“No Fap” - the name for the practice of giving up pornography and self stimulation
as a means for self improvement.
Easily the most frequently requested topic on this channel, so here it is.
Before we start I want to clarify that masturbation by itself or even pictures of naked people
are not necessarily a problem.
This discussion is about the brain changes made by high speed internet porn - a recent
phenomenon that didn’t exist until around 20 years ago.
Naturally, any discussion about porn is going to start with a bit of cell biology.
We are made up of two types of cells, the germ cells and the somatic cells.
The germ cells’ job is to hold and spread genetic material.
The somatic cells’ role is essentially to protect the germ cells and make sure they
are able to do their job.
What you consider to be yourself, your body, is the soma.
What nature wants the soma to do is to live long enough to allow the germ cells to pass
the genetic material off to a new soma.
Whatever DNA resides in your body arrived there thanks to the perpetual relay race a
countless number of somas took part in before you or your ancestors came into existence.
Nature’s expectation for you is to pass the baton to what will be the next soma carrying
the precious genetic material.
The point of this is to highlight just how high on the priorities list sexual reproduction
is going to be for living things.
Take for example the small, mouse-like creature called an antechinus.
The males have very short lifespans, because at a certain point they will have finished
making all the sperm that they can and lose the ability to make anymore.
When they reach this point, they will aggressively mate with as many females as they can.
Tirelessly having sex hours for on end to the point that their fur falls off, they bleed
internally and their immune system fails, leaving them riddled with gangrene.
And they will then continue to have sex, until they die.
Luckily, us humans naturally do not lose the ability to produce sperm and we are very keen
on staying alive.
We have a very strong imperative to protect ourselves, to feed ourselves, to survive - and
many mechanisms are set in place to motivate us to do so.
In particular, the brain has within it the all powerful dopamine system.
It’s there to motivate you to do the things that would help you survive.
And of course reproduction is the other very strong imperative.
Maybe unsurprisingly, the dopamine system seems to be much more reactive to chances
for reproduction.
Comparing a 1999 study from the University of Cagliari to a 1997 Study from the University
of British Colombia, we can see that the dopamine output from sex is about twice as strong as
what you get from food.
If we go all the way back to the Paleolithic era when the hardware for the human dopamine
system - the brain was being developed , these reproductive opportunities didn’t come very
often.
As James McClellan says in his book "Science and Technology in World History," "Over the
entire 2 million years of the Paleolithic, beginning with the first species of Homo,
population density remained astonishingly low, perhaps no more than one person per square
mile..."
Potential reproductive opportunities would have been very limited simply by the fact
that there weren’t that many people to reproduce with.
So, the brain developed certain strategies to maximize reproduction.
For example, an animal will reach a sort of sexual satiation after having sex multiple
times with the same mate.
And, you will see a decline in dopamine that matches the waning motivation.
However, if you introduce a totally new partner, then the dopamine and the motivation to have
sex will shoot back up- this is a great strategy, it would maximize the total potential babies.
This is known as the coolidge effect.
"As you can see from this Australian experiment, subjects watched 22 porn displays.
See that spike?
That's where researchers switched to porn the guys hadn't seen before.
The result?
Subjects' brains and boners sprang to attention again.
It's not mere nudity, but novelty that sends arousal skyrocketing."
And herein lies the appeal of high speed internet porn.
It takes advantage of this programming by giving you instant access to a virtually limitless
supply of new mates engaging in whatever novel position or fetish you like.
Nowadays, in 30 minutes, you can see more members of the opposite sex erotically displaying
themselves than the total number of humans our ancestors could see in their lifetime.
Not to mention the number of those humans they’d actually get the chance to have sex
with is much lower.
In this way, novelty packed internet porn takes advantage of your brain’s programming
to keep your attention for hours on end.
The wasted time is unfortunate, but the real problem is how each porn viewing session changes
and molds your brain.
I think most people are familiar with the fact that the brain is plastic - it can change
based on your environment and your behaviors.
But it’s not often apparent how powerful this plasticity is.
In Norman Doidge’s book “The Brain that changes itself” he describes how In certain
stroke patients who lost function in their limbs, doctors thought recovery was impossible.
If a muscle atrophied surely you could re-strengthen it, but since the stroke knocked out the portion
of the brain controlling that limb, surely nothing could be done.
A new strategy was put into play.
By doing things like putting a patient’s good hand in an oven mitt and taping it up
with duct tape, patients had no choice but to attempt to use the dysfunctional limb.
After much frustrating practice, their brains started to change in response to this behavior.
The brain reconfigured itself to map different areas of the brain to the task of controlling
that limb.
This would be like being able to use the fingerprint scanner to control one portion of your smartphone’s
screen after you cracked it.
This remapping of the brain produced remarkable recoveries of function in the stroke patients’
dysfunctional limbs.
Before, this type of recovery was thought to be impossible.
