Five Really Scary Things Watching Porn Can Do To Your Mind

The American state of Utah made headlines around the world this week when it declared pornography a ‘public health hazard’.

Governor Gary Herbert signed into law a resolution which described porn as ‘a public health hazard leading to a broad spectrum of individual and public health impacts and societal harms.’

The scale of the porn industry is vast - estimates suggest that between 4% and 30% of all websites are pornographic.

We also watch an enormous amount of it.

The world’s leading pornographic website, Pornhub says that its users viewed 4,392,486,580 hours of porn in 2015 - streaming video porn at a rate of 75GB per second.

But is pornography really THAT bad? Studies have shown it DOES have negative effects - not only on its users, but on those around them.

It is addictive

While pornography addiction might not be as physically damaging as drug or alcohol addiction, there is no doubt some people find pornography addictive.

A University of Cambridge study led by Dr Valerie Voon found that pornography affected people’s brains in the same way drugs affected the brains of addicts.

Dr Voon also found that addicts can be ‘triggered’ to seek out internet porn.

It is linked to violence against women

Mary Anne Layden of the University of Pennsylvania - a sexual trauma specialist - said that pornography is often a factor in sexual violence cases.

Layden claims that porn has been involved in every case of sexual violence she has dealt with as a psychotherapist.

Layden said, ‘'The earlier males are exposed to pornography, the more likely they are to engage in non-consensual sex — and for females, the more pornography they use, the more likely they are to be victims of non-consensual sex.’

Users require more and more porn to get the same ‘hit’

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute scanned the brains of porn users – and found that a part of the brain which activates when people are rewarded shrinks.

The difference between the brains of people who regularly used pornography, and those who abstained, was clearly visible on scans.

Porn can make you make bad decisions

More precisely, it can make you choose immediate gratification over delayed pay-offs, according to a study in the Journal of Sex Research.

People who abstained from porn were more willing to put off rewards – and wait a bit longer for pleasure.

It can ruin relationships

Psychotherapists have spoken about porn users ‘inability’ to express emotions - and several studies have shown heavy users have trouble in relationships.

Women in relationships with porn users say they are less happy than women paired with men who don’t, according to a study in the journal Sex Roles.