Sexual Addiction and Porn

The Freedom Model’s Perspective on Sexual Addiction and Porn

Over the last decade we here at The Freedom Model have received a massive number of questions concerning sexual addiction and the role porn plays in that issue. Within this conversation is the belief that the regular engagement with porn will hijack the brain and compel compulsive porn use. As with so many confusing concepts, the truth lies in the nuances of the situation. Let’s dive into some of these details to get a better picture of reality.

Is Sexual Addiction Real?

First, “sexual addiction” is not real if we define addiction as a “compelled behavior”. This compulsion-centered perspective is the common idea promoted in the addiction and recovery world, but that does not make it objectively true. Porn does not compel you to then watch more of it. It does not contain motive, sentience, or power of any kind. So there is no actual compelling happening. This doesn’t mean that people don’t have debilitating habits and feelings of being compelled. But feelings are an interpretation, not a force external to the person. So what about brain scans of an addicted “sex addict”? Don’t these prove that something biological is forcing the observation of porn?

Brain Changes and the Misconception of Addiction

People can (and usually do) get bored with anything they do repetitively. Engaging with fetish objects is no different. If you were to measure boredom of a certain fetish in the observer’s brain tissue through a brain scan image, the brain tissue changes that occur as they actively engage are often inappropriately described as “addiction” by the brain-centrist crowd. Where we agree on this matter is that your brain is always changing, so it’s no surprise that someone who regularly masturbates to a certain porn genre would have corresponding brain changes or adaptations.

Challenging the “Hijacking” Theory

However, where the perspectives diverge is when the brain-centrists say that the supposed powers of porn hijack your brain tissue, which then hijacks your mind and forces you to search for and watch darker, more deviant, and illicit genres of pornography. This theory makes 4 assumptions that are completely false:

1. Porn (or any fetish object/s) contains power to compel human behavior.
2. The observable brain chemistry changes and adaptations that occur in the PMO’er’s brain tissue are abnormal.
3. The resultant brain changes make demands on the observer to find darker or more radical forms of porn to get the same, or greater, effect during masturbation and engagement.
4. The accumulation of these factors builds a tolerance which leads to withdrawal symptoms when stopping PMO, driving the inevitable descent into darkness.

Your Brain vs. Your Mind: Understanding Control

A brain doesn’t think, feel, have motive, give direction, or know anything. Rather, it is the recipient of your knowledge, your likes and dislikes, and your preferences that you provide it from your mind; it’s not the creator of them. No matter the level or the manifestations of brain adaptation, your mind controls your personal narratives and the mind supersedes previous brain adaptations when motivated to do so.

The Power of Free Will and Autonomy

The brain-centrists want you to believe there is a biological cause of your deep dive into new porn or other fetish arenas. They also want you to believe that your desire for new material will always go in one direction, to more radical genres, ending with you becoming an addicted monster. If believed, you take on this narrative and feel addicted, broken, shameful, and biologically dominated. But this is simply not true.

The Myth of Withdrawal Symptoms in Porn Use

This pattern of belief is a self-fulfilling prophecy, and the more it’s promoted and the more it’s believed, the more it manifests in the mind of the observer. Diving into “darker” pornography isn’t inherent to the process of fetish object preoccupation, nor is it inevitable. In reality, most people live out their PMO habit by moderating or cycling back through average and legal genres, and do so for the life of their respective habits.

Debunking the Withdrawal Myth

The accumulation of factors 1 through 3 builds a tolerance which leads to withdrawal symptoms when stopping PMO, in the same manner as happens with heavy substance users who become “addicted”; and this drives the inevitable descent into darkness. The idea that abstinence—even forced abstinence—is the only solution is filled with myths, which are covered in The Freedom Model’s Solution to PMO and Sex Addiction Workshop.

Conclusion: Brain Changes Do Not Drive Behavior

In short, brain changes do not drive behavior. Rather, these changes are a physical recording of your practiced behaviors, which are the result of your mental and emotional preferences developed as a normal part of living. Because brain-centrists focus only on the brain and discount the mind entirely, they misinterpret PMO habits through a narrow scope of biology, leading to false conclusions.

 

For more info on The Freedom Model’s Solution to PMO and Sex Addiction Workshop and Coaching Packages, call 888-424-2626 or go to: https://www.thefreedommodel.org/the-solution-to-pmo-and-sex-addiction/

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