Does porn mess with your brain? Does it affect how you view the opposite sex as well as the act of sex? Or is it harmless and fun?
Watch this TEDx video; it’s around 15 minutes long, but I promise you will not be bored. Science shows porn messes with your brain. If you don’t care much about your brain, you may care more about the “other” body parts porn is damaging:
This talk was given by Gary Wilson, a longtime anatomy, physiology, and pathology teacher and founder of yourbrainonporn.com, a great resource filled with scientific facts as well as helpful videos on porn’s many damaging consequences
Addicted to Internet porn? Use Covenant Eyes on your computers and mobile devices. Use my affiliate link and get your first month free.
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Founding Pastor at Mosaic Church
Noah is the founding pastor of Mosaic Church, a multi-ethnic church in urban Grand Rapids, MI. He is a grad of Grand Rapids Theological Seminary.
He is:
Author of Beyond the Battle: A man's guide to his identity in Christ in an oversexualized world
Host of the The Flip Side Podcast
Join an online men's small group led by Noah and team at BeyondTheBattle.net
He is:
Author of Beyond the Battle: A man's guide to his identity in Christ in an oversexualized world
Host of the The Flip Side Podcast
Join an online men's small group led by Noah and team at BeyondTheBattle.net
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Great video, very informative and convincing.
Thanks KyBux, I thought so too. It’s refreshing (and super helpful) to see someone doing hard scientific research on this subject.
Noah, seemed like the best place to leave this. Learned so much from your blog especially this brain/porn connection. Thinking from reading further that the same brain stuff happens with more than porn. Beyond porn, spend crazy amounts of time on the internet. It seems like a prison sometimes same as porn. . . will be on for hours and 2 minutes after going offline will find some reason/excuse for going back on. Know I’ve left lots of/ too many comments on your blog. . . do similar on 3 or 4 other blogs too. Funny thing is 5 months ago wasn’t following any blog. Before that followed lots of news sites and before that it was sports sites. Know something’s off when I’m leaving comments on your blog at 3am.
New to the dopamine/brain stuff, and don’t fully understand yet, but thinking that the excess of the porn and the time wasted on the internet aren’t so far apart. Find myself now questioning how much of my Christianity is dopamine based. . . if that’s the right way to say it. Know that sounds weird but the same way I’d spend hours at a time on porn and the internet, would do the same thing with bible study. Wondering if all that was just me working some pleasure mechanism. . . maybe it was just an escape when it would have been better to do something for others. Don’t get me wrong, good stuff from studying the bible. But not a good place to be to have your head in a book when maybe God wants you to have your heart out to people.
All to say, I’m heading out for awhile. From what I read, it takes 30-40 days to reset the brain to different ways of doing things. So I’m shutting down my use of the net for awhile. Couple of things man. . . first, big thanks for not shutting down talking about the gay stuff, means a lot. Second, didn’t want to just vanish and leave you with why’s (read your post on insecurity). Last, would appreciate prayer. . . don’t get all the brain stuff and not sure how this plays out with needing to do business email but seems right to follow this. May God continue to give you grace in Christ for ministry at Crossroads and beyond.
I will pray for you Alan! I think fasting from things like Internet use is a great idea.
Unfortunately, I recall this particular study being debunked. The human brain is incredibly plastic throughout the entirety of the human lifespan, though it does decline with age, but it is far more plastic than this study would suggest.
I am 21, and have noticed I have a hard time reaching climax during sex, and while I am fully on board with a low-to-zero porn lifestyle as I noticed, but ignored, my earlier symptoms of my sexual dysfunction – as I was making a short sex video of my girlfriend at the time, I noticed I responded better to the 2D image on the viewfinder of the camera than I did to the the sensations and 3D visuals. Though I regret this, I do have to say the situation is not nearly as dire as the TEDx (Not at all affiliated with TED talks, just an FYI) talk makes it out to be. Now, don’t say I’m looking for a rationalization, I’ve come to view pornography as willing cuckoldry at worst and voyeurism at best (Since you are getting off to other people having sex, while you feebly masturbate).
I hope my semi-dissenting voice isn’t straight up forbidden or removed.
That said, as a person who has made recoveries from various substance addictions, I do understand the hard-line approach – for instance, while many alcoholics simply can’t touch another drink without relapsing, IIRC around a third of alcoholics can indeed drink and control their intake (I happen to be blessed enough to fall within that category, but I may be wrong about the precise percentage, though I have the feeling it was between 10-33%), though by and large, it is much more responsible for an alcoholic to never drink again, and prudent for a friend or associate of a former alcoholic to avoid tempting them, than it is to risk discovering the person to be in the two thirds (I’m going off the 1:2 ratio here) who simply cannot indulge without being able to control themselves. Hell, there’s a reason the Allan Carr (I hope this isn’t seen as marketing, I assume his work is well known enough to not warrant silencing me for referencing him) system for smoking has such good results is his ability to make a smoker vilify being someone who smokes so smoothly, and maintain a hard-line attitude towards remaining smoke free.
Hi Steve, sorry for my delay in response, I’ve been pretty swamped recently. Thanks for your comment. You and I are approaching the design of sex from two different worldviews so there is a bit of disconnect, though I’m encouraged by some of the conclusions you have made. I think the reason pornography is damaging is because it goes against how God designed us to view women, view love and view sex. So for me, any sort of pornography is what I would identify as sin. I don’t hold this over non-Christians because non-Christians haven’t agreed to follow the Bible, but it would apply to me as a Christian since I do. Now often the church is known for saying things like “don’t look at porn” or “don’t have sex outside of marriage” without giving any reason why. It’s a simply “because the Bible says so” rather than explaining God’s design behind it. I think when anyone, Christian or non, experiences heartache, guilt, etc from pornography or a sexual experience, they are experiencing what it feels to break God’s design. I guess I have two points to this…one is that I don’t think anyone can be convinced not to look at porn from statistics or research or if it affects ED or not–I think that this sort of convincing only comes from a heart change of following Jesus and from there, there is a deeper motivation and understanding to abstain from porn. The second point is that, different from alcohol, I don’t think porn should even be looked at it moderation. While moderation is definitely better than being into it really deep, it’s still warping and conditioning our minds to what love and sex were creating by God to be. I’m honestly not trying to preach at you, just trying to explain where I’m coming from. This post I did on God’s Recipe for Sex might help clarify further.
Good video!
Thanks you for the help!
Gary Wilson is not a professor and has conducted no research of any kind. He has no publications in any scientific journal. He actually has no college degree. Please update his profile appropriately.
Hi there, while you wrote it in a very rude tone, I appreciate you correcting my facts about Gary Wilson–and I apologize for the incorrect info. I updated with the most accurate info I could find. Next time, try to be a little more polite and conversational, that’d be great!