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David 
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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| Post subject: Is excessive porn consumption like drug addiction? |  |
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This is an interesting article from The Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/26/brain-scans-porn-addicts-sexual-tastes
| Quote: | One key driver of plastic change is the reward centre, which normally fires as we accomplish a goal. A brain chemical, dopamine, is released, giving us the thrill that goes with accomplishment. It also consolidates the connections between neurons in the brain that helped us accomplish that goal. As well, dopamine is secreted at moments of sexual excitement and novelty. Porn scenes, filled with novel sexual "partners", fire the reward centre. The images get reinforced, altering the user's sexual tastes.
Many abused substances directly trigger dopamine secretion – without us having to work to accomplish a goal. This can damage the dopamine reward system. In porn, we get "sex" without the work of courtship. Now, scans show that porn can alter the reward centre too.
Once the reward centre is altered, a person will compulsively seek out the activity or place that triggered the dopamine discharge. (Like addicts who get excited passing the alley where they first tried cocaine, the patients got excited thinking about their computers.) They crave despite negative consequences. (This is why those patients could crave porn without liking it.) Worse, over time, a damaged dopamine system makes one more "tolerant" to the activity and needing more stimulation, to get the rush and quiet the craving. "Tolerance" drives a search for ramped-up stimulation, and this can drive the change in sexual tastes towards the extreme.
The most obvious change in porn is how sex is so laced with aggression and sadomasochism. As tolerance to sexual excitement develops, it no longer satisfies; only by releasing a second drive, the aggressive drive, can the addict be excited. |
I don't know whether or not this is the consensus view among neuroscientists, but there's a lot of stuff there that seems to make sense:
1) Excessive consumption of pornography decreases sexual interest in real people.
2) Excessive consumption will lead to more of an interest in fetishism and sadomasochism, making 'vanilla' sex seem more boring.
3) This sort of thing can function like a drug addiction.
What do you guys think? Have you witnessed any of these phenomena in your own or others' lives? Or do you think it's all a load of rubbish?
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All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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stui magpie 
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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Plenty of porn that has no aggression or sadomasochism in it
_________________
Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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David
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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Yep, I agree—the theory is more that regular consumption of pornography will increase the likelihood of viewers pursuing such things in their own sex lives.
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All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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Tannin 
Can't remember
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Location: Huon Valley Tasmania
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You call that recycled Victorianism "interesting"? Wow! It's just the usual anythingtodowithsex=moraloutrageandifyoudon'tstopplayingwithititwillfalloff message repeated with different coloured crayon. I'm surprised someone as intelligent as you bothered even glancing at it.
_________________
�Let's eat Grandma.� Commas save lives! |
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David
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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Is that really all there is to the article? I was thinking the same while reading it, but then it struck me, "hang on, dopamine isn't an invention of Fred Nile's". I think it's uncontroversial fact that we can become dependent on pleasure, so it doesn't seem too much of a stretch to apply it here.
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All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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Tannin
Can't remember
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Location: Huon Valley Tasmania
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| David wrote: | | Is that really all there is to the article? I was thinking the same while reading it, but then it struck me, "hang on, dopamine isn't an invention of Fred Nile's". I think it's uncontroversial fact that we can become dependent on pleasure, so it doesn't seem too much of a stretch to apply it here. |
Of course you can apply it here. But that does nothing whatever to make a rational argument out of what is, in fact, just another highly motivated and ill-informed don'tplaywithitoryouwillgoblind thought bubble. If the magic word "dopamine" is to be more than exactly that - a magic word dropped into the conversation to make it sound impressive to people who don't know what dopamine is but have vaguely heard of it once - then the writer needs to demonstrate some functioning of that dopamine which isn't entirely, 100% routine boring-normal. In the brief excerpt you quoted - and I'm damned if I'm going to waste 10 minutes out of a perfectly good day reading the rest of it - there is nothing, repeat nothing, to suggest that (with or without the magic word dopamine) porn is in any way different from other things people do because they like doing them so they do them again, such as good coffee, ice cream, posting nonsense on Nick's Collingwood BBS, chocolate, reading the paper in bed on the weekend, playing a round of golf, taking a walk on a nice day, shouting at David again, reading Terry Pratchett, going to the football, sitting on Stui's porch and throwing your empties at the possums, stretching and yawning, attending the cinema, or starting the day with a new Grundy thread.
_________________
�Let's eat Grandma.� Commas save lives! |
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3.14159 
Joined: 12 Sep 2009
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David want's to bring science to this issue so here's .. 4 ways to prevent prostate cancer.
http://au.askmen.com/sports/health_400/410_4-fun-ways-to-prevent-prostate-cancer.html
2- Masturbate
Several studies conducted in the last few years have suggested that masturbation protects against prostate cancer. Actually, it was ejaculation, achieved by either sex or masturbation, that showed benefit.
