Is there really any other kind of pornography these days? Of course print and video-based pornography still exists, but we really have to look no further than our smart phones to access it any time and anywhere.
Many questions remain: What impact does online porn have on our brains? On our relationships? On our views of women, men, and sex? What do we do if we want to stop engaging in these behaviors? How do we recover from something that’s everywhere with us these days?
People have differences of opinions out there on these and other questions. I found this article interesting, as it explored the negative impact of pornography upon children: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2432591/Porn-pernicious-threat-facing-children-today-By-ex-lads-mag-editor-MARTIN-DAUBNEY.html. Daubney, once an editor for a magazine with explicit content, has since changed his views on what impact pornography is having on young people.
I’ve written about this site before, but I’ve always found yourbrainonporn.com to be a really helpful site. Gary explains the neuroscience behind pornography use, and he provides a ton of resources. There are other great sites, includinghttps://www.fightthenewdrug.org/ and https://fortifyprogram.org/. Fortify is for young people under the age of 21.
So what about recovery? I do think recovery is possible if someone is wanting to stop their compulsive masturbation and/or addictive online porn use. There are 12-step resources I’ve written about here that provide support. And just as the internet can be a place where people get trapped in porn, as you might imagine there are also internet-based support resources. One site is Your Brain Rebalanced and another site is NoFap. Project Know also writes some helpful information about masturbation and online pornography using information from NoFap.
If you have other resources, I’d love to hear about them. I’m passionate about helping people find healing in their lives, particularly if that healing involves recovering from compulsive sexual behaviors. I hope this helps give a little more information about online porn and its impact on our brains and relationships.