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20 christian counseling today VOL. 22 NO. 1
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explaining why people progress to more explicit and graphic
pornography for stimulation.
In order to help prefrontal functioning, it is important to
starve the old neural pathway and create new ones. This is
why abstinence from viewing pornography is so important.
The “rest” from viewing helps to strengthen prefrontal
control. The brain has to rewire and needs time to do so.
The use of pornography changes the brain not only
chemically, but anatomically. The result can be cerebral
dysfunction known as hypofrontal syndromes. Put simply,
these syndromes damage the braking systems of the
brain.7 This results in little willpower to regulate desire, as
the prefrontal cortex erodes and executive functioning is
weakened (disinhibition). The person becomes compulsive.
As a result, impulse control is too weak to battle the cravings.
Neurologists know these syndromes from their work
with stroke, tumors, and trauma. Over time, a series of MRI
scans show that these syndromes result in a loss of frontal
control systems noted by atrophy in the frontal lobes. What
is interesting is that these hypofrontal states indicate the same
symptoms as addiction—impulsivity, compulsivity, emotional
lability, and impaired judgment.
In their work with pedophiles, researchers Schiffer,
Peschel, Pul, Forsting and Leygraf (2007) conclude that a
sexual compulsion correlates with anatomical changes in the
brain.8 Specifically, pedophiles showed decreased gray matter
volume in the ventral striatum. Basically, hypofrontality
results in the loss of impulse control and mastery of passions
is lost because willpower is a function of the prefrontal lobes
of the brain. However, 2 Corinthians 12:9 reminds us, “…
My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect
in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my
weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
In the last decade, molecular explanations for addiction
have emerged that are helping to contribute to our
understanding of brain function. These explanations focus
on the roles of CREB (Cyclic AMP-responsive element-
binding protein), DeltaFosB, and glutamate. Basically, when
dopamine floods the reward system, an increase in the
production of cyclic AMP (cAMP) is produced, and releases
CREB (a protein that regulates gene expression). This results
in the release of dynorphin that dampens the reward system
and leads to tolerance. DeltaFosB is involved in the sensitivity
to addiction9 and glutamate is associated with the learning
component.10
This process helps explain what Paul proclaims in Romans
7:15, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not
do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” This brain
process of the compulsion to seek and use, the loss of control,
and the emergence of a negative emotional state when access is
prevented is beginning to be explained by neuroscience.
The good news is that God built the capacity for change
into our brains. Change is possible when one starves these
negative and destructive pathways and rewiring occurs. Using
the power of the Holy Spirit in us, we can change our brains
through the use of distraction when we feel the urge to use
pornography. We can also avoid external triggers that have
been carved into the neural circuits of the brain, substitute
other behavior to respond to the internal triggers of loneliness,
anxiety, and negative influences, and take captive the fantasy
that begins to develop in the mind. Starving the brain
and meditating on things that are true, noble, right, pure,
lovely, and admirable change the brain whether we classify
pornography as addiction or not. ✠
LINDA MINTLE, PH.D., LCSW, LMFT, is the
Chair of Behavioral Health at Liberty University
College of Osteopathic Medicine in Lynchburg,
Virginia. Dr. Mintle is the author of 19 books, a
national news contributor, and hosts her own Web site
) and radio show on Faith Radio.
Endnotes
1 Love, T., Laier, C., Brand, M., Hatch, L., & Hajela, R. (2015).
Neuroscience of Internet pornography addiction: A review and
update. Behavioral Sciences, 5, 388-433.
2 Prause, N., Steele, V., Staley, C., Sabatinelli, D., & Hajcak, G.
(2015). Modulation of late positive potentials by sexual images
in problem users and controls inconsistent with porn addiction.
Biological Psychology, Vol. 109, pp. 192-199.
3 Nestler, E.J. (2005). Is there a common molecular pathway for
addiction? Nature Neuroscience 9:1445-9. [PubMed].
4 Pitchers, K.K., Frohmader, K.S., Vialou, V., Mouzon, E., Nestler,
E.J., Lehman, M.N., et al. (2010). DeltaFosB in the nucleus
accumbens is critical for reinforcing effects of sexual reward.
Genes, Brain, and Behavior 9:831-40. [PMC free article]
[PubMed].
5 Volkow, N.D., Wang, G.J., Fowler, J.S., Tomasi, D., & Telang,
F. (2011). Addiction: Beyond dopamine reward circuitry. Proc.
National Academy of Sciences 108, 15037-15042.
6 Egan, V., & Parmar, R. (2013). Dirty habits? Online pornography
use, personality, obsessionality, and compulsivity, Journal of Sex
and Marital Therapy. Vol. 39, Issue 5.
7 Hilton, D.L., & Watts, C. (2011). Pornography addiction: A
neuroscience perspective. Surgical Neurology International, 2,
19.
8 Schiffer, B., Peschel, T., Paul, T., Gizewski, E., Forsting, M.,
Leygraf, N., et al. (2007). Structural brain abnormalities in the
frontostriatal system and cerebellum in pedophilia. Journal of
Psychiatric Research 41:754-62. [PubMed].
9 Nestler, E.J. (2012). Transcriptional mechanisms of drug
addiction. Clinical Psychopharmacology and Neuroscience 10,
136-143.
10 Kalivas, P.W., & O’Brien, C. (2007). Drug addiction as a
pathology of staged neuroplasticity. Neuropsychopharmacology,
33, 166-180.