Defeat Lust & Pornography The Porn Circuit book cover
Defeat Lust & Pornography 2 minute read

Porn Can’t Give No Satisfaction

Last Updated: February 21, 2014

The following is an edited excerpt from Chapter 5 of the free e-book The Porn Circuit: Understand Your Brain and Break Porn Habits in 90 Days.

The Porn Circuit - Get No SatisfactionThe pornified brain sounds a lot like Mick Jagger; it can’t get no satisfaction.

On the surface it sounds absurd. Pornography offers endless opportunities for arousal. If a human masturbates to a wider range of images or videos, shouldn’t that satiate? The simple answer is no.

Dr. Norman Doidge, author of The Brain That Changes Itself, explains in his book that porn is more exciting than satisfying because we have two separate pleasure systems in our brains: one for exciting pleasure and another for satisfying pleasure.

The exciting system, fueled by dopamine and anticipation, is all about appetite, such as imagining your favorite meal or a sexual episode.

The satisfying system involves actually having the meal or having sex, which provides a calming, fulfilling pleasure. This system releases opiate-like endorphins that provide feelings of peace and euphoria.

Pornography, Doidge writes, hyperactivates the appetite system. But the satisfying system is left starving for the real thing, which includes actual touching, kissing, caressing, and a connection not only with the body but also the mind and soul. The satisfying system releases oxytocin and endorphins, and bellows, in the words of Marvin Gaye, “Ain’t nothing like the real thing, Baby.”

The porn-saturated brain is fixated on sex, but real sex is intended for intimacy, explains Dr. William Struthers in Wired for Intimacy: How Pornography Hijacks the Male Brain. The pornified brain is ready for multiple partners, images, and sexual possibilities, but it is intended for a narrow focus of exclusive sharing. Porn’s neurological superhighway is built for speed, but satisfying sex is designed for the slow and evolving discovery and appreciation of a loving partner. Porn provides few off-ramps (masturbation) that offer fleeting escapes that hasten the need for more. Meanwhile, a committed couple can have long and satisfying encounters with many off ramps for creative expressions of intimacy that are not genitally oriented.

Doidge writes: “Pornographers promise healthy pleasure and relief from sexual tension, but what they often deliver is an addiction, tolerance, and an eventual decrease in pleasure. Paradoxically, the male patients I worked with often craved pornography but didn’t like it.”

Comments on: Porn Can’t Give No Satisfaction
  1. Vern Knock

    As a biology major and having taught this subject (biology) this explains porn in a way that I can fully understand.

    Thank you,

    Vern

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related in Defeat Lust & Pornography

Editor's Picks

A normal couple in bed watching porn.

Defeat Lust & Pornography

Is Watching Porn Normal?

Statistics show that watching porn is extremely common—but does that make it…

9 minute read

Read Post

Editor's Picks

Man looking in the mirror, thinking about his identity.

Defeat Lust & Pornography

7 Identities That Make Pornography Fade Into Insignificance

Right now our culture seems to be obsessed with identifying ourselves by…

8 minute read

Read Post

Editor's Picks

Scientist looking at a brain scan for dopamine.

Defeat Lust & Pornography

Porn and Dopamine: Superstar or Supervillain?

Dopamine has received a lot of popular press these days, especially when…

6 minute read

Read Post

Editor's Picks

A young man studying lust in the Bible at the library.

Defeat Lust & Pornography

What is lust in the Bible?

You probably don’t hear the word “lust” very often outside of church…

11 minute read

Read Post

Editor's Picks

Young man graduating from college.

Defeat Lust & Pornography

My Integrity Is Not for Sale: Living With Integrity in an Immoral World

There are some statements that stick better in my mind than others.…

5 minute read

Read Post

Editor's Picks

silhouette of a man standing on a hill

Defeat Lust & Pornography

John’s Story: From Darkness to Light

How can a young person live a life of integrity using today’s…

5 minute read

Read Post

Related in Defeat Lust & Pornography

A normal couple in bed watching porn.

Defeat Lust & Pornography

Is Watching Porn Normal?

Statistics show that watching porn is extremely common—but does that make it…

Statistics show that watching porn is extremely common—but does that make it normal? Two-thirds of men regularly consume pornography along with a third of women. So it is true that plenty of normal people watch…

9 minute read

1 comment

Man looking in the mirror, thinking about his identity.

Defeat Lust & Pornography

7 Identities That Make Pornography Fade Into Insignificance

Right now our culture seems to be obsessed with identifying ourselves by…

Right now our culture seems to be obsessed with identifying ourselves by our genitalia, sexuality, political views, and skin color. Of course, these can be important pieces to a person’s identity, but they are only…

8 minute read

0 comments

Scientist looking at a brain scan for dopamine.

Defeat Lust & Pornography

Porn and Dopamine: Superstar or Supervillain?

Dopamine has received a lot of popular press these days, especially when…

Dopamine has received a lot of popular press these days, especially when it comes to things like watching porn. Depending on who you ask, you might think dopamine is a superstar or a supervillain. Once…

6 minute read

2 comments

A young man studying lust in the Bible at the library.

Defeat Lust & Pornography

What is lust in the Bible?

You probably don’t hear the word “lust” very often outside of church…

You probably don’t hear the word “lust” very often outside of church these days. If, like me, you grew up in the heyday of evangelical Purity Culture, you probably heard it a lot! But even…

11 minute read

0 comments

Young man graduating from college.

Defeat Lust & Pornography

My Integrity Is Not for Sale: Living With Integrity in an Immoral World

There are some statements that stick better in my mind than others.…

There are some statements that stick better in my mind than others. One statement that caught my attention years ago from a pastoral mentor: “My integrity is not for sale.” When I first heard this…

5 minute read

0 comments

silhouette of a man standing on a hill

Defeat Lust & Pornography

John’s Story: From Darkness to Light

How can a young person live a life of integrity using today’s…

How can a young person live a life of integrity using today’s technology? This is a question I have asked myself thousands of times. Growing up, it was always my heart’s desire to live a…

5 minute read

0 comments