One theory is that it allows the prostate to clear itself of carcinogens. In other words, masturbation may literally clean your pipes.
According to the largest study of its kind, a 2004 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, to gain any protective benefit against prostate cancer, more than 12 ejaculations per month (i.e., masturbating or having sex every other day) was necessary. What’s more, each increase of three ejaculations per week was associated with a 15% decrease in prostate cancer risk.
~
So boys, if you want to prevent prostate cancer, put your hand up (& down & up again) at least 3 times a week!  |
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Tannin
Can't remember
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Location: Huon Valley Tasmania
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One more question. Is 17 times a day excessive? Or should I maybe cut back a little?
_________________
�Let's eat Grandma.� Commas save lives! |
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HAL
Please don't shout at me - I can't help it.
Joined: 17 Mar 2003
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| You must examine the facts and come to your own conclusion. |
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Tannin
Can't remember
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Location: Huon Valley Tasmania
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Fair enough then. I'll try to keep it down to less than 20.
Probably.
Well, mostly.
Near enough to 20 anyway.
OK, a bit more than that.
But not much more.
OK, a lot.
But nothing remotely like 50.
Well, not usually. It's not even most days. Only sometimes, such as between meals for example.
Or, to be honest, also during meals.
But not all the time.
I mean, well, not mostly all of the time. Apart from weekends, of course. And public holidays. And obviously Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Well, OK, sometimes on the other days as well. But never on a Wednesday. Um ... anyway, mostly never on Wednesdays. Unless it's a special sort of Wednesday, of course, such as the boring type which mostly comes just after a Tuesday, or before a Thursday.
Um ... what was the question?
_________________
�Let's eat Grandma.� Commas save lives! |
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David
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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| Tannin wrote: | | there is nothing, repeat nothing, to suggest that (with or without the magic word dopamine) porn is in any way different from other things people do because they like doing them so they do them again, such as good coffee, ice cream, posting nonsense on Nick's Collingwood BBS, chocolate, reading the paper in bed on the weekend, playing a round of golf, taking a walk on a nice day, shouting at David again, reading Terry Pratchett, going to the football, sitting on Stui's porch and throwing your empties at the possums, stretching and yawning, attending the cinema, or starting the day with a new Grundy thread. |
Sure! But if we were to discover that these behaviours could also lead to some kind of dependency (though probably less so given the relative intensity of enjoyment), would that be something worth exploring? And what do you make of the very real phenomenon of sex addiction (not an invention of puritans, that one—indeed, many of them would probably dismiss it—but the sort of thing sex therapists are well aware of)?
_________________
All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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Tannin
Can't remember
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Location: Huon Valley Tasmania
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| David wrote: | | Sure! But if we were to discover that these behaviours could also lead to some kind of dependency (though probably less so given the relative intensity of enjoyment) .... |
Of course they can. And do. The only difference is that, with most of them, you don't get stupid pleasure-shy wowsers making up and/or grossly abusing scary-sounding bullshit terms like "sex addiction" or "dependency" just because they think it will help them in their eternal quest to repress the pleasure urges of every other citizen and gratify their own weird pain-is-pleasure addiction to killing joy wherever they can find it, especially if said pleasure involves shameful and disgusting things like dicks and pubiv hair and (gasp!) erections. And if you think those other things I mentioned are not every bit as enjoyable and habit-forming as sex, then you have never played golf or tasted good coffee, or discovered ice cream, or posted nonsense on Nick's Collingwood BBS, dreamed about chocolate, read the papers in bed on the weekend, had a good walk on a nice day, read Terry Pratchett, gone to the football, sat on Stui's porch and thrown empties at the possums, or started the day with a new Grundy thread.
(Did I mention shouting at David? Sorry. How could I have missed that one? It's possibly even more fun than shouting at Stui, though admittedly not nearly as orgasmic as laughing at Jack Spain's technological bloopers in the NBN threads or as rare and special as catching PTID out in a grammatical error.)
_________________
�Let's eat Grandma.� Commas save lives! |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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Masturbation or throwing the empty cans at the possums.
I choose both.
_________________
Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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swoop42 
Whatcha gonna do when he comes for you?
Joined: 02 Aug 2008
Location: The 18
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Let me masturbate on this and I'll get back to you.
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He's mad. He's bad. He's MaynHARD! |
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3.14159
Joined: 12 Sep 2009
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| Canning the possum? |
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