Porn Addiction Helpline
Can
one be addicted to something that does not have a chemical component?
While many people undoubtedly develop unhealthy ideas about sex and
sexuality from pornography, is addiction really the best way to think
about this?
Does the fact that this is an addiction
that seems to affect men far more often than women suggest that there
are social and cultural factors at play that make the issue far more
complicated than merely being about addiction? Are men addicted to
pornography or the idea of limitless sexual conquests with no
consequences (note the lack of STDs or unwanted pregnancies in
mainstream pornography)?
Also, what is the function of
the appeal to a higher power? On the one hand, it seems to suggest that
this a problem that could face anyone and with the grace of God any
sinner can be saved. However at the same time it suggests that people
are powerless to make responsible or ethical choices once sexuality gets
involved. Still, considering the sky-high rates of sexual violence
against women in our contemporary society, perhaps we should be
rewarding anyone who is making an effort to think about women as
something other than constantly sexually available to any man who so
chooses.
I do believe that one can be addicted to something without a chemical component. Just because something doesn't exist in some type of element or compound to affect the body doesn't mean that it isn't still real. The effects of certain things on the brain, such as pornography, can be almost the same as drugs. To one person, sex or porn can give them the high that other people receive on cocaine or heroin. It all just depends on how you perceive the idea of the subject or object itself in your own mind. Some people could be powerless to this kind of addiction. Obviously there are some people out there who cannot control their own actions and come out as major perverts (i.e. Jerry Sandusky). If that's not a sickness or an addiction, then I don't know what is.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that someone can become addicted to something other than a harmful substance. A porn addiction is directly related to a sex addiction, which we talked about in class this past week. We discussed how a sex addiction can sometimes be more dangerous than a substance addiction. Along with sex addictions, a porn addiction is difficult to define and probably even harder to get help for. I believe that an addiction can be anything that takes a dangerous toll on your everyday life. These addictions can range from sex or porn, or even shopping to biting your nails. I also agree that an addiction to porn is a direct result of the large impact that the media plays in our personal lives.
ReplyDeleteA person can be addicted to something without the chemical factor. Take for instance porn and sex. Men and women have been known to be addicted to both, men more than women. I think the addiction is caused because porn or sex is highly appealing to people that it becomes more than an obsession, it becomes an addiction. The fact that men are addicted to it more than women suggest that there are either cultural or social reasons that make this true. But it can also be genetics that causes the addiction for men, probably in the Y chromosome. I would not say social and cultural factors are one hundred percent the cause of men being addicted more but it is definitely a cause. I believe men are addicted to pornography rather than the idea of non-sexual consequences. The men addicted to porn probably have a sex addiction as well; it is just easier to look at porn than have sex. The appeal to a higher power would apply to religious people only. Lust is one of the Seven Deadly Sins and people fear breaking any of them. But in some cases, addiction takes over religious beliefs and people cannot beat it.
ReplyDeleteI agree that an individual can easily be addicted to something other than a substance. I think for porn addicts, the fact that they take time out of their day, often many times everyday,to feed this desire,means that they truly have an addiction toward it. They have a need for personal pleasure and will do anything to satisfy that need. I think most porn addicts don't even realize that they have a problem. They see it as "normal" (rather social norm) and that's when the question arises of "where do we draw the line between healthy and addiction?" Everyone has their own opinion and the ones who would describe it as an addiction are often the ones who don't have the problem in the first place so it becomes hard to judge from there.
ReplyDeleteSomebody can be addicted to something that doesn't have a chemical component. If, like in class last week, we learned that sex can be an addiction, then I think a porn addiction isn't far off from that. What I don't understand though, is when exactly it changes from just an activity and turns into a full-blown addiction. Is it a matter of how many times a day, or how much a person thinks about it? I get how one can become chemically dependent on drugs and alcohol, but I think doctors whose jobs it is to pinpoint an addiction like porn would have a really tough time. I also think that we think of a porn addiction as kind of a secondary addiction, behind well known ones like drugs and alcohol. This website, however, makes me feel like it's a bigger problem than anyone thinks. This website would not be out on the internet if people didn't need or seek help. My belief is that it's a real addiction and a problem and because of this, somebody recognized it and decided to make a website about it.
ReplyDeleteAddictions are a wide variety of things from physical to mental. In my understanding, there is such thing as a porn and sex addiction, however, I feel as if there is a fine line between enjoying oneself and actually being addicted. I do not think that doctors have a right to tell one person whether or not they're addicted to porn or not because it is not something physical like being addicted to drugs or not. Telling someone (especially a man) that he has an addiction to porn and/or sex, and if it is made known to everyone around him, his life will be quite different. Personally, I think men are addicted to the idea of limitless pleasure and no consequence then the actual idea of pornography. In the end, there is no actual addiction to pornography, but just the idea of addiction.
ReplyDeleteChemically is not the only method of being addicted to something. An addiction can be mental just as stongly as it can be physical. People that usually are addicted to porn would, in my opinion, probably more so be addicted to sex. Porn is just another way for them to get the chance to be involved in something sexual. Depending on the different things available to you, cultural and location definitely play a huge role in what people can be addicted to even though some addictions can be common world wide. When appealing to a higher authority, God is only able to save somebody from their sins who wants to be saved and addiction is liable to make someone blind to seeing the opportunity to do so. Therefore, when it comes to being judged by a higher authority, it is still in the eye of the beholder to have their own opinion on whether they think what they are doing is something they want to be forgiven for or not. I do find it rather frightening that people with addicitons, like sex for instance, will go to extremes in order to feed their addiction and horrible things come from this like rape and abuse. I find being addicted to sex as something that is a real problem and people do need to be helped to stop some of these awful types of tragedies from happening even though it may not be the sole reason for this, dealing with these addictions can still help to make a difference.
