How Porn Addiction Therapy Leads to Healing and Recovery

The consumption of porn has become routine in today’s time. Given the easy access to pornographic content, it’s relatively easy for people to meet their sexual needs. However, that easy access comes with the price of having problems in intimate relationships or at work.

People with porn problems might realise that they start to have issues but are still hesitant because it’s often believed that porn use is normal and healthy. If a person has problems, seeking help is a good idea. Here’s how pornography addiction therapy can lead to recovery.

Understanding Pornography Addiction

The internet has allowed its users to access a wide range of pornographic content. While some of those viewers only do it casually, a significant amount of them use it problematically.

Issues start to manifest when a person compulsively looks for sexual content that they begin to neglect other areas of their life.

There has been a semantic problem with ‘porn addiction.’ Some experts argue that pornography is an addiction, while others say that it’s not. Despite that, what’s clear to everyone is that it causes problems even for people who are not considered ‘addicted’ according to protocol.

While most casual porn viewers don’t show signs of addiction, it can still blur their expectations about people’s sexuality.

Seeking Porn Addiction Help

There tends to be hindrances when people seek for porn addiction. The first one is that they are unsure if their porn use is indeed problematic. That’s usually because its consumption has been normalised today that it becomes a blur of how does unhealthy porn usage look like.

Some people have argued that pornography is healthy and can help people learn about sexual behaviours. Others have argued that pornography creates unhealthy expectations about sexuality.

On top of that, the side effects of pornography are silent. It might manifest as erectile dysfunction or premature ejaculation. People don’t usually connect those two symptoms to pornography. They might blame anxiety or alcohol, but usually not porn.

It’s clear now, according to studies, that pornography restructures a person’s brain, which makes them have problems with performing sexual or intimacy. So, it’s absolutely necessary to seek professional help when those problems show up.

Porn Addiction Treatment Options

Motivational Enhancement Therapy

Since almost everyone –especially men– consumes pornography, people with porn consumption problems tend to be defensive about their urge to use porn. They might justify their casual use of it is normal and healthy. 

If there are clear signs of dysfunction caused by pornography from the perspective of the therapist, they might start to employ motivational enhancement therapy (MET).

This addiction counselling is commonly used with people with alcohol and substance abuse problems as they have the same hesitancy in seeking help. However, this can also be helpful for people who struggle with pornography consumption.

The therapist would help the person clarify what they want in life. In most cases, these people want to have a fun, adventurous sexual relationship with other people. The mental health worker will point out the discrepancy between that desire and their current compulsive behaviour.

This approach inspires people with pornography problems to make a change and start redirecting their energy towards healthier behaviours. 

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy 

Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) is particularly useful for people who use the pleasures of pornography to escape their difficult emotions. 

CBT acts on the fact that people’s core beliefs and automatic thought processes lead to certain behaviours. If the belief is maladaptive, so does the behaviours.

For people who use pornography as escapism, the therapist would help the person realign their beliefs, assumptions about the world, and emotions so that the urge for porn consumption would start to dissipate. 

Symptoms of Porn Addiction

Lack of motivation to establish relationships in real life

At first, since their sexual needs are met digitally, they might start to lose the motivation to seek and establish sexual relationships in real life. 

On top of the lack of motivation, the person is usually habituated to the sexual stimuli that pornography provides, which makes them have higher beauty standards.

Escapism

Another big sign is that people view porn as an escape from difficult problems. While that may be a good solution in the short term, it’s not a viable option for the long term. Continuously escaping emotions that should be dealt with will make the person suffer from it more often. It might even worsen the difficult emotions.

Also, since pornography enjoyers don’t risk the vulnerability of being rejected when they encounter it in real life they tend to take it more personally.

Sexual inhibition

Erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation are also common with avid pornography users.

Inability to stop

Moreover, another symptom of pornography addiction is when the person has multiple failed attempts at stopping. This is a sign that the behaviour is already out of control.

Irritable when suggested to stop

Another symptom of pornography addiction is that the person becomes defensive when someone suggests to them to stop. This might be a good sign that the person has been using porn to escape difficult emotions. If you remove that from them, the negative feelings will manifest.

Shame and living a double life

While some are pretty much open with their pornography consumption, some people are ashamed of this. It’s a good sign that shame has come into the frame and it might have made the compulsive behaviour worse.

Stimuli tolerance

First-time consumption of pornography may have been exciting for most. But for people who have problems with porn, ‘normal’ porn where people simply just have sex on camera might be bland and unexciting. That’s because their brain has built tolerance over those stimuli and needs more extreme versions of it. That leads to seeking digital sexual acts that are beyond the norms.

Causes of Porn Addiction

The cause of pornography addiction may vary from person to person. On the biochemistry side, watching porn leads to higher dopamine levels. The problem with that is the person can build tolerance and more extreme stimuli from pornography are needed for the person to feel that dopamine again.

Underlying mental health disorders are also factors that can contribute to pornography addiction. Porn can also be used to escape from unwanted negative emotions. While that may help the person escape momentarily, it tends to worsen those emotions, as feelings of guilt usually happen after watching porn.

We Can Support You Through Porn Addiction Therapy at Sivana Bali

People don’t have to settle for the cheap pleasures of digital sex. Real-life intimacy is a lot more rewarding and doesn’t have serious side effects. Sivana Bali has been helping people escape from pornography and sex addiction and develop healthy, fun, and exciting intimacy with their partners.

It offers holistic and evidence-based treatment for a maximum of nine people. The head limit allows mental health workers to devote themselves and cater to their client’s needs in therapy. It has activities like horseback riding, swimming, and other fun ventures.