongruence theory (perceiving you have a pornography problem) is more important than how frequently you view pornography. Read the study: https://academic.oup.com/jsm/article-abstract/19/5/823/6961280?redirectedFrom=fulltext 

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jsm.12853 (Grubbs & Gola, 2018)

"Despite evidence to the contrary, a number of advocacy and self-help groups persist in claiming that internet pornography use is driving an epidemic of erectile dysfunction (ED)."

"The present work sought to explore whether mere pornography use itself and self-reported problematic use of pornography are related to ED, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally."

"We conclude that There is little or no evidence of an association between mere pornography use and ED, consistent evidence of an association between self-reported problematic use and ED cross-sectionally, and no evidence of causal links between any pornography variables and ED."

Our Summary: Pornography use alone is not related to erectile dysfunction, even over time.

However, self-reported problematic pornography use IS related to erectile dysfunction. In other words, only those who perceive they have a problem with pornography experience erectile dysfunction, and those who view porn but do not believe it is a problem do NOT experience erectile dysfunction.

Read the study: https://academic.oup.com/jsm/article-abstract/16/1/111/6980412?redirectedFrom=fulltext Fascinating, isn't it?

• Erection problems are caused by other factors and there is little to no evidence that it is caused by porn use alone. 

• Sexual distress 

• Sexual shame

• Hormonal imbalances

• Age 

• Physical health concerns 

• Depression, anxiety, stress

• Relationship problems 

Absolutely not. You are not stuck in a porn habit forever. Listen to our "What's Possible" Podcast interviews to hear real examples of people who are not controlled by pornography anymore. 

Check out our results page: https://www.centerforovercomingpornography.com/results

Viewing porn actually can have differing effects on the brain depending on other cognitive conditions such as mental illness. We have some research done on how porn effects those with depression and anxiety, PTSD, and religious OCD.  Ultimately, we acknowledge that each case is unique and customize coaching on a case-by case basis.

Here are some studies that keep us trauma informed: 

Depression/ Anxiety: (Sniewski et al., 2018) Pornography; Treatment; Reasons.Self-Perceived Problematic Porn Use (SPPPU) refers to an individual who self-identifies as addicted to porn because they feel they are unable to regulate their porn consumption, and that use interferes with everyday life.

Research suggests that individuals who are very vulnerable to the particular stimulus produced by pornography includes those with underlying comorbidities such as depression or anxiety disorders (Wood, 2011), impulsivity (Grant & Chamberlain, 2015), compulsivity (Wetterneck, Burgess, Short, Smith, & Cervantes, 2012), or those displaying deficient self-regulation (Sirianni & Vishwanath, 2016), high levels of neuroticism (Egan & Parmar, 2013), or high levels of narcissism (Kasper, Short, & Milam, 2015).

ACT's efficacy could be because its approach is fundamentally rooted in mindfulness.

Reid and colleagues have already found that mindfulness may be a critical component of successful therapy among individuals seeking help for hypersexual behavior (Reid, Bramen, Anderson, & Cohen, 2014), which could mean that the same strategies can be useful and effective for SPPPU.

Mindfulness is the state attained when focusing one's awareness and attention on the present moment (Chisholm & Gall, 2015), whilst acknowledging and accepting all of the thoughts, emotions, and body sensations that may be occurring (Kuvaas et al., 2014).

In the realm of compulsive behaviors like problematic pornography use, mindfulness is an important concept as a result of the strong link between body sensation (emotional) regulation and addictive/compulsive consumption (Bowen, Witkiewitz, Dillworth, & Marlatt, 2007).

Emotional instability (Kuvaas et al., 2014) and impulse control difficulties (Dvorak et al., 2014) are positively correlated with compulsive behaviors and consumptions.Enhancement of body sensation and emotional regulations skills has been shown to be important in the treatment of addictive behaviors (Berking et al., 2011).

CBT, conjoint therapy, and ACT have shown promising results, which is likely related to the mindfulness and acceptance-based frameworks of these approaches.Nonetheless, this emerging research has shown that more questions are left unanswered. Mainly, whether reducing pornography or increasing pornography acceptance should be the primary treatment objective.Three of the reviewed studies (Crosby & Twohig, 2016; Orzack et al., 2006; Twohig & Crosby, 2010) revealed that helping people perceive their otherwise non-pathological and/or normal pornography use differently resulted in positive out-comes for the participants.

