The Dark Side of Porn: How it Impairs the Developing Male Brain

What kind do you want? College? Cheerleader? Threesome? Lesbian? Step sister?

In an age where high-definition pornography is readily available at the click of a button, for any category or kink, it's important to understand the consequences of excessive consumption, especially on the developing male brain.

It's been proven that men are more stimulated by, and therefore susceptible, to visual pornography, due to the way men perceive attractiveness in women.

According to Stanford neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman, masturbation and pornography potently taps into the dopamine system and can undermine the very healthy processes of finding a mate, dating, communication, sex, and pair bonding. The biology explains it as a kind of open loop, an emptiness, due to absence of there being a real partner there.

Remember, dopamine, the get up and go chemical responsible for getting us out in the world to seek community, pleasure, achievement and partnership goes up during pursuit and anticipation, then peaks and crashes below baseline after orgasm. So this low. This post nut clarity, as people call it, is actually putting them in an amotivated state to get out and seek the healthy bonds of community, pleasure, achievement and partnership, and it creates a negative feedback loop where the only way to recreate that dopamine rush is with more pornography.

This over-stimulation of the reward centers in the brain also has a profound effect on the release of the hormone prolactin, which is responsible for feelings of contentment and satisfaction. When excessive amounts of dopamine are released, the brain's natural response is to produce less prolactin, leading to a vicious cycle of constantly seeking more stimulation in order to feel any sense of satisfaction.

The resultant function is a numbing of the brain's reward centers, and a growing sense of emptiness that can be difficult to escape. This is particularly concerning for young men who are in the midst of crucial brain development and who may be most vulnerable to the negative impacts of excessive porn consumption.

The same can be seen in excessive use of social media in young women, especially young teen girls, but such a topic deserves its own post.

Abstaining from porn has been shown to have a number of positive effects, including increases in confidence, memory, better sleep, increased concentration, a stronger voice, and greater attraction from the opposite sex.

In this fast-paced world, it's easy to get caught up in the habit of pornography. You can find literally anything you want. There will be a video for every race, kink, taboo and craving. But it's important to remember that this type of consumption can have serious and lasting effects on our lives.

And the important thing to remember is it's all a vicarious experience. It's not actually bringing anything of value into our lives. It's a cheap thrill akin and sometimes worse than gambling. Because when something is free, you're the product, and they're trying their hardest to get you to keep coming back day after day.