Let’s be honest here. How often do you watch porn and do you ever wonder about Effects of watching porn ?
Every few days, every day?
Alright, let’s be real honest now.
How many times do you watch porn every day?
As a guy, I’m going to say that watching porn is a normal part of everyday life.
While I wouldn’t call myself a porn addict (I can go some days without it), I will say that it has become routine.
And I’m pretty sure that this is the case for so many other men out there as well.
However, lately I’ve began to rethink about how healthy watching porn really is.
Especially in respect to a study I’ve read on how watching porn shrinks the brain.
Studies on the effects of watching Porn
In the study in Berlin, it was found that watching porn regularly wears out the reward system in the brain.
The system that regulates behaviour and gives us pleasure.
In the study, where they observed and studied the brains of over 60 men with the use of an MRI machine.
it was found that men who watched porn more often had a smaller striatum, which was the part of the reward system most associated with sexual arousal.
It was even found that the size of their striatum would be inversely affected by the amount of porn they watched. More porn, smaller striatum.
Additionally, it also seemed that those who watched porn regularly would have harder times getting sexual aroused.
Their reward system was a lot less responsive when the participants were asked to look at sexually explicit material.
However, the researchers believe that this isn’t necessarily a consequence.
They say that it might simply be that they are exposed to the same material so often that they don’t find arousal from those material that easily anymore.
Meaning, they need some new, different content to sexually satisfy themselves.
This could explain why a considerable chunk of people in the US have, what some would call, ‘weird’ fetishes.
The researchers say that ‘the reward system needs growing stimulation.’
Coincidently, the striatum is also a part of the brain affected in people suffering from addiction.
However, surprisingly, those who are suffering from addiction will usually have larger striatum– which stumps the researchers.
This finding opens quite a lot of research, and whether it is actually possible to become a porn addict, and more importantly, whether or not the things that this research yields can be applied to reverse addiction in addicts.
More research will be needed, but at the moment, it’s as they say, ‘promising’.