Does porn addiction cause permanent brain damage?

@diddykong . Not taking sides here, because I am not sure what Gary Wilson means when he says porn shrinks the brain. He may not mean it literally gets smaller, but, he has said it. Click on the link.

http://www.neilsattin.com/blog/2015/11/11-take-back-your-power-from-porn-with-gary-wilson/

 

According to German research it does, as do all adictions, lead to less grey matter in the frontal lobes, it's called hypofrontality.
http://www.yourbrainonporn.com/garys-research-hypofrontality

Not sure how much change we're talking but in any case these changes are something you want to avoid or reverse.

 

This is exactly my point. Most of the links there are papers on substance misuse that we have extrapolated solely on the basis that this may behave like a substance addiction. There is not one paper listed there looking at compulsive porn use. We don't know if this behaves like a substance addiction and there is certainly evidence to say that it may not do. The difficulty is that those studies are not rigorous and the results are interpreted according to the authors viewpoint.

The difficulty with this seems to be that everything you read out there is biased. Everyone seems to be picking sides and then interpreting the little research that is out there based on their own viewpoint. There is so little rigorous research in this area that it is very difficult to find research written from a neutral viewpoint.

 

Hi,
The research conducted by the max plancke institute specifically focused on the brains of porn addicts. It showed that porn flares up the reward centra in the brain the way heroin does (in healthy individuals).

 

https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/en/media/2014/06/viewers-of-pornography-have-a-smaller-reward-system

 

Activation of the reward centre doesn't mean that this necessarily behaves exactly the same as a substance addiction - food will do the same thing, so will watching your favourite sports team win. We know that drugs upregulate the dopamine levels in the brain but what we don't know is whether the brain changes that occur in drug addicts occur at of the toxic action of the drug itself on the brain or imbalanced neurochemistry, or even if those brain changes were there before they became drug addicts. That would be interesting from both a drug and porn addiction perspective but I don't know if we'll ever know that.

Essentially, I still have yet to see any conclusive evidence to support the claim that "porn shrinks the brain". From the Max Planck study (bolding added by me for emphasis):

http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/1874574

 

You have to admit that's very unlikely. What you're saying is that if there wasn't any porn, everyone that happens to have/had a porn addiction, would have a smaller striatum? You would then imply that addiction is rooted in some sort of personality issue that is there because of the smaller striatum. That's pretty far-fetched if you ask me. For once there are actual scientific clues that porn addiction causes physical issues. The odds that the smaller striatum and porn are connected are way bigger than the other way around. For instance, 90% of men has watched porn (or has at least admitted it), a lot eventually become addicted, which would mean that of lot of men must have had a smaller striatum even before becoming addicted. That is just very, very unlikely. If that were the case only a small portion of the population, at least among men, would have normal brains. The most logical explanation is that the smaller striatum is indeed caused by porn addiction. If you consider that porn disrupts dopamine circuitry you have to be absolutely kidding yourself to think otherwise.

 

Most people that use porn don't become addicted to it. We have a very skewed population and viewpoint here.

I'm not denying anything, I'm just trying to take an objective look at the available evidence as all the limited evidence that exists tends to get interpreted one sided. I think the difficulty is that we have neither a longitudinal study (so following people over time, be it either to see reduction in volume loss) or a study looking at pornography naïve people. That's the only way that you could demonstrate actual causality. Some people are clearly more prone to addiction and there are a complex set of factors including environment, psychological factors and potentially genetic factors.

 

@diddykong I hope they do more research in the future... Until then although there are some clues it's pure speculation. However if you go to Gary Wilson's site you'll find some other interesting information, for instance about a study conducted in New Zealand. You are right about the different factors.

 

But is it still possible to eventually bring the effects of a porn addiction for things like libido, down to a point where you can once more be as good, if not better, than you could have been had you never watched porn to begin with?
Harden yourself, if your will.

Especially for someone like me, who turned 18 not long ago, and has been masturbating since... i cant remember, 11, 13, 14, maybe 15.
For someone whom it very quickly got out of hand, has recently found a method that helped me pull out, and is starting to fall back into the addiction?

Also, how much would you say is too much? And how long?

 

Just keep on debating this for 90 days straight and see what happens to the porn addiction ;p