Porn and Cocaine – Sex and Relationship Repair

Dr. Robert Weiss, LCSW, CSAT

As discussed in a previous article (hyperlink), humans have a pleasure center in the brain that provides rewards (feelings of pleasure generated by the release and receipt of dopamine) for behaviors that help us survive as individuals and as a species. For example, cooperation, food, belonging, and sex are all behaviors necessary for survival. Engaging in these behaviors produces natural rewards that motivate us to do things that allow us and our species to survive.

Another useful neurobiological piece of information is that addiction leaves discernible “pathways” in the brain. Over time, as addiction progresses, these pathways are strengthened, and scientists can tell if a person is addicted simply by looking at an fMRI scan of the brain. The addict doesn’t even have to be actively engaged in their addiction for an observer to know they are an addict. We can even tell what type of addict the person is. If they’re an alcoholic, we can tell by looking at their brain. If they’re an opiate addict, we can tell. If they’re a cocaine addict, we can tell that, too.

But we may be wrong about a cocaine addict, because that person may also be a porn addict. In other words, the brains of a cocaine addict and a porn addict are relatively indistinguishable. This means that the neurochemical effects of cocaine and the neurochemical effects of porn addiction are identical. We will discuss the significance of this fact later. For now, just put aside the idea that the effects of cocaine and porn are strikingly similar from a neurobiological perspective.

Now let’s talk about dopamine, the neurochemical most directly associated with the formation and maintenance of addiction. Dopamine action occurs in a part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens, which is often referred to as the reward center. When the reward center of our brain is activated, we feel pleasure. This occurs primarily in response to positive, uplifting activities, such as eating, hanging out with friends, and having sex, motivating us to engage in these behaviors and keep ourselves and our species alive.

Our baseline dopamine level (an arbitrary number neuroscientists have put in there for convenience) is 100. When we are at rest and not much is happening, good or bad, our dopamine level is 100. When we eat a good meal, our dopamine level goes up to around 120. Hanging out with friends gets us up to around 130. Eating a good meal with friends gets us up even further. At orgasm, we hit the top of our natural reward scale: 200.

• Baseline: 100
• Food: 120
• Time spent with friends: 130
• High: 200

Unfortunately, addictive drugs (especially stimulants like nicotine, cocaine, and methamphetamine) and addictive behaviors hijack the dopamine reward system, potentially causing dopamine to be released in amounts higher than we would get from natural rewards. While neuroscientists have not yet measured increases in addictive behaviors like pornography and gambling, they have measured increases in the most common stimulant substances.

• Nicotine: 220
• Cocaine: 350
• Methamphetamine: 1,300

That’s right, nicotine triggers more dopamine than an orgasm! Is it any wonder that people have such a hard time quitting? Of course, meth triggers dopamine, which is why it’s widely considered the most difficult and impossible drug to quit. (It also eats away at your teeth—the hardest substance in the human body—so imagine the effects on soft tissues like the brain, liver, and kidneys.)

Which brings us back to cocaine. As mentioned earlier, fMRI scans show that the brains of cocaine addicts and porn addicts are virtually indistinguishable. From this, we can conclude that the high from porn is very close to the high from cocaine—a dopamine surge of 350. Pretty amazing!

Interestingly, the pleasure porn provides to users (350) is even more intense than the high they seek from porn (200). In fact, many porn addicts describe the high at the end of a porn binge as a letdown. This lends credence to the idea that sex and porn addictions are not about sex per se. Rather, they are about the extremely intense anticipatory pleasure that comes with sexual fantasies—a high comparable to the high from cocaine.

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