So what is it about porn that makes it so difficult to quit? To understand why we keep turning back to porn, even though we might feel like we shouldn’t, we need to take a small peek into how our brains process pornography.Our brains today rely on the same systems that have ensured the survival of our species for millenia. The same primitive reward circuits that motivated our prehistoric ancestors to seek food, love, sex, friendship, and novelty are still present in our own brains. These systems function in large part because of dopamine.Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, a chemical that passes information, which works within the reward system of the brain that is strongly related to motivation and reward. When we perform a behavior or action that causes a surge of dopamine, we feel good. Really good. So good in fact, that we are more likely to repeat those same actions in an effort to trigger that dopamine release. If you thought this sounds a lot like learning, then you are correct.Our brains use
dopamine to reinforce learning through actions and behaviors. Imagine completing a difficult workout at the gym, or spending hours finishing an art project. You take the hard work it took to get there and couple it with the rewarding feeling of accomplishment, due to dopamine release, and you start to train your brain to continue doing those actions. In terms of sexual response, the reward generally comes after the work of emotional, intellectual, and physical intimacy with another person. Pornography activates the same area of the brain as addictive drugs, shortcutting past the hard work of cultivating a relationship, straight to the reward. [22] In fact, aside from amphetamines and cocaine, porn releases just as much dopamine as alcohol, opioids, and nicotine.
Easy rewards and instant gratification may not seem so dangerous on the surface, but over time they can be damaging in countless ways. Think about what happens to kids who habitually skip a healthy dinner in favor of dessert. Taking shortcuts, especially when it comes to physical desires, almost always has negative consequences.So what exactly causes a dopamine release?Well, there is some debate and a few misconceptions about this. Many people seem to think that the dopamine comes when someone receives a reward. This could be anything from a decadent bite of chocolate cake to a sexual encounter, to unlocking a new level on a video game. However, research indicates that dopamine doesn’t actually come from the reward itself, but anticipating a reward. The flood of dopamine hits when you see the chocolate cake on the plate, not when you put it in your mouth. Think of the study about classical conditioning with Pavlov’s dogs. In this case, the surge of dopamine would come when the dogs hear the sound associated with the treat, not when they receive the treat.According to psychologist Susan Weinschenk,[23] dopamine is not what causes people to actually experience pleasure; that falls to the opioid system. “Dopamine causes us to want, desire, seek out, and search,” she writes. In fact, “the dopamine system is stronger than the opioid system.”[24] Because our bodies are getting all these good feelings from dopamine, we are driven to keep on seeking.This is one of the prime reasons why quitting porn, specifically internet porn, can feel so impossible. As mentioned above, the reward circuit in our brains gets excited about novelty just as much as it does sex. When it comes to internet porn, you are constantly bombarded with more than just sexual arousal, you’re surrounded by unlimited novelty.A browser can have multiple tabs open at a time, giving you the ability to keep clicking for hours, searching for endless new ways to find pleasure. And as we said before, that searching or seeking is what many believe is flooding excessive amounts of dopamine into your reward system; the same system where addiction happens. Research confirms that the combination of anticipation of a potential sexual reward and novelty amplify one another, which causes an increase in excitement and can start to rewire parts of the brain. [25]The more the brain changes in response to repeated internet pornography use, the more likely it will become susceptible to addiction. But what exactly is addiction, and what’s the difference between addiction and habit?For more information on the effects that porn has on your brain, go check out our friends at
Your Brain on Porn.[26]