Mark Reid, Marriage & Family Therapist
626-737-8700
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THE HAZARDS OF PORN

Problematic Porn Use Videos
Adapted from The Porn Trap: The Essential Guide to Overcoming Problems Caused by Pornography by Wendy Maltz
https://healthysex.com/
SOCIAL ISOLATION
  • Withdrawing from social activity
  • Developing a secret life
  • Lying to and deceiving others
  • Becoming self-centered
  • Choosing porn over people
MOOD DISORDERS
  • Feeling irritable and defensive
  • Feeling angry and depressed
  • Experiencing mood swings
  • Pervasive anxiety and fearfulness
  • Feeling powerless in relation to porn
SEXUALLY OBJECTIFYING OTHER PEOPLE
  • Treating people as sexual objects
  • Judging people primarily in terms of their sexual body parts
  • Disrespecting other peoples' needs for privacy and safety
  • Being insensitive about sexually harmful behavior
ENGAGING IN RISKY AND DANGEROUS BEHAVIOR
  • Accessing porn at work or school
  • Accessing child porn
  • Participating in degrading, abusive, violent, or criminal sexual activity
  • Producing, distributing, or selling porn
  • Engaging in physically unsafe and harmful sex
UNHAPPY INTIMATE PARTNER
  • Relationship is marred by dishonesty and deception about porn use
  • Partner views porn use as sexual infidelity
  • Partner is increasingly upset and angry
  • Partner feels sexually inadequate and threatened by the porn
  • Relationship deteriorates due to lack of trust and respect
  • Loss of emotional closeness and mutual sexual enjoyment
SEXUAL PROBLEMS
  • Loss of interest in sex with a real partner
  • Difficulty becoming aroused and/or achieving orgasm without porn
  • Intrusive thoughts, fantasies, and images of porn during sex
  • Becoming sexually demanding and/or rough in sex
  • Having difficulty connecting love and caring with sex
  • Feeling sexually out of control and compulsive
  • Increased interest in risky, degrading, and/or illegal sex
  • Growing dissatisfaction with sex
SELF-LOATHING
  • Feeling disconnected from personal values, beliefs, and goals
  • Loss of personal integrity
  • Damaged self-esteem
  • Persistent feelings of guilt and shame
  • Feeling controlled by porn
NEGLECTING IMPORTANT AREAS OF LIFE
  • Personal health (sleep deprivation, exhaustion, and poor self-care)
  • Family life (neglecting spouse, children, and household responsibilities)
  • Work and school pursuits (reduced focus, productivity, and advancement
  • Finances (spending on porn depletes resources)
  • Spirituality (alienation from faith and spiritual practices)
ADDICTION TO PORN
  • Craving porn intensely and persistently
  • Difficulty controlling thoughts of, exposure to, and use of porn
  • Inability to discontinue porn use despite negative consequences
  • Repeated failures to sop using porn
  • Requiring more extreme content or intense exposure to porn to get the same effect (habituation symptoms)
  • Experiencing discomfort and irritability when deprived of porn (withdrawal symptoms)
CBSN Originals presents "Speaking Frankly: Porn"
With smartphones and wireless internet, gaining access to pornography has never been easier for young people. But experts say early exposure to porn can "rewire" young people’s brains, distort their views of sexual behavior, and even contribute to dating violence. Now, educators are trying to find ways to teach kids how to think critically about porn to help them foster healthier relationships. 
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How Porn Is Messing with Your Manhood
Finding a needle in a haystack would be easier than finding an adolescent male who hasn’t seen online porn. Surveys indicate the average boy watches roughly two hours of porn every week with porn viewing becoming common by age 15.
The most popular porn site—PornHub--reported that the average Millennial porn session lasts 9 minutes, while the average age young people have sex for the first time is 17 years old. This means the average boy has had about 1,400 porn sessions prior to having real life sex. So why aren’t more people asking what kind of effects porn is having on these young viewers?

When Did Porn Become Sex Ed?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fewer than half of high schools and only a fifth of middle schools teach all 16 components the agency recommends as essential to sex education. Only 23 states mandate sex ed at all; 13 require it to be medically accurate.
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Five Ways to Avoid Being “His Porn”
A recent Time Magazine article, Porn and the Threat to Virility, reports that “a growing number of young men are convinced that their sexual responses have been sabotaged because their brains were virtually marinated in porn when they were adolescents.” When young men begin speaking out about the downside of porn, it’s time to take note.

Growing Up in Pornland: Girls Have Had It with Porn Conditioned Boys
If there are still any questions about whether porn has an impact on young people's sexual attitudes and behaviours, perhaps it's time to listen to young people themselves. Girls and young women describe boys pressuring them to provide acts inspired by the porn they consume routinely. Girls tell of being expected to put up with things they don't enjoy.
How pornography can impact on us and our relationships
  • It can send messages about what sex ‘should’ be like
  • Violence, humiliation and disrespect are never ok
  • Sex is not just a physical act, it’s an emotional one too
  • Pornography can give you unhealthy notions of sex and relationships
  • Pornography is a performance by paid actors - it can misrepresent pleasure
  • Regularly watching porn can shape your sexual tastes and expectations
  • Pornography isn’t reality, so it can set you up for disappointment in your sex life
  • Some types of sex that happen regularly in porn, happen less often in real life
  • Porn commonly portrays and reinforces racial and gender stereotypes
  • The bodies you see in porn don’t reflect how most people’s bodies look
  • It doesn’t teach you about consent or safe sex and the possible consequences
  • The size and shape of body parts doesn’t limit or enhance your ability to enjoy sex
  • Porn can lead to mismatched expectations and conflict in your relationships
  • Comparing yourself to people in porn can sometimes make you worry about your body
  • You may find it hard to stop watching porn even when it’s causing problems in your life
  • Some types of porn are illegal (e.g. anything involving someone under the age of 18 is considered 'image based abuse')