- Date posted
- 1y
QUESTION
I see many people here talking about porn like it's a drug. They are likely saying they are clean from it or something like that. Is porn a bad thing? And if yes, why?
I see many people here talking about porn like it's a drug. They are likely saying they are clean from it or something like that. Is porn a bad thing? And if yes, why?
Everyone will have a different perspective on porn. Personally, it was damaging to me. It is addictive (and some drugs are more addictive than others). Porn has been even more addictive than the drugs I used to take. Sex is a natural part of being human. But porn takes it and corrupts it, makes those involved in it objects, and we, the viewers are getting an experience that skews our experience of sex. Plus, nowadays, porn is available to those who are quite young. I started avidly viewing it as a kid, like 9 years old. Not only that, the kinds of things that get sexualized today are quite extensive. It’s *unhealthy.*
@graydust Porn devalues sex and people and makes them cheap.
My advice is to stay away from the weird porn.
It can be if you don’t limit it.
Porn isn’t bad, drugs aren’t bad, what’s bad is addiction, obsession, and loss of control
It’s all about your own personal relationship with it…you gotta do some soul searching
Watching porn is not a bad thing! it is a natural human thing to do. However, it can be potentially become a bad thing once someone starts becoming addicted or obsessed with watching it. Watching porn causes your brain to produce dopamine, which causes feelings of satisfaction and pleasure. Neurodivergent/mentally ill people are more prone to developing addictions due to chemical imbalances involving dopamine, serotonin, and other hormones. Therefore porn addiction is not uncommon amongst mentally ill folks. Also many people don't realize they have a porn addiction because they think of addiction as something that happens only with drug abuse.
Also for people with sexual orientation ocd, watching porn that correlates with their sexuality may be a compulsion to prove that their intrusive thoughts are wrong. Compulsions in themselves can feel addictive at times 😭
For some people, porn is so addictive that it becomes like an intrusive thought. You think of people unintentionally in sexual ways because of the way it wires your brain. It is so easily accessible that it tricks you in a way to look at people’s bodies and movements. Very surface level thinking. I’ve noticed when I completely detox myself of porn that I have a healthier perception of people around me and am a lot less judgemental. I also have wayyyy less sexual OCD
I don't think pork is for everyone. I don't like watching it for many reasons. Plus it'll probably create intrusive thoughts for me. But if people want to watch it that's their own personal reasons. I just feel grossed out by it and like I said I don't need anymore intrusive thoughts floating around in my brain. I'm dealing with enough
People get addicted to it
The take on porn being bad is more of a personal subjective thing in my opinion. In my opinion and from experience, I think it does more harm than good but others may argue that it serves a purpose. I think it can be very addictive like a drug and have a hold on people who struggle with getting away with it, like I have in the past for many years. Porn can greatly affect people and they don't like it, and that's okay. Porn also doesn't bother other people that much and they seem content with it, and that's fine.
Sorry if this is a bit of an odd post, but I’m wondering if there are any girls out there that have specifically struggled with shame around watching porn? A lot of my real-event ocd stems from watching that kind of content in the past, and for some reason it feels particularly taboo as a woman. As a young teen, I saw some genuinely disturbing things, and I think a lot of that was to do with having unrestricted access to the internet. However, despite lots of people telling me “that’s normal teen curiosity” it just never feels like it applies to me, and that I’m genuinely just a sexual deviant. I think because that kind of content is so graphic and overstimulating it’s really stuck in my brain, and I just wish I could turn back the clock and switch off the computer. I’ve recently been struggling with doing typical ‘girly’ stuff because I feel tainted and gross, and I just want to get back to feeling myself again.
I’m really struggling right now. My mind is racing and I’m panicking about the content that I watched in the past because I don’t have a way to ‘prove’ that it was safe and consensual. I stupidly caved in and googled “what happens if an accidentally saw illegal porn” and I ended up making my anxiety so much worse. What if the images I saw in the past had underage people in them? Am I going to jail? Will my ip address be tracked? My brain is making all sorts of scenarios up and they feel so real. At this point I don’t know if I’m a bad person or not, I just feel like something terrible is about to happen. Although I know I’d never intentionally look for that kind of stuff there’s still a chance that I could have seen things without realising, and I actually don’t know what to do. I’m in total panic mode
Being exposed to taboo p*rn as young as first grade ruined my life and now ocd is making me pay for it. I have so much guilt for being a child/teen and looking at taboo stuff, and it was all fictional or anime or whatever but it was still so so gross. and I didn't realize It because I had been used to it at so young 🫠 I think what haunts me most is when I was a kid/young teen (like 12-14ish) and didn't have access to p*rn I'd imagine stuff similar to what I'd seen in the art. I can't even believe I'd imagine scenarios involving kid characters or whatever because it had been so normalized to me and I assumed it was normal since it was fiction. I'm 23 now so it's been a decade since I've done anything like that and I've never had the urge to since but still. I've NEVER been attracted to kids or had any urges or anything ever, even when I was addicted. The thought makes me want to vomit, I'd rather die than associate anything sexual with kids/minors and I think people who groom or assault kids are vile. But I still feel like the fact that I imagined stuff similar to the things I read sometimes when I was young is proof I'm a p*do. I don't think people would believe me if I said I'm not. I just feel like I don't deserve to live or that if I do, I'm living a lie. I know 'I was a kid too' but even when I was 13/14 I read/imagined stuff with characters younger than me because I thought it was normal. I'm so disgusted. I've had this theme for so long I'm starting to wonder if ocd is right. I feel too ashamed to tell my therapist.
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