Does porn addiction cause permanent brain damage?

This is mere speculation, as for contemporary neuroscience is still studying the concept of neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is an ability that the brain has. It's the ability to strengthen and remove synapses (the connections among brain cells), essentially rewiring the brain. There's also a concept called neurogenesis, which is the ability to grow new neurons (brain cells).

So, hypothetically, this means that yes, the brain can suffer damage, but it also can heal from that damage. Either by weakening or strengthening synapses, generating new brain cells, or both.

The longer you go without watching pornography, the weaker the synapses should get. Therefore, the urge to watch porn and masturbate should also diminish over time.

However, if I recall correctly from a study that I read somewhere, the brain typically doesn't rewire completely. This means that while you can rewire your brain to quit addiction, there will always be an imprint left. It's like quitting a hobby like piano or dance for a long time. You get rusty, but if you were to pick the hobby back up, you should return to your previous skill level relatively quick (in this case the state of your addiction). Consequently, you're also at a higher risk of becoming addicted again.

 

This is also a well known phenomena in the bodybuilding community. If you quit bodybuilding for some time and you start back up again you will gain muscle mass much faster then if you were just starting out. It is often referred to as muscle memory.

The much more interesting question is, how long does this "memory" exist.

Source:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1827108

 

Shin Lu i have read this same post from you in 4 or 5 threads now.. It is still wrong, you do not "get" some (porn)actors "mental illness" if you act like them. It is just plain wrong.

 

I believe what they produced is not just video, also who they are. If you felt that You want to be there or to be someone there, then your brain would learn it and even the hidden message that you would never realized.

 

I had a girlfriend watched a lot porn, and she triggered depression and suicide thoughts, eventually she became crazy. I also read a article about God's love on porn star, the editor of the porn told me that even a lot girls volunteer to do it, but at the end they would suddenly cry in front of you, and behavior abnormal. From my understanding, no girl would like to become a porn star for her parents, and friends would see it online, and insult her. Would you like to get paid to do that? Image once they are posted, they are forever there. I wouldn't do that unless I have certain mental illness or I extremely hate myself. When you watch porn, probably that you would like to be there and do with her. Your brain automatically took some information that you wouldn't notice, such as actress's charactristics. you would like to find someone like them, if these information was deeply in your brain. So far, I never saw a normal woman were porn star, or anything related( I have no offence on these girls). However, my female friends, relatives, profs, they are all normal. And none of them are porn stars. I proved it oppositely, instead directly. Because I don't want to search that word. Would you like to introduce a porn star to your friends or family and say: she is so pretty and hot, and I will marry her.
Probably no.

 

I just deleted all the religion sign, sorry for my careless. Yeah, I remembered a guy is a pastor son and he became editor of porn for Playboy, and he realized these girls become more abnormal after doing such thing. They are feeling conflicts and shame even she said yes to do their job. This job must be really frustrating. I am grateful that i am not one of them.

 

Yes it does. At some point in time there were no aeroplanes. The wright brothers had a belief though. It was not manifested in the physical world but they saw it in their minds. They kept trying and were ridiculed for their efforts but after countless failures they succeeded. They brought something from their minds into reality. Their belief created something physical. So if you are determined to achieve something it will happen. On the other hand if you are of the belief that something is not possible until you see a study to verify that, then you are dead in the water. Its all about what you believe is possible. There is something beyond science and facts and thats the beautiful mystery of life.

 

I think we all have to admit that, once addicted to porn, we can become free from the addiction, but...the addiction has, permanently changed our brains. Not necessarily damaged it, but changed it. This is true because, once our brain has produced a reward neurotransmitter, it always "remembers" it can engage in that activity, again, in the future, to get the same reward. It never forget that or becomes ignorant to that. That is a bell that, once rung, cannot be un-rung. But, as others here have said, just because we remember we can engage in the activity to get the reward, we are still free to choose not to. This leads to the enigma which, despite our best efforts, a group of anonymous porn addicts will not solve: choice is both the problem, and the solution.

I hate porn, but I love the dopamine rush it gives me. I choose to never use porn again to get that dopamine rush. This is my choice. An addict can choose to watch porn, or not, but if the addict chooses to watch porn, he/she has no choice, they will get a dopamine rush.

Choose freedom.

Much Love.

Billy the Kid.

 

You are right, and this is true. Our brain can't really forget because the scientist said no matter the age. Our brain is always changing. And you would know that the longer you stay on something, and deeper you changed your brain. So sorry, but the scientists who said masturbating or watching porn are not harmful totally screwed your life up, Physically. Don't forget the pain, and never give up on quiting it. I am in always. So you will be.

