Addiction | Informative | Personal |

What Is The Relationship Between Pornography And Depression

3 minutes

IN BRIEF: Is Porn addiction related to or caused due to depression? Is watching porn a way of relieving stress? If yes, is it a healthy way of dealing with stress? Find out below.

Porn In India Today

Porn, which was a topic no one openly discussed till now, at least in India, has recently become hot topic (pun intended) in many drawing rooms and offices. Thanks to our government’s unsuccessful attempt of banning porn-sites.

Yes, no one including the government has the right to intrude our individual privacy. As Internet is the only true democracy we’ve seen till date, we should visit any website we want.

That being said too much of anything is too bad, that includes watching porn. Let’s discuss the effects of porn on our brain especially its relationship with depression.

Is Porn Harmless

We are the generation that considers porn not only harmless but also our right. We think that porn is harmless because it genuinely seems so. Not only our work/lifestyle is not getting disturbed but also it’s relieving our frustration and tension.

It’s obviously harmless isn’t it? No! We cannot watch Porn in vacuum. It is paired with other feelings, thoughts and processes. Watching pornography causes the release of dopamine which is the rewarding system of our brain.

It’s the same hormone that pushes us to addiction. Like any addiction, it is triggered by stress. The sexual images lead to sexual gratification through masturbation and pornography becomes a way to self-medicate our stress.

How Porn Affects The Brain

It doesn’t stop here, we associate stress relief with pornography which means whenever we find ourselves in a very stressful situation instead of dealing with it we’ll find solace through porn. This becomes a habit which turns to addiction.

This too much artificial stimulus for brain through excessive release of dopamine causes our brain to lose chemical balance which triggers many disorders like depression and anxiety. After some time to cause same feeling/thrill we require more dopamine which means more porn.

Is There An End To This Addiction

We think that it will stop once we are in a serious relationship or marriage. But it won’t. The tensions/stress from marriage pulls us back to porn, this time it brings shame with it. This deadly combo of shame and depression cause, what scientists call, Behavioural Paralysis. It’s not the worst part.

Pornography’s Affect On Relationships And Sexual Intimacy

This aspect is whole another level. There’s an entire website dedicated to co-ordinated researches and studies on porn’s effect on our brain called YourBrainOnPorn, which you can visit if you are interested to know more.