edging how it damages your brain i'm dr trish  leigh let me tell you about it we're gonna go  

through three points in this video number  one what is edging and in this 2.0 version  

what edging is not then secondly what we're  going to talk about is what edging does to  

your brain and why it's so dangerous i work with  so many people that regret the fact that they got  

into this practice and they were sucked into  it without even knowing they were doing it and  

definitely not knowing what it was doing to their  brains third what you can do to back yourself  

out of the mode that you have put your brain in  on accident and heal your brain so that it works  

optimally and you can leave pornography behind  okay number one what is edging and what it's not  

okay edging is the practice of viewing pornography  in longer and longer sessions may be coming  

back and forth between viewing pornography and  dipping into your life a little bit but then  

coming back for dopamine because your life has  become difficult to manage without dopamine hits  

coming back but you might stay in a session  and open multiple tabs and with increasing  

intensity move from one scene to another  to another holding that buzzer that high  

that buzz that high that numbing feeling  that sensation thing that you're craving  

the thing that you want so much to take the edge  off and make you feel good in this human condition  

gets better with every increasing move you take  towards watching more and watching more intensity  

that is edging what you're doing is you're  holding a flood of dopamine in your brain  

your reward center of your brain is being bathed  i want you to think of a bath bathed in dopamine  

which you're not supposed to get in that amount  or for that long so your brain's being bathed in  

dopamine to feel more and more chill and relaxed  and numbed out but there's consequences to that  

so that edging session is you're going forward  with increased intensity feeling better and you're  

holding off on the release to have your brain  linger in that bath now the consequences are your  

brain's not supposed to be there for that long  or at that heightened arousal and intensity level  

so what happens is you are desensitizing the  reward center in your brain which means when  

you go to be with your partner not only can you  not get an erection you won't be able to ejaculate  

it creates massive sexual problems with  the partner that you have in your real life  

what happens also is the d2 dopamine receptors in  your brain are no longer working so now next time  

you go back you need to go back more frequently  more consistently with even more heightened  

intensity you need more and more and more to  get where you were a month ago because your  

brain is becoming fried out at the same time it's  dropping out the activity in your frontal lobe  

your decision making skills are decreasing  your ability to think and focus are going  

out the window you are damaging your brain that's  what edging is now what edging is not edging is  

not being with your partner and trying to  have that experience continue for x amount  

of time while you linger in these lower dopamine  levels but i'm going to caution you here because  

if it involves fantasy and if you are trailing  off into something that's in your arousal template  

from pornography you're bringing that into the  human sexual experience and then what's happening  

there is you're no longer with your partner in the  present you're lingering in that dopamine flood  

in that bath what you're going for is more of a  dopamine shower with your partner and actually  

i don't even remember it but i looked up i will i  will bring it to you in a different video i looked  

up how long the average sexual experience should  be because i talked to so many people like i used  

to be able to go for an hour and a half two hours  but now i can only go for 30 minutes the average  

is in the 15 minute range so think about that  is that you want to be able to hold your brain  

in that mode you know 10 15 20 25 minutes to hold  your brain in that mode for hours and for days is  

very damaging now let me tell you the anecdotal  story very quick of a few people that i work with  

many people actually but we're going to call it  the few out of the masses is that when you get  

to that point your brain needs so much dopamine  to exist it's difficult to exist in the world  

and then when you try to leave it behind it is  devastating trying to leave it behind it really  

involves a weaning process over an extended amount  of time i do not want that for you that's why if  

you can back yourself out of that now if you  feel yourself going towards lots of tabs with  

increasing intensity please back yourself out  for your own sake your brain will thank you  

so okay now that's what happens in your brain  how are you going to do it now in the perfect  

world you'd rip that band-aid right off and  you would stop watching pornography altogether  

that would be ideal because then your brain will  start to recalibrate itself it will get out of  

this neo-homeostasis mode it'll move back to the  optimal homeostasis or norm and you will start  

to feel common focused again you will stop feeling  angsty and anxious you'll stop feeling overwhelmed  

social anxiety will decrease that is the perfect  world rip that band-aid right off and struggle  

through some amount of time but if you've been  edging for a while likely you're going to have to  

decrease the consistency the frequency the length  and the amount of dopamine flooding that you have  

been doing but i know some people are gonna say  it's bad advice and it is bad advice because  

it would probably be almost impossible  for you ripping off the band-aid is the  

is actually the better way to go stop watching  let your brain recalibrate itself and move on  

but that can be really difficult for people so  if you can't do that it's a cheat in the right  

direction and i agree i don't love the cheats in  the right direction but if you can't succeed using  

the rip the band-aid off technique then cheating  in the right direction can give you success  

and we know from the neuroscience that success  breeds more success so get successful start either  

cheating in the right direction or go cold turkey  using strategies tools techniques and support  

and i've created programs my new uh our new  pornbrainreboot.org website is ready the nonprofit  

isn't completely established at the recording  of this video but it will be soon so go check  

out that new website pornbrainreboot.org there's  different levels of programs that are there for  

you and if you want the comprehensive program from  start to finish it's there for you if not stay  

here watch the videos like and subscribe get the  notifications use the strategies at the end of the  

video and they will start coming together for you  okay remember control your brain or to control you