In this episode, Jordan Caron and Sean Galla from MensGroup get into how to deal with porn addiction. We also get into the consequences of a porn-traumatized brain and what goes behind the porn industry.
Today’s https://mensgroup.com/podcast guest Jordan Caron is a MensGroup facilitator who leads a support group for guys that are dealing with porn addiction, and he’s here to talk about the pornographic industry and the negative impact that consuming porn can have on ourselves and our partners, both on a physical and an emotional realm.
CHAPTERS:
00:00:00 SINGLE CHAPTER – Porn Addiction
00:02:05 Porn Stats in the US
- According to official stats, around 200,000 Americans are or have been addicted to porn. This may sound like a pretty low number, but this can be explained by the fact that most men are in denial when it comes to acknowledging their relationship to porn.
00:07:56 Porn Traumatized Brain
- When a guy gets too used to getting off by just watching porn on a screen, his neural pathways get wired in a certain way that his brain doesn’t know anything else. This results in a so-called “Porn Traumatized Brain”, preventing a guy to be able to masturbate in a healthy way; let alone perform sexually with his partner.
00:14:47 The Behind the Scenes of Porn
- One of the most delicate subjects that most men miss when they stop to think about porn is the great amount of sex trafficking that goes on within this industry, even into levels of escorts, strippers, webcam models, etc. Being aware of this and continuing to consume porn is to consciously and voluntarily support sex trafficking.
00:22:45 Porn Addiction Resources
- There are several tools that can be pretty useful when it comes to coping with porn addiction. These include watching documentaries (such as “Fight the new drug” and “After porn ends”), reading books (some good ones are “Your Brain on Porn” and “The Porn Trap”), or joining an online community (there’s one on Reddit called “Anti-Pornography”).
00:26:12 The Porn Comfort Zone:
- Porn can be a sticky trap for single men, given that it provides sort of a comfort zone. Our brain is basically designed to keep us away from pain – such as the kind that can be experienced after being rejected – and it’s also wired to save energy whenever possible.
00:36:56 Porn as a Sex Educator:
- For many men, porn has served as a sex educator. The main issue with this is that most porn content is targeted at a male audience, in which women are always supposed to please men and male pleasure is the most important thing.
00:45:25 Porn as a way of cheating!
- Some men will watch random porn, just going through any given website and clicking on a haphazard video that calls their attention at that particular moment. However, other men will develop a so-called “parasocial” relationship with one or more pornstars, becoming faithful followers and keeping themselves updated on any news on their end.
01:09:47 Positives of Porn Addiction
- Even though addiction cannot be tagged as something positive, it can though bring about some positive consequences along the way, such as developing some strong unconditional love and compassion towards yourself as well as learning to forgive yourself. It’s not healthy to beat yourself up about mistakes that you’ve made or the person you were in the past.
01:15:03 Socially Accepted Addictions
- Socially accepted addictions such as those related to porn or food are most of the time more difficult to deal with, given that there’s not much stigma around them and they happen to be readily available.