signs of porn addiction, i'm dr. trish leigh, cognitive neuroscientist and sex addiction
recovery coach, okay, in this video let's talk about the seven top signs that you may struggle
with problematic pornography consumption okay number one you spend time and energy and cha-ching
money on your porn habit so if you invest a lot of time a lot of your energy and especially if
you're dedicating your dinero to porn it might be a problem okay number two is you are using porn
for mood regulation and what that means is that you are using it to decrease your anxiety
and to decrease or stave off boredom we know from the science the two main uses of porn and
the reason why and the motivational factors are stress number one big time and boredom so if you
are using porn for stress or boredom it might be something you are dependent upon okay number three
you forgo sex you are no longer really that interested in intimacy because it requires
you to be vulnerable especially if it is sex with a partner that should be loving and with
connection because your brain has been trained for massive amounts of pleasure seeking so there's
a dichotomy you can't get it from your sex life anymore so what happens is your brain wants to go
back into the screen for more of that heightened pleasure okay number four is you have cravings
urges or you think or fantasize about porn so if you're spending a lot of time mentally
on porn this could be a problem for you and we know that the brain wants to follow the reward
so if you're rewarding rewarding your brain with consistent and frequent porn use
and it's getting this massive dopamine deluge it is going to follow that trail and so that can be
another sign if you think about porn or sex a lot it may be a problem which leads to number five is
you lose attraction to your partner and we know the way that this shows up is that you actually
are less satisfied with the appearance of your partner you are less satisfied with your partner
in general and especially sexually so if you are having some strain in your relationship
and especially if there's issues in the bedroom porn may be a problem and i know so many people
don't even link porn use to the problems in their relationship but we know that when porn
use is in the mix divorce and breakups go up by more than 50 and cheating goes up by 300 so
if you are struggling with relationship problems which we are going to talk about in a future video
you know know that porn might be a problem for you okay so number six is if you find that you're
distracted it's difficult for you to focus and to think if your motivation has decreased this may
be another indicator another sign that you have a problem with porn and again i've explained it in
one of the last videos is that if you've trained your brain to go into the screen for this massive
dopamine deluge super normal stimulus more than you could get anywhere in the real world your
brain learns that there's no dopamine in the world there's not enough it's all in the screen
so then it becomes difficult to think because that dopamine flood is literally flooding your
brain out and knocking out functioning in the frontal lobe and at the same time it's increasing
cortisol the stress neurotransmitter so your life and the motivation to get into the world decreases
because there's not enough dopamine there and there's only cortisol which makes your life
more stressful and we know another piece to mood regulation and to this aspect is anger so if you
see that you have an increase in anger and you're not really sure why you feel angry and irritable i
call it dr jekyll and mr hyde if you feel like or if people notice in you and say what's up you're
swinging high and low sometimes you're angry sometimes you're nice i never know which version
of you to expect porn could be at the root of that because we know anger and irritability go up
defensiveness goes up and perceived attack goes up so if you perceive any of that stuff
please know that you might have a problem with porn and number seven you can't
stop if you want to know if you have a porn problem try to stop watching it and commit
say i'm not going to watch this thing and then try to see if you can do it without withdrawal
symptoms withdrawal symptoms are flatline we're going to get to it in another video but
flatline where you just feel meh and you have no sexual desire and your motivation goes even lower
or you may feel more moody or you may feel even more sexual and more cravings and urges
so try to stop and that will be a really easy way for you to know if you have a problem with
porn okay so those are your porn addiction signs follow me through to the next video
remember if you need help on this journey because many people do go over to drtrishleigh.com check
out the programs that i have to offer there's many at different investment levels time energy and
money so go see if there's something that might be a good fit for you and if you're interested
in taking this cause upstream with me consider donating at pornbrainprevention.org so we can stop
the next generation that's already deep in this porn thing 85 percent of young men watch porn 57
of young women this is a problem for for you and for me and for our kids so help the cause
with me if you're inspired and remember control your brain or it'll control you