(Part 2 can be found further down on this page)

Wondering how masturbating to porn will affect your brain?

Well if so this is the article for you.

Before we start, you should know that this is not about masturbation in and of itself here, because masturbation alone won't affect your brain in any negative way what so whatsoever.

Porn, on the other hand, can definitely do so.

Let's jump in and take a look...

How Does Masturbating To Porn Affect The Brain?

Have you felt like you have a tendency to procrastinate more than usual lately?

Have you felt a general drop in libido or attraction to your partner?

Perhaps you noticed and you're having a harder time with concentration and focus?

Well believe it or not, but these are just a few examples of what can happen if you consume a lot of online porn. 

Hi, I’m Scandinavian Bob and I am not religious.

This is not about religion, moral preaching or shaming...

Now, I feel a need to start off like that because a lot of people can become defensive if they hear anything bad about porn thinking that what they hear is just moral preaching from some religious person.

And that’s quite understandable because unfortunately there is also a lot of moral preaching going on out there, but NO, not here because I am NOT religious and this is not about shaming.

I’m just a guy who was severely affected by porn had who, after I found out what it was doing to me, tried to give it up for more than 7 years before I finally managed to do so. In other words I was addicted to porn.

And in this video series I’m going to share with you how porn can change the brain and how you can change it back.

Everyone should be aware of what harms masturbating to porn can potentially do to your brain...

And this is something I believe everyone should know about because although these are most common in people with a real porn addiction, you should know that, first of all, addiction is not an on-off thing, you can be more or less addicted.

You can have mild addiction related brain changes going on without even knowing it,  and some of the things we are about to talk about can even affect people who are not addicted.

If your brain is not negatively affected by porn then...

So, if you’re not affected by any of this, you most likely have someone in your family or circle of friends who are. So please stay with me here because I promise you, this is something you really have to know.

Alright so, if this is the first time you’re hearing about this, you might be surprised to know that watching too much online porn actually can cause things like I mentioned in the start, but it is absolutely true and before we move on I also need to make it clear that I am specifically talking about online porn here. 

It's when we combine porn with today's delivery system that it becomes problematic...

Because it is actually not so much the porn itself that’s the problem, it is when we combine it with today’s delivery system that it can become problematic. In other words the internet.

So, for example, back in the day, those old porn magazines were not potent enough to cause any problems, but today everyone obviously consumes it on the internet and therein lies the problem.

Because with online porn  there is endless novelty, which means you can keep your dopamine levels elevated with the click of a mouse basically as long as you want. And by doing so you can override your natural satiation mechanism.

Your ancient dopamine system did not come equipped with being able to handle all the high stimuli...

You see, your ancient reward system didn’t come equipped with being able to handle all that stimuli. It is now possible for a porn user to see more hot babes in one single porn session than his ancestors were able to do in several lifetimes.

More than they could do in several hundreds of life times even, all with the click of a mouse. Searching, clicking, getting dragged along to the next clip and the next clip and the next and the next, fast forwarding with multiple tabs open, all while keeping the dopamine levels sky high for sometimes hours on end. 

We are going to talk more about exactly why that’s a problem a bit further on, but with this I think most of you already can start to see how that could perhaps not be such a healthy thing to do.

These are the most common negative effects that masturbating to online porn can cause...

But let’s now take a look at some of the most common negative effects that online porn can cause so that you know why I feel so strongly about the importance of learning this.

Watching a lot of porn can cause some people to experience…

• Increased fear and anxiety
• Lack of motivation and drive
• Delayed ejaculation (in other words they have trouble climaxing when with a real partner)
• A sensation of having dulled senses
• Porn induced erectile dysfunction.

Yes, you might have heard that porn can cause erection problems, and perhaps you’ve been wondering “is that really true?”

And I’m here to tell you, yes it IS really true.

Delayed ejaculation is just one step away in the process before developing porn induced erectile dysfunction...

And by the way, the delayed ejaculation thing here is just  one stay away from developing porn induced ED.

So if you’re noticing having problems with this, be happy that you found out about it now so you can stop the porn before it develops. 

It is like Dr. Carlo Foresta, the Head of the Italian Society Of Andrology And Sexual Medicine said, “It starts with lower reactions to porn sites. Then there is a general drop in libido, and in the end it becomes impossible to get an erection”

Yeah, and he was one of the first experts to notice this a few years after high speed internet with streaming tube sites had entered the market.

Porn induced ED happens because of two thing...

Now porn induced ED happens because of two things, the first one is desensitization and that’s the one Dr. Foresta talked about there, but then there is also sexual conditioning at play here. Meaning, you have conditioned your brain to respond more to pixels on a screen than to real life people. 

You see, whenever your dopamine levels are high your brain is a learning machine, because it interprets elevated dopamine levels as the situation being vital for survival, and remember when I just said that with online porn it is possible keep your dopamine levels elevated for as long as you want with the click of a mouse. 

You are training your libido and erections to respond stronger to pixels on a screen...

And since the brain is a super learner during times of elevated dopamine,  if you then are sitting there, clicking from video to video while you’re at the same time also masturbating  then your brain is going to associate your libido with pixels on a screen.

