In the following three sections we’ll look at common physical, mental and emotional signs and symptoms of porn addiction. As you read through these sections you might find that many of these signs and symptoms hit home for you. It’s normal to feel anxious and worried if you recognize yourself being described below. However, it’s important to know that many men have overcome their addiction to porn and gone on to have healthy and fulfilling sex lives.
In later sections, we’ll discuss how porn addiction can be addressed and how you can learn to ‘reboot’ your sexual experience so that you can start to overcome negative signs and symptoms. So, what are some of the common signs of porn addiction?
One of the key ways to know that your porn use is a problem is if you find it is interfering with your life and you’re struggling to control your use even when you want to. This, in itself, indicates there’s a problem.
But there are also many other signs that men who are addicted to porn find commonly occur:
- One of the key signs you’re addicted to porn is if you start losing interest in real sex. You might find that being with another person doesn’t excite you in the same way watching porn does and that you prefer watching artificial sex on your screen.
- Many men find they start having trouble getting and maintaining erections when they aren’t watching porn. You might find that without porn you develop an inability to orgasm during real sex.
- You might find that without porn or imagining porn you struggle to masturbate satisfactorily.
- Many people also experience unaccustomed premature ejaculation. Others develop delayed orgasm.
- You might find that you begin to escalate your porn use to harder and more niche porn, even areas that aren’t part of your normal sexuality. Some people report moving onto fetish niches that they don’t usually find exciting or rewarding as their porn use increases. Other people find they are drawn to porn that doesn’t align with their previous sexual preferences or orientation - for example watching gay porn if previously you have always felt heterosexually aligned or vice versa. Note that your sexual tastes can and often change as you go through life, however, if you find that it is only porn that seems to influence rapid or large changes in your sexual tastes then this can be an indication of porn addiction.
- You may experience escalation as a ‘porn paradox’ – where you start to crave certain porn even though you don’t actually like it.
- You may also suffer from a range of emotional and social symptoms which we will explore in the next section.
If you are experiencing these kinds of symptoms it could be likely that your porn habit has become or is becoming an addiction.
