Goodman, John W.

From Instinct to Addiction

Regardless of where they have lived (with the exception of some rural/Amish communities),

everyone has probably witnessed some sort of pornography. By depicting one of our most

instinctual desires, pornography has been guaranteeing itself a firm hold in society since the dawn

of civilization. As Grandma always said, however, “There can be too much of a good thing.” Of

course, the question of whether or not erotic depictions are a “good thing” has been debated for

numerous millennia. Recently, there have been a number of studies that compare pornography with

other illicit and addictive drugs. With few exceptions, these studies set out to find the answer to the

question, “Does prolonged pornography usage result in an addiction, as such is the case with

methamphetamine or cocaine?”

As defined by the Oxford Dictionary of Psychology, pornography is the “Explicit depiction,

in pictures, writing, or other material, of sexual subjects or activity in a manner intended to arouse”

(“Pornography”). With this sexual stimulation also comes a severe social stigma. Over the years, we

have seen pornography grow drastically in both numbers and popularity. In the past, pornography

was only attainable through public means (i.e. purchasing a “dirty” magazine at a convenient store,

attending an adult theater, or by purchasing items at risqué adult store). Now, thanks to the Internet,

the viewing of pornography is a much more private matter. This is the main cause of why

pornography has risen in popularity so quickly.

Pornography has always been a part of this world, dating back to the Paleolithic era, during

which were the first known erotic depictions (“History of Pornography”). Later, in the 15th century,

a printing plate for an Allegory of Copulation was quite popular. This printing plate depicted a

young couple having sex with the woman’s legs upright towards the sky at one end of the bench. At

the other end was a penis with legs, wings, and a bell climbing onto the bench. Though hundreds

were printed, none have survived (although that probably isn’t a bad thing) (“History of
Pornography). By the mid-19th century, we begin to see the rise of photography. At this point, the art

of photography was still extremely tedious and expensive. Though erotic photographs were taken,

due to their expense, the majority of collectors were artists and the wealthy. A few years later, the

first motion picture film was produced by the Lumiere Brothers using their new patent, the

cinematograph. It wasn’t long until primitive stag films became popular. In 1896, a French film

titled Le Coucher de la Marie was shown in Paris. This was the first pornographic film ever shown

(“History of Pornography”).

As technology improved and film production became less expensive, pornography became a

reality for the common middle class citizen. At the turn of the 19th century, the first ever “dirty

magazine” was produced with the name Le Frisson. Half a century later in 1953, Hugh Hefner

published the first edition of Playboy, boasting Marilyn Monroe as the centerfold. Attempting to

compete with Hefner’s success, Bob Guccione started a version of Playboy in the United Kingdom.

This magazine was dubbed Penthouse, which was more graphic than Playboy due to the fact that it

showed pubic hair (“History of Pornography”). Seven years down the road, the film Deepthroat was

released. Although Deepthroat was clearly created to be pornographic, this film made the American

public slightly less appalled by the human body because it didn’t simply show sex. It also had a

plot, main characters, poorly chosen music, and a fair share of tongue-in-cheek humor.

By the time the 1980s roll around, pornography will be regularly available on pay-per-view.

The adult pay-per-view channels didn’t reach their height, however, until the late ‘90s, where we

see its profits rise from $54 million in 1992 to $367 million in 1999. The popularity of this was

short lived; CD-ROMs of Penthouse Virtual Photoshoot, Virtual Vixens, and The Interactive

Adventures of Seymour Butts were already being released to the public in epic proportions (“History

of Pornography”).

In 1991, Tim Burners-Lee and his associates at CERN finished and debuted the World Wide

Web; this changed the game of porn forever. Less than three years later in 1995, Penthouse

launched its first website. Daily, its website received between 600,000 and 800,000 viewers. Within
the same year was the introduction of video conference technology. By 1997, Video Fantasy, a

provider of online peep shows, had 20,000 regular subscribers, Porn City averaged 2 million daily

views, and Playboy boasted 5 million hits daily (“History of Pornography”).

In 1985, the yearly revenue for pornography was around $75 million. By 2009, that figure

rose by over 6500% to $4.9 billion. Access to the Internet accounts for $2.48 billion of this revenue.

Adult video sales account for $1.24 billion, and pornographic magazines make up roughly $740

million. What is also worth noting is that the majority of people who contribute to the porn

industry’s massive revenue are people who regularly subscribe to pornography (“History of

Pornography”), which may provide some link between pornography and addictions.

