Is porn addiction real? How to tell if you have it and what to do about it

Around 200,000 Americans classify themselves as porn addicts, though the medical field has still not reached a consensus on whether the condition is an addiction at all.

There is a crucial difference between occasionally looking at porn, which can be a normal part of healthy sexuality, and becoming so consumed by the explicit fantasy scenarios that sex with a real-life partner loses its luster or a person 

Porn is not like alcohol or drugs and a swathe of mental health and addiction experts say that because it is not a substance, nor does it alter a person’s brain chemistry, people cannot get hooked on porn itself. Rather, some experts say it’s a person’s own personal conflicts toward sex, such as shame, that convinces them they are addicted.

Still, there is a neurological underpinning to bolster arguments that, like alcohol and stimulants, compulsive pornography viewing inundates the brain with feel-good chemicals that leave people wanting more.

Millions of people watch porn as an escape from their daily anxieties or relationship problems, but it becomes a problem when the user has abandoned their normal responsibilities, whether professional or personal, and when relationships, such as with a monogamous partner become strained.

Porn can be a healthy part of someone’s sex life, but when it begins to affect other aspects of life, such as family time and work responsibilities, it may be a problem

Roughly three to six percent of the US adult population engage in problematic pornography use, or what they deem a porn addiction

Seventy percent of men aged 18 to 34 visit a porn site in a typical month. 

Even young people, especially teen boys who make up the largest consumer group of porn, can access explicit sexual content with relative ease, especially given that  online porn makes up 12 percent of all internet sites.

A survey from the Indiana University Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction reported nine percent of porn watchers wanted to stop but found they couldn’t.

When people, primarily men, notice themselves withdrawing from their partners and losing satisfaction in sexual relationships, becoming desensitized and needing to consume more extreme content, and setting aside responsibilities in order to dedicate more time to porn, it may be a sign of a porn addiction – despite many leading authorities in psychology and addiction research maintaining it is not a real addiction.

While the issue is more common among men, one in six women have reported struggling with a porn addiction. 

The American Psychological Association, the country’s foremost authority on advancing mental health research and the largest professional organization for psychologists does not recognize the habit as an addiction.

Additionally, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the authoritative guide for diagnosing mental disorders used all over the world, also authored by the APA, does not recognize porn addiction as an official diagnosis.

The reason is rooted in ongoing debate about what is at the root of a ‘porn addiction’. One camp of psychologists, including Dr Vincent Egan and Dr Reena Parmar from the University of Leicester in the UK say uncontrollable porn consumption may be more of a compulsion than an actual addiction.

In a 2013 report published in the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, Drs Egan and Parmar said: ‘Our results lend themselves to the practical and clinical consideration of treatment and therapy for sexually compulsive persons, or those excessively preoccupied with Internet pornography.’

Meanwhile, some believe what people might perceive as an addiction is more a manifestation of one’s cultural or religious beliefs that inform how they view sex. 

A person who was raised in a very religious and/or conservative home, for instance, may feel immense shame as part of their porn viewing and convince themselves they must be addicted.

Dr Nicole Prause, a neuroscientist who specializes in sex psychology said: ‘Porn is a positive influence, on average, for the vast majority of adults who choose to view it.

‘The best predictor of distress about your own porn viewing is having a conservative or religious upbringing, and this distress appears to disappear on its own without intervention in longitudinal studies (i.e., people tend to grow out of their worry naturally as they understand sexuality better).’

The lack of consensus means there is no standard treatment for what could be deemed a porn addiction. Like sex addiction, another controversial diagnosis in the field of psychology for similar reasons, many people find relief in 12-step programs that begin first with admitting porn is a problem that has spun out of control.

Treatment could also mean one on one talk therapy with a licensed professional, what’s known as cognitive behavioral therapy. And there are dedicated mental health practices to sex and porn addiction.