ReplyDeleteI do believe it is possible for someone to be addicted to something without a "chemical component." That being said, can you even describe an addiction without a chemical component? With each “fix” that an addict gets, the chemical dopamine is released in the brain, providing a chemical component to each addiction regardless of whether it is a physical act or substance. Moreover, it is hardly anyone’s proper place to say that sex can be considered an addiction. Sex and sexual acts are human’s most basic, natural instinct. To say that a completely normal instinct is an addiction is completely absurd. Furthermore, where can the line be drawn between what too much sex is too much sex? What criteria are involved when deciding this? And even then, sex doesn’t have the same effects on the human body as a harmful substance would, so how could the addiction even be recognized? The fact of the matter is that sex cannot be diagnosed as an addiction because it is too broad and too general of a thing to attempt to come to a consensus on. Porn as an addiction is almost equally as irrational. This is because people use it as an outlet for their natural sex instincts rather than satisfying that urge through sexual abuse towards others. Because sex cannot be considered an addiction because the criteria is so vague, pornography can hardly be considered one either.
ReplyDeleteI believe every addiction has a "chemical component. Even if a drug is not involved, the human brainnis going to release chemicals that cause people to enjoy performing their addiciton. This is probably why drug abuse is discussed more than most other addicitons; it gives people the immediate feeling which they enjoy from their addiction. This just makes drug abuse much easier to describe and understand. I would definitely describe obsessions with pornography and sex addictions. These people obviously love the feeling they get from sex so much that it becomes an issue.
ReplyDeleteTo start off, I do believe that an individual can have an addiction to something that does not have a chemical component. Although some people undoubtedly develop unhealthy ideas about sex and sexuality from pornography, I do not believe addiction is the best way to think about that. I do not believe people can have an addiction to sex and pornography. Yes, some individuals have more hormones and stronger sexual urges, however who's to say there is a limit on sex? No one can can put a limit on sexual desires and pornography watching. Unhealthy ideas about sex develop from several different sources, pornography being only one of them. The fact that the addiction to pornography seems to affect men far more often than women suggests that there are social and cultural factors at play that make the issue far more complicated than merely being about addiction. To be honest, from a woman's point of view, pornography is generally known to be watched by males, however pornography sites don't only reach out towards men. I do believe the majority of the male population are fascinated by the idea of limitless sexual conquests with no consequences, I wouldn't ever go as far to say that they are addicted to porn. Although there is not as high of a percentage of female pornography viewers, I will boldly state that the idea of limitless sex is definitely as fascinating to women. Because I am not a religious individual, I do not agree that sex and watching pornography should be frowned upon. Also, I do not agree that people are powerless to make responsible or ethical choices once sexuality gets involved. Yes, hormones do tend to take over in sexual situations, some would even say "a man tends to battle between deciding which head to use", but that is not always the case. Responsibilities for both men and women are not always ignored in sexual settings, it strictly depends on the person. Moving forward, looking at the sky-high rates of sexual violence against women, I would say it is appreciated at the effort to think about women as something other than constantly sexually available. In my opinion, those constant sexual thoughts of women are natural to men; I do not think those thoughts can be changed, they come with the territory of manhood. Sexual violence relates slightly to pornography, however so much of social media hints at sexual violence and there are many theories, such as video games and movies, that relate to the high rates of sexual violence. Therefore, I think it is unfair to consider sexual violence to be directly proportional to pornography viewing.
ReplyDeleteI look at it as more of a porn 'obsession' rather than an addiction. Although addictions don't necessarily need to have a chemical component, i think the severity of a porn 'addiction' relative to other addictions is not as extreme. When people have sex, a chemical is released that in a sense attaches that person to their partner for the rest of their life. When someone watches porn, I feel like there isn't that intamacy there to make that person so reliant on it. I think it's more just that the person likes the feeling they get from watching porn, but it doesn't interfere with daily life like an addiction would. As far as the function of appeal to a higher power, I believe that it's the idea of people fearing a higher power and not wanting to look like a 'sinner' to others. This feeling seems to make some people not watch porn as much and not need it as much will also makes it seem like more of an obsession to me.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe one can be addicted to something that is not a chemical component. I feel as though there is no real evidence of this addiction. I also feel as though the classification of this being an addiction is just an excuse for males to do it more often. The appeal of going to an higher power such as God shows that people believe that the addiction is so strong they cannot fight it alone with any resources available otherwise. I feel as though the addiction to porn is a sub-addiction/way to fulfill the addiction to sex as it is easily available at all times. I do feel that sexual addiction does have chemical component even though it does not have a tangible addiction.
ReplyDeleteThe mind has a tricky way of confusing you and for this, a mental addiction can occur, but can be cured without painful withdraws. This kind of addiction just takes a little willpower. On the lines of sexual addiction, chemicals are released in your brain from sex, so I would have to classify this as a possible sexual addiction. The need for sex is the addiction, watching porn is just a fix I don't think porn is the addiction.
ReplyDeleteOn the limitless sex topic and it effecting more men, I think culture does play a role, but also if I'm not mistaken I've read somewhere that stated that when a chemical is released in the brain of a female after sex it relates those feelings to sentimental feelings, or a more attached emotion.
The last point I will make is that no one is immune to temptation, and therefore no one is save to making poor decision when sex becomes a factor, but it all can be controlled. It's an addiction that requires practice, patience and self control to overcome. Having said that yes those who over come these temptations, don't use it as an excuse to abuse women and who don't view women as an object of limitless sex should be recognized in someone, but unfortunately the gentleman never gets the recognition the bad guy gets.