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christian counseling today
VOL. 22 NO. 1
The human libido is not a hardwired biological urge, but
one that can be changed by our behaviors and experiences.
Sexual tastes can be acquired. Our brains were created to
respond to sexual stimulation in a specific way. During a
sexual encounter, the neurotransmitter, dopamine, is released,
leading to a sharpened sense of focus and sexual craving.
Dopamine is responsible for giving us a thrill when we
accomplish something as it connects neurons in the brain.
Dopamine also plays a central role in addiction, where it
is triggered without the goal accomplishment, a change that is
of concern. Pornography alters this reward system and brings
a compulsion to seek out the activity in order to trigger the
dopamine discharge. The release of dopamine helps reinforce
the memory of the experience so the brain remembers where
to return for the next encounter.
Behaviors like pornography use reinforce the reward,
motivation, and memory circuits of the brain that are part
of any addiction.
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The thrill of the dopamine surge while
viewing pornography consolidates neural connections.
Because of the similarity to other addictions, the American
Society of Addiction Medicine expanded their definition
of addictions to include both behaviors and substances.
Pornography is included on that list because of the
dysfunction to brain circuitry that leads to biological,
psychological, social, and spiritual manifestations.
Dr. Valerie Voon, a neuropsychiatrist at the University of
Cambridge, is one of many researchers exploring the question
of pornography classification. Using brain scans, Voon
studied whether subjects who viewed pornography showed
the same brain activity as substance users. In the 2013 British
documentary, “Porn on the Brain,” she concluded that the
brain activity of habitual pornography users looks the same
as those of alcoholics, but was quick to add that more studies
were needed before we could classify pornography use as
addictive.
Not everyone agrees that those who regularly use
pornography are truly addicted in the classical sense of the
definition. Research neuroscientists at UCLA published a
study in
Biological Psychology
concluding the opposite—that
the activity of the brain on porn looks different than other
addictions and should be treated differently. What they
observed, using brain wave monitoring (EEG), was decreased
brain activity when viewing porn—the opposite of what drug
addiction does to the brain, at least in terms of this electrical
impulse measure.
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However, their findings are problematic
in that the study lacked a clear hypothesis in terms of which
addiction model was being tested.
In a landmark paper written by Dr. Eric Nestler
(2005), Chairman of the Department of Neuroscience and
Director of the Friedman Brain Institute at the Mount Sinai
Medical Center in New York, he describes any addiction
as a dysfunction of the mesolimbic reward center of the