Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: Gary Wilson on 03/02/2015 03:00:56

Title: Is it true that pornography is like meth and heroin and can change the brain?
Post by: Gary Wilson on 03/02/2015 03:00:56
Porn is as addictive as meth. Go onto this site:

www.yourbrainonporn.com

and see the facts for yourself. Also go onto

www.fightthenewdrug.org

Porn is the new drug, through scientific research, we now know that porn can change the brain, form addictions, cause erectile dysfunction, objectify women, and do a bunch of terrible things.

Porn releases large amounts of dopamine, a chemical which is also released when you eat hard drugs like marijuana, LSD, cocaine, heroin, and meth. It is the chemical which makes you high. The brain becomes addicted to the porn after the dopamine is released, and it releases less dopamine after repeated stimulation. This makes the brain desire more extreme stimulation, and people can move on to harder forms of porn, including rape porn, pedophila, and besteallity.

Porn makes men objectify women. Once men move to rape porn, they consider making the cross to screen to reality, and they rape. Don't believe me? I have proof.
Ever since the porn started and the internet, rape increased. Just look at this graph:
http://marketsanity.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/rape.png
Ever since 1992, there is more rape globally. Porn is harmful to the world.

Look at the TRUTH
Title: Re: Warining: Porn is like meth and heroin and can change the brain
Post by: chiralSPO on 03/02/2015 03:37:53

Porn is the new drug, through scientific research, we now know that porn can change the brain, form addictions, cause erectile dysfunction, objectify women, and do a bunch of terrible things.


All experiences (especially repetitive ones) change the brain. If you know what to look for, brain scans can identify taxi cab drivers, soldiers, drug addicts etc. etc. The argument "x-and-such changes your brain" is silly, and is a pet peeve of mine.

I would believe that people can get addicted to porn, just as they can with gambling, smoking, running, sky diving, even lying. Anything that causes a rush (activate short-term reward pathways) can lead to addiction. Some people are more likely to become addicts than others, and people can be more or less likely during different stages of their lives.


Ever since the porn started and the internet, rape increased. Just look at this graph:
http://marketsanity.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/rape.png
Ever since 1992, there is more rape globally. Porn is harmful to the world.

Pornography has existed long before the internet. Don't believe me? Ask your dad (or your grandfather). Or check out the ancient erotica found at Pompeii (WARNING: definitely NSFW! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erotic_art_in_Pompeii_and_Herculaneum) Even if a very strong correlation can be established linking internet pornography and rape, that is still a very far cry from establishing causation.


This makes the brain desire more extreme stimulation, and people can move on to harder forms of porn, including rape porn, pedophila, and besteallity.... Porn makes men objectify women. Once men move to rape porn, they consider making the cross to screen to reality, and they rape.

Watching porn may lead to objectification--I don't know, I'm no psychologist. But I think this argument is specious. People have been claiming causative links between violent movie/video games and school shootings for a while now, and I think that they have produced very little evidence of that. The "gateway" argument is similarly flawed. Show me I'm wrong... I am skeptical but I have an open mind.


Porn releases large amounts of dopamine, a chemical which is also released when you eat hard drugs like marijuana, LSD, cocaine, heroin, and meth.

These drugs are all very different. They act on very different parts of the brain, and lumping them all together only weakens your argument.

[/end rant]
Title: Re: Warining: Porn is like meth and heroin and can change the brain
Post by: CliffordK on 03/02/2015 13:07:24
I have proof.
Ever since the porn started and the internet, rape increased. Just look at this graph:
http://marketsanity.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/rape.png
Ever since 1992, there is more rape globally. Porn is harmful to the world.

Is that graph real?  20 - 40 rape offenses per capita????  Something just seems a little off.

A quick web search for "historic rape per capita USA" shows a much different trend.  Apparently there are a few different sources of data, but most seem to show a decrease in the rate.  From Wikipedia (USA) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_in_the_United_States) and Globally (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics)
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fthumb%2F3%2F38%2FRapes_per_1000_people_1973-2003.jpg%2F640px-Rapes_per_1000_people_1973-2003.jpg&hash=686ee80c450efb31073ed5eb71d58100)

My guess is that with more discussion, rape is also being reported much more now than had been the case in the past.  More reporting of it may actually have the effect of decreasing the rates (more of a chance to get caught).

As far as porn, "objectifying women", and rape...  I don't know.  What porn may do is give a new outlet for sexual feelings that would not have been available without it.

I can't say that everyone can separate fantasy worlds from real worlds, but most people can.  Personally I dislike portrayals of violence against women.
Title: Re: Is it true that pornography is like meth and heroin and can change the brain?
Post by: Pecos_Bill on 16/06/2015 04:05:59
For God's sake, let  nobody look up the Turin Erotic Papyrus (created during the Ramesside period, circa 1100) because the 12 scenes of Egyptian porn are SURE to rot your brain and turn you into a raving pervert.

And certainly don't look at those temple carvings with stuff like Ganesh making beautiful music with three temple maidens.

After all the purity of western civilization is at stake as clearly shown in great literature like the works of Fielding, Lawrence, and Joyce.

Title: Re: Is it true that pornography is like meth and heroin and can change the brain?
Post by: SolElias on 25/07/2015 12:13:06
There are many people that say porn is not an addiction but a habbit. Many people can confuse this thing with an addiction but many psychologists are saying that it is just a viewers habbit that can't affect your life unless your brain is easily to corrupt.
Title: Re: Is it true that pornography is like meth and heroin and can change the brain?
Post by: Pecos_Bill on 25/07/2015 18:10:06
Any smoker knows what the reality of addiction truly is.

