Fapping to porn is the exact opposite of meditation

And here is why...

Several scientific studies have by now shown meditation decreases grey matter in the brain's amygdala, your master stress control center, while increasing it in the brain's prefrontal cortex (the part of your brain that makes you human). This has interested me for one very obvious reason. The exact opposite of that process is seen in porn addiction. Masturbating to porn will decrease blood flow to the brain's prefrontal cortex, which is being refered to as hypofrontality, therefore shrinking it (making you less human so to speak), while stimulating the brain's core, circuitry dealing with stress, at the same time.
In other words, it can therefore easily be proven that masturbating to porn causes stress, and that it doesn't take it away as some would have you believe. At least not long term. Pleasure is a temporary stress reliever, but can induce a more chronic stress-related condition. The same parts of the brain are heavily involved in things like shame and feelings of remorse or guilt.
In other words, simplified, an amygdala on high alert is why we are seeing conditions related to withdrawal, anxiety disorders, obsessions and depressions in porn addicts. Masturbating to porn seems to be a workout for the amygdala in one way or another, which over time can set someone up for any of the above disorders. It has become as clear as day to me that obsessions, particularly things like HOCD, constant doubt, is actually nothing more than a state of heightened awareness, which is a direct consequence of an amygdala being trained through porn consumption. 'Normal' OCD and eating disorders can be the outcome of this same process. Long term porn consumption in any case seems to be able to induce a state of alarm in any given individual, hyper-awareness, in which it can be hard to let go of something particular, as the trained amygdala will be scanning its environment for things to be fearful of. This can include classical OCD symptoms such as checking locks, avoidance behaviors, or can even be related to one's own sexual orientation in the case of overconsumption of pornography. Basically a hyper-stimulated and trained amygdala means a brain playing tricks on you.

It's no surprise that years of masturbating to pornography can land someone in either a state of clinical depression or any type of anxiety disorder. The healthy balance in the brain will simply be gone.

This is all pretty simplistic but absolutely real. You can fap yourself a way into utter misery, a state of constant fight-or-flight or survival. Unfortunately an addict can't know what real anxiety or depression is until the sedating effect of their addiction is out of the picture. Not that you would wish it on anyone, it's just that the chronic high this habit seems to cause can work in different layers, the high being able to push building anxiety or depression into the background, as it worsens there, unknown to the addict. This is why withdrawal can be so utterly crippling. It's also why I've used the term unfortunate, since if this building anxiety or depression could be brought to the user's attention sooner, they would instantly know what their habit is truly capable of doing to them. They would therefore deal with it sooner, which is always better. Porn addiction isn't your innocent, average habit. The mechanisms behind it
are very capable of developing a mental health condition that slowly, gradually strenghtens itself and which can hit the addict like a ton of bricks, out of nowhere, a shock treatment, when the opportunity arises. In most cases, this mental health condition will present itself the moment the user wishes to do away with the habit (although OCD and eating disorders seem to be conditions seen in early stages of the addiction, possibly even lasting for as long as the addiction itself and beyond). This time of withdrawal is the time in which a trained amygdala will make itself known so to speak, in the form of acute anxiety or depression, since there will be nothing, no rushes of dopamine, holding it back anymore. This small part of the brain, unsurprisingly is packed with both dopamine and (nor)adrenalin receptors, all of which work through very similar pathways in the nervous system. Again, dopamine is a precursor to adrenalin, and an excitatory/stress/anxiety chemical in and of itself. The good news is, if you can train your amygdala, through something called neuroplasticity, you can also certainly un-train it by implementing new habits that work the other way around, and meditation seems like a really good option.

Proven benefits of meditation include upregulation of serotonin pathways, decreased levels of cortisol, decreased anxiety, and even improved dna function. These benefits can be significant according to many, many sources.

It's quite interesting to learn how everything really is inter-connected. While meditation aims for the higher self, so does porn consumption, they are just very different highs. Consumption of porn is an easy shortcut to a higher state of being, but its effects are short lasting, requiring continuous repitition of the same bad behaviors, meditation requires a lot of real effort to reach a higher state of being, but the effects are long lasting, healthier. Porn consumption causes stress, meditation reduces it. Every thing we do seems to work for or against us, it's all very ying and yang when you think about it and the delicate balance in our bodies is easily thrown out of whack because of the porn and masturbation habit.

Oooohm....