【海外の反応】「ポルノ依存症」って医学的には病気じゃないらしいwww Redditで議論勃発

Fun fact: most people who would call themselves "porn addicts" actually don't consume a particularly large amount of porn compared to the average person, they just feel more shame about it

Duh, I'm addicted to cranking it

I have a bit of a unique take on this, as someone who had a pretty big issue with porn and “quit” it despite not being religious in any way.

For me, the addictive part of porn wasn’t the consumption, it was the search. I began watching porn super early (like 9 years old) and the dopamine rush it gave me even as a child was incredible. The “anticipation” of going to a new site, searching some new fetish. I chased that same dragon for years. That continued until, in high school, it had become a serious problem. It was my coping mechanism and an extremely unhealthy escape. 

The kind of porn I had to watch in order to get even close to the same rush was extreme and disturbing. It harmed my relationships, it made me sexually disfunctional (no, it was not just performance anxiety, it was an odd dissociative experience where I was so used to getting sexual pleasure through masturbation and watching something on a screen that actually experiencing real sex felt strange and unengaging). 
And the most telling thing was how compulsive it was. I realized I truly had something at least like an addiction when I tried to stop watching for a week and couldn’t make it 24 hours. Trying to get “clean” from porn has been seriously difficult. Therapy and even “porn addicts anonymous” groups have been genuinely helpful.

I don’t subscribe to the idea that porn is some horrible thing, I don’t care about the religious ramifications at all, and I’m not qualified to say if compulsive porn watching is an addiction or not. But I do think that there are other people like me, who found porn far too early and it became a compulsive behavior that caused real harm. I do think there’s such thing as too much porn, especially when you’re young. 

Fear mongering around porn is bad, but I also am weary of people saying that porn is totally fine and dandy and anyone who says otherwise is a religious nut.

I can beat it

Scientifically speaking, the term "addiction" refers specifically to substance use disorder. So-called behavioral addictions weren't formally recognized until the DSM-5 reclassified gambling disorder as an addictive behavior.

Porn addiction is largely in the same category as any compulsive behavior brought on by the desire for a dompamine rush, imo.

It’s an interesting topic because it seems different for everyone. When I was younger I realized that if watching porn/masturbation ever got in the way of my life then it’s a problem. I then also realized that the repetition of HOW you’re getting off can affect your relationship with your partner and being in the moment with them. Don’t be ashamed, it’s normal but also be cognizant of how it affects you and your life/relationships.