On the subject of pornography addiction, Gerry writes:

"I have clocked thousands of hours helping people break free of porn addiction. Porn addiction, along with its best friend, masturbation, is the most common form of sex addiction. It has often been called the crack-cocaine of the internet. Many people in our society will claim that porn viewing is "normal" not realizing the devastating effects pornography has on the brain and on relationships.

For example, scientists believe there are about a dozen different neurochemicals involved in shaping our sexuality. The first one is dopamine. When dopamine is flowing in the pleasure centers of the brain, people feel good. People are constantly under the influence of dopamine because it creates cravings (both good and bad) and reinforces pleasurable feelings (both good and bad). On the good side, dopamine motivates people to eat, drink, and do creative things like play music. On the not so good side, pornography viewing releases unusual amounts of dopamine in the brain and this produces desires for more and more. In addition to dopamine, enkephalins and endorphins are released during sexual activity. These neurochemicals have the same molecular structure as opiate drugs like codeine and morphine. So when people look at pornography or fantasize sexually while masturbating, these naturally-occurring painkillers are being released into the brain. They numb the brain and create a sense of euphoria. The problem with opiates is they are tolerance-inducing so people experience an increasing intensity of behaviors over time. People with porn addiction will experience a progression from soft core, to medium core to hardcore pornography. People can feel this tolerance effect in one sitting with porn where they will browse from bikini pictures to naked pictures to XXX videos. From there, they can be drawn into all types of hardcore, perverse or even illegal pornography.

Another important aspect of understanding the devastating effects of porn addiction is to realize the power of classical conditioning. Have you ever heard of Pavlov’s dogs? Pavlov was a psychologist who experimented with dogs. He had a dog, some food, and a bell. When the dog saw the food (a reward) he would salivate (an unconditioned response). Pavlov began to ring the bell (an unconditioned stimulus) and immediately following this action, he fed the dog some food. He would ring the bell, feed the dog, ring the bell, feed the dog, ring the bell, and feed the dog over and over again. Eventually he rang the bell without feeding the dog and the dog would salivate at just the sound of the bell. Through repetitive pairings, the bell had now become a conditioned stimulus and the salivation was now a conditioned response.”

There is strong evidence that the same thing happens with our sexuality and contributes to porn addiction. There are many unconditioned stimuli in our environment including images, sounds, smells, touches and tastes. An unconditioned response would be sexual arousal. The rewards are sexual stimulation, the neurochemical rush and orgasm. Whatever is occurring in the environment at the time of sexual arousal and especially at the point of orgasm is potentially what the brain will attach to. It is like sex glue. We can condition ourselves to become sexually glued to images, sounds, smells, touches and tastes. Repetitive orgasms matched up with certain stimuli shapes sexual tastes and preferences. So for example, the average male begins to masturbate at age 12 and he will do it about 4 times per week. That is 208 times per year which totals just over 2000 sexual reinforcements by the time the young man is in his early twenties. Most men are fantasizing about women or looking at naked pictures of women while they experience orgasm. The brain glues itself to the female shape and appearance. The female exterior becomes a conditioned stimulus. This is why most men engage in ‘rubber-necking.’ They constantly notice women in their environment. They will see a beautiful woman walking down the street and they will lock and linger on her and scan her body. The woman is a conditioned stimulus (the bell) and the stare, scan and sexual arousal are conditioned responses (the salivation).

Scientists have linked neurochemicals like norepinephrine to this classical conditioning process. It’s an excitement, thrill and rush chemical involved in storing emotional memories. Whatever a person is looking at or thinking about while being sexual is seared into the memory by norepinephrine and attaches to the sexual arousal template. Neuroscience is demonstrating how people become glued to whatever they are experiencing in their environment at the moment of sexual stimulation. As a result, people become attached to things they never really wanted to become attached to in the first place. For example, we have a new commonly-occurring condition known as ‘porn-induced erectile dysfunction.’ Men, as young as twenty, have masturbated so much to porn that their brain glues to their hand and pornography, so much so, they cannot get an erection with a real person. Porn addiction leads to unhealthy neurological gluing.

So people have to ask themselves, what are they gluing to during sexual activity. Are they gluing to pornography? Are they gluing to fantasy? Are they gluing to multiple partners? Or are they gluing to their spouse? People can become glued to many different images, sounds, smells, touches and tastes in such a way that the result is a sexually fractured brain. This makes it difficult to remain sexually attracted to their partner. Is it any wonder that so many marriages are fraught with intimacy issues?

The good news is that I offer a program which patches up all the sexual fracturing and restores healthy sexuality to marriages. You can break free of porn addiction. Call or text 204-292-5058 to book your first counselling session." Gerry Pettyjohn MA, CSRT

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"I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself" (Exodus 19:4).