Your Brain On Porn: The Science Behind the Compulsion Part 1

Lord Jesus, I ask you to guide me as I write the truth of an affliction that hurts millions of people.  Please bless those who read this.  Help those who are struggling with an addiction to sex or pornography, that they may find help and peace in you. 
Amen

I will be the first to admit that I am not a scientist.  I know I do not have the brains or the patience to handle all the research and experiments.  That is why I am going to refer to other people who have taken the time and energy to research sex addiction and how it effects the brain.  I will also draw upon my own personal experiences to connect reality with theory.  This post will focus primarily on the physical and psychological effects that porn and sex addiction have on the brain.  There is a substantive spiritual dimension to the nature of addiction as well that I will not address here.  I will discuss the spiritual dimension in a subsequent post.

The first aspect of addiction that must be discussed is the addiction cycle itself.  Nobody starts off with the intentions of becoming a serial exhibitionist, or starts looking at extreme fetishes, or has compulsive sex with prostitutes.  Those behaviors are not built within our natural tendencies.  When someone is acting out in an uncontrollable manner, it is usually the manifestation of an addiction that has progressed over some period of time.  According to Patrick Carnes (2001), The addiction process "begins with the delusional thought processes that are rooted in the addict's belief system" (p 15).  Everybody has a core belief system about themselves that affects how they perceive reality (Carnes 2001).  This belief system is what guides us in our every day lives.  The addict has a belief system that is greatly impaired.  I can attest to the fact that addicts feel unworthy, alone, isolated, and beyond assistance.  The addict's only consolation is the need for sex and sexual release.  Sex becomes a consolation, a reward, a pastime that the addict turns to in order to vent feelings of frustration, loneliness, and despair.

The cycle of addiction usually starts early on, with the addict feeling isolated from friends and family.  A very common first sexual experience is with pornography.  Many an addict can relate the first time he first was exposed to pornography:  dad's Playboy, late night cable, a porn video left in a player.  That first glimpse is a huge rush.  It produces feelings of excitement and arousal.  Finally, here is something that can  make the addict feel better.  It's his own private pleasure.  Couple that with masturbation, and something very powerful is formed.  A cycle is created where the addict seeks to escape with increasing frequency into that realm of fantasy.  He starts to count down the minutes until he can get the next "fix."

The first time I saw pornography was in sixth grade.  A friend of mine, who was an excellent artist, copied some pictures out of his dad's Playboy and handed them out to people.  I was electrified.  Wow, a naked woman!  I stashed those pictures away and would look at them all the time.  I also started to try to find other pictures of naked women.  I looked in underwear ads, friends houses, everywhere.  I was fascinated and needed to see more.  You can see more of my early story in How I Became Addicted to Porn Pt 1.

So what is going on here?  Why is pornography so powerful?  According to Mark Kastleman (2005), "Pornography is powerful because it takes advantage of and taps into mental models with powerful emotional, biological and chemical connections throughout the brain and the rest of the body (p 18).  Our sexuality is something that is hardwired into all of us.  It is triggered at the onset of puberty and grows and evolves into something that allows us to have a close relationship with our spouse as well as to reproduce.  We have in each of us powerful feelings, emotions, and hormones that direct our sexuality.  After this consideration, it is no wonder that pornography and sex addiction are so powerful and seemingly unbeatable.

There is a very specific process we experience as we experience sexual arousal and ultimately, climax.  It is sometimes referred to as a "narrowing process", in which powerful hormones are released in our body that enable us to "tune out" practically everything around us.  Mark Kastleman refers to it as a funnel.  Think of a funnel with a wide top, a very narrow middle, and another wide end at the bottom.  It looks like an hourglass.  This is a diagram that represents that narrowing process as we move through sexual arousal.

The top of this funnel represents a wide perspective.  The addict is aware of everything around him, and is functioning normally.  The addict then moves into what Patrick Carnes calls preoccupation, where the addict is overcome with thoughts of sex.   This causes the addict to search, sometimes wildly, for sexual stimulation Carnes (2001).  When the addict begins to receive that sexual stimulation, commonly through use of pornography, he moves into the narrow part of the funnel.  This sexual stimulation can be attained through prostitutes, stalking, strip clubs, public indecency, etc.  He then moves into "addict time", where the addict is unaware of everything around him, including the passage of time Kastleman (2005).  I can remember looking at porn for hours on end, and after "coming to", realizing it was after midnight, and I had been there for six or more hours.

The narrowing process releases powerful chemicals in the brain such as Dopamine, Norepinephrine, Testosterone, Oxytocin, Vasopressin, and Serotonin.  These chemicals aid the brain in being able to focus narrowly, to experience greater pleasure and excitement, attachment, and a calming feeling after climax Kastleman (2005).  These chemicals create a powerful imprint on the brain, and creates a strong connection in the addict to pornography and it's relation to sexual climax.  It is while an addict is in the grip of the narrow view that he is completely immersed in his "dark side."  Kastleman refers to it as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  In the middle of the funnel, the addict is Mr. Hyde.  Think of tunnel vision on steroids.  That may not be a very clinical analysis, but it's the best I have for it.

The addict leaves the middle of the funnel usually after climax.  Immediately he returns to "real time" and enters into what Kastleman refers to as the hopeless dialogue.  This is when the addict feels shame, guilt, and self-loathing.  He usually vows to stop his behavior and promises to himself never to do it again.  He doesn't understand what he was just doing, or what he was thinking.  According to Kastleman (2005), "Once he descends into the Pornography Funnel, he gives up his ability to "think."  The overpowering flood of chemicals overrides his cognitive thought and reasoning abilities.  The frontal lobes-the logic center of the brain-are virtually shut down and the limbic system, which controls the pleasure/emotional centers of the brain, take over" (p 31).

At this point, we are going to take a break.  I will continue to discuss the escalation of sex addiction and how an addict seeks greater and more risky behavior to experience the same highs.  I will also discuss how porn addiction had been described as more addictive than heroin.  I hope you have found this informative.  Until next time...

References

Carnes, P.  (2001).  Out of the shadows:  Understanding sexual addiction.  Center City, 

     MN:  CompCare Publishers.

Kastleman, M. B.  (2005)  Healing hearts & mending minds.  Orem, UT:  LifeBalance 

     Institute, Inc.