It is available almost everywhere and in most cases, free of charge: pornography has become a mass phenomenon. This includes portals such as Youporn or Pornhub have contributed: it’s never been so easy to look up porn on the Internet.
For some people, this is exactly a Problem. Professor Dr. Rudolf Stark of the University of Giessen is estimated that around five per cent of men in Germany, under a so-called porn addiction, are suffering. Often do you watch several hours of the day porn and neglect about other activities. Strong has worked in his research group intensively with this topic. At the University of Giessen, research is also performed in an outpatient clinic.
Official Figures are not yet available
“Yet porn addiction is not a recognized diagnosis,” says Strong. But this could change soon, as the world health organization, WHO, in their new classification system to a corresponding key. When this is officially launched, is not yet, however, not yet clear.
Official Numbers for porn, there is no addiction yet. “We have yet to addiction is not a good Definition for Porn,” says Strong. The Transitions are fluid: Not everybody who watches hours of porn, therefore, has a Problem. “Also, the theme is occupied by very shame,” says the psychologist. Not all individuals speak openly about your addiction-like behavior.
Affected often neglect personal and professional responsibilities
Strong estimates that the Affected spend, on average, two to four hours a day watching porn. “For some, this is also significantly more time.” This has consequences: anyone Who spends a lot of time in front of the screen, the neglected, rarely professional and private obligations.
The pornography is so important that everything else is behind it and so problems are inevitable. As a result, the pressure rises to escape in porn.
“Sufferers also report that they feel driven,” says Strong. You decide not truly free to want to at this Moment watch porn, but rarely have the feeling that they have no other choice.
The click from one Video to the next is very easy
A Problem here is that Many of the portals are programmed to suggest similar Videos. Users can search as often for the next thrill: Maybe the next Video is even better? And so more time, as the users are aware of passes, from one Video to the next click. “Often it also happens that they consume always devianteres Material,” says Strong.
At the beginning of a porn addiction, the experience is often that the satisfaction brings by using pictures, not only sexual pleasure, but also relaxation. “Sometime it happens, the victims of the pornography use against boredom or frustration in the Job,” says the psychologist. You want to liberate, for example, from a negative mood, open the Browser and more and more often.
Pornography is everywhere and easily available
Many of those Affected have already tried several times to control their consumption, were not so successful for so long. “They report that they have felt very bad, and the internal pressure became greater and greater, until they finally gave in yet again,” says Strong.
The Problem is also that pornography is so easily available. “Basically, would help as with other addictions, abstinence is,” he says. However, this is difficult: Who is addicted to porn, should caps comes home to find his Internet connection and is not expected to browse the web with the phone mobile – nowadays hardly conceivable. Also self-built browsers disable for certain pages, you can easily handle it, is the experience of Strong. Too much pornography can also affect interpersonal relationships and intimacy,
Therapy aims, Seeks to oppose something
Many therapies, therefore, have a different approach. It is a question of porn addiction, something to oppose, to take your of great importance. “We question, for example, the leisure time,” says Strong. The objective is, the activities that previously made fun of, resume, and maintain relationships with other people or rebuild.
It is also important to treat other diseases. Some people flee, for example, in pornography, because they have a social phobia and the contact with other people prefer to avoid. “Then it goes into a therapy, of course, also about these Fears,” says Strong.
Porn change the brain
Where, however, Concerned find help? “In practice, it has to do with Porn not so often,” says Strong. In principle, it works but it is very similar to other addictions: The reward center in the brain is activated by the consumption of porn. In some individuals the has no other significant effect. In a small percentage of people can develop, but an Addiction, they demand more and more incentives. The have also confirmed with MRI, where porn was shown.
“Ultimately, the most established psychotherapists are looking for good contact at a Porn,” says Strong.
Affected can turn to with their questions, but also to the University of Gießen, under the mail address sexsucht@vt-gießen.de.
This article was Berentzen written by Maria
