Most people are aware that pornography brings with it –even from a purely secular point of view– some seriously negative results. Many are calling it “the new drug.” The number of ruptured families, relationships, and personal lives should give sufficient proof of its disastrous nature.
That said, today I would like to share an interesting video by Matt Fradd who works for Covenant Eyes. The post presents an interview that Matt did with the founder of Reboot Nation, Gabe Deem, who speaks about a side effect of porn addiction that’s only recently beginning to be discussed: Porn-induced erectile disfunction.
I admit that I can’t help but feeling exasperated when “scientists” or “psychologists” continue to lecture on “healthy sexuality” which is nothing of the sort. Junk-food sexuality does nothing but harm to all of those involved (especially women!) Time and time again, nature has a way of reminding us that we are made and designed for love. Perhaps it’s time to start listening.
Does Porn Cause Erectile Dysfunction?
Here I would like to share just two sections of the larger interview that you can find here.
Matt Fradd: Gabe, what is porn-induced erectile dysfunction?
Gabe Deem: It’s a condition where you become unable to get and/or maintain an erection without porn. In other words, you can get it up with porn, but not your partner (guys with severe porn-induced ED can no longer get an erection with porn either).
Historically, ED has been classified as either “psychogenic,” due to psychological factors like stress, depression, and anxiety, or “organic,” resulting from physical conditions such as hormonal problems and cardiovascular disease. However, porn-induced ED appears to be about sexually conditioning yourself (training your brain) to become aroused by pixels instead of a real person.
It’s about conditioning your arousal to everything related to your porn use – voyeurism, novelty, searching, fetishes, etc, which doesn’t match real sex. So, if you’re a young, otherwise healthy guy with ED, when someone tells you “it’s all in your head,” they may in fact be right, but if it’s porn-induced it’s due to physical brain changes and not merely psychological.
With that said, ED is the final stage of porn-related problems. Difficulty climaxing (delayed ejaculation), less arousal, thinking about porn during sex, escalating to more extreme genres, are all signs you’re heading for ED.
[…]
MF: Wow, that must have been terrifying. How prevalent is it this, Gabe? you mentioned a forum with “thousands of guys”?
GD: We don’t have an exact number, but we do know studies are showing a tremendous increase in young guys with ED that parallels the rise in access to high-speed internet porn. A 2012 Swiss study found ED rates in guys 18-24 was 30%. A 2013 Italian study reported guys under the age of 40 were 10% more likely to have severe ED than those over 40. In 2014 a Canadian study reported ED rates of 27% in 16-21-year-olds.
Compare all of these to a study conducted in 1992—before high-speed internet—that reported only 5% of guys aged 18-59 had ED. You read that right. We now have much higher ED rates in younger guys, than we used to in much older guys.
Only one study to date, from Cambridge University 2014, has asked men with ED about porn use. The researchers reported that 60% of the subjects (average age 25) said they had difficulty with erections/arousal with partners, but not with porn. Other research on porn users’ brains is showing potential negative effects. A German study correlated less arousal and smaller reward centers in the brains of people that used more porn. Discussing the study, lead researcher Simon Kuhn said “That could mean that regular consumption of pornography more or less wears out your reward system” The evidence that porn can have negative effects on users continues to mount.
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