Porn Addiction: Understanding tolerance and

Dr. Robert Weiss, LCSW, CSAT

No doubt, internet porn is Super irritant. I mean, porn is not a natural phenomenon, its ability to stimulate users is beyond the norm. In other words, digital porn is artificial, and it brings more intensity than nature usually provides.

For easy-to-understand examples, consider Coca-Cola. These leaves are chewed by workers in Brazilian hills and elsewhere because they are a mild stimulant when they work. Chewing leaves can help workers deal with physical fatigue at high altitudes, but workers won’t become very tall or addicted. But when these leaves are perfected into cocaine, this mild stimulant becomes a highly addictive artificial super stimulant.

The two signs of all super stimuli (material and behavior) are related phenomena of tolerance and escalation. Tolerance occurs when drugs or behaviors begin to lose their neurochemical effects (the brain can be said to adapt to external stimuli by reducing volume). It escalates when users recognize the effects of tolerability and use more or more intense versions of drugs or behavior so that they can again reach the heights they seek.

Using substances, tolerance and upgrades are relatively easy to identify and understand. For example, when a person first uses an anesthetic, it is almost unnecessary. Some beer can make people taller. Then, as the drinking lasts, they may need six packs to achieve the same effect. Online, they may switch to hard drinking or illegal drugs because beer won’t take them where they want it. Then one day they found themselves in a dark alley with needles on their arms and wondered how they got there.

Tolerance and porn escalation can be just as dramatic, although this is often not as obvious to users or those who love them. Usually, early porn use tends to be relatively vanilla, which is enough to generate the intensity and wakeup required by the user. Ultimately, Forbearance is launched, requiring more porn and stronger versions of porn. Then, one day, porn users realize they are using images that violate their personal values, which seems disgusting when they first experience porn.

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