While porn can improve masturbation, liven up your sex life, and provide you with much-needed stress relief, it can also become a serious obsession. If you are concerned that your porn habits are getting out of hand, try to find some red flags that reveal a porn addiction. But what are some signs that you are watching too much porn? Let’s find out!
One of the biggest downsides of porn is that it can isolate you from your friends and your community. This is usually one of the first warning signs.
You could constantly immerse yourself in porn and become anti-social. Also, you might end up avoiding all kinds of social activities just so you could have enough free time to masturbate to porn. What’s more, on rare occasions when you manage to get out, your mind will be preoccupied with your obsession. You could use any excuse to get away, return home, and turn on your favorite porn.
Porn can become a priority, and it can harm your desire to pursue, develop, and nurture relationships. If you spend a lot of time watching porn, you won’t have any free time left for socializing or meeting future partners.
Porn can impact the way you connect with others, especially your friends, family, and romantic partners. Besides making your mind preoccupied, it can profoundly impact your ability to connect and be intimate with your current or potential partner.
Some studies have shown that over 70% of people hide their porn habits from their partners. They are also extremely careful, and they’ll do anything to cover their tracks. This could happen to anyone who suffers from porn addiction. Your interactions with your loved one could change substantially due to your constant need for secrecy.
If your partner mentions or questions you about the changes in your behavior, you might say or do anything to keep your addiction hidden. This type of dishonesty could affect various aspects of your relationship.
By watching too much porn, you can develop a deep obsession with fantasy characters played by porn actresses or actors. Porn stars can set high and unachievable standards or even portray acts that could be impossible in real life.
If you only get aroused by masturbating to porn stars, you will lose your connection to sex and intimacy in your daily life. This can make it difficult for you to get turned on during real sex. Porn can also distort your expectations during sex. You might only be able to get aroused if you imagine your partner in porn-like settings and activities.
Furthermore, if your partner doesn’t act or look like a porn performer, you could judge them for it. Ultimately, you could become completely detached from sex in real life. You could lose your physical connection to your partner.
Another sign of porn addiction is the loss of self-confidence. You could end up comparing yourself to porn stars. That could lead you to constantly question your looks and performance. You might criticize your penis size or put yourself down for not having enormous breasts or a slim body. In the end, you’ll end up objectifying everyone, including yourself.
If you compare yourself to trained, professional performers who get paid to have sex on camera, you could become miserable or insecure. You might also become overly critical of your partner for not looking or acting like a porn star.
Pornographic stimuli can desensitize your sexual responses and lead to sexual dysfunction. In most cases, people find it hard to achieve and maintain an erection or even reach orgasm.
Additionally, you could become rougher and more dominant when you actually have sex. You might use degrading language or mistreat your partner in bed to replicate some of the scenes that you’ve seen in porn. Consequently, emotional closeness, romance, and bonding could lose their impact on you.
Eventually, porn can take priority over sex with your current or potential partner. It can warp your expectations of love, intimacy, and sex. That way, you will lose interest in reality. Your only interest will be to watch porn or possibly try some acts that resemble it. You could set unrealistic expectations for your partner or even force them to try acts that they’re not comfortable with.
Not everyone will experience the signs we’ve mentioned above. A pornography addiction can also impact your work life. It can cause mental and emotional distress or even lead to depression and risky sexual behaviors (i.e., hiring sex workers).
If you notice that your porn habit is getting out of hand, you will need to assess the situation. The concept of “too much” is highly individual and it’s up to you to objectively see whether your porn habits are impacting you or not. In fact, there are many porn aficionados who consume too much of it and never feel the consequences.
If you notice any of the red flags we’ve mentioned, the easiest tip is to just turn off the porn. You don’t have to go “cold turkey” alone, though. You could reach out to a mental health professional or a certified sex therapist who can help you to objectively address your porn viewing habits and their impact on your life. Good luck!
