Why is porn really bad for your brain but not meditation, exercise, internet usage?

[ShardMare]

Its not just my own personal experience i think most people even if they masturbate to porn once in a really long time feel anxiety or depression. I dont understand the neuroscience behind it. 

There are teenagers for example who are addicted to the internet but still dont feel negative emotions. Internet, social media is constantly raising the dopamine levels and etc but still if a person feels anxiety or depression its very little.

 

Or there are people who are addicted to going to the gym. It brings a lot of dopamine. Why is it healthy tho? Of course physical exercise has benefits on the brain and on the body but idk.

 

This might seem a stupid question but i think its not straightforward. 

Like what exactly does porn make to the brain that makes mental health worse?

Edited December 24, 2023 by ShardMare

[Basman]

6 hours ago, ShardMare said:

There are teenagers for example who are addicted to the internet but still dont feel negative emotions. Internet, social media is constantly raising the dopamine levels and etc but still if a person feels anxiety or depression its very little.

Social media is a suppressant. It is when you are bored, feeling fidgety or anxious (like at a party) that you reach out for your phone.

5 hours ago, ShardMare said:

Or there are people who are addicted to going to the gym. It brings a lot of dopamine. Why is it healthy tho? Of course physical exercise has benefits on the brain and on the body but idk.

Exercise releases endorphins, which is primarily what makes it pleasurable from a chemical perspective. There are few activities that are as direct and simple a way towards self-improvement and promoting health.

5 hours ago, ShardMare said:

Like what exactly does porn make to the brain that makes mental health worse?

Morals (like religion) is a better predictor of porn-related issues than porn-use itself. If you think porn and masturbation is moral, you are more likely going to think that you are dysregulated when you do use it. That and/or you just don't have a lot going on in your life and attribute your unhappiness to porn.

I get the impression that there is a growing cottage industry of porn demonetization on social media. Not that porn has no faults, but it sensationalizes issues that are ostensibly moral first and foremost. In my experience it draws a lot of people who are ignorant and don't know that dopamine isn't a pleasure chemical or think not masturbating will magically solve their issues.

[ShardMare]

@Basman yeah but internet doesnt cause much negative feelings. Why?

Why exercise isnt addictive? Why it doesnt make us depressed when we dont do it? As someone who is bodybuilding f.e.

 

There are lots of research on the negative effects on porn and masturbation. Millions of people try nofap and these stuff. Its clear that its not good for mental health.

Its not about religion its about simply the brain itself

[Basman]

6 hours ago, ShardMare said:

@Basman yeah but internet doesnt cause much negative feelings. Why?

Not sure what you mean?

6 hours ago, ShardMare said:

Why exercise isnt addictive? Why it doesnt make us depressed when we dont do it? As someone who is bodybuilding f.e.

Probably because it is hard. Physically strenuous activities rarely become addicting. Exercise does lift your mood though, so could say that you become "depressed" when you don't exercise.

6 hours ago, ShardMare said:

There are lots of research on the negative effects on porn and masturbation. Millions of people try nofap and these stuff. Its clear that its not good for mental health.

Its not about religion its about simply the brain itself

The Nofap community is rife with confirmation bias. Reddit, as a social media platform, filters out posts that don't follow the general online culture so you'll never see posts that say "nofap doesn't work" for example. That is a huge selection bias that makes it less than reputable. The Reddit page gives the appearance of unison, but only because it isn't even possible to go against the grain. It is an echo chamber and an ideological cult.

The problem with researching porn is that it often relies on self-reporting and assumptions. Political, religious, moral and business interests can introduce self-bias to research. There isn't definitive conclusive evidence that porn is bad as far as I can see.

In my own opinion, if you have porn-related issues, it is more often than not a symptom of something else.

Edited December 25, 2023 by Basman

[Carl-Richard]

Modern society contains various things that are at an evolutionary mismatch with our bodies and minds. For example, porn, hyper-palatable foods (soft, high sugar, fat, salt, etc.) and social media are not things we've evolved to consume at all, let alone on a regular basis.

And why are they so bad? Because they're hyper-salient (highly stimulating) sources of things that are considered rare or valueable resources from an evolutionary perspective. When you get accustomed to consuming these highly stimulating things, your brain downregulates your ability to get reward from less stimulating things that are healthy and build resilience (make you stronger), like exercise, real social relationships and real foods. You're essentially numbing yourself to the things that you're supposed to do as a healthy organism, and you're making it harder for yourself to be motivated to do those things. And as you become less motivated and do less of the things that make you resilient, you become weaker and experience progressively less pleasure and more pain, and then you keep going to the hyper-salient sources of pleasure, because those are the only things that can give you pleasure, which creates an evil spiral which is hard to get out of (in other words: addiction).