The true definition of an addiction may vary from expert to expert. The American Society of

Addiction Medicine defines an addiction as “a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation,

memory and related circuitry. Dysfunction in these circuits leads to characteristic biological,

psychological, social and spiritual manifestations. This is reflected in an individual pathologically

pursuing reward and/or relief by substance use and other behaviors” (Definition of Addiction).

Simply, an addiction is one’s inability to abstain from a particular craving or desire. Such as with

many other chronic diseases, addictions are likely to go through periods of relapse or remission.

In the past, addictions were only classified as either mental or physical. Recently, however,

the definition has been widened to include behavioral addictions. This is because of the brain’s

tendency to have reward seeking behavior. Basically, our brain’s natural instinct is to seek things

out that make us happy, are good for our health, and the things that give us a pleasurable sensation:

like eating, sleeping and having sex. Unfortunately, all of these things are addicting, some more

than others. As these actions are performed, dopamine is released into the brain and is absorbed by

the nucleus accumbens, the “reward center” of the brain. As dopamine levels rise, they begin to

react with another one of the brain’s neurotransmitters, glutamate. This is the brain’s reward-related

system of learning – if you do something that generates a reward that outweighs the cost, do it.

Naturally, your brain craves the behavior that creates this substance. So, it becomes a habit. Then it
becomes an addiction (Addiction).

In his book, The Mind and the Brain, Dr. Jeffery Schwartz makes an important point about

how the mind is different from the brain. Dr. Schwartz says that the mind is like the consciousness

or the spirit that lives within our physical, chemical brain (Schwartz). There is constant

communication between these two parts, and a change in one can cause a drastic change in the

other. An addiction occurs when the physical brain overtakes the mind. This is particularly

important because it is the mind which houses the conscience. The mind is where we get our

feelings of right and wrong. The brain, on the other hand, doesn’t have a moral sense. Its primary

function is to keep itself alive. When the brain gains control of the mind, there is no longer an

ability to tell whether or not the addictive behavior is harmful. The brain will begin to rationalize

and justify any potentially harmful behavior. These justifications are incredibly convincing, and

they can be quite alluring at times, as well. Once the mind has been convinced that a potentially

harmful behavior is perfectly okay because it brings a sense of pleasure, addiction sets in (Bruin).

An addiction to pornography is one of the hardest to treat. This is because pornography

excites us at our core, our sexual desire. This desire is one of the few that is both physical and

emotional, which means it is relevant both in the brain and in the mind. Reasonably, the physical

aspect of sex is perceived in the brain, and the emotional aspect is in the mind. When pornography

is introduced, a shortcut to the physical nature of sex is provided. This tricks the brain into thinking

sexual activity is present, which results in a release of dopamine to the nucleus accumbens. As this

shortcut in rooted into the brain’s memory, sex becomes more physical and less emotional. This

allows the brain’s logical and physical way of thought to overtake the mind’s regard for the

emotional nature of sex. Once this happens, real sex is no longer special, and pornography becomes

sufficient enough to temporarily satisfy a human being, this is referred to as a sexual addiction. One

man who was going through sexual addiction rehabilitation said, “If there were ever to be the

perfect drug created, pornography would be it” (Bruin). It’s become the perfect poison.

An important point made by Dr. Adi Jaffe, executive director at Alternative Behavioral
Health and a lecturer at UCLA, is that an addiction to pornography can actually be a manifestation

of both an Internet and sex addiction, which are both behavioral addictions as well. It is actually the

most commonly reported sexual addiction, and an addiction to pornography is what Dr. Stefanie

Carnes, author of Mending a Shattered Heart, calls “phase 1 sex addiction,” a lighter version of

sexual addiction that does not involve anyone else. It is worth noting that the majority of

pornography viewers do so recreationally without any sort of negative or ill effect(s). This is

another reason why pornography addiction is the hardest to treat. Most people who are addicted

have no idea that they are addicted. Since they have pornography constantly readily available and

since it is not affecting anyone else, they haven’t even thought about the possibility of potentially

becoming addicted.

The first question that needs to be asked is, “When does something become an addiction?”

Most psychologists would agree that if something does not have an influence or cause a disruption

in one’s daily life, it should not be classified as an addiction (and that does not mean that your

former spouse was addicted to nagging). It is not the type of pornography, its frequency, or its social

acceptability that determine whether or not a person has an addictive disorder. It is how the

pornography affects his or her life that determines this. However, due to the private nature of

pornography, it’s not quite always so black and white. Dr. Megan Fleming, a practicing psychologist

at Beth Israel Medical Center in NYC, said that there is a certain “tipping point” where

pornography becomes less about pleasure seeking or enhancing one’s sex life, and it becomes more

of a compulsive need that possibly leads to intrusive thoughts when pornography is not readily

available (Fleming).

Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to tell when that tipping point has been crossed. As Dr.

Fleming simply puts it, “I think that tipping point comes when you find it difficult to get aroused

with your partner.” It becomes an issue when, suddenly, there isn’t enough stimulation to provide a

sexual drive, there is trouble in maintaining that sexual drive, or if there is a noticeable decrease of

sensation. This can be referred to as porn-induced sexual dysfunction. PISD creates two main
categories: psychological and physical. By taking over the brain’s reward-related system of

learning, pornography forces the brain to connect sexual pleasure to pornography instead of another

human being. This can result in the inability to perform efficiently with a partner. The physical side

of PISD is slightly less obvious. Many times, pornography depicts certain stories or situations that

cater to different levels of aggression when it comes to masturbation. These different levels of

aggression can cause the usage of pressure of speed that a partner simply cannot produce (Fleming).

As was said before, a pornography addiction is one of the hardest to get past because it

attacks us at our instinctual desire, sex. It is still possible to beat this behavioral addiction, however.

The first step is admitting there is an addiction present and wanting to get past it. This means that

the ultimate responsibility lies with the individual. There are a number of treatment options

available though, such as Pine Grove’s Gratitude program or Sexaholics Anonymous. Even with

these programs, it is still the individual’s responsibility to meet the minimum requirements of the

treatment program, which is far harder than it may seem. These compliance rates are often no more

than 30 – 50% for any given year of operation. Thus, it is possible to get past an addiction to

pornography, but it still up to the individual to have the motivation and the intestinal fortitude to

control his or her behavior.

Sexual rehabilitation centers focus on two main areas: 1) Separating the individual from any

opportunities that may allow him or her to engage in sexually harmful behavior, much like drug

rehabilitation. 2) Using a safe, therapeutic environment with highly skilled professionals that help

the individual face and eventually overcome the denial, guilt, and depression that, more often than

not, accompanies a sex addiction.

The first type of therapy that is often recommended by professionals is interpersonal

therapy. This is the classical idea of one-on-one therapy with a licensed counselor or psychologist.

This can be helpful because it allows the individual to sort through past experiences and put

distance between him or herself and those negative experiences without having the overwhelming

pressure of the group setting. This type of therapy is also crucial for helping the individual manage
withdrawal-related symptoms, such as mood swings, stress, depression, and increased sensitivity.

Once the individual has shown progress in interpersonal therapy, the counselor may make

the decision to move his or client to group sessions. These group sessions typically consist of one or

two mental health professionals that oversee a discussion amongst a group of people that share their

issues/accomplishments pertaining to their addictions. This group environment enables individuals

to learn from others’ milestones, strengths, weaknesses, and relapses. It is often the ideal place for

recovering addicts to learn through confronting their denial and learning what rationalization

techniques are common amongst individuals during their rehabilitation (Villareal).

From early civilization onward, pornography has always been present. Evolving from

graven images on stone tablets to high-definition videography available with three clicks on the

World Wide Web, pornography has been growing steadily throughout history. Pulling in an annual

revenue of over $4.9 billion, pornography has successfully rooted itself in our culture.

Unfortunately, this high dollar industry is also the cause of much stress and anxiety in the lives of

millions. When a person views pornography, it releases a chemical in the brain called dopamine.

Dopamine reaches the brain’s reward center. This is how we get that pleasurable sensation we may

feel from eating, sleeping, or having sex. Once the brain realizes that there is a connection between

pornography and dopamine, the brain begins to seek more. For some, this is a non-issue. The

majority of pornography viewers only do so recreationally with no negative ill after effects. For

others, this causes complications in their daily lives and in their sexual lives, as well. The biggest

warning sign that a pornography addiction may be present is the inability to maintain sexual desire

or drive without the viewing of pornography. It is possible to get past a pornography addiction,

however. Unfortunately, it isn’t easy. For this type of behavioral addiction, the ultimate

responsibility is on the individual. There are a number of programs out there to guide that person

along the way, but it is still up to the person being counseled to comply with the treatment programs

requirements. These treatment programs may have a number of different options, the most common

being one-on-one therapy or group therapy. Regardless of the chosen option, each has many
different ways to guide an addict down the road of recovery.

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