Our Summary: Self-perceived problematic pornography use happens especially for individuals with underlying struggles like depression or anxiety, or those who struggle to self-regulate.

This article searched through all research papers that were related to self-perceived problematic pornography use (i.e. a literature review). ACT and CBT were effective treatments across these papers, probably due to their focus on mindfulness and acceptance focus.Mindfulness may be effective because it builds awareness of body sensations and emotional regulation tools. Research is still unclear about whether reducing porn viewing or increasing acceptance of porn viewing should be the goal for treatment.

Read the study: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306460317303817?via%3Dihub PTSD:(Gerwitz-Meydan & Godbout, 2023) Treatment; Reasons.Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is a significant risk factor for sexual difficulties in adulthood.The results indicated main effects of traumatic sexuality on survivors' sexual difficulties: Greater severity of dissociation during sex was linked with greater sexual dysfunction and higher compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD), and greater intrusiveness during sex and pleasing the other during sex were linked with higher CSBD. Experiencing higher sex-related guilt and/or shame and hypervigilance with regard to sex were associated with greater sexual dysfunction.

This study points to the potential contribution of traumatic sexuality symptoms to sexual difficulties among survivors of CSA and lends support to the idea of offering trauma-focused therapy when treating the sexual difficulties of CSA survivors.

Our Summary: Remember to keep sexual trauma in mind when helping those who are suffering. Unhealed sexual trauma could be at the root of their compulsive sexual behavior.Read the study: https://cris.haifa.ac.il/en/publications/between-pleasure-guilt-and-dissociation-how-trauma-unfolds-in-the Religious OCD:(Borgogna et al., 2020b) Pornography; Reasons.

Problematic pornography viewing is a considerable issue for religious men.Results from 244 heterosexual men indicated scrupulosity as the only significant predictor and mediator of problematic pornography in the full model.Further, pornography viewing frequency was inversely related to scrupulosity.

Our results compliment recent findings highlighting the importance of addressing religious scrupulosity in the treatment of problematic pornography viewing.

Our Summary: Religious OCD is usually present when religion and pornography viewing become an issue. Low amounts of pornography viewing are associated with high amounts of distress for men with scrupulosity (religious OCD).

Read the study: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10720162.2020.1751361 

Reasons you might choose to quit porn that are not based in shame or panic or biased research claims: 

• Use your time and energy to create instead of consume

• You want to use more of your sexual energy to create a more fulfilling relationship, instead of using it to consume pornography.

  • You're using porn as an escape, as a buffer from difficult things. Facing these things instead of escaping with porn will make your life better. 

• You want to feel more in control of your life

• Work on your emotional health

• Create a life that you are obsessed with. That you love. Distress around your porn use is getting in the way of that. 

  Quitting porn is a vehicle that can teach us learn life-changing skills such as mindfulness, emotional regulation, changing limiting beliefs, healing shame. 

Methodologies of sex education is a personal decision. This being said, there are effective and ineffective ways to learn about any topic, not just sex. Seeking out accurate information will always be more effective than inaccurate information.

Pornography is fiction at the end of the day. The people acting in porn are normally professionals playing a role. We don’t learn anything about these actual people by watching porn. Watching porn to learn about sex can be like watching The Fast and The Furious to learn how to drive.

We encourage you to find more objective sources of information about sex that are produced with the intent of sole education.

(Levin et al., 2019)

Results indicated that several motivations for viewing were correlated with viewing frequency and self-reported negative consequences from viewing, but viewing for emotional avoidance was the strongest and most consistent predictor.Overall, these results suggest that experiential avoidance may account for frequent viewing and its negative consequences.Our Summary: Emotional avoidance (i.e., experiential avoidance) is a very common reason for pornography viewing, and for any negative consequences from pornography viewing.

Read the study: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40732-018-0302-3  (Efrati, 2018)The rebound effect of thought suppression refers to attempts to suppress thoughts that result in an increase of those thoughts.

The aim of this three-study research was to investigate the suppression of thoughts and its possible importance in the cognitive model of predicted compulsive sexual behavior (CSB) among Israeli Jewish religious and secular adolescents.

