HealthyGamerGG - Should You Stop Watching Porn?

Episode Date: May 30, 2022

Today Dr. K talks about if porn is good or bad, the impact of it, reward circuitry, and more! Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/healthygamergg/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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pornography usage, especially with problematic usage, is that what used to sexually excite you like doesn't work anymore. So your brain needs like harder and harder stuff to like get you excited. So this is where like a lot of times if we look at the way that people are interpreting the data, it's more subtle than I think people give it credit for because everyone wants a simple answer. And oftentimes we have preconceived notions when we are looking at the data. So I like porn and masturbation and I'm okay with that. Am I addicted? I see lately that the last two, three years, porn and masturbation are mostly portrayed as something bad. 10 to 15 years ago, it was absolutely okay, and there was a huge amount of papers that everyone masturbates and it's healthy, though.

It's healthy enough, I think. I know that everything could be an addiction, reading, eating, exercises, how to tell an addiction from just a healthy thing. The thing is, though, I really like sex, arousal, and for me, it's something purely happy and positive. I just love it and unironically plan to start writing erotic slash porn stories or fanfix. Usually porn is associated with something bad and low quality, and I think it shouldn't. We should get rid of prejudices, unhealthy ways of making pornography, of misogyny, etc. But there's also good porn, text, art, healthy porn, isn't it? We should make it better, healthier and with more quality.

In my opinion, that no one listens, sex and porn when it's healthy. healthy, it's about love and meditation, about kindness and trust. My question is, am I right? Does my love of this count as an addiction or not? And if I don't have any problems with this, is that kind of okay? The most negative thing in all that, people usually hate porn and I'm sad when people hate such a good thing. So, for a long time, people have been debating about whether their porn and masturbation are good or bad? And even sex, for that matter. Is it good or is it bad? And so we'll talk a lot about pornography addiction, right? So we'll say, like some people will say, oh my God, I watch pornography too much. I'm addicted. Sometimes we'll also hear from people like

significant others or parents, right, where the like the significant other was like, I don't like it when my ESO watches porn. My ESO is addicted to porn. We'll get kind of complaints on that. sometimes, you know, you'll have parents who are concerned. So how do you know if something is a problem and if it isn't a problem? So that's kind of the first question here. The second thing is like, what do we know about pornography, right? Or is there actually like science or data? Because they're sort of saying, you know, there were a huge amount of papers that everyone

masturbates and it's healthy. So what does the science kind of say now? Like, what's the conclusion? Have we kind of swung back towards addiction? Was there sort of this like body positivity and acceptance movement? where, you know, people were kind of talking about pornography as an evil. And then a bunch of research came out saying everyone jerks off or masturbates. And so, like, what's up with that?

So let's talk about that for a second. And so then you also have people, you know, like this, who are sort of saying that pornography for me, sex for me is like about love. It's about kindness. It's about trust. We can elevate pornography to an art form. And it really can be artistic. It can be something that's amazing and, you know, like a human achievement that signals the progress of cultural, you know, cultural progression. And a true artist, we can make fanfix that are not lulled at, but are actually, like, amazing works of art.

So what's the deal? Like, what do we actually know about this stuff? So we're going to sort of go through a quick sort of history of pornography just based on my understanding of it. and specifically the relationship with research. And then we're also going to look at statistics today about, you know, what is like, what do people say? Like, is pornography like healthy or unhealthy? What does the research show?

What does it not show? Which is a big part of it. So the first thing is let's talk a little bit about kind of the moralization of sex. I'm not an expert in this, right? So, like, my background is in science. So for a long time, though, we know that, like, sex became a dirty thing due to morality and religion for the moment. most part. I mean, there's going to be some amount of, you know, that's an overgeneralization.

So, for example, in the Hindu tradition, you have this thing called the KAMSutra. So Soutra is like a religious text. And Kham means enjoyment, I guess, pleasure, maybe. Pleasure is the best word. Desire or pleasure, something like that. And so it's sort of something that's regarded as a religious text, but it's like a manual about how to have sex, right? That's what the Kamsutra is. And so in many cultures, like sex was okay, celebrated, et cetera.