These insufferable prigs want you to believe that is the same sort of problem as wanting to watch, "Pulp Friction" or "Everyone I Did Last Summer".
Title: Re: Is it true that pornography is like meth and heroin and can change the brain?
Post by: alancalverd on 25/07/2015 18:48:56
Everything you see or hear has an effect on your brain and to some extent alters your opinions and actions.

If not, why do people spend millions of dollars on advertising?

If so, why do people spend millions of dollars making films about war?

I think the answer is that those who put themselves in moral and practical authority over us would like us to buy stuff we don't need (nobody advertises raw potatoes on television), kill without compunction when we are told to, and only to enjoy certain permitted forms of sexual expression (unlike priests and politicians themselves, who seem more likely than most to indulge in what most of us would call perversion).

The worst sort of perverts (Nazis, communists, muslim zealots....) control music as well as speech.

The political problem with pornography is that it is anarchic. It is OK for a zealot to rape an 11-year-old in the service of his god, but not for you infidels to see adults enjoying consensual sex - or even a woman's face.

What baffles me is why we allow perverts to constrain our lives. 
Title: Re: Is it true that pornography is like meth and heroin and can change the brain?
Post by: smart on 09/12/2015 14:34:18
Pornography is not a psychoactive substance like LSD or heroin. Therefore it cannot produces the same psychotropic effects on the brain. The effects of pornography on brain are thus not comparable to psychotropic substances which alters the mental state.
Title: Re: Is it true that pornography is like meth and heroin and can change the brain?
Post by: timey on 29/12/2015 00:44:12
Wow, that is some original post, OP!

Is porn addictive?  Does it lead to a desire for violent sexual activity or perversion?  Does it objectify women?

Does porn objectify women?  If porn does in fact objectify women, then I reckon it does it that much more so to men.  If I imagine myself being a man watching porn, the one defining feature of the male aspect of porn is the size of the male participants apparatus.  It is true that you can get specialised small apparatus viewing, but the norm is generally on the larger side, and I'm sorry, but I don't think that all men are normally quite so stacked that way - so this may constitute a problem of 'perceived inadequacy' for the average or little man to live up to.
The women portrayed, on the other hand, generally tend to come in a more varied assortment of shapes and sizes.  Again, preferences can be preordained, but the norm is in fact quite varied.  Therefore, in my opinion, men are far more objectified by regular porn than women are.

Does viewing porn lead to a desire for violent sexual activity or perversions?  Ok, that is an interesting question.  Porn works on the same part of the brain that advertising moguls target.  The sight of the well presented product arouses a desire of emulation in one for participating in the product, or the activity.
Sex is used in advertising all the time.  Now then, (chuckle) ... it hasn't quite got to the point that they are using the concept of anal sex to sell butter yet... but considering the now commonplace references to the act cropping up in everyday popular media, I don't think I'm quite so way off left field with that one.  However, and I think most people would agree, should it ever come to the point where they do advertise butter as such, I do not think for a moment that the act of my lashing my much loved butter on my toast in the morning is going to send me scurrying to the bedroom in search of anal sex, in much the same way that drinking a can of coke doesn't send me scurrying to the pharmacy in search of panty liners in order to hide the evidence of my own sexuality, in reaction to my finding the guy who advertises the stuff 'actually' to be a sexy hunk...  Therefore I cannot interpret your suggested link between 'viewing' an activity, and becoming compelled to participating in such despite oneself.  Nor that by viewing one type of activity, that this would then lead to wishing to participating in that type of activity violently, or inappropriately, or indeed leading to wishing to view those activities portrayed in a violent or inappropriate manner.

Is porn addictive?  Anything can become addictive I guess, but speaking for myself, not in my experience.  I can take it or leave it really.  Most porn is a load of old dross, but I have happened upon a few where clearly the participants are actually getting off and enjoying themselves, and that aspect is the defining feature of a good porno in my view.

I will not say that there isn't anything  to be said against porn, that is valid.  However, most of the stuff is just that which can be said of most industries, because most industries are open to similar abuse.
The internet is a mixed blessing.  It does afford people of a twisted sexual nature to prey upon the weak, however by the same token, it also affords the hunters of these perpetrators a singularly useful tool with which to catch them.  More pedophiles are being brought to justice now than ever before, and, much like the reporting of the rape of both sexes, this is not because the problem is escalating, it's merely being more thoroughly addressed and reported.  These problem have always existed!

In my mind it would seem that the more 'open' we can be about sexuality, through education and admission of our own desires and preferences, the less likelihood of any opportunity for perversions to be coveted behind closed doors, to then fester into the form of compulsive or damaging sexual behaviour.

I can recommend a couple of films I enjoyed very much (not pornos) that explore the phycology of sexuality from different perspectives.

"The Little Death"
"Black and White and Sex"

My hat is off to the Australian film industry for these little gems!

Also a significant documentary in consideration of the OP's concerns.

"Sex in Class - All 4" from channel 4
Title: Re: Is it true that pornography is like meth and heroin and can change the brain?
Post by: smart on 26/11/2016 20:43:22
Online pornography reduces rape and sexual assaults. It may get addictive, but so is sex.