What Is A ‘Pornosexual?’ The New Sexual Orientation For Those Who Watch Porn, And Shun Real Sex

Using porn to replace sex in real life is like using a drug that numbs the desire to be intimate, or have any deep connection. If pornography is used long enough, it may become the only way a person can get aroused, and an orgasm becomes nothing more than a biological urge to fulfill.Other people who have grown up with the internet and who have had access to pornorgraphy since a young age remain virgins, and have never experienced sexuality or arousal outside of their computers or phones. Of course, it’s a lot easier to relate to a video on a computer than a real human being with needs and desires. On the other hand, the people in the video can’t respond to a viewer, either emotionally or physically.An emerging phenomenon known as “pornosexuality” describes a person whose sexual orientation is linked solely to porn. Is pornosexuality really a new way to express sexuality, or is it just a label used to mask a fear of intimacy?

Source: What Is A ‘Pornosexual?’ The New Sexual Orientation For Those Who Watch Porn, And Shun Real Sex

Men’s brains are programmed for easy arousal, meaning whenever they see the opportunity for sex, they’re ready. In the book, A Billion Wicked Thoughts, authors Oi Ogas and Sai Gaddam report most male species are wired to become aroused by novelty. This helps explain why amateur porn is so popular; it includes authenticity cues and novelty ones as well. Hence, free online porn provides the ideal outlet for vicarious opportunities for men via visual stimuli.

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Pornosexuality differs from other sexual orientations because it’s a learned behavior that is void of human-to-human attachment bonding and connection. Frequently viewing porn can increase susceptibility to becoming a pornosexual, says Lozano, as the viewer desensitizes their brain and body to respond to the over-stimulating nature of porn. Anything that is overdone, overused, and abused, can create an addiction.

For about five to eight percent of the adult population, porn use can evolve into an addictive behavior.

Your Brain On Porn: How Much Is Too Much?

Several studies have shown porn consumption can rewire the brain, alter its structure and functioning, and increase the likelihood addictive behavior will emerge. Dopamine, a neurotransmitter, becomes the most active when you watch porn, producing a dopaminergic response. This is the neurotransmitter that gives you the desire for self-pleasure, as dopamine levels surge in response to anticipation and expectation.

Habitually using porn as the only source of sexual pleasure can desensitize the brain’s reward center. In a 2014 study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, German researchers conducted brain scans on porn watchers. They found the level of changes in the brain correlated with the amount of porn a person watched. This means the more they watched, the lower the activity was in their brain’s reward centers after sexual images were flashed on a screen.

The brain begins to require more dopamine each subsequent time it watches porn in order to feel its effects. Sometimes, the brain can get “worn out”, which halts the production of dopamine, and leaves the viewer wanting more without the ability to reach it. This can lead the person to watch more porn to replicate the same “high” they had the first time.

This is way the brain of a porn addict is often compared to that of a drug addict or alcoholic. A 2014 Cambridge University study published in the journal PLOS ONE found the ventral striatum — a brain structure that plays a role in the brain’s reward center, aka its pleasure pathways — lit up when an alcoholic saw a photo of a drink. In porn addicts, the study found similar brain activity: viewers wanted porn more, but they didn’t enjoy it more.

Amanda Pasciucco, licensed marriage and family therapist, certified sex therapist, and author of Playtime: Not Just for Children, admits self-proclaimed pornosexuals are at risk of addiction to porn.

“[P]ornsexuals experience all of their sexual pleasure in isolation instead of shared,” she told Medical Daily.

However, this does not mean all people who enjoy porn are pornosexuals.

Pasciucco advises you should make sure that porn is not the only sexual outlet. Instead, you can channel your focus on fantasizing and masturbation by calling up fantasies through your imagination without watching any type of porn.

Porn can be helpful in exploring sexual desires, but unhealthy use can have a negative consequence on the brain.

…. Pornosexuals will admit they get off from watching porn rather than having sex with someone. A recent study presented at the 112th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association found watching X-rated content can leave men unable to get an erection with real life partners. Moreover, about four percent of men admitted they preferred masturbating to porn to sex with another person.

…A pornosexual who jumps into the bathroom to relieve himself sees it as a sexual urge, and trains his body to react to unpleasant emotions by avoiding intimacy, and jerking off.

…There are couples who have struggled with pornosexuality in their relationships. Several women will admit their boyfriend or husband has lost interest in having sex, but still has the desire to masturbate to porn. In the book, The Sex-Starved Wife, author Michele Weiner Davis provides an interesting look into the growing problem in society: Internet sex and self-sex as a replacement for marital sex, or IRL sex.

In chapter five, Davis explains the ways in which pornography and masturbation can cause sexual distance between couples. Men may be infatuated with porn both online and offline, while many women cannot fathom why their husbands would rather masturbate than have sex with them. Where there is a couple with a desire gap, there is a couple with relationship issues.

… However, therapy is only useful with people who want to change their sexual desires, not those who are happy with their sexual preferences.