And then in some of the more Christian traditions, it started to get, like, kind of frowned upon. So you'll even have some of these extreme things. Like I remember the original reason for long tablecloths, I don't know if this is actually true or not, or if it's apocryphal, is that people were afraid, like some of the Quakers or someone that may be a misattribution of, I don't mean to offend a Quaker. I just don't remember exactly who developed long tablecloths or the veracity of the story. But what I remember reading somewhere, I don't know if that makes it true, was that tablecloths were lengthened because the table legs would arouse lust.

Right? So we can't see a table leg because that'll turn people on. And lust is a bad thing. It's one of the seven deadly sins, right? So, you know, we started to get sort of like moral, like negative moral associations with things like lost in masturbation and sex and stuff like that. And then it started becoming evil, right? And then people started feeling really guilty.

I think we had a lot of problems with suppressed sexuality. And then papers started coming out, right? That like, okay, people actually started studying it. So instead of taking a moral perspective, we started to take a scientific perspective. Is sex healthy or unhealthy? Is masturbation normal or not normal? is it, you know, okay or not okay? And then we had a bunch of papers that sort of show that, okay, masturbation is like very common.

It doesn't seem to kind of mess people up. Seems to be kind of okay. And then as the pornography industry evolved, right? So it started out with like photographs and magazines and then videos. And then we sort of like moved on to the internet. And now we've sort of seen like much like other things on the internet, pornography is getting more intense, flashier, more colorful, more immersive, intense sounds, intense sights, like the sensory experience of pornography is just getting enhanced.

Right. So if you look at, for example, a black and white drawing of someone who's naked versus a black and white photograph, we've become a little bit more real and a little bit more engaging. and then we add color pornography. Then we add sort of like longitudinal pornography where you'll have like not just one isolated picture, but a series of pictures. And then we have video. And we may have had silent video at some point.

Who knows? Black and white video at some point. And then we have sound, right? And now we've got like 4K. And now we've got like intense colors. And now we've got, you know, like surround sound. and now we have VR. And so what's happening is like pornography is getting more and more intensive.

It's getting more and more vibrant. We're also getting to select a lot more. So pornography is becoming more and more specialized. And we're now also getting not just like the purely sensory component, but we're starting to get emotional components to pornography as well. Right. So with the advent of some platforms where you can interact and commission particular kinds pornography and you can get a pornographic, someone who's creating pornography to interact with

you, thank you directly. Like, you can form some kind of pseudo-relationship or even real relationship. I don't know exactly what it is. So now, like, it's getting more intense, right? And as it's getting more intense, we've seen, as this person kind of pointed out, a wave of publications talking about, like, problems with porn addiction. So people are struggling more. Erectile dysfunction and delayed ejaculation are on the rise for people under men under 40. So that's kind of like a concerning phenomenon that we've observed and we'll kind of get into that. So generally speaking, we think about erectile dysfunction as a problem that's associated with age and other conditions like hypertension or obesity or things like that. But what we're starting

to see is that there's a higher or appears to be a higher number of people who are like 25, 30, 35, who have difficulty ejaculating, maintaining erections, things like that. And so people have started to wonder, and as people have sort of also said, like, I'm addicted to pornography, it's negatively impacted relationships and stuff. People have wondered, okay, is pornography bad again? Are we putting it into the, are we putting it into that category? Okay. So now, like, what do we understand about this? Like, where, where, what's the verdict? Is pornography something that's okay? Is masturbation okay? Is it not okay? And the short answer is, much like anything else in reality that you want to look at scientifically, it's not binary,

right? It's more complicated than that. So let's go ahead and take a quick look at what the research shows. The first thing to understand is that, like, people through surveys, we know that about 76% of men watch pornography and about 41% to 46% of women watch pornography, and that was six years ago. So a lot of people may say, like, that number is entirely too low for both genders. So we know also that the rate of pornography consumption is increasing. So I guess that those numbers are even higher now. We also know that a lot of gender differences that used to exist seem to be shrinking very rapidly. So gender disparities in terms of some of these phenomena, like pornography use, playing video games, for example,