Over many other incredible examples throughout the book, Norman Doidge demonstrates how the
brain can adapt itself to actually “get better” at almost anything, positive or
negative, by actually changing its physical structure.
The phrase “the medium is the message” - coined by Marshall McLuhan, highlights the
problem with internet pornography.
The point of this phrase is that the way some content or “message” gets into your brain
is just as important, if not more important, as the message itself.
In our case, without the medium- high speed internet, the message- sexual content, would
have far less power to instigate negative changes in the brain.
Since the medium is so important, let’s first look first at how just the internet
itself can be addicting - even if you’re looking at totally safe for work content.
The previously mentioned neurotransmitter dopamine is the door to addiction.
You can open that door with substances or behaviors . It’s not often clarified, but
dopamine isn’t the pleasure molecule, it’s the molecule that controls wanting - the seeking
of pleasure.
Dopamine is released when you get a new or unexpected reward, at first its purpose is
to make you learn what behavior got you that reward.
After that step is done, dopamine is released when you recognize that you are in a situation
where that particular behavior can get you a reward.
Now, the purpose of this dopamine is to now motivate you to do the behavior.
This is how drugs take advantage of the dopamine system.
All drugs of addiction provide a massive dopamine release - so your brain thinks you just received
the best unexpected reward ever.
So everything that led up to getting that substance is strongly written into memory.
This is how addicts develop strong triggers - they might see an alleyway where they bought
some narcotic in the past and their brain will surge them with dopamine that says “Hurry
up and do the behavior necessary to get that substance!”
In the same way your nose can get used to a bad smell if you hang around it long enough,
the brain can get used to high levels of dopamine.
When the brain is frequently exposed to elevated dopamine, the dopamine receptors decrease
- they downregulate.
And then, more dopamine is necessary to create motivation.
Dopamine receptor downregulation is a universal symptom of addiction.
So, the drug user loses interest in everyday activities because they don’t provide near
as much dopamine as the drug so they’re not motivated to do that activity.
The brain comes to favor the thing with the highest dopamine payout and the wanting for
the substance gets stronger and stronger.
And, Behavioral addictions cause this same dopamine receptor downregulation as seen in
substance addictions.
The internet’s addictive power comes from the fact that it is a novelty machine.
Novelty is something dopamine is particularly reactive to.
New information is interpreted by your brain as a reward, and this reward comes for very
little behavior.
You can get a new picture for a swipe on imgur, fresh links for a click on reddit, and new
tweets for a scroll on twitter.
Very quickly your brain learns that, when you’re holding a smart phone, you can perform
a very simple behavior - a swipe of the thumb, to get new information.
So, seeing your smartphone triggers a small rise in dopamine, which motivates you to swipe,
and you get a reward - a new picture.
But the chance to be rewarded with a new piece of information reappears as fast as your internet
can load the page.
Your brain understands that now, there’s another chance for reward, so your dopamine
rises again and the cycle repeats.
This never ending novelty keeps your dopamine levels elevated, which leads to your dopamine
receptors downregulating and the other symptoms of addiction come with it.
It might be hard to see how say twitter could cause a surge in dopamine like heroin - well,
it doesn’t.
It’s the frequency of the dopamine rise that’s important here.
A quick thumb swipe is all you need to reinforce to your brain that using the internet is a
valuable, important experience.
David Linden points out in his book “The Compass of Pleasure” that Cigarettes hook
80% of those who try them, but heroin actually only hooks a small minority of the users.
The cigarettes don’t provide near as much dopamine per puff compared to shooting heroin,
but with frequent multiple puffs and therefore multiple rises in dopamine, cigarette smokers
can very frequently train the brain that smoking is a very important experience.
Now, take this already addictive nature of the internet and combine it with the fact
that our brains’ most ancient programming wants us to be super motivated by anything
sexual, and you start to see how internet porn has such high potential for negative
molding of the brain.
"We predicted that based on the way sex causes these reward chemicals in the brain to be
produced, that we would see some of the brain scan findings that we find with drugs…
...And the latest research seems to be proving him right"
Gary Wilson, author of the very thorough book “Your Brain on Porn” and host of the website
yourbrainonporn.com, points out that studies on internet porn all show that the users experience
the same brain changes as those suffering from substance addiction: Sensitization to
porn, desensitization for other things, and hypo-frontality - less activation in the prefrontal
cortex - the area of the brain responsible for self control starts to shut down.
This means your reward circuit gets more responsive and excited about porn, less excited about
everyday life, and it gets harder and harder to control yourself.
Now you might be wondering how much is too much, how many high speed porn sessions can
you have before your brain develops these negative changes.
But that’s not how it works.
The changes appear on a spectrum.
That is, you can use internet porn a little bit and have a little bit of these brain changes
or you can use it a lot and the changes will be much worse.
A study from Korea University showed that in healthy young adults, marked sensitization
to video games developed in as little as 5 days.
The gamers weren’t technically addicted, but they found that their cravings to play
actually aligned with an observable elevation in brain activity.
