Table of contents:
- Does addiction to pornography cause erectile dysfunction?
- The relationship between pornography and erectile dysfunction
- 1. Pornography reduces sex drive
- 2. Pornography makes you immune to stimuli
- 3. Increase anxiety and insecurity
How many times do you consume pornographic material or reading material in a week? Is it still reasonable or is it too much? Be careful if you are addicted to pornography. The problem is, experts warn that you are at risk for erectile dysfunction or impotence if you are addicted to pornography. How come, huh? How big is the risk? Check out the full answer below!
Does addiction to pornography cause erectile dysfunction?
Erectile dysfunction or impotence is a sexual disorder in which the penis cannot harden or tighten (achieve an erection). To achieve an erection, the penis needs a heavy and heavy flow of blood. There are several causes of erectile dysfunction. Among them are health problems such as heart disease, obesity and diabetes.
Erectile dysfunction can also result from nervousness, anxiety, and excess stress. Medically, addiction to pornography does not directly cause erectile dysfunction. The reason is, frequent viewing of pornography in the long term will not obstruct blood flow to the penis.
However, experts claim that addiction to pornographic films can indeed increase your risk of experiencing erectile dysfunction. This is because an erection is not only regulated by blood flow to the penis, but also by the brain. Addiction to pornography will change your brain system so that erectile function is impaired.
The relationship between pornography and erectile dysfunction
If addiction to pornography does not directly cause erectile dysfunction, then what is the link between pornography and erectile dysfunction? The following is the explanation from the experts.
1. Pornography reduces sex drive
A clinical psychologist and therapist from the United States (US), Nikki Martinez explains how watching pornographic films actually extinguish a person's desire. Masturbation due to pornography can release and satisfy your passion without actually having sex with a partner.
If you masturbate too often while enjoying pornography, your body will feel that it has had enough of that sexual desire. When it comes time for you to have sex with your partner, you actually don't have any more desires. As a result, you lose your passion for love. This fact was also successfully proven in a study by the Italian Society of Andrology and Sexual Medicine in 2011.
2. Pornography makes you immune to stimuli
Addiction to watching porn can also make you become insensitive to sexual stimulation. Described by a psychologist from Morningside Recovery Center in the US, Elizabeth Waterman, the body will produce an abundance of the hormone dopamine when watching pornography. Dopamine will be read by the brain as a signal for sexual stimulation.
However, because your body is frequently getting a supply of dopamine, a special receptor protein in the brain that is responsible for capturing signals from hormones becomes immune. The receptors also need more dopamine before the effect can be felt. As a result, when you have sex or masturbate, it becomes difficult for you to get aroused, especially until the penis is erect hard enough. Even though you have received quite intense sexual stimulation, for example when foreplay with a partner.
3. Increase anxiety and insecurity
Dr. David B. Samadi, a urologist from Lenox Hill Hospital in the US, explains that excessive consumption of pornography actually makes a person anxious. The reason is, pornography is much different from reality. Your expectations of sex become unrealistic, so you don't get the satisfaction of real sex. You also feel anxious if you can not live up to expectations or orgasm like in porn movies. In fact, anxiety is one of the causes of erectile dysfunction.
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