 

Underestimate the human body at your own peril. Look into mind-body medicine. No it doesn't cause permanent brain damage, but your dopamine receptors are totally fried from over stimulation (mostly porn) so without this insane amount of stimulation you feel like total shit 24/7. This why relapse occurs constantly because the activity of PMO has rewired your brain. The base level of existence which is basically sitting and doing nothing becomes agonizing because you are so over stimulated. This is why when people stop PMO they feel so amazing.

 

I agree with this. Like I have zero desire to look at porn but I know that the abnormal pathways haven't died. If Netflix suggests a movie with vaguely sexual themes then it still feels like a jolt of electricity through my brain (and it still takes a lot of willpower to resist). My brain still wants that dopamine rush. I don't think my brain as being damaged but I do think that it has probably been permanently changed. I don't know if it'll ever get back to it's "non addicted" state (I can only hope).

 

No it doesn't! The laws of nature were already in place before the Wright brothers started. The concepts of drag, lift and thrust already existed in the physical world. They didn't invent this. They didn't create the wood to build the airframe. They didn't create the muslin to build the wings. They didn't create the aluminium to build the engine. All these things already existed in the physical world. They only thing they did is to put them in a certain order. Nothing was created out of nothing.

The physical world is what it is. The laws of nature are what they are. They aren't your personal opinion. The speed of gravity is 9.8 m/s. No matter you think of it. You can't change that.

 

Still waiting on that evidence that acting causes mental illness.

 

Check this out:
A significant postulate of this commentary is that all addictions create, in addition to chemical changes in the brain, anatomical and pathological changes which result in various manifestations of cerebral dysfunction collectively labeled hypofrontal syndromes. In these syndromes, the underlying defect, reduced to its simplest description, is damage to the “braking system” of the brain. They are well known to clinical neuroscientists, especially neurologists and neurosurgeons, for they are also seen with tumors, strokes, and trauma. Indeed, anatomically, loss of these frontal control systems is most apparent following trauma, exemplified by progressive atrophy of the frontal lobes seen in serial MRI scans over time.

Although the key elements of hypofrontal syndromes—impulsivity, compulsivity, emotional lability, impaired judgment—are well described, much of the process is still unknown. One emerging aspect of these hypofrontal states is their similarity to findings in addictive patients. Addressing hypofrontality, Fowler et al. noted, “studies of addicts show reduced cellular activity in the orbitofrontal cortex, a brain area…[relied upon]…to make strategic, rather than impulsive, decisions. Patients with traumatic injuries to this area of the brain display problems–aggressiveness, poor judgment of future consequences, inability to inhibit inappropriate responses that are similar to those observed in substance abusers.”[8] (emphasis added).

In 2002, a study on cocaine addiction demonstrated measurable volume loss in several areas of the brain, including the frontal lobes.[9] The study technique was an MRI-based protocol, voxel-based morphometry (VBM), where 1 mm cubes of brain are quantified and compared. Another VBM study was published in 2004 on methamphetamine, with very similar findings.[27] While interesting, these findings may not be surprising to either the scientist or the layperson, as these are “real drugs” used illicitly. Nevertheless, it was noteworthy that addiction could produce measurable, anatomical change in the brain
from:
Pornography addiction: A neuroscience perspective

We must quite it, OMG!!!
I felt the true fear from HELL!
This is!

 

According to Gary Wilson (a neuroscientist & founder of YBOP) a porn addiction does shrink your brain.

 

I'm not sure that's scientific fact. Can you provide a link?

 

Can Porn Shrink Your Brain? The brains of men who watch lots of pornographytend to be smaller in certain key areas and have fewer connections than those of other men, a new study has found. The differences appeared in a brain region called the striatum, which is associated with reward and motivation.

http://www.livescience.com/46006-can-porn-shrink-brain.html
Do you like the pic?
Quite it with us, and we could become smarter. In the opposite, Nofap would extent the brain!!!1

 

All the article actually tells us is that the response of the brain to visual erotic stimuli is different is compulsive porn users. That's not the same as the brain "shrinking" and "growing". The source of that statement is an email. No research paper was provided to back up that claim.

From the article itself (which actually provides no links to any scientific research papers):

"But although the findings are suggestive, it's not clear that watching porn actually causes men's brains to shrink. Perhaps men who watch a lot of porn are different in some underlying way from those who don't, and that could explain the smaller size, experts said."

 

Its like youre determined to believe that you have permenant brain damage. Which is baffling, that you would argue for a percieved limitation instead of believing in something positive.
I get the feeling that you would argue logic and numbers to your own detriment and place your thinking brain over your intuitive sense. But when you do that you make your life small and controlled.
Your brain will heal if thats what you want you just have to believe it will and thats what will happen.

 

Actually this book is a really good chronicle of how the brain can heal itself.............

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Ch...the+brain+that+changes+itself#customerReviews