NoFap and Psychiatrist

Maybe the psychiatrist doesn't know about PMO addiction. It seems that only a minority know about it.

 

Most psychiatrists do not ascribe to the belief that P is an addiction so if you don't tell they don't ask. And even if you do tell it seems that a large part of the mental health community will reassure you that it's perfectly normal. It's what men do. It's okay to use it to self soothe. Just read around on the threads. Many times married couples struggling in counseling for ages and the counselor never thinks to ask about PMO or they do and the woman is told it's her fault she needs to lighten up or have sex more often. 20 year old men going to the doctor for ED and the doctor never once asking about porn. In my personal situation my partner has DE brought on my pmo. His family doctor ran every physical test in the book and told him he needed to try different positions. The first counselor we went to told is it was absolutely not caused by PMO (we told him we thought it was) and the solution was for him to vary his MO schedule so that he could O with me. None of these things worked and all the whole my partner justified his continued use based on the doctor said it's not the problem. The next counselor told him that unless he used porn for hours a day everyday he was not an addict and the problem was he was distracted and anxious. The solution she suggested was deep breathing, focus techniques and for me to let him watch porn while we had sex because they was what he needed!!!! Finally the last psychiatrist told him
I was the problem. That I was too needy and demanding in wanting him to stop the porn and MO and I did not have the right to ask that he be able to O with me and recommend that he end things because I was too needy and that was causing him anxiety. That I should learn to accept he needed the porn and using it was okay. My point is you really have to look for the right counselor and they are often very hard to find which is sad cause so many people continue to struggle. It's like they would rather diagnosis any other illness but PMO addiction. I hope you find the help that you need! Don't give up.

 

Addiction is a Symptom and rarely genetic due to illnesses in dopamine or Depressions.


First is very well explained here :

 

@GG2002

Its funny the docs can't make the connection that masturbating and porn causes erectile problems.

 

Addiction can be a symptom of an underlying disorder but it is not always. Many people develop addictions to self medicate things like depression or ADD this is quite common with alcoholics. Once the underlying disorder is Medicare and treated the addiction can go away but not always. Sometimes it's hard to diagnose the mental issues because they are being masked by the addiction. Once the addict stops all of the sudden emotions and issues come out. But there are addicts that do not have underlying diagnoses. Some just have poor coping mechanisms others have a dopamine sensitivity. Porn stimulates the same part of the brain that drugs, food etc do. And I do think addiction is partly genetic based on the chemical makeup of our brains. Otherwise why does alcoholism run in families? Or drug addiction?

 

I've had the same experience of mental health professionals not taking PMO seriously, to the point where they're almost laughing about the very possibility of it. I think in another 10 years it will change, once the building pandemic of PMO use, and consequent problems become to big to ignore. I also think a lot of the problem is to do with the fact that a lot of psychologists, therapists etc were brought up in the permissive 70's, so their attitudes have hardened around the idea that porn can only be a good thing, as long as it's not abusive / extreme. Which I know is b.s. Gary Wilson will probably one day be seen as a pioneer of a whole new paradigm in human health!

 

very interesting thanks for sharing

 

It's interesting what you say about your psychiatrist and doctor not taking you seriously. I know this is quite common unfortunately and it's often still cited that masturbation and porn is 'normal' unless of course you have the kind of problems all of us here can associate with, then the use of such things is counter-productive to living a meaningful and happy life. I have to say that I spoke to a psychiatrist (a forensic one) a couple of years back and she was actually quite open to the idea of porn consumption leading to mental health complications, partly down to the fact she used to work for the police and speak to sex offenders, so she has an insight to the sharper end of porn consumption.

I think it's important to realise that whilst pornography may be an antagonist or catalyst to many of our issues it is important not to impart all of the blame on to the practice of PMO, because once you do stop that practice then you are still left with yourself, so you must still work on your emotions, coping strategies and building a different structured life. I hope one day it is seen as a real health concern by the medical fraternity because in my opinion it could prevent a whole lot of unnecessary pain and suffering for a lot of people. It wasn't that long ago that people who were on the Autistic spectrum were just considered 'naughty individuals' but since research has confirmed Autistic behaviour is a spectrum disorder and can now be diagnosed and managed, it has opened up a different and may I say more compassionate approach to treating people with this condition. Most things take time to understand and deal with and it won't happen unless people speak out and share their own stories.

 

This is quite unsettling, yet I'm not so surprised. In a society built around (insane) patriarcal norms and a demeaning of women (or at least their classification as esthetical and/or inferior roles and positions), I suppose everybody's defending these kind of positions without even realizing they're protecting terrible values and potential harmful situations.
It's incredible that after all these conclusions and tests and professional advice you kept trying to understand and validate what you've uncovered, and kept going, and kept going again. I think most people would've abandonned the idea when confronted with the first doc's statement. Congratulations for that !


This clearly shows how little this issue is known, considered, and taken seriously by the very people who could help tackle it.

Bear with me while I make a point and a comparison : A year back I started getting involved in the 'gifted' community (i.e. people who rate 130+ at normalized IQ tests, mainly because their brain is wired differently and thus percieve and behave differently), and as I discovered how the dramatic issues they face (they have a crapton of 'em, from a very young age 'till their deathbed if they're not detected as such) are dealt with professionally, I was amazed to discover that despite the fact that these populations are suffering every single day of their lives for somehting they're born with and has already been discovered as far back as the early XXth century, only today (one fucking century later) the teachers in psyhology studies just start to consider that these populations have issues that might be worth treating and dealing with.

Keep in mind these notions aren't tied to gender, hence aren't any threat to traditional views of gender roles and so on. So they should've been easier to tackle than the P usage is, because the latter maintains a "usefulness" of a woman's body, visual and esthetical norms and classifications, and to cut that explanation short bceause that point has already been made elsewhere, sets a strong domination of men over women. So it seems logical for them to try (even uncounsciously) to try and keep things that way. Hell, even some women like to be treated that way or at least think that it's the only way they're going to be loved. (Which is one of the most terrible thing this society does to a human being.)

Ponder that for a second.

Now imagine how long that's going to take for docs-to-be students to be taught about what we're exploring today. That knowledge will have to be rediscovered (of course they won't be able to use our experience in a study), tested, confronted with the current and old beliefs (which can be a dreaful and cynical process : see climate change or ressources rarefaction for example), discussed by an entire community of people who will have been brought up with the internet and its cohorts of P tube sites, and everybody will react like they haven't had a problem with it (like your average mate at school or work), and treat it like a non-issue. Meanwhile poor advice will be given ; tests will be made ; medication will be swallowed ; mariages will shatter ; kids will grow with it ; rince and repeat.

Thanks to all the Fapstronauts fighting for themselves and scouting for the generations to come !