We don’t have a specific cordoned off section for meth and cocaine in our brains. Many things trigger those areas of the brain, including some pretty innocuous stuff.
Porn isn’t physically addictive like meth and cocaine. It can be psychologically addictive though, but that goes for a lot of things out there.
Stuff like meth and cocaine can actually alter your brain, porn does not.
Anyone can develop an unhealthy relationship with porn, but that goes for just about anything out there.
It primarily focuses on internet addiction and video game addiction. Pornography is mostly mentioned in passing as “likely similar”.
In it, they review evidence that these things can be addictive, and that people experience pleasure doing them (this is the whole “same-areas-as-coke-and-meth” thing btw; the brain is happy playing video games, and it is also happy doing coke). However, they distinctly mention that behavioral addiction is not necessarily the same as substance addiction:
Together with studies on Internet addiction and Internet Gaming Disorder we see strong evidence for considering addictive Internet behaviors as behavioral addiction. Future research needs to address whether or not there are specific differences between substance and behavioral addiction
The exact quote about areas of the brain thing:
Georgiadis and Kringelbach concluded, “it is clear that the networks involved in human sexual behavior are remarkably similar to the networks involved in processing other rewards”
The brain rewards sexual behaviour. Makes perfect sense from an evolutionary point of view, so not exactly a shocking conclusion.
And regarding the “brain-altering” thing, the study also directly mentions that this is simply what happens when the brain is activated through its reward systems. This “altering” happens for everything that triggers some kind of dopamine hit. It’s not the case that porn does something special here; a model train hobby for example would do the same to enthusiasts for example.
I remember this study actually, I’ve seen it before. It is frequently misquoted or represented in an extremely alarmist way, mostly by people with a dislike for pornography. But the study doesn’t back up their assertions that porn is anything special when compared to any other behavioral addiction, it actually expressly doesn’t.
I mean video game addiction is real thing to and it can be pretty bad like some people play games and stay up for days and it affects them badly but video games and porn are two different things. Not even comparable. Also I don’t think anyone “dislikes” pornography. But some recognize its harmful effects on the brain and on society so they do their best to not watch it and to quit it. They are not working hard to quit that habit for nothing.
We don’t have a specific cordoned off section for meth and cocaine in our brains. Many things trigger those areas of the brain, including some pretty innocuous stuff.
Porn isn’t physically addictive like meth and cocaine. It can be psychologically addictive though, but that goes for a lot of things out there.
Stuff like meth and cocaine can actually alter your brain, porn does not.
Anyone can develop an unhealthy relationship with porn, but that goes for just about anything out there.
Hmm yes porn actually can alter your brain look it up.
Here I found something for you, you won’t need to search for it now. https://neurosciencenews.com/neuroscience-pornography-brain-15354/
This article is overly sensationalist/alarmist and doesn’t match the study behind it.
This is the study they’re referencing: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/5/3/388
It primarily focuses on internet addiction and video game addiction. Pornography is mostly mentioned in passing as “likely similar”.
In it, they review evidence that these things can be addictive, and that people experience pleasure doing them (this is the whole “same-areas-as-coke-and-meth” thing btw; the brain is happy playing video games, and it is also happy doing coke). However, they distinctly mention that behavioral addiction is not necessarily the same as substance addiction:
The exact quote about areas of the brain thing:
The brain rewards sexual behaviour. Makes perfect sense from an evolutionary point of view, so not exactly a shocking conclusion.
And regarding the “brain-altering” thing, the study also directly mentions that this is simply what happens when the brain is activated through its reward systems. This “altering” happens for everything that triggers some kind of dopamine hit. It’s not the case that porn does something special here; a model train hobby for example would do the same to enthusiasts for example.
I remember this study actually, I’ve seen it before. It is frequently misquoted or represented in an extremely alarmist way, mostly by people with a dislike for pornography. But the study doesn’t back up their assertions that porn is anything special when compared to any other behavioral addiction, it actually expressly doesn’t.
I mean video game addiction is real thing to and it can be pretty bad like some people play games and stay up for days and it affects them badly but video games and porn are two different things. Not even comparable. Also I don’t think anyone “dislikes” pornography. But some recognize its harmful effects on the brain and on society so they do their best to not watch it and to quit it. They are not working hard to quit that habit for nothing.