porn addiction withdrawal symptoms i'm dr trish leigh, cognitive neuroscientist and sex addiction
recovery coach, porn addiction withdrawal it is real and i'm going to tell you what
the top symptoms are in this video but i'm also here to tell you that you don't have to suffer
with massive amount of porn addiction withdrawal because if you implement the right strategies with
the right support as quickly and efficiently as possible when you decide you're going to quit porn
you can have that work together synergistically so that you don't struggle and i've seen it
lots of times with the people in my program so if you need more support please get it you can get it
from me drtrishleigh.com and if it feels good for you to get it from somebody else go for it just
get the tools and strategies that you need because you don't have to suffer okay let's move on to
what the withdrawal symptoms are we know that the number one withdrawal symptom that people struggle
with is anxiety and increased stress now remember if you're going into porn you are doing it for
stress reduction and it's working very well too well unfortunately because it's frying your brain
but it is in fact working well to stave off stress for you so when you go into the screen and you
get this massive dopamine deluge it floods your brain and it chills your brain out so much so that
there's damage but you definitely feel chill and numb and you get what you want so when you stop
giving your brain that drug it's an internalized drug addiction basically when you stop giving it
that drug of choice your anxiety and stress are going to go up and the solution is to put more
healthy mood regulation strategies in place and that's one one aspect of it but increased anxiety
and stress so if you stop watching porn and stop masturbating and you feel more stressed out this
is something that can happen to you also number two is an increase in anger and irritability that
dr jekyll and mr hyde syndrome that i talk about because what happens is that you're swinging high
and low your brain is going to try to cycle you through that porn addiction cycle that you've been
through for so long but it's not going to get what it wants and when it doesn't get what it wants the
hijacker is going to get angry and you're going to swing back and forth in between a couple different
versions of yourself but not so fantastic one and then you'll feel better and then you'll you'll
feel worse so anger and irritability agitation kind of being off your game with and mood swings
porn flashbacks so you might experience porn flashbacks or euphoric recall of scenes you might
think about other people that you've been with that you've done some of your favorite porn acts
with that is a call from your brain for mood regulation it's saying to you woohoo i need some
dopamine give me some dopamine i'm used to all the dopamine you've been giving me for so long
i need some i need it now and that's why it's a withdrawal symptom because it's withdrawal from
not getting the dopamine that it wants so when you give your brain dopamine in a different way
then you can offset those withdrawal symptoms but those flashbacks they're a call for dopamine so
if you experience them just know it's part of the withdrawal symptom urges to watch it's the
same thing when you have an urge or craving it's because your brain's telling you i need
dopamine let's go do this thing because i need some dopamine but if you're going to leave it
behind you have to break the cycle you have to pattern interrupted as i always say so if you
feel that you know that your brain is unwiring and then you can move on to rewiring it to the healthy
sexual pattern and and right off into the sunset um okay so you many times when you get a handle
on this thing in the day guess where it shows up in your subconscious it will sneak into your
sleep sleep disruptions are very common but the beautiful thing is sleep's one of the first things
that comes online once you move through this withdrawal period so if you have disrupted sleep
it's a sign your brain is unwiring and if you can push through your brain's gonna rewire you're
gonna sleep better than you ever have but in the meantime you may also have sexual dreams it's
gonna sneak into that subconscious in the night and you may have porn dreams so many people i
work with they'll tell me that they weren't even dreaming about sex they were literally dreaming
about watching porn and that can you know again it's your brain trying to trick you into giving
it the dopamine that it's been used to getting from watching sex for a really long time so
it may show up another thing that may show up for you is just low energy lack of motivation
so we've talked about this before that you go into the screen so that you get this dopamine deluge
and it's created a dopamine deficit in your life no more dopamine deluge means you're
still in a dopamine deficit until you rewire your brain to get dopamine from your work from
your relationships and from your hobbies get on purpose in your life the more purposeful you get
the more you rewire your brain to get into the world for dopamine not just dopamine serotonin
dopamine is the pleasure seeking neurochemical so a way to offset low dopamine is to go do
things that give you pleasure but serotonin is the neurochemical of joy and happiness so serotonin is
a sunset i love a beautiful sunset in my house we have a beautiful beautiful sun rises out the back
window and beautiful sunsets out the front and i love all things celestial we have really nice
moon uh being able to watch the moon rise and moon set too i chose this house on
purpose because those things give me a lot of joy i can sit there and watch it
joy and serotonin last a lot longer they give you happiness dopamine gives you pleasure and it dies
off quickly so when you go into your world and you create purpose you're giving your brain serotonin
and oxytocin oxytocin is the neurochemical of connection so you're connecting yourself to your
real life and you're disconnecting yourself from the screen and that takes a little bit of time
and withdrawal happens when you're doing it but again the more things you put in place the 90-day
program that i offer it has all the pieces to unwire your brain rewire your brain and then
hardwire in the new brain pattern so if you're struggling with this and especially if you what
happens is people stay in this withdrawal state for a little while and then they relapse because
they can't take it and then their brain it's starting to unwire that's why you get withdrawal
and then it's beginning to rewire if you start to do some of the things the healthy things
but then you have a relapse and you you know that unwiring might go backwards a little bit
and that rewiring stops happening and if you sit and you flip-flop in that state it creates a lot
of pain and anguish for you and it makes it very difficult for you to move to the other side of it
so if you've sat in this withdrawal state going back and forth with relapses for any
amount of time i'm here to tell you it does not have to be that way one of the clients that i
work with super cute he said to me when am i going to hit flat line flat lines another um
another withdrawal symptom flat line is you have no sexual desires and you know your libido
goes down because these neural chemicals are all trying to recalibrate themselves and you know you
have low energy so he asked me when am i gonna feel terrible and i'm like you're not because
you would have already felt terrible because we were working together for months i'm like
you you don't feel terrible because you're working this program so when you work the aspects and the
strategies and you use the tools and you have the support you don't have to struggle with withdrawal
okay go over to drtrishleigh.com if you have any interest in that
if you are interested in helping me go upstream to help teenagers not get started or to come out
of the screen as fast as possible please consider donating at pornbrainprevention.org the links are
both probably popping up or they're below and as always control your brain or it'll control you you