seem to be like shrinking very rapidly. also some I'm noticing like there used to be like maybe a two to one ratio of women who experience anxiety due to epidemiologic data compared to men, whereas I personally think that that number seems to be shrinking as well. So I think that we're seeing some trends of like gender disparities. I don't mean in terms of gender disparities is a bad thing. I mean almost gender disparities is a good thing. Like one gender was, you know, experienced more of an addiction than the other gender. So what we're seeing is like this stuff seems to be shrinking. So pornography use, for example, like women are quote-unquote catching up to men. I'm not saying that that's a good thing or a bad thing.

That just seems to be the direction that the data is going. So the first thing is so a lot of people use it. And then what are the concerns that we have in terms of pornography use? So when people say that pornography is bad, what are the concerns that we have? So the first is something called an addiction. So how do you know if you have an addiction? And in psychiatry, when we look at diagnostic criteria for addiction, there's one major criteria that spans all of the addictions, which is impairment of function.

So if your pornography use or masturbation or sexual behavior is causing problems in your life, then it is much more likely to cross over into addiction. So if engaging in sexual behavior is negatively impacting your marriage, if engaging in sexual behavior is causing you to get, you know, STIs, sexually transmitted infections. If, you know, like masturbating prevents you from going to work, or you get in trouble at work for masturbating. Like, those are the kinds of things that we really kind of think of in terms of addiction. So when someone is addicted to something, they tend to have negative consequences in their life, but they're unable to stop and this open themselves up to those negative consequences.

And so I know everyone's meming about masturbating at work. That's not a joke and it's not a meme. Like that happens to people who are truly addicted. And for people who think like, lull, I'm addicted to pornography. Like, you got to understand there are people out there who are truly addicted and fall into that problem. So another good example of this is something like, you know, driving under the influence. Okay. So like this is where people who are addicted will drive under the influence.

They'll get, you know, their license taken away. And then they'll still continue driving because they can't. help themselves, right? So there's someone who's so addicted to the substance that in spite of the negative consequences of using the substance, they continue using it and it causes all kinds of problems. So we'll see that a lot in more substance use disorders where people will empty their bank accounts, they'll get divorced, they'll lose their job and all kinds of things, but they continue using. So if something is in a, you know, do you have a pornography addiction or not? Does it impair your function is like a really, really important thing. Second thing is that oftentimes people who are

addicted to something can make attempts to cut back and fail to do so. So the other thing about addiction is it tends to control you instead of you controlling it. And if you all are concerned about something like this, this is absolutely where you should go see a medical professional and try to figure out, you know, first of all, do you have an addiction or not? And secondly, like, how to get help for it. Because this is something that not everyone can overcome on their own, which is like perfectly fine. That's why we have addiction specialists. Because we recognize. recognize that some people need help. Okay? So that's what an addiction is. Now, the other thing is that there are a number of different phenomenon that are arising that appear to be problematic and are

correlated with pornography use. So that's just a fancy, stupid academic way of saying, porn appears to be causing some problems. Masturbation appears to be causing some problems. And so what are the problems when we think about asking the question, is masturbation healthy or unhealthy. Let's step aside from addiction for a moment, but what is masturbation and pornography doing to our society? What are we seeing in terms of changes or trends? So the first thing that people talk a little bit about is erectile dysfunction and delayed ejaculation or problems with ejaculation. So that also tends to be, first of all, biased towards men, right? So most of the research on pornography and sex addiction, I think, has been focused on men. So, you

you'll have studies, for example, that are done out of urology clinics because erectile dysfunction is what people present with. So that's kind of the first thing. Another thing that people will talk a little bit about is that like our reward circuitry is kind of getting all messed up. So people will say, I'm not able to be aroused by sexual intercourse that may have something to do with the inability to ejaculate or reach climax. Because something about the stimulation in the brain from pornography is like so much more vibrant in some ways than like real life that like our receptors kind of get like out of whack. So there's like some concern that we're sort of shaping our brains in kind of an unhealthy way. There's also some concerns about real life sex becoming like

