Porn Addiction Symptoms
Are you or someone you love addicted to pornography? Knowing the signs and symptoms of porn addiction can be a first step to getting the help you need.
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Porn Addiction Defined
The World Health Organization recognizes Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder in its 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as an impulse control disorder, defined by persistent and repetitive urges or behaviors lasting at least six months that cause distress or impairment to personal, family, or work life despite negative consequences. Though Hypersexual Disorder was proposed for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), it was not included as a formal diagnosis. Many clinicians refer to compulsive or uncontrollable pornography use as a form of behavioral addiction or compulsive sexual behavior disorder.
Roots of Porn Addiction
For many, the roots of porn addiction grow in adolescence, and the first seed is commonly planted in childhood exposure to pornography. Because the prefrontal cortex (the brain’s center for impulse control, judgment, and empathy) doesn’t fully develop until the late 20s, the teen brain is highly impressionable to both good and bad influences, according to Dr. Frances Jensen, chair of the Neurology Department at the University of Pennsylvania. Addictive behaviors created in adolescence are much more difficult to overcome in adulthood, Jensen writes. After thousands of encounters with the supernormal stimuli of pornography, using it can feel like a genuine physical need. This is because behavioral addictions involve reinforcing neural pathways as well as receiving repetitive doses of neurochemicals and neurotransmitters that provide brief but powerful escapes.
“Behavioral addictions are just as insidious as chemical addictions because they make use of the same brain circuits.” Frances Jensen, The Teenage Brain, A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults
Porn Addiction Symptoms May Vary
Unlike chemical addiction withdrawal, people don’t vomit or get delirium tremors from lack of access to pornography and porn fantasies. However, there are common symptoms and indicators of porn addiction. But common does not mean universal. People share similarities but are by no means replicas. Some love or hate broccoli, or driving, or flying on airplanes. The same is true with the symptoms and signs of porn addiction.
Personal histories and interactions play a pivotal role in addiction, but there are common signs and symptoms for you to consider when asking yourself, “Am I addicted to porn?”
When asking such a question, it’s easy to be defensive. In fact, many people with any kind of addiction spend a good amount of time in denial. For instance, it’s common for alcoholics to deny their addiction even when family members point to issues or even after an arrest and conviction for driving drunk.
So, in considering the following indicators of porn addiction, try to be open-minded and honest.
- While most people form the roots of their porn addiction in youth, others find themselves first trapped in their senior years of life.
- Some people use porn to escape feelings of loneliness, trauma, or emotional distress, and others may use porn to cope with issues of impulsivity, clinical depression, or high anxiety.
- For others, porn has simply been a habitual activity that has slowly become impulsive and uncontrollable.
- Some people escalate their porn addiction, engaging in other sexual activities, including live streams or real-life encounters, while others remain content viewing images and videos.
See also, Why is porn so addictive?
Physical Symptoms
Ingesting a sedative can help a person feel calm, while a stimulant can help a person feel more alert and excited. Sex addiction counselor Matt Wenger of the Begin Again Institute says the stimulus of porn can do both—bring a person up when they’re feeling down and down when they are feeling up.
For the porn addict, their drug of choice has formed a brain that regularly seeks neurochemical release and physically feels withdrawal when the dose has been withheld for varying periods of time. For example, some may find themselves masturbating with porn or porn fantasies in the morning to get moving, or at night to fall asleep.
Examples of physical symptoms include:
- Episodes of physical discomfort due to extreme or repeated acting out and experimentation.
- Sexual dysfunction. Men and women may find physical arousal to porn easy, but more difficult with a real person. This can include erectile dysfunction.
- Insomnia.
- Regularly feeling a need to use porn and masturbation to fall asleep.
- Porn thoughts and fantasizing can also disturb sleep.
- Fatigue during the day.
- Caused by staying up late watching porn.
- Caused by spending more time than planned using porn.
- Restlessness and Agitation. Though this might rightly be considered an emotional response, people also feel these reactions in their bodies. When trying to keep porn at bay or when it’s not available, a person may feel:
- Irritable
- Anxious
- Fidgeting
- Feel “butterflies” in their core
- Anticipation symptoms. Especially, if porn is withheld for a period, an addict typically feels physical symptoms when seeking porn, especially if done in secret and/or in a shortened timeframe. In anticipation,
- Dopamine is released, creating a heightened awareness, desire, and focus.Adrenaline from the excitement or fear of being caught may cause chills and physical shaking.When the addiction cycle is activated, the brain’s frontal lobe (decision-making and impulse control) is limited. Once activated, it’s unlikely a person will shut down their porn craving.
Other physical symptoms during porn-seeking behavior may include:
- Increased heart rate
- Shortness of breath
- Tingling in the extremities
- Physical tension
- Gritting teeth
- Sweaty palms
- Increased blood flow to the genital region
See also How Long does it take to recover from porn addiction?
Emotional Symptoms
Whether porn use becomes habitual in youth or adulthood, one theme persists: pornography is often a salve of escape used to tend deep-seated wounds, whether those wounds are mental, emotional, physical, sexual, or spiritual.
Often, people are unaware that they use porn to anesthetize their wounds and regulate their emotions and self-incriminating feelings about their self-worth. Given time and practice, porn use expands to cope with boredom, frustration, anxiety, and a range of other uncomfortable feelings.
Of course, pornography lures people into isolating and self-focused behaviors, which can pull them away from meaningful connections with others. And isolation, especially for the porn addict, can lead to even greater feelings of loneliness and disconnection, which are common triggers for more porn use.