As for Internet porn itself, a study at Germany’s Max Planck Institute found that men who were
not classified as having an addition showed addiction-related brain changes.
More hours per week of internet porn viewing correlated with a reduction in grey matter
in areas of the brain involved in motivation and decision-making.
The nerve connections between the reward circuit and prefrontal cortex worsened in sync with
increased porn watching.
Remember, the prefrontal cortex is the driver of self control.
This is the hypofrontality we talked about before, showing the connection between internet
porn use and impaired self control.
Gary Wilson points out that there are hundreds of studies showing the addiction like brain
changes that come from using the internet in a way that over-engages the dopamine system.
As of 2015 there were only 4 studies he found that looked specifically at internet pornography.
But, they all showed the same negative brain changes we just discussed.
And they also found: -60% of compulsive porn users had Erectile
Dysfunction or low libido.
-Very high cue-induced reactivity in the reward center - Meaning something like seeing a bikini
model while reading the news could set off strong cravings to look at internet porn
-The users reported greater wanting and craving, but lessened enjoyment of the experience of
looking at porn.
This is a key pattern seen in addiction to drugs.
Other symptoms based on Gary’s research and user’s personal reports include:
-Difficulty maintaining an erection for a real partner, but no problems getting it up
for porn.
-Uncharacteristic, worsening social anxiety or lack of confidence
-Inability to concentrate and extreme restlessness -Depression, anxiety and brain fog
Several men have participated in a “reboot” - the act of giving up internet porn to allow
their brains to reverse these negative changes.
This rebooting process is the point of “nofap” Many of these men report impressive boosts
in confidence, reversal of anxiety and enhanced concentration.
Some men diagnosed with ADHD found that their symptoms drastically improved to the point
that they stopped relying on medication.
Gary says: “There's good reason to believe these symptoms
can often arise from addiction-related brain changes, as the reward circuit contains structures
that influence emotions, moods, cognitive function, stress response, the autonomic nervous
system, and the endocrine system.
For example, many of the complaints such as social anxiety, depression, low motivation,
ED, and concentration problems, have been linked to low dopamine and low or altered
dopamine D2 receptors.”
When it comes to engaging with a real partner, internet porn can rewire the brain to change
what it expects from a sexual experience.
While a heavy user of internet porn might understand cognitively that their partner
is very attractive and they should be more excited about the “real deal,” if their
brain has wired itself to understand sex as a... rapid cycling through multiple partners
that provide no other sensory input than just visual information on a screen... the experience
of real sex probably doesn’t do much for the reward circuit of that brain.
I remember when I first came across this concept, what struck me was how much it reminded me
of this segment on Munchies about a South Korean Mukbang star - Mukbang is a relatively
recent trend where people livestream themselves eating.
There was a point in the segment where the fans of the streamer BJ Hana got to meet her
in person over dinner.
The dinner was broadcasted as a replacement for her usual streaming.
“But what about the fact that they couldn’t draw their eyes away from their phones - the
whole time they were locked into the broadcast - that was their comfort zone, they still
had to have BJ Hana in that format.
They couldn’t just enjoy the real thing even though she was right there in front of
them.”
Now without commenting on whether these people were already very socially awkward in the
first place, I thought it was very interesting how even with vanilla experiences one could
be so used to reducing themselves to a voyeur that they come prefer that rather than the
real deal.
Even without discussing the complicated nature of dopamine, it’s not surprising that internet
pornography has similar effects on the brain as narcotics.
What we humans love to do is identify some component of an experience that we like, isolate
that component from the rest of the parts, and then amplify that one component as much
as possible.
Daniel Lieberman points out in his book “The Story of the Human Body,” that the sweetest
thing (other than honey) an ancient hunter gatherer could find was probably a piece of
fruit about as sweet as a modern day carrot.
Now you can buy a pound of granulated essence of sweet for about a dollar.
Farmers in the andes chew coca leaves for a mild boost in energy.
Extract that energy boosting power and you wind up with the highly addictive cocaine.
And, Columnist Damian Thompson sums up the situation with alcohol,
"As a general rule, the distilling of pleasures is a quick route to addiction.
... In the mid-18th century, parts of inner London suffered the world’s first mass epidemic
of alcoholism.
... The gin craze was eventually stamped out by legislation banning home distilling.
Once cheap gin ceased to be available, addicted drinkers kicked the habit."
And, with internet pornograhy, we isolated the experience down to only the visual component
of sex and then amplified that one component with endless and instantaneous novelty.
Our ancestors’ ancestors developed a very effective method for making sure our genetics
would stay alive as long as possible.
In the case of humans, a big brain has been a very effective tool for protecting the important
germ cells and the genetic information they carry.
But, we’re a little too smart for our own good.
We learned how to exploit the programming that paired survival and reproduction with
pleasure.
With a few taps on a magic rectangle, we can access pure distilled pleasure, completely
separated from its original purpose: survival and reproduction.