boring or like not engageable. So this is something that confuses a lot of people is we tend to romanticize or even like not even I feel like some romance. Antise isn't really the right word. We tend to imagine sex as something that's like very intense and explosive and orgasmic, right? So if we watch pornography and our brain develops an idea of what sex is supposed to be like, when we end up having sex, like it turns out to be like somewhat disappointing, smelly, like confusing. And then people start questioning their sexuality or they start wondering, am I asexual,

like all kinds of like problems arise. and so we're sort of shaping our expectations in sort of an unhealthy way. The third dimension that we're sort of thinking about in terms of what problems pornography and masturbation can cause are relationship problems. And so a lot of times it'll create problems in a relationship, right? So if you're not able to achieve climax with a partner, or if your partner feels kind of unloved or you have difficulties or has concerns about your pornography use, that can lead to problems. And so these are kind of the three things.

that we're going to talk about today. The first thing that we're going to talk a little bit about is sort of this like delayed ejaculation, erectile dysfunction, difficulty reaching climax. So this is where we have to be kind of careful with the research because a lot of the research is correlative. So what they say is they'll look at like people who have erectile dysfunction or they'll look at people who are unable to like achieve climax in a sexual relationship. and they will ask them how much pornography do you use?

And what they'll sort of find is this finding that people who watch more pornography or have more difficulty achieving climax in sexual intercourse than people who don't. Now, this is where things get subtle but very tricky. Because at this point, people oftentimes will conclude, if you watch a bunch of porn, it's going to make it hard for you to have sex. but remember that cross-sectional studies or correlations are not causation. So this is where the flip side of this could be, if you have difficulty engaging in sex, you may reach more towards pornography, right?

So it can go either way, actually. So, like, if my sexual relationship is unsatisfying, what effect do you think that will have on my pornography consumption? It'll probably increase, right? So this is where, like, a lot of times, if we look at the way that people are interpreting the data, it's more subtle than I think people give it credit for, because everyone wants a simple answer. And oftentimes we have preconceived notions when we are looking at the data. So this person is going to be pro-pornography. So they may look at the data in a particular way,

whereas other people, like if I'm in a relationship and my partner watches a bunch of pornography and we have an unfulfilling sex life, what do you think I'm going to do in terms of the interpretation of that data. I'm going to assume that the pornography is the problem and is causing this issue in our relationship versus we have an issue in our relationship and pornography is actually like, it's not the problem, it's the antidote for that person, right? So there do seem to be clear correlations between increased pornography use, difficulty maintaining erections and erectile dysfunction and problems with ejaculation and reaching climax. So that is something that like I've worked with people for and I do believe that pornography has a causative effect there.

That's personally the way I think the relationship goes more likely. And part of that is just because of like physiological conditioning. So for example, the actual physical experience of if you're a man masturbating with your hand or if you're a woman like, you know, using a vibrator or direct literal stimulation versus penetrative sex is like quite different, right? So the actual physiological stimulation is like very different. There are different sensations. And so I think a large part of this is that if you sort of almost entrain your body to to become to sexually climax in a particular way, and that kind of entraining is going to happen

through pornography use and masturbation, it's going to be difficult to transition over to sex. It can be done, for sure. But it's the kind of thing that, like, there may actually be a causative component there. I personally think there is. Because I think, just based on my understanding of physiology, I think it's exceedingly strange for men under the age of 40 to have erectile dysfunction. That's not an indictment. It just means that something serious is going on that's creating this effect, and that's what has to be dealt with. So the first thing is that there does appear to be a correlation between pornography and masturbation usage and things like erectile dysfunction, delayed ejaculation, and like inability to perform sexually.

Second thing that we're going to talk about is reward stimulation circuitry in the brain. So this is where, you know, people have figured out that more sensory input is like better at engaging humans. So if you look at like a sale sign, if the sign is bigger, if it's more brightly colored, it's more likely to engage you. So you'll kind of see this with like advertisements and stuff like that where like, I don't know if you guys have ever experienced this is freaking annoying. Where like, you know, the volume of a TV show will be here and then the ad will be like 30% louder. And it's just really inconvenient. But it shocks you into paying attention.

