25 replies to this topic

[1kgcoffee]

http://yourbrainonporn.com/

Heres a topic that doesn't get discussed much here: Porn/Masturbation!

I've suspected for a long time that regular porn watching, masturbation, and orgasm (PMO) are not as healthy as the mainstream portays. According to the website above, it permanently alters brain function, causes soft erections and ED and reduces motivation by effecting the brains dopamine system. I've heard anecdotal evidence of these effects, but always brushed them off to a lack of scientific evidence. Now I am convinced.

After two and half months of zero masturbation and almost no porn, my erections are certainly harder. In between extreme mood swings, I've noticed improved cognitive function and feel more virile in general. It's very similar to what I experienced on ALCAR a few years ago, which is known to increase dopamine in the striatal cortex.

Thoughts? Has anyone else experimented with this?


http://youtu.be/TKDFsLi2oBk

http://youtu.be/fxrG6QZ-G0M

More videos:
http://yourbrainonpo...-on-porn-series

Edited by 1kgcoffee, 05 February 2012 - 06:23 AM.

[nowayout]

Warning: Don't read the following if you want the above intervention to work on you...

Placebo effect. Someone can't get hard one day with their partner because they masturbated all day and are not horny any more. They panic, lose confidence and develop a psychogenic ED problem that persists. Someone tells them it's the porn and gives them some pseudo-scientific explanation for it. They are gullible enough to believe it. They 1) regain some confidence because they are under the impression they are doing something to "cure" themselves, and 2) they stop masturbating so much, so they get hornier and are more like to keep hard. Both these will help a lot with psychogenic ED, and voilà, it works again.

Of course, now that you've gone and read this, it won't work for you any more. I warned you!

[hippocampus]

I don't agree with you viveutvivas, the logical and andecdotal evidence is pretty convincing here (and my own experience is enough for me). It is an addiction and it's hard to quit, like masturbation (and since we most often masturbate watching porn it's more addictive).

[Musli]

It's not as bad as you say.
First of all, not everyone gets addicted, and if you do, then yeah, you should treat it and stop doing it because it's simply not for you. But if you don't get addicted then there's nothing wrong with it.
You say it permanently alters brain function - this may be true, but only for people who get addicted. That's why it's so hard to treat addictions - it's hard to reverse the changes in the brain.
You say it causes soft erections - of course it does - the more frequently you masturbate, the softer the erections get. It's because, lets say, you're not letting your penis to fully load up Once you start doing it less frequently, the erections will get harder again. It's up to people what works best for them.
Reduces motivation ? Of course it does - orgasm brings the feeling of satisfaction, and when you're satisfied, you're not motivated. Seems logical to me.
All in all, there's nothing wrong with masturbation, or with how often you do it, unless it turns into addiction, because, as we know, every addiction is bad. Therefore, we should just stay vigilant and everything will be ok.

[hippocampus]

(too much) porn is also bad because our criteria for beauty gets to high and so when you see women in real life you're not so interested in them as you would be if you'd never watch porn.

[ergopharaoh]

(too much) porn is also bad because our criteria for beauty gets to high and so when you see women in real life you're not so interested in them as you would be if you'd never watch porn.

what a ridiculously presumptuous claim. just because it is intuitively satisfying doesn't mean it is true.

[nowayout]

(too much) porn is also bad because our criteria for beauty gets to high and so when you see women in real life you're not so interested in them as you would be if you'd never watch porn.

what a ridiculously presumptuous claim. just because it is intuitively satisfying doesn't mean it is true.

Well, it is anecdotally true, at least for me (substituting men for women in the above sentence). I think whether that is bad, though, is a completely subjective value judgment. It is not objectively bad.

[ergopharaoh]

(too much) porn is also bad because our criteria for beauty gets to high and so when you see women in real life you're not so interested in them as you would be if you'd never watch porn.

what a ridiculously presumptuous claim. just because it is intuitively satisfying doesn't mean it is true.

Well, it is anecdotally true, at least for me (substituting men for women in the above sentence). I think whether that is bad, though, is a completely subjective value judgment. It is not objectively bad.

You know, perhaps I was projecting too much in my previous post. I realize that irrational attractions to movie stars and the like are probably a stone's throw away from people becoming attached to the superficial beauty of porn stars.

I shudder at the thought of such simulacral fantasies becoming the standard by which we assess other human beings.

[maxwatt]

The scent of pheromones makes the real thing more satisfying than any book or video. There was a paper finding that looking at porn raised men's testosterone levels. But hardness/softness has less to do with fullness of semen, more to do with too much or too little PDE5. You produce more as you get older, or after having had sex. A young man can typically have a full erection even after masturbating earlier in the day, though he may ejaculate less volume if the seminal fluid has not been replenished.

"Son, if you keep masturbating you'll go blind."
"OK, Dad. Can I stop when I need glasses?"

[ergopharaoh]

The scent of pheromones makes the real thing more satisfying than any book or video.

I would think there is a lot more than pheromones to differentiate visual stimuli from actually having sex (which is partially why I am so surprised at the previous comments concerning the conditioning effect of porn on actual attraction).

Nevertheless, research on human sensitivity to pheromones is inconclusive, at best; genes for receptors for the two major families of pheromones are both nonfunctional in humans.