This is sexual conditioning and it’s why we say that porn can hijack your real libido. Like Gary Wilson used to say “You are training for the wrong sport”

Negative effects continued...

• Brain fog and concentration problems
• Social anxiety
• Low energy and low mood (yes, people who are very addicted to porn often feel like nothing in life can deliver any pleasure any longer, except for porn and often even that stops working as the addiction progress)
• Depression and anhedonia become a problem. By the way anhedonia is a condition where you are incapable of feeling pleasure. 

It is like Anna Lembke, one of the world's leading addiction experts says “Ironically, chasing pleasure for pleasure itself often leads to anhedonia”.

Negative effects continued...

• Low libido (especially for real life people)
• Morphing sexual tastes - and this is often because by watching a lot of porn people quickly escalate and start watching more and more extreme stuff in order to get the same kick. This is also due to desensitization by the way. Another way to put  desensitization is that you get a “numb pleasure response”.

Now there are more potential negative consequences than these, but these are the ones that are the absolute most common ones we see people who watch online porn can start developing.

Feeling stuck? You can transform your life in 13 weeks or less by Downloading my FREE guide below...

Alright so let’s now move on to the next section of this video where we will take a look at the four fundamental brain changes that happen in any addiction and that are behind many of these symptoms. 

And please pay attention now because this is going to be so important for you to discover.

How porn changes the brain - The four big brain changes are...

They are...

1. Desensitization
2. Sensitization
3. Hypofronatlity
4. Malfunctioning stress system

Alright, so we already touched a bit on desensitization, but let’s take a deeper dive into the mechanisms of how that happens and in order to do so I’m going to share a short snippet from another presentation video I made a while back.

So, here goes, this ladies and gentlemen is desensitization…

**Watch video at the top**

Alright, so that is the mechanism behind desensitization and now you also understand why I said that the fact that you can keep clicking from video to video, keeping your dopamine levels elevated for a very long time can become problematic. 

Because it can reduce the number of your dopamine receptors. And you should know that those receptors do not instantly grow back right after your porn session. No, it can sometimes take weeks to months depending on the situation and the addiction and the person, IF the person quits or drastically reduces his use of course, which is a must if he wants them to grow back at all.

My experience with having a numb brain from porn addiction...

Now, in the midst of my porn addiction I was severely affected by desensitization myself and believe me when I say, if you keep digging the hole deeper and deeper with more and more instant gratification you can turn your situation into complete hell because everything in life will start to feel gray and boring. 

And the disrupted dopamine system you just saw is also the biggest reason behind why watching a lot of porn can give you things like low motivation and drive,  social anxiety, lack of concentration and many of the things we started off the video by looking at.

Yes indeed, you see dopamine is highly involved with for example motivation and drive. In fact dopamine is the “go after it” neurotransmitter. And yes, dopamine is also involved with concentration and it can play a part in anxiety and so on.

What does masturbating to porn do to your brain (PART 2)

Welcome to part two of how masturbation to porn affects the brain.

If you haven't watched part one yet I urge you to go and do so first and then come back to this one. 

Alright, so as you remember these are the 4 addiction related brain changes that we are dealing with here and in part one we talked a lot about desensitization. But did you know that desensitization can actually take place to a certain extent even if you’re not addicted. 

You can be a bit desensitized without having a real addiction...

Now desensitization often becomes much more severe if you really are addicted, obviously, but I repeat; you don’t have to be an addict in order to knock out some of the dopamine receptors. If you’re not really addicted and you stop hammering them they also grow back sooner than if you have a full blown addiction. 

This is just one reason behind why guys who give up porn tend to see such a different timeline when they start to feel better because some probably quit before the other addiction related brain changes have set in while others are dealing with all of the brain changes.

Feeling stuck? You can transform your life in 13 weeks or less by Downloading my FREE guide below...

Online porn and sensitization...

Alright so the second brain change is called sensitization. Kind of sounds like desensitization, but it’s nothing like that at all. 

What sensitization is is that it’s basically a memory of pleasure. So even though you are desensitized and numb, when having an addiction, there is actually one thing you become more sensitive to, and that is, triggers. 

Yes, that’s right and that’s probably why it’s called sensitization.

And if you don’t know what a trigger is it is basically anything that reminds your brain of your drug of choice. 

So for a porn addict a trigger could for example be seeing a hot fitness model or Instagram Instagram or a booty shaking video on YouTube and so on.

Check this out…

Whenever we learn a new habit or try to memorize a new thing you are forming pathways in your brain.

It is like you are walking in a field of grass. At first it’s heavy going, but the more you keep walking that exact same route, with time you form a rut or a small road in the grass. Now it’s much easier to walk there. In fact, it is now easier to walk there than not to walk there. 

Well, think of these small roads in the grass as habits with normal day to day activities, but with sensitization that small road in the grass is more like a highway. 

Sensitization is basically a "super memory" of pleasure...

Sensitization is a super memory of pleasure. And whenever you are hit by a trigger those sensitized pathways in your brain lights up and starts screaming for your drug.

Yes, so sensitization is what  gives you those powerful cravings that can make you relapse and blow away all your good intentions.