So human beings have figured out how to engage the human beings. brain. And so if you look at apps, right, apps are like beautiful. They're not like gray scale. They're like, you know, they have all these buttons and like little bits of motion and like, you guys know, like, you know, even these things like Candy Crush and Jelly Splash and stuff like that, they're like jiggly. You know what I mean? They're like, you know, it's kind of weird. Like, so people have figured out that if you add like a little bit of jiggliness to an app, it increases is the amount of like engagement. You'll even see this with sort of like the chibi kind of like artwork, right?

There's something, there's something like cute and engaging about round figures that are a little bit more colorful and stuff like that, right? You guys get that? So people have sort of figured out that there's real life and our brains have learned to adapt to particular kinds of things, right? So if you look at like, you know, bird mating and you look at, you look at, you know, peacocks. So like peacocks will have this very vibrant, colorful thing, which like engages male peacocks will like spread their feathers out and they'll dance. And it's like, it's like a show that's

like very bright and colorful and like sensorally engaging. Right. And human beings like peacocks too. Like, why do we like peacocks? Because they're bright and colorful. And so the brain likes that kind of stuff. So I think what's happening in pornography and you get other weird kinds of like fringe or niche pornography that engages our brain in like more and more profound ways, that actually separates a little bit from reality. Because even if you look at sex, like it's a little bit jiggly, right? That's part of the enjoyment of it. And so what people, or I think what's going on with pornography is we're seeing like more and more like niche pornography. We're seeing more sensory, sensorally engaging pornography, brighter sounds, sharper resolution, you know, like more engagement,

more people involved in the scene. Like there's just an evolution. People are sort of figuring out because remember that pornography is a competition for the producers. Everyone is competing for you to watch their pornography. And so what they tend to do is like amp things up.

And as they amp things up, this is the other thing that we're sort of seeing in pornography usage, especially with problematic usage, is that what used to sexually excite you doesn't work anymore. So your brain needs like harder and harder stuff to like get you excited.

And so we're seeing like more niche pornography. We're seeing more hardcore pornography. We're seeing stuff that's like bizarrely addictive because it kind of tricks your brain into thinking certain things. It's hard to describe. I'm not going to go into detail. But, you know, there's evolutions of pornography. So I do think that there's definitely like a neuroscientific exploitive component going on with the evolution of pornography, which I don't think is healthy. So as we get more and more artificially stinting.

simulated through more vibrant pornography, I think it makes it harder to engage in sexual relationships that are more natural, right? And we sort of see this not just in pornography, we see it with like chicken nuggets, right, and tendies, where it's like, what's happening is we're figuring out as a society how to optimize the experience of like eating chicken. And as we batter it, as we fry it, as we do this, as we do that, it becomes more and more tasty. So we've figured out our natural taste buds, our natural like, you know, insulin receptors and things like that, we figured out, like, how to capitalize on what our body likes. And people will make specific products for it that sort of take advantage of those receptors.

And then people will end up eating like 2,000 calories in a meal because it tastes so damn good. And then over time, what that ends up doing is being actually probably bad for us, right? And so I think we're seeing a similar thing in pornography. It's just something that as we're figuring out what works in the brain, people who produce things and are trying to sell you stuff will move in that direction. Okay? So we're seeing that. Next thing is dissatisfaction with partners.

So this is where the other challenge that we tend to find is that a lot of times pornography and masturbation will create interpersonal difficulties. So in some instances like we've talked about, it's difficult to have sex with a partner because of all of the above stuff. Right? So maybe because, like, your brain, like, you've been over shaped by pornographic interactions, your physiology has been conditioned to climax in a particular situation. So you can't sort of do that with a partner.