Another factor is the lack of some kinds of evolutionarily matching stimuli, like natural environments (trees, green hills, skies, mountains), natural lighting (direct sunlight), large social networks (we evolved to live in tribes with upto 150 people), regular physical activity, etc. The artificial environments that modern society exposes us to are "hypo-salient" and make us more prone to addiction, as we have to compensate for the lack of stimulation we otherwise get from the natural environment.

Edited December 27, 2023 by Carl-Richard

[MarkKol]

Internet usage is more of a problem than porn

[eos_nyxia]

On 2023-12-24 at 0:27 AM, ShardMare said:

Its not just my own personal experience i think most people even if they masturbate to porn once in a really long time feel anxiety or depression. I dont understand the neuroscience behind it.

There are often a lot of undersides to porn use, in the same way that there are undersides to sexuality in general. We humans tend to have a lot of undigested baggage about it, both directly inherited and self-perpetuated.

If you look at porn, and you have unprocessed feelings about it that you aren't cognisant of and are not being processed, you'll experience blowback. If it's been used as an automatic substitute for human "love", attention, and affirmation as a human being, then there will be negative results. Maybe there is something that doesn't quite sit right about whatever you're watching where it doesn't completely pass the vibe check, so in reality, you're of split mind with what you're watching. Like you have separate "selves" which are clashing. Maybe what you're watching is too violent, too acted... and too unaesthetic. I suspect this is actually quite common with men. Not everyone feels good about watching brutal naked theatre, especially if you're telling yourself that it's Real somehow.

Inherited morality (which is often Pavlovian and runs on shame/ guilt and the idea of "control") tends to create this split by default, but maybe what you're watching is not what you want to define your values, ethics, and experience as a human being on some level anyway. Or maybe it just doesn't mesh with your other values. There is where you have to be really, really honest with yourself to see the truth clearly.

At the very least, you're using your sexual energy and the power of your focus to inadvertently reaffirm that of which you are not wholly aware. If there are unintended consequences that you didn't originally plan for or anticipate, that is the proof.

If you simply see it for what it is, no more and no less, it's either not likely to negatively affect you or else it will be in plain view. You can simply take it and then leave it there afterward.

On top of that, lots of people are apparently growing up using porn as sex education starting from a very young age. I've heard that this has had some deranged results in heterosexual relationships and messes with people's expectations. I really do not envy what younger women have to deal with. Real, mutually fulfilling sexuality runs on things such as openness (of the senses, and being open emotionally) and the willingness to listen and be fully present with who you're with. Think of yourself as a blank but eager slate. Another person is not, first and foremost, an extension of your fantasy narratives inside your head which has been fed by porn (and possibly even previous partners), and tons of people are just negligent sexually, emotionally, and otherwise, which in the long run is NOT a recipe for fulfillment.

Pornography, at least how it presents itself presently in this culture; it's not a great value system. It's not even much of a substitute for a value system though it often seems to function as one. If you look to it for meaning and to nurture the human spirit.... well, take a look around and see what that does. You have to put "good spirit" into sex and sexual depictions or else there is really not much emotional sustenance there by default.

Edited December 28, 2023 by eos_nyxia

[Yimpa]

Quote

Why is porn really bad for your brain but not meditation, exercise, internet usage?

This actually depends on your worldview and bias.

Someone else can say that meditation is bad/a waste of time while porn is worth every nanosecond.

[The Renaissance Man]

I noticed the same thing too. And with alcohol, smoking or drugs the thing is very different. The side effects are really devastating.

I remember Leo also having this kind of opinion: Porn is a problem only if you see it as a problem. Or something like that.

I recently read Easy Peasy out of curiosity, and there are quite a lot of assumptions on it, like that all porn users feel stupid and guilty, and that's a symptom that porn is bad. And it uses it as a relevant argument.
In the book they say how you wouldn't brag about how much porn you watch, and that's proof it's bad.

But they also say masturbation without porn isn't bad. But would you brag about how much you masturbate without porn? What the fuck? There's a fallacy there.

I'd be really curious to see if those addicted people would stop feeling guilty, what would happen to the side-effects...

 

It seems to me that Leo was right: it's an addiction only if it ruins other parts of your life and you still can't moderate yourself.

I believe that porn and drugs can't be put on the same level. The mechanics are different, the side-effects are radically different, and they are discussed the same way by people like the nofap community far too often, but it doesn't take much critical thinking to see that in reality that's just not the case.

Edited February 19 by The Renaissance Man
Added more info