Adult videos: The price of pleasure

Watching adult videos can lower your mental productivity

History shows that even though pornography has been around for a long time, it has been frowned upon in most cultures. Over 40 years ago, pamphlets were distributed among teenagers by the church of Latter-day Saints to raise awareness about its harmful physical after-effects and the consequent guilt and emotional stress. Science has now corroborated this with facts that prove that adult videos can have harmful effects on the people who watch them.

Pornography and cocaine have been shown to exert markedly similar changes in the brain, termed as the ‘addiction effect’. In a 2013 study conducted at the University of Cambridge, Dr Valerie Voon chose subjects who watched pornography and conducted a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan on them. The results showed excessive lighting up of the ventral striatum, also known as the reward centre in the brain, which is identical to scans obtained from drug addicts. This explains the ‘high’ associated with the act, after which one may feel guilty and in order to end the mellow phase, may watch the videos again, setting off an endless cycle.

A 2006 Dutch study in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking also revealed that pornography ranked highest on the compulsive internet use scale alongside online gaming and could hence be categorised as an addiction. Scientifically, as a result of the weak association between certain neural circuits in the brain, certain characteristics can be observed in addicted individuals. These include a numbed pleasure response ­— which means that other activities may not be as interesting as watching pornography — erectile dysfunction and a reduced sense of mutually reciprocating intimacy. Moreover, it can also result in loss of focus and erosion of will power. Even those who claim to watch pornography in limited doses are not spared the harmful effects. According to a 2014 German study published in JAMA Psychiatry, watching even moderate amounts of pornography can cause the brain’s grey area to shrink.

However, giving up pornography can allow one to revert back to their ‘normal’ self. In Your Brain on Porn, authored by Gary Wilson, a few interesting case studies are highlighted that further explain this phenomenon. One example includes a college dropout in his late 20s, who was prescribed to Xanax and countless other antidepressants after being diagnosed with memory impairment, depression and severe social anxiety, but none of the medication helped improve his condition. After giving up pornography, however, due to certain life-changing events, he confirms, “My anxiety is non-existent. My memory and focus are sharper than they’ve ever been.”

With increased awareness, several global movements on porn consumption are gaining momentum. The NoFap movement, which was founded two years ago with the objective of monitoring productivity levels in individuals who refrain from watching pornography for a week, is a popular example. Today, the movement has attracted more than 80,000 members, many of whom have consciously decided to abstain from pornography entirely after observing a lack of self-esteem and no career ambition.

Zohaib Amjad is a scientist with a major in Biology.

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, November 2^nd, 2014.