Finally, people may feel a moral incongruence and deep shame about using porn. But the shame actually helps feed an addiction cycle, reinforcing negative personal beliefs and feelings, which leads to more porn use to soothe the negative emotions. It’s a subconscious cycle that keeps addicts stuck and frustrated.
Here are common emotional and cognitive symptoms of porn addiction.
- Obsessive thinking and fantasizing about sex and porn, especially when faced with stress and physical or emotional triggers
- Intrusive, nagging thoughts about porn and sex, even when trying to push them out.
- When trying to limit or quit porn, a person may feel:
- anxiety
- irritability
- restlessness
- mood swings (varying from excitement to shame)
- psychological discomfort
- uncontrollable thoughts about porn and sex
- Negative self-esteem due to porn use.
- Loss of self-confidence or self-worth.
- Porn use and sexual behavior bring feelings of hopelessness, isolation, and even suicidal thoughts. (Suicidal ideation requires immediate professional help. Call 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.) If acting out with porn is disrupted, an addict may lash out and express anger or irritability.
Behavioral Symptoms
Having a strong sense of personal agency over actions, behaviors, and attitudes reinforces a person’s sense of well-being. Unfortunately, as with most addictions, people typically ease into their comfort zone with consuming behaviors. Nonetheless, sometimes addicts recognize how porn is interrupting and even controlling parts of their lives and damaging their relationships. Losing one’s sense of control over porn and sexual behaviors can feel frightening and can be a wake-up call for the addict. Sometimes, others alert the addict to their destructive behaviors with porn.
This list of behavioral symptoms may indicate a porn addiction.
- Cravings for porn overwhelm logical thoughts to not use it
- Easily visually triggered by non-pornographic images or videos
- Seeking behavior, obsessive thoughts about gaining access to porn, especially if prohibitive boundaries are in place
- Escalation. Using more porn, or using more extreme, violent, fetish, or demeaning content to feel stimulated.
- Increased aggression or desensitization to violent or demeaning content.
- Thinking about porn during sex with a real person to feel stimulated or to climax
- Feel intense focus on using porn, but afterward feel shame and depression
- Hide or lie about how much and how often porn is used
- Make promises to oneself, God, or others to stop, but have repeatedly gone back to porn
- Spending significant money on paid porn content, live cams, or other sexual performances
- Having difficulty concentrating and becoming irritable because porn fantasies invade one’s thoughts
- Porn is negatively impacting work, school, relationships, or daily routine
- Feeling triggered to use porn at times of physical or emotional stress
- Using porn or acting out sexually in risky ways or environments
- Porn use has negatively impacted a romantic relationship (if known by a partner), but use it anyway. It has created:
- Distrust
- Feelings of neglect
- Feelings of betrayal
- Porn use has created unrealistic sexual expectations and dissatisfaction with partner.
Spiritual Symptoms
Modern sociology and psychology embrace the value of spirituality in supporting personal well-being. Faith is an important force for social support, coping with life’s joys, crises, and struggles, and healthy personal development.
Studies show faith and spirituality to be a significant protective factor against substance abuse, premature sexual activity, and delinquency for children and adolescents (Smith & Denton, 2005).
Religious involvement and practice are related to lower feelings of depression, hopelessness, anxiety, suicide, and other mental health problems and a greater relation with optimism, life satisfaction, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and general well-being (Koenig, 2005; Mueller et al., 2001; Pargament, 1997).
Pornography creates dissonance with the values and norms of faith practices, including those of Christianity. People who express faith in Jesus often feel a moral incongruence about their spiritual values and pornography use.
A study by University of Oklahoma professor Dr. Samuel Perry found that the more someone used porn, the less likely they were to volunteer for a leadership role or committee in their church.
Many Christians who struggle with compulsive porn use find themselves pulled in multiple directions. They may feel empowered by their faith to fight porn’s temptation, but when their willpower wanes or the right triggers hit, they seek porn and often feel intense shame afterward. Without outside guidance and support using best practices, people often find themselves flipping between trying harder on their own and repeated failure.
A review of studies (Perry & Hayward, 2017) found that when Christians use porn, it often weakens their faith and practices, including:
- Feelings of a worsened relationship with Christ
- Losing interest in spiritual things
- Reduced church attendance
- Diminished faith
- Lessened prayer frequency
- Diminished feelings of closeness to God
- Increased religious doubts
Help for Porn Addiction
If you or someone you love exhibits these symptoms, here are the steps to Stop Porn addiction.
If you are uncertain about the intensity of your struggle, we offer the free Porn Addiction and Use Survey created by the Begin Again Institute.
Jensen, F. E. (2015). The teenage brain: A neuroscientist’s survival guide to raising adolescents and young adults. HarperCollins.
Koenig, H.G. (2001). Religion and mental health II: Religion, mental health, and related behaviors. International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine.
Mueller, P.C., Plevak, D.J., & Rummans, T.A. (2001). Religious involvement, spirituality, and medicine: Implications for clinical practice. Mayo Clinical Proceedings.
Pargament, K.I. (1997). The psychology of religious coping: Theory, research, practice. New York, N.Y: Guilford Press
Perry, S.L. & Hayward, G.M., (2017) “Seeing is (not) believing: How viewing pornography shapes religious lives of young americans,” National Center for Biotechnology Information.
Perry, S. L. (2019). Addicted to lust: Pornography in the lives of conservative Protestants. Oxford University Press.
