5 Ways Porn Hurts
Let’s face it: right now pornography, unfortunately, is the king of the internet.
Our mothers and fathers never had to deal with high-speed internet and the easy access to porn. Porn has never even been as hardcore as it is today. And today, most children are exposed to pornography by the age of 11, and many of them are hooked on it by the time they are 12 years old. And the long-term effects aren’t worth the short-term thrill.
Here, I’m going to break down a few of the ways in which pornography erodes our humanity and hurts our bodies and minds. Let’s get started:
1. Porn encourages self-gratification
Delayed gratification is a crucial skill to learn if one is to maintain control and direction in their life. Basically, the healthiest of individuals have mastered the art of discipline and delayed gratification.
Repeatedly giving into the urge to watch pornography leads to a lack of ability to delay gratification. Your brain becomes more and more focused on the things you find pleasurable and the discipline of delayed gratification falls to the wayside.
It is no coincidence that people who are hooked on porn might be radically underachieving in other areas of their lives.
2. Porn destroys our values
Video is powerful. We live in a world where we need to see something to believe it and in our fast-paced, information-driven world, video is the preferred means of communication and information dissemination. The thing is, video has the power to influence and even replace behaviors in your mind without you being consciously aware of what you are seeing. Scary, right?
Pornography programs us to lower our standards sexually. It encourages us to seek sex and, in some cases, build intimate and unhealthy relationships with people who are willing to have sex without any boundaries. As exciting as that sounds, having sex with anyone who is available can be a sign of someone without much discipline.
3. Porn can cause erectile dysfunction
This one is specifically for guys. Virility is important for almost every guy I know. The rise in porn-induced erectile dysfunction is something to be alarmed about. Frequently watching porn can lead to erections which can increasingly only be induced by hardcore pornography. That’s not healthy.
Porn consumption then becomes a sort of psychological conditioning which creates performance anxiety. Yikes.
4. Porn encourages social isolation
Watching porn, in most cases, demands isolation. Anything which consumers do in secrecy usually leads to shame. One of the first effects of frequently watching porn for men and women, especially those who are young, is social awkwardness in public, which ironically, leads to more shame and hiding.
Isolation and shame make it difficult for us as people to share true intimacy with others. And it makes it difficult to truly grow and mature as a person, and reach our full potential as people.
5. Porn doesn’t inspire goal setting
In my practice, I have never met someone hooked on porn who excelled at goal setting. The aforementioned “self-gratification” is a habit which cannot coexist with achieving worthy, difficult goals. People don’t “schedule” pornography consumption the way they schedule time to work on their business or complete projects. It’s usually, “I’m going to watch porn from now till… my body shuts down sexually or I get bored.”
Porn can destroy the ability to set, achieve, and enjoy big goals. Any momentary pleasure isn’t worth that.
If you’ve been struggling with an intense pornography habit and trying to quit to no avail, it may be time to take an honest look at your relationship with pornography. There are many more ways that pornography erodes at your entire person, leaving you weak, confused and unsure about any direction in life. Do yourself a favor and ditch the porn. It could be hindering you from living your life to the fullest.
Take the first step toward sobriety and join a 423 Communities group today.
Contributor: Adapted from J.K. Emezi’s “5 Ways Porn Can Harm Your Brain, Body, and Quality of Life”