Watching pornography affects the brain

Lazarus Sauti

Taurai Nyika (not his real name) regularly watches pornography – sexually explicit material designed to arouse the viewer – in his bedroom. Sometimes, he watches it with his friends.

Introduced to pornography through explicit videos online, Nyika, 13, watches it more than six times and he excessively masturbates.

“I regularly watch pornography in secret or with my friends because pornography is now too easy to access. Watching it gives me as well as my friends a beautiful chance to discover our erotic fantasies,” he testifies.

Nyika adds: “Female characters in pornographic movies make me feel like a man. I feel wanted and I am not even bothered that they are not real. Because of this reason, I cannot go for a day without watching X-rated movies. At the same time, I cannot go for a day without masturbating.”

As for Silas Mhlanga, he watches X-rated images as well as films not only to explore his sexual fantasies, but to boost his libido.

“I do not have any problem with watching pornography. In fact, I watch X-rated images and movies to explore my sexual desires and boost my libido,” he said, testifying that he is addicted to pornography as he watches it regularly – and more than five times a day.

As illustrated above, most teenagers like Taurai regularly watch pornography, and for millions of adults like Silas it is their guilty pleasure.

Due to addiction, Nyika and Mhlanga’s testify to be stressed; they believe pornography created problems such as worrying, muddled thinking, nightmares, hasty decisions, negativity as well as indecisions.

Further, pornography offers men and women alike a chance to explore their sexual fantasies, boosts libido and many report it improves relationships, but it side-affects the health of those who regularly watch it.

“From releasing mood-boosting hormones to triggering addictive tendencies, pornography can have a sinister effect on our brains,” says Lizette Borreli of Medical Daily – a news platform dedicated to covering health and science news that matters most to the current generation.

Borreli, also an expert on sexual health, relationships and health living, adds: “Teenagers as young as 13 are now believed to regularly watch pornography, but a slew of studies show regularly consumption may actually re-wire the brain, altering its structure and function, and causing addictive behaviour to emerge.”

Conservative and leading researcher on pornography, Dr Judith Reisman, concurs that “pornographic visual images imprint and alter the brain, triggering an instant, involuntary, but lasting, biochemical memory trail (that is) difficult or impossible to delete.”

Social worker and addiction specialist Joe Schrank says these brain changes are a cause for concern. He noted that having sex and watching porn cause dopamine to be released in the part of the brain responsible for emotions and learning. In fact, it is the one neurotransmitter that becomes the most active.

“The main change is the flood of dopamine. Watching pornography produces a dopaminergic response. It is this neurotransmitter that gives you the desire for self-pleasure, as its levels surge in response to anticipation and expectation, but the brain begins to change as we repeatedly tap into this particular pathway by viewing porn – it becomes desensitised to the effects of dopamine,” Schrank said.

A study carried out by German researchers and published in JAMA Psychiatry(a monthly, peer-reviewed medical journal published by the American Medical Association) in 2014 found regularly viewing pornography seemed to dull the response to sexual stimulation over time.

The German researchers found that the level of changes in the brain correlated with the amount of pornography a person watched – the more they watched, the lower the activity was in their brain’s reward centers after sexual images were flashed on a screen.

As noted by the Germany researchers, men who watch pornography may be shrinking their brains.

“The striatum area of the brain, linked with the motivation and reward response, shrank in size the more porn a person viewed,” they said.

Further, the brain of a porn user is often compared to that of a drug addict or alcoholic. This is according to a 2014 Cambridge University study published in PLOS ONE – an inclusive, peer-reviewed, open-access resources from the Public Library of Science.

The study found the ventral striatum – a brain structure that plays a role in the brain’s reward center, aka its pleasure pathways – lit up when an alcoholic saw a photo of a drink.

In porn addicts, the study found similar brain activity, but although they wanted porn more, they did not enjoy it more.

The researchers also found three regions in the brain that were more active in people with compulsive sexual behavior, including the ventral striatum, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (responsible for anticipating rewards), and the amygdala (involved in processing the significance of events and emotions).

These regions are also known to be activated in drug addicts when shown their drugs of choice.

Psychotherapist Paula Hall, who specialises in sex addiction, says adolescent brains are particularly malleable and so an early fixation with pornography means that regular watchers, especially young people develop “sexual templates” that are fixed to 2D pornographic images.

“When you are with a three dimensional mere mortal, the body does not know how to respond because you are fixed on very high, constant stimulation – porn video after porn video. “They call porn a 'super normal stimuli' as it raises the orgasmic threshold,” adds Hall.

While pornography might certainly be useful in helping Taurai and Silas explore and learn about their sexual desires, it dangerously affects the brain of regular watchers.

Because of this, the government should find ways to curb the availability of pornographic materials in towns and cities across the country since the demand for porn is increasing.

“The governments, together with other stakeholders, should also deal with the scourge of piracy in the country. Pornographic materials are paraded and sold in most streets in the country. This is not good for our young generation,” says Collins Sandu, a concerned Harare resident.

Therapist Dr Gregory Tau believes self-restraint is key. “Everything is going to be bad in excess and it’s probably not terrible in moderation,” he said.

Accordingly, Nyika and Mhlanga must flee from pornography or strive for balance. Their brains need diversity of activities too. In fact, it is the duty of the government as well as other stakeholders to educate people on the dangers of watching pornographic to save them from being addicted like Nyika and Mhlanga.