When does one become addicted ?

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  RHP User

  15 years ago

  most girls ive met don't watch it at all... so a couple of times a week is pretty normal i thinkchris

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  RHP User

  15 years ago

  who the hell is this friend of yours? Are they male or female? How much I watch porn varies, if I'm in a full-blown relationship I'll hardly ever watch it, but if I spend a lot of time at home by myself, I'll probably watch it about 20 minutes ever day (for obvious reasons)

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  RHP User

  15 years ago

  when its 'all' they can think about and it determines who they are, and where they'll be, i guess you could call that addicted......as for watching porn now n then, or a few times a week...sounds pretty normal...we have dozens and dozens of porn dvd's, but cant even try to tell you the last time we put one on...the moods never there i guess, tho when it was all new and exciting (and taboo still) they were quite often on......but time and kids kills everything...........

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  RHP User

  15 years ago

  Surely your friend jests! What about time for eating, sleeping, work and God forbid......real one on one sexual encounters!

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  RHP User

  15 years ago

  A porn addiction.... ok... I would say you need help if you can't go out with your friends and/or family because you need to stay home and watch porn. Everyday? I doubt the frequency has much to do with it... I think maybe the importance of porn to your routine is the question to ask. Most people I know who watch porn watch it because they're bored and want a bit of sexual entertainment to assist their self pleasuring. If you pleasure yourself every day... and that involves porn.. then I suppose that's the attraction of the porn. HugsS

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  RHP User

  15 years ago

  OK, watching porn a couple of days a week is a lot I reckon, for a woman, going by conversations I've had with friends. I can go weeks without watching any and then will spend an entire day trawling the internet for something decent.I've become quite desensitised to porn, especially straight porn, as I once shared house with someone who worked for a porn distributor. We had porn on in the house what felt like 24-7. There is SO much bad porn out there.I suppose it depends on how you use the porn... is it a masturbatory aid, or is it the only way you can get off? I think when watching porn becomes the only way a person can get off, then it has become a fetish. If their fetish means they're neglecting other areas of their lives, then it's an addiction.As an aside, I much prefer reading my porn, that way I can get my weird alien tentacle porn out of the way without being bored by the fake moans and groans of an actress.

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  RHP User

  15 years ago

  My esteemed RHP colleagues have already said almost exactly what I wanted to - it's an addiction when it interferes with normal life. Stalky and Polar Bear Girl gave some great examples of ways that could happen. Some other traits of addictions are that they impact on work. If someone risks their job by watching porn at work or calls in sick to stay home and watch porn instead. (Or is tired because they're up late all night every night watching it.) Hurting loved ones and losing friends and romantic relationships is another hallmark of addiction. If a girlfriend, for example, gets fed up with playing second fiddle to porn actresses and says "It's either me or the porn," and the person chooses the porn, or tries to have both and gets caught. Two other classic signs of addiction are tolerance and loss of enjoyment. Because I'm addicted to caffeine I need to have more and stronger coffees in order to get the same buzz someone who isn't addicted would get from one weaker coffee. If the amount of time watching the porn is constantly increasing and content needs to get more and more extreme and explicit it could be a sign things are on the downward spiral. As for loss of enjoyment, I drink instant coffee I don't particularly like because it's a habit, I like the effect and if I don't I get withdrawal. I don't necessarily enjoy every cup, it's just something I do in the background. Someone who is addicted to porn might watch it even if they don't want to, or find that they aren't enjoying it anymore but still feel like they have to. Wanting to stop or cut down and being unable to is common to people with addictions. So are feelings of guilt and remorse - but then doing the same thing again. And of course there's money. Is the person spending a sizable chunk of their budget on memberships to porn sites, on download usage and DVDs? Are they buying less quality food now or missing out on having a holiday because the cost of porn is so noticible? There could be a lot of reasons why someone becomes addicted to porn. In my experience people tend not to become addicted to something for just one reason, it's usually a conspiracy of several factors. For instance there would be the physiological state of arousal and the "happy chemicals" released in the brain that can become physically addictive in addition to things which are behaviourally addictive - things that feel good so we do them and do them often, despite negative consequences. It could be something to do with power - maybe another reason why men are much more likely to watch and become addicted to porn than women. It could be escapism, a way of keeping real intimacy away, or a dozen other reasons. If someone were addicted and sought help with a psychologist they'd no doubt explore some of those reasons in the sessions and come up with ways of addressing them and changing both the behaviour and the need for the behaviour. So, for anyone who wants to do something about it, porn addiction is an official "disorder" in what the medical profession use to diagnose mental illness and abnormality - a book called the DSM-IV. Therefore it can be classed as a medical condition and is eligible for Medicare rebates. A GP can make a referral to a psychologist on what's called a mental health care plan where Medicare ends up paying for the bulk of the session's fees. The Australian Psychological Society has a website and telephone line where people can find psychologists in their area with experience or interest in certain issues- so it'd be easy to find someone who has helped people with porn addictions before.

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  RHP User

  15 years ago

  Hot damn. I wish it formatted when I pressed "enter". Sorry folks for the wall of text.

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  RHP User

  15 years ago

  Thanks for the responses so far they have been awesome. To add to my opening statement, i believe my friend who is male, had to up his internet plan cause he kept going over the limit, not sure if porn was involved. i watch it for entertainment and ideas, i dont get off at it at all :s maybe im just weird lol. I see it as a learning tool thats all. Im not a fan of porn but it is a good start to get some new ideas i guess lol...butterfly

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  RHP User

  15 years ago

  Quoting 'butterfly_21'Thanks for the responses so far they have been awesome. To add to my opening statement, i believe my friend who is male, had to up his internet plan cause he kept going over the limit, not sure if porn was involved. i watch it for entertainment and ideas, i dont get off at it at all :s maybe im just weird lol. I see it as a learning tool thats all. Im not a fan of porn but it is a good start to get some new ideas i guess lol...butterfly You're welcome Butterfly. The good news is that someone (ta Polar Bear Girl) taught me how I can make sure the paragraph breaks go in. Woohoo! It can be easy to go over internet plans. We had a crappy one a few years ago and I regularly went over, but didn't watch any porn, I was living with my parents at the time. So that alone may not be a sign of porn addiction, perhaps just too much of everything. Or even a much more healthy and socially acceptable general internet addiction. ;) Haha, I once heard that watching porn to learn how to have sex is like watching monster trucks to learn how to drive. ;) I'm not sure who first coined that one. I wish I could claim credit for it.

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  RHP User

  15 years ago

  Oh bugger. More practice with formatting required.

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  RHP User

  15 years ago

  Cant hurt to expand on what i already know lol..Friend lives alone and i know he had a high gig plan, i think 150 gig or something. Glad to know all the teasing i get from him doesnt mean im not normal, everyone has their view on watching porn :)Butterfly

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