That's actually increasingly common. But there are all kinds of other things as well. Where, remember, the other thing that we said is that it's not necessarily one-directional, where maybe a dissatisfactory sex life leads to, more pornography consumption, more masturbation, et cetera. Right? So that I think makes perfect sense as well. So this is where if you have a problem with pornography in your relationship,

I think the most important thing there is like communication. So that's where like communicating your thoughts where a lot of times what people will do is they'll come to a conclusion and push for a behavioral change. So they'll say the reason we're not having a good sex life or it really bothers me that you're watching pornography, I want you to stop. So I'll see this a lot. I'm going to sort of assume a male, I mean, a female person complaining, and a male person is the pornography consumer here. It doesn't necessarily have to be that way, but that's more of clinically what I've seen. Where a lot of times issues of things like self-esteem and personal, like concerns that someone may have about their own body image or their comfort in their body, which kind of makes sense. Right. So if you're a normal human and your partner is watching. pornography of artificial humans, right, who have different kinds of cosmetic surgery and makeup and all this other kinds of stuff. Like, it can, it can encourage insecurity, right?

Because this is like an artificially perfect person. And the artificially perfect person, by the way, you know, doesn't get older, right? Because like, as pornographic actors and actresses, generally speaking, as they age, newer, younger people come in. And so, like, the constant diet of pornography is going to be like consuming a particular age range, and then you as a human being can't compete with that because you can't stay forever youthful. So there are all kinds of like internal challenges in terms of relationships, self-esteem that pornography can create. You know, is it a dissatisfying sex life that's leading to pornography usage? Is it pornography that's leading to a dissatisfied sex life? The short answer is that it's not a one-size-fits-all kind of solution,

and a conversation is really, really important, right? Or multiple conversations. conversations, sharing your concerns, trying to understand where your partner is coming from, trying to understand why they watch pornography, what it does for them, and trying to come together to sort of figure out, like, what's an acceptable middle ground. Generally speaking, I'm not a huge fan of ultimatums, but this is also where sometimes if you really have an addictive problem, where someone, you know, it's really negatively impacting your relationship, those consequences need to be shared in a very severe way if there are severe problems. So I think, communication is a huge part and trying to figure out, you know, how to like navigate that.

So the good news is that I've had a lot of success helping couples, like, arrive at some kind of healthy medium. And some of that, if you guys have seen the video on death grip syndrome, like there are things like that where you can physiologically recondition your body to enjoy sexual experience more. And that just involves, you know, certain steps, which we're not going to go into now. So those are all valid concerns. So the last, the last, thing that I want to share with y'all is so if we sort of ask the question, is pornography a problem, is masturbation a problem? So I'll leave y'all with the simple statistic, okay, which I think sort of settles it. I mean, it doesn't settle it, but really helps me understand it or organize it in my

mind, which is that researchers did a study where they asked 820 men. Once again, this is on men, right? So there's a huge bias. There are lots of biases in the literature where we just study men a lot more than women with respect to this. There's a lot of further research in But people ask men like what, you know, they just tried to figure out, like, which can't do these people fall into? So sure, Dr. Kay is saying it could be a problem here. It could be a problem here. It could be a problem here. What are the odds, though?

And so what they found is that 76% of men are what they call recreational pornography users. So what that means is that they watch pornography. They tend to enjoy pornography. It doesn't seem to be associated with really many negative consequences at all. There's no erectile dysfunction. there are really no relationship problems or things like that. Generally speaking, for 76% of people, it's fine. So for 13% of people, they are what they call highly distressed but non-compulsive pornography

or masturbation users. So these are people who may not have a pornography addiction per se, so there isn't compulsive use, but there's like negative stuff going on in their lives potentially associated with the pornography. So they're not addicted to porn, but they may have relationship problems. They may have a lot of, like, avoidance in life. They may have some amount of, like, delayed ejaculation or things like that. And about 11% of people are compulsive pornography users. And so that's kind of shocking, right? So, like, I think that's a pretty high number. So what we're sort of looking at is that 11% of people may have been closer to, like, addicted to pornography, which is a shockingly high number. So, like, I think that's a pretty high number. So what we're sort of looking at is that 11% of people may have been closer to, like, addicted to pornography. which is a shockingly high number. So just to give you all, it's 11.8%. Just to give you all some context.