Now here comes something interesting about this…

Many people are now probably thinking, well I guess I’m not addicted then because I wouldn’t say I feel strong cravings to use porn, I’m just a bit horny at times, that’s all.

Well, here’s the deal…

I myself didn't know I was addicted to porn until I tried to give it up...

I didn’t know I was addicted until I tried to give it up. The reason for why I wanted to give up the porn was because I was struggling with weak erections and when I read that porn could cause things like that I decided to give it up for 90 days to see if they would improve. 

And to my big surprise, it was then I found out that I was actually not able to do it. 

I would go two or three weeks without the porn and then I always relapsed back to it.

Even though I was 100% determined to get to 90 days I just couldn’t do it. 

Feeling stuck? You can transform your life in 13 weeks or less by Downloading my FREE guide below...

I was not even that heavy of a porn user...

And listen to this, I had never been a heavy porn user either. I was only using it once or twice a week, but when I tried to give it up, I found that I just couldn't. And despite not using it on a daily basis it still gave me many of the negative effects we talked about in part one. Including libido and erection problems. 

Granted my porn sessions were sometimes very long, because I was  clicking from video to video always chasing the next one. 

The thing is, even if you really are addicted to porn, If you always use your porn whenever you’re horny, the sensitized pathways won’t start screaming at you. 

It only happens if you try to not use your drug. 

The sensitized pathways will become most noticeable when you try to quit your porn use...

When I started trying to give up the porn, always when I got to my second or third week, when I got hit by a trigger then, well then I got to experience how powerful urges can really be. 

If you run into triggers a couple of weeks after quitting the sensitized pathways can even have such a big effect on you that your hands start trembling and your heart rate goes up way above hundred beats per minute.

My hands started trembling when I faced a trigger...

I still remember the very first time that happened to me, my hands literally started trembling when I was hit by a visual trigger and  my heart started pounding in my chest.

I didn’t know it back then, but what was happening to me in that very moment was that those porn pathways in my brain, those sensitized pathways were firing up like a Christmas tree.

Yeah, so if you think you’re not addicted try giving it up for 60 or 90 days then you’ll find out, maybe you’re not, but if you set a goal for yourself of 90 days without porn, it can be a good experiment for you to find out. 

Sensitization grows stronger 2-3 weeks after quitting porn...

Yes, and so, the nasty thing about the sensitized pathways is that they always become a bit stronger in the second and third week after quitting an addiction. But once you get over that hump and you get more than a month in, they will slowly, but surely, start to become weaker. 

However, sensitization is nasty because once you’re addicted this is a brain change that will never really go away completely as long as you live.

Now, they do become weaker, become dormant or fall asleep, so to speak.

It's a lifelong thing...

So it’s not like you’re going to have to deal with extreme urges for the rest of your life. But since they're only sleeping it also means that they can also easily be woken up.

You may have heard that, for example, most sober alcoholics can’t even drink one beer again, because if they do they will relapse and start drinking heavily again.

Well, now you know why. It is because if they try to drink in moderation they can wake up those sleeping sensitized pathways. Yes, and so the sensitized pathways never fully go away. And it's the same with all addictions. Porn addiction as well.

Porn addiction and hypofrontality...

Alright, and so the third brain change is called hypofrontality.

Hypo means “less than normal”.

And frontality refers to the part of your brain that is right behind your forehead. 

And this part of your brain is called, "prefrontal cortex."

So then hypofrontality basically means, "less than normal functioning prefrontal cortex."

Hypofrontality means that you have less blood flow to your Prefrontal cortex. And if you didn’t know, your PFC is the very control center of your brain.

It is responsible for things like, for example…

• Self control
• Impulse control
• Pondering consequences
• Attention and focus
• And more

It's easy to understand why quitting porn can be so hard...

Now, if you look at the first two there, now you also understand why it becomes harder to avoid your drug if you truly have an addiction, because if you have less blood flow to the part of your brain that governs impulse control and self control, well, obviously you will have a harder time withstanding temptations then as well.

Especially if you’re suddenly hit by a trigger.

I mean, just think about it, at that moment wouldn’t you think impulse control would be a great thing to have. I think we all can agree on that, yes. 

And what’s so nasty about hypofrontality is that when the sensitized pathways light up, then the hypofrontality actually becomes temporarily even worse. Yes, so when the porn pathways start screaming in your brain you get even less blood flow to your, already, negatively affected PFC.

A double whammy...

So, it really becomes a double whammy here, and so non wonder that it can be difficult to not relapse and fall for urges if you really have developed addiction related brain changes.

And if you look at this one here, now you also understand why focus and concentration problems, like I mentioned in part one when we talked about the negative effects of porn, can become an issue. Especially when you consider that desensitization also plays a role in that, so here too a real double whammy takes place.

Unlike sensitization, hypofrontality can be reversed...

Now unlike sensitization, this brain change can actually reverse completely once you quit your drug of choice and we are going to talk more about reversing the brain changes in part 3 of this video series where we will also take a look at the fourth and the last one of these addiction related brain changes. 

PART 3 Can be found here >> How to repair the brain after porn addiction

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• What does Jordan Peterson think of porn?