Porn Addiction is a modern phenomenon. The internet has enabled porn to be freely and widely available without cost. Research is demonstrating that boys are starting to watch porn at age 10 and are being fascinated by sex. Internet porn starts as a pursuit of pleasure and then becomes compelling because of unending novelty which gets your arousal system skyrocketing. This constant novelty is known as a supernormal-stimuli, which has a powerful effect on the brain. This stimuli is called the 'crack cocaine' of sex addiction.

What happens is that the constant novelty of porn produces copious amounts of 'dopamine' - the 'seeking and searching' chemical for pleasure and reward. Dopamine ramps up your reward circuity where you experience craving and pleasure and this is where you get hooked on porn.

The problem is that you probably won't know you are hooked until it has escalated to the point where it is affecting your relationship. Supernomal-stimuli lowers the arousal threshold sometimes leading to erectile dysfunction, low libido and less sexual satisfaction with your partner. In professional terms, this is known as PIED (Porn Induced Erectile Dysfunction) as attraction to real partners fade because you get increasingly sensitised to rapidly changing cues and desensitised to real regular partners.

As well as porn stealing your sex life, it can escalate into cybersex, webcam, hook-ups and sex workers causing relationship breakdowns, difficulties with work, loss of friendships and health issues.

Long-term usage with many hours searching the internet for porn - and resulting sleep deprivation - brings exhaustion and, with that, poor concentration and what's called 'brain fog'. All of this impacts on your self-worth and self-esteem, causing low mood and the need to escape, hence the craving for dopamine and seeking and searching begins all over again.

Porn blockers are often the first thing that beings to break the cycle of craving and then treatment can begin. Psycho-education can enable you to learn how to live your life without the artificial highs of excessive dopamine excitement, together with relapse prevention strategies, working on the underlying issues and reclaiming your sex.