So alcohol addiction is probably, is generally speaking considered on the more prevalent side, right? So we have the most alcoholics. And alcohol addiction is around 6%. So this is also where what we're seeing is an alarming rate of technology related addictions. So video game addiction is probably above 10% now. In some countries, some studies show rates of 20 to 26%.

right? So one out of four people could be addicted to like video games. And so 11% of compulsive pornography, 11.8%, almost 12%, is incredibly high. So when it kind of comes down to it, if you were to ask the question, statistically, is my masturbation and pornography use a problem? I'd say there's a 75% chance that you're fine. But there's also a 25% chance that it is a problem. And if it is a problem for you, I strongly encourage you all to get help, get support, support, you know, go get evaluated by a professional and see if you kind of fall into that category

because the good news is that there's like stuff you can do about all of this, right? We've talked about some of the stuff on stream, so we're not going to go into it right here. But there are ways to retrain your physiology. There are ways to kind of like rewire your dopaminergic circuits when it comes to the consumption of pornography. I think the abstinence of particular kinds of pornography can also be very, very helpful. So if you're into some of like the really hardcore stuff and like that's, just what triggers your brain, right? Because that's what your brain needs. It develops a tolerance

to a particular stimulus. And in order to, like, get equally excited, you need a higher dose of something. So this is how people overdose on drugs, because it used to be that taking like, you know, a third of a gram of heroin was enough, and then you need half a gram, and then you take a gram, and then you take two grams, and then you take three grams, because you need more and more of the stuff to get high. And so we're seeing the same thing with pornography. so sort of like scaling back on some of that stuff can also be effective. So at the end of the day is pornography or masturbation a good thing or a bad thing? I'd say like, it depends.

And chances are that the odds are in favor of it not being that big of a deal and is probably like a healthy thing to do for most people. But what we are seeing is both an increase, I would suspect, in pornography usage, problematic pornography usage. 11.8% of compulsive usage is very high. 13% of people getting some kind of negative consequences also high. And that number seems to be growing as technology improves and is like pornography producers are figuring out how to like get you in more.

And the more we sort of go down that rabbit hole, the harder it becomes for us to sort of engage in healthy relationships. So someone's asking, every time I watch porn, I feel emotionally numb, disoriented, tired, and hopeless for a hours, which drives me more to it. Is this okay? I don't know if y'all have seen our streams with the pornography addicts, but I think that a lot of the pornography addiction, just like other addictions, is used as a form of almost self-medication. Right? So like what we find is that people who will consume more pornography and masturbate more, they almost use it as like an emotional relief

because it does kind of numb you out. What was the sample size of which study? I've cited like 15 studies today. If you guys want, this is a okay review. It's not the best review, but there's a review that sort of goes through it historically. I think some of the conclusions in the review are a little bit not ideal. And furthermore, some of the papers that they cite, I think draw some inappropriate conclusions. But I think it's like a good kind of narrative review. Yeah. So do you think act would be a good behavioral therapy for porn addiction? So act is a strong evidence-based treatment, acceptance and commitment therapy, is strong evidence-based treatment, especially for addictions.

So you can find the study with 820 men in, it's one of the references for the review that I linked. 860, whatever. Can you teach a non-cundalini meditation for porn addiction? I'd have to think about that. Yeah, so there's a question. What do you think about watching it since a young age? So this is kind of interesting. so men tend to have their first exposure to pornography use around 13.

Women tend to have it around 16. So we know that women start consuming pornography on average later than men do. We also find, so I highly, highly recommend y'all check out the porn addiction interview on our YouTube channel. But what we tend to find is that the earlier the exposure to pornography, the more likely you are to have problems. So for some of the people on that porn addiction stream, for example, they started watching pornography. we're exposed to pornography at like nine. And so I think there's something to be said of early exposure, creating a greater likelihood of forming an addiction,

which is not just true of pornography. So we know that the earlier you start using a substance, the more likely you are to get addicted to it. So if you start drinking at 13 or start using marijuana at 13, you're more likely to get addicted to marijuana or alcohol than if you start using it at like 19.