But why do blue movies wield so much power over us? Well, the answer lies within the question itself. Sounds paradoxical, right? But if you consider that there are currently over 450 million adult site pages floating around online you might as well realize that a steamy sex scene (with all the catalysts of a picture-perfect orgasm) is simply a few clicks away. So, unlike some decades ago when the average man had to scour his hometown in search for rental porn movies or spend dozens of dollars buying restricted X-rated magazines, the modern man has it all laid out on his lap-top. The proliferation of powerful, handheld, internet-enabled phones doesn’t help matters either. It has become so easy to access free porn videos and even live sex webcams that you literally just have to raise a finger to see your wildest fantasies come alive.
The problem with pornography, according to leading researchers, is that it preys upon the very thing that makes a man ‘a man’ – in short, his manhood. Alcohol might deplete your pockets and bank accounts, hard drugs might gnaw on your mental health, but porn is a different breed. Porn reverberates from the very dark pits of your sexuality. It meshes your sexual insecurities together with your erotic fantasies and low self-esteem to create something sinister but pleasurable at the same time. So, not unless you have an extraordinary willpower, it becomes almost impossible to stop watching porn once you’re introduced to it.
Secondly, a recent study carried out in India and the United States showed that 89% of men who are struggling to ensnare themselves from the claws of pornography started watching it ( albeit secretly ) before 14. At such a young stage, the male brain is barely mature enough to handle or process the grotesque images and fantasies that a young adolescent mind can conjure up. So, as the boy grows and becomes a man, his brain’s neural circuitry is wired in such a way that it associates sexual pleasure with premeditated sexual acts shot in dingy hotel rooms and punctuated with exaggerated sensual moans. Throw in the fact that it is easier to access porn than seducing a girl to sleep with you and you have yourself a perfect recipe for a serious addiction.
Contrary to what most men think, pornography addiction and masturbation are not one and the same thing. Although, one leads to another ( which is the goal of all male-oriented pornography clips anyway ), porn has more grip on a man than mere masturbation. In fact, most health professionals agree that it is OK to pleasure yourself once in a while as long your fantasies are purely mental and are based on women you have actually met in real life.
All additions have one thing in common – extreme compulsion and strong feelings. If you ask anyone who has ever struggled with illicit hard drugs such as cocaine or heroine, they will easily confess to you that the pleasurable euphoric feeling that engulfs them after a ‘fix’ is almost unreal. Fine, you might have never experienced the same while watching porn, but the truth is that both addictions stroke the exact part of the brain. To be exact, the same surge of dopamine, released by the brain’s ‘reward’ center after a shot of heroine is the same a man enjoys after masturbating to internet porn.
But is there a way out? Truth be told, it is not easy to quit watching porn. In fact, it should be a crime to use ‘easy’ and ‘porn addiction’ in the same sentence. However, with the right mindset, willpower and motivation you can start breaking the chains of compulsive porn and masturbation as soon as today. Remember that any given time you have less than 60 seconds to close a provocative tab or step away from it all together. After that window closes, the ‘smaller’ brain takes over from the ‘bigger’ brain, and there’s very little you can do to stop then, no matter how religious or moral you think you’re.
In other words, go out, see, approach, date and have sex with real women. If not that, substitute the void left by internet porn with a meaningful pursuit such a vocational calling, working out at the local gym or charity work.