[niner]

I don't know if pheromone is the right term for it, but there is something going on in humans that is odor-mediated. At least that's been my experience... The Internet gives us the ability to explore any and all fantasies to the point of exhaustion. I think there's a problem in that- You might have had a fantasy that 'worked' really well, but now it's like, I've seen the video 47 times... yawn... and it doesn't work so well. I've observed the internet porn industry for a couple decades, and I don't know if they're responding to a real need for more extreme stuff as time goes on, or if it's just a kink arms race, but things have gotten a lot wilder over the years. One wonders where it will be twenty years from now. Well, welcome to the post-human world. This is just one of many experiments we're running on ourselves and our biosphere.

[maxwatt]

Napoleon wrote to Josephine on his way back from Moscow "Je reviens en trois jours, ne te laves pas!" Chemical communication does appear to occur among humans ( http://mugwump.pitze...redith_2001.pdf) but this may not mean a functional vomeronasal organ is involved. Most people (92% of cadavers in one study) have veromonasal openings at the back of the roof of the mouth. You can feel them with your tongue. Connected to an ancilliary olfactory bulb or not, functional or not, odor and taste play an important part in sex and sexual attraction. Why else do women and some men wear scent with a base of pheromone-rich animal musk ? Some primates do not have veromonasal openings whereas humans definitely do. Why has this feature been conserved? Two known veromonasal genes may be non-functional, but how many others might there be?

Even if the veromonasal opening is not connected (but then why is it there?) and actual pheromones play no chemical messenger role in humans, there is more to sexual arousal than visual stimulation. Touch is another sense missing from pornography. Just as one cannot tickle oneself, a lover's caress is more satisfying than any picture. If porn were truly satisfying, there would be no whore-houses.

[ergopharaoh]

I've observed the internet porn industry for a couple decades...

well played, well played.

[hippocampus]

(too much) porn is also bad because our criteria for beauty gets to high and so when you see women in real life you're not so interested in them as you would be if you'd never watch porn.

what a ridiculously presumptuous claim. just because it is intuitively satisfying doesn't mean it is true.

Well, it is anecdotally true, at least for me (substituting men for women in the above sentence). I think whether that is bad, though, is a completely subjective value judgment. It is not objectively bad.

there is not such thing as "objectively" bad. I meant it this way: if men watch porn, than this is bad for girls - e.g. man don't want them unless they are skinny, have large breasts and so on and so girls feel depressed, get anorexia and bad self-esteem.

[platypus]

there is not such thing as "objectively" bad. I meant it this way: if men watch porn, than this is bad for girls - e.g. man don't want them unless they are skinny, have large breasts and so on and so girls feel depressed, get anorexia and bad self-esteem.

Well, men and many women are not going to stop consuming pornography so those girls you talk about need to improve their self-esteem some other way.

[hippocampus]

"men and women aren't going to stop smoking so they need to improve their health (and passive smokers health) some other way" ...???

Edited by hippocampus, 06 February 2012 - 12:46 PM.

[platypus]

"men and women aren't going to stop smoking so they need to improve their health (and passive smokers health) some other way" ...???

There's nothing wrong with sex, masturbation or the use of pornography as such. If you disagree, you might want to examine what in your background makes you view sexual matters "dirty" or "wrong". A small minority of people develop problems like sex-addiction or compulsive masturbation. As far as I can tell, these kind of problems are quite rare. I wouldn't be worried about it and if someone develops clear problems in these areas, help is available.

[hippocampus]

I don't think that there is something morally wrong with porn or masturbating, I'm talking about mental health consequences for society. If I compare it to smoking again: it's nothing morally wrong with smoking itself, but it's bad because of its health consequences.

[nowayout]

It's not comparable.

[hippocampus]

I agree, very convincing argument.

[frederickson]

ironic timing... i am now about three months into a porn-free existence and it has also been several weeks since i masturbated. i stopped looking at the porn because i knew it made real-life sexual activity a bit less exciting for me and created some unrealistic expectations. to me, that is a problem that i felt needed resolution. anecdotally, i can say with a pretty high degree of confidence that avoiding porn has improved my sexual health and desire. it was very hard to give up for the first few weeks, but completely worthwhile.

the not masturbating arose out of being on the road for a week and then sick for the better part of a week immediately thereafter. i am unquestionably more focused and more easily aroused by potential sexual situations. this is not to say i get an erection every time i talk to a woman, it just feels like i am generally more ready to go if/when the occasion arises.

[Kasra]

It's masturbatory to discuss this issue without attempting abstinence and seeing how it affects you.

[absent minded]

will the wet dreams go away eventually ?

[1kgcoffee]

Three+ months in and I still get wet dreams every few weeks. They tend to happen shortly before waking, after high protein dinners, weightlifting, and too many sexually related thoughts. I imagine going on a low protein/CR diet would minimize them.

[1kgcoffee]

By the way, having crossed the 90 day mark I feel fantastic. I don't feel tortured or repressed at all.

[Orajel]

Its all desensitization. Ever notice how when you have all the ass you can handle you take it for granted? then, when that ass walks out, you're drooling over any mildly attractive female walking by? This happens in all areas of life. Or, we could be more accurate and call it habitualization (descreased response to a stimuli)

Personal experience:
Institutionalized for 7 months at the age of 16 (drug abuse/crime whatever) was so horny when I got out I took my girlfriend to a macys dressing room. 3 weeks later, I just didn't care as much.

Edited by Orajel, 07 March 2012 - 07:01 AM.