is porn really that bad for you i'm dr trish leigh cognitive neuroscientist and sex addiction
recovery coach in this video i'm going to share with you the fact that porn really is that bad
for you and i'm going to share why and i'm going to share with you how it shows up in your life
and how those ways are related back to how your brain is performing
so we're going to talk about how does porn mess with your life number two how porn messes with
your brain to create elbow problems in your life and number three what you can do to quit porn
leave it behind and ride off into the sunset now this video is a direct response to my dear husband
who last week said to me you know trish most guys don't think watching porn is that
big of a deal and he started naming our friends hello friends if you're watching my video
the guy friends that i hang out with all the time he's like you know him he doesn't think porn's
that big of a deal you know him he doesn't think porn is that you know big of a problem
i know that hubs that's why i am here making these videos because i want men specifically to know
that watching porn is in fact damaging your brain significantly creating problems in your life that
you probably don't link back to your porn use and that there's a better way to live so that
you don't have these brain problems and these life problems so without further ado let's dig
in number one how does porn create problems in your life what are those problems what do they
look like okay so if you struggle with motivation if you find that your job doesn't do it for you
anymore in a way that it used to if you are not attracted to your partner as much as you used to
if you have erectile dysfunction that is a number one major problem that people
struggle with performance anxiety and erectile dysfunction and those two things go together
porn induced erectile dysfunction is on a significant rise no pun intended so that is linked
back to your porn use you might not even know that anxiety depression mental health challenges
they're all linked back to porn use if you've had the idea that you want to cheat on your partner
infidelity 300 percent increase in cheating because of porn use they're completely linked
if you find that you are checking people out in the world all the time and i encourage you
to check your own behavior see if you're checking people out see if you're checking young people out
it is linked to porn use objectification of women and you end up looking at their
body parts for dopamine hit so we know let me just back this up for one more second there's
cognitive issues thinking memory porn induced adhd it creates the brain pattern at the root of
adhd so if you have attention issues if you have impulsive behavior it's difficult for you to make
good judgments it's related to porn use we know that there's cognitive issues there's mental
and psychological and emotional issues that are steeped in porn use so if you have challenges in
that department and physical issues erectile dysfunction general malaise just not feeling
that well okay related to porn now how number two let's talk about what's happening in your brain
what happens in the brain is when you go into the screen and you consume porn especially if it's
frequent consistent and with increasing intensity which for most people it is because of tolerance
being built what happens is your brain is getting dopamine drips when you think about watching porn
dopamine deluge or flood when you actually begin to consume pornography and especially if you
edge and if you float your brain in that dopamine state you are frying out the reward center in
your brain desensitizing it which is what causes erectile dysfunction and what leads you to more
intensity in the screen and you're also dropping out the frontal lobe deactivating the frontal lobe
that is in charge of executive function planning and organization attention
memory impulse control judgment and there's neural pathways from your frontal lobe to the reward
center that break they pump the brakes they make it so that you stop watching porn but you can't
the brakes are cut so it creates a compulsion which moves into addiction so now you need the
screen for the dopamine deluge now it's called an ab effect and i call it the pendulum effect
guess what happens if you constantly go back to a dopamine deluge you guessed it it creates a
dopamine deficit in your life so now you go into your life and there's nowhere near the amount of
dopamine that your brain can get in the screen and things don't do it for you there anymore there's
no dopamine your brain doesn't want to be engaging in your life it actually gets stressed out by your
life because there's no dopamine dopamine deficit so here's the solution number three
and i know what you're thinking here it comes you have to stay out of the screen so when you stay
out of the screen you no longer get the dopamine drips or the deluge so guess what happens to the
dopamine deficit state it clears itself up now in this video i'm just going to give you three simple
strategies and if you've seen my videos before you've heard me say this before but please go
watch the other videos every video has a brain tip strategy at the end that can help you but i want
to remind you of the primary core strategies that i've always offered you it's to get on purpose
in your work in your relationships and in your hobbies these things are dopamine producing so
what does that look like i'm gonna tell you what that looks like this is your plan for
the next week write it down get out your leather pleather journal and write this down number one
find a piece of your work that you find exciting or you used to find exciting and do it do the
part that you like and sit back for a moment and think to yourself wow i really just enjoyed that
and give yourself a reward for doing it get the dopamine flowing in a doubly positive way do the
work that you love fire your brain up around it and then reward yourself for doing it number two
get on purpose in your relationships so go spend time with people that you care about
actually let the nervous system come down and be present in that relationship if you have a honey
do something intimate or build healthy sexuality and have a really nice time with your honey
spend time with your friends laugh laughter is so dopamine producing i totally crack up all
the time in my life because laughter is so good for you go laugh with the people that you love
number three do your hobbies write down what you are going to do
this week which one of your hobbies you're going to do so pick it now schedule it in if it's not
scheduled it's not real if you're going to play ping pong write it in your schedule i'm going
to do ping pong if you're going to box write in your boxing time if you're going to do your trx
workout write it in if you're going to play chess write it in if you're going to take a
nap write it in dopamine producing activities get them in your schedule okay i hope that helps you
out and if you're looking for help on the journey please reach out to me drtrishleigh.com i would be
honored to help you and until next time control your brain or in fact it will control you