Increased preoccupation with sexual behavior, a hallmark of adolescence, is further intensified by suppressing these thoughts, thus becoming an essential part of the development of CSB.

More specifically, suppressing such sexual thoughts and the inability to control them increase sexual fantasies and preoccupation with sexual behaviors, thus increasing the negative emotions of shame and guilt, which are an outcome of one’s inability to control such thoughts.The analyses indicated that religious adolescents are higher in CSB than secular ones, and that sexual suppression and CSB mediate the link between religiosity and well-being. 

Our Summary: Trying to fight off sexual thoughts can often work against you and increase them. This is why acceptance and commitment-type therapy (which includes acceptance, mindfulness, and non-judgement) may be more effective to help people choose behaviors aligned with their values. 

Read the study: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00224499.2018.1461796  Since compulsive consumption of pornography is a product of escaping uncomfortable emotions, watching porn may help relieve stress in the short term but will actually perpetuate stress and other uncomfortable feelings in the long term. We recommend sitting with the feeling rather than acting on the urge to escape in way of progress towards a life you feel more control of.

(Levin et al., 2019) 

Results indicated that several motivations for viewing were correlated with viewing frequency and self-reported negative consequences from viewing, but viewing for emotional avoidance was the strongest and most consistent predictor.Overall, these results suggest that experiential avoidance may account for frequent viewing and its negative consequences.Our Summary: Emotional avoidance (i.e., experiential avoidance) is a very common reason for pornography viewing, and for any negative consequences from pornography viewing. 

Read the study: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40732-018-0302-3   (Efrati, 2018) 

The rebound effect of thought suppression refers to attempts to suppress thoughts that result in an increase of those thoughts.

The aim of this three-study research was to investigate the suppression of thoughts and its possible importance in the cognitive model of predicted compulsive sexual behavior (CSB) among Israeli Jewish religious and secular adolescents.Increased preoccupation with sexual behavior, a hallmark of adolescence, is further intensified by suppressing these thoughts, thus becoming an essential part of the development of CSB.

More specifically, suppressing such sexual thoughts and the inability to control them increase sexual fantasies and preoccupation with sexual behaviors, thus increasing the negative emotions of shame and guilt, which are an outcome of one’s inability to control such thoughts.The analyses indicated that religious adolescents are higher in CSB than secular ones, and that sexual suppression and CSB mediate the link between religiosity and well-being.

Our Summary: Trying to fight off sexual thoughts can often work against you and increase them. This is why acceptance and commitment-type therapy (which includes acceptance, mindfulness, and non-judgement) may be more effective to help people choose behaviors aligned with their values.

Read the study: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00224499.2018.1461796  

Since compulsive consumption of pornography is a product of escaping uncomfortable emotions, watching porn may help relieve stress in the short term but will actually perpetuate stress and other uncomfortable feelings in the long term. We recommend sitting with the feeling rather than acting on the urge to escape in way of progress towards a life you feel more control of.

Consent is ultimately up to the individuals in porn and can’t be measured by most studies. The short answer is that you honestly can never know for sure if what you are viewing is consensual or not. What we do know is that the majority of actors producing porn are consenting adults. We also know that there are some unfortunate cases of non-consensual material that is made and shared even on platforms that claim to have strict rules about consent.

Many pornography producers put systems in place to ensure only ethical porn is shared publicly but even those systems can make fail at times.We encourage people to practice ethical porn use which includes paying for content and doing your own due diligence to research consensual porn.

If you come across non-consensual material, we strongly encourage you to report this material to https://www.justice.gov/criminal/criminal-ceos/report-violations (For US residents) or your local Criminal Division.

There are so many ways to increase your sexual satisfaction in your relationship if that is something you are looking for. Porn is really helpful for some people. For others, it can be a very damaging thing and would be best avoided.

We recommend having an abundance of communication and honest with your partner around this subject. (Leonhardt et al., 2019)

The sexual scripts learned from pornography increase a person’s short-term sexual quality, but do not increase long-term sexual quality in couples.

Long term sexual quality is going to come from emotional connection, communication, playfulness, willingness to explore and learn with each other, and sense of safety.Again, sexual satisfaction is about what’s under the surface and can't be measured by pornography use alone.