Brain on Porn (Social #1) by DeYtH Banger (ereader android .TXT) 📖

we don’t blame you for asking. If you’re feeling especially discouraged about change, this is for you.

Sometimes just having someone say, “Hey, don’t give up!” isn’t enough. So today, we’ve got another concrete, rock-solid reason for you to stay hopeful. Are you ready?

Here it is: your brain is remarkably, surprisingly changeable. Did you know that? Almost no one knew just how malleable and pliable the brain was until the 1990s when some new scientific discoveries took place.

Researchers used to believe the brain was pretty much fixed and unchangeable. People knew that the brains of younger children changed, of course, but the belief at the time was that once you became an adult, your brain was set in place with fixed neurochemical levels and stable pathways. Basically, this meant if someone’s brain got messed up along the way, people expected the damage to remain permanent for the rest of someone’s life.

Scientists simply don’t believe this anymore. The biggest discovery in neuroscience in the last two decades is a juicy word: neuroplasticity, neuro meaning “brain” and plasticity meaning “changeability.” Neuroplasticity refers to your brain’s ability to change with each thing you do. Like a never-ending game of Tetris, the brain is constantly putting down new layers and pathways based on the choices we make.

Each time we learn something new or experience something different, a fresh connection is forged in the brain—with constant rewiring happening all the time.

Over a long period of time, pornography use can start to literally rewire the brain, making it more and more difficult for any one of us resist using. But the opposite is also true! As we begin to live differently, we forge new pathways in the brain. As we leave negative habits behind, these old pathways get grown over like a boring hiking trail no one uses anymore.

All this is another reason we’re here to tell you:  you can do this! No matter how deep you are into this stuff and no matter how long you’ve been struggling, there is hope. As long as you don’t give up the fight, and as long as you don’t try to do this alone, your brain can totally change and rewire itself back to a healthy state over time.   

And THAT is just one more reason to celebrate…and get excited about what lies ahead for you!

Are you ready to make the change? GET STARTED TODAY

 

 

 

 

 

How Self-Esteem Issues May Be Fueling Your Struggle With Porn

 

 

Do you ever wonder how you reached this point in life? After all, nobody plans out their life as a kid, and says, “I sure hope I develop a pornography addiction!” Of course not! And yet, here we are. What do you think has brought you to this point?

Many factors come into play, of course, but we’re going to focus on one in particular: self-esteem.

 

How Does Self-Esteem Fuel Addiction Exactly?

 

Did you know that low self-esteem can actually make you more vulnerable to addictive behaviors? Why do you think that is? After you think about it for a second, it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?

The worse you feel about yourself, the more you’re going to seek out ways to feel accepted, important, and in control. Often, we turn to pornography because it gives us a false sense of connection with those on the computer screen. However, by turning to pornography or any other potentially addictive behavior to escape from feelings of worthlessness, we are actually pouring fuel on the fire.

One guy who struggled with low self-esteem and pornography addiction described the vicious cycle that the two conditions created this way: “It’s funny. Because of my low self-esteem, I found myself turning to pornography for relief, but afterward, I would actually feel worse, and my self-esteem would get even lower. So without seeing the connection between the two, I would turn back to the very thing that was making it worse.”

His observation is consistent with the ironic pattern that many have experienced for themselves: turning to things like alcohol, street drugs, or pornography for relief from depression, loneliness, or self-hatred pushes individuals deeper into those same emotional ruts. The deeper we go, the more intensely we look for an escape. Do you see the downward spiral?

 

A Vicious Cycle Of Self-Loathing

 

Due to this pattern, our sense of purpose and self-worth can take a beating in any negative habit or addiction. When we’re giving our brain a dopamine rush over and over in response to an image, what do you think happens when we get up from our chair and turn back to real life?

That’s right, it’s boring! Think about it. Real life can sometimes seem dull when compared to those videos and images. We can start to feel less and less enthusiastic about anything, and that includes ourselves—our worth and well-being.

People whose habits have progressed to pornography addiction simply stop caring much about their own lives. They report feeling a loss of their sense of hope, purpose, and meaning in life.

And the cycle continues. This low mood then sets us up to think we want and need more of that artificial dopamine rush of pornography. After all, when any of us feel low and terrible, we’re going to want relief.

And when we try to escape those bad feelings through pornography or other harmful substances, we’re launching into the addiction cycle we discussed earlier. Is there another way to handle this emotional pain?

 

Take A Different Approach— Acceptance

 

What if we saw a low mood or a feeling of hopelessness as an alarm system going off in the body? When your finger touches a hot stove, the pain you feel hurts — but it’s also telling you something, right? It’s telling you to take your finger off the hot stove! What if your body didn’t send you this message? We would have far more serious injuries and probably be missing a few limbs, wouldn’t we? It’s a good thing we feel pain because it helps us make adjustments.

Instead of trying to force feelings by simply saying, “You’re great, just tell yourself that,” we’re talking about going to work building a life you can believe in, a life where you are offering something to the world, where your energies matter, where you are making a difference for someone. As you do so, it will change everything. You’ll notice a deep sense of purpose and contribution.

For many who face serious addiction, spirituality— whatever you define that to be— can also play a crucial role in finding freedom. Many find strength in turning to a higher power. If this is something that works for you, use it!

While it’s important to break free from a habit like this, having light to fill the void in your life that pornography used to fill is what is really going to give you meaning and purpose.

 

 

Note: Reading, watching videos about the bad sides of porn is very beneficial in your recovery. So what you need first to understand is the main problem, from where did it came then you need to find out what really happens to your brain and as last steps no more excuses, action + replace this habbit with new habbit. 

 

 

 

4 Scientific Studies That Prove Porn Can Be Beaten

 

 

We talk a lot about the doom and gloom of porn addiction. How it will affect our brains, ruin relationships, etc, etc. That information can be important and help us create better strategies for our recovery but let’s be honest; it can also be really depressing. So let’s look at the other side of the equation, most of the science that supports how harmful porn can be also proves that recovery is possible. More than possible; biological.

 

Once porn is left behind, the brain pathways it created will start to fade. ● Doidge, Norman. The Brain that Changes Itself. New York: Viking, 2007. —

Have you heard the “feed the right wolf” analogy? If not, it’s pretty simple.

If there are two metaphorical wolves locked in a power struggle, you can decide the outcome by choosing to feed one or the other. As one influence or “wolf” becomes stronger the other becomes weaker. This is exactly what happened when we started getting involved with porn, we kept feeding it and it got stronger. If we turn the tables it can be our way out.

As we build positive influences into our lives and gain more and more distance from pornography the pathways in our brain that tell us we need it will start to shrink. It will be slow but it will happen.

 

When a brain that has become accustomed to chronic overstimulation stops getting that overstimulation, neurochemical changes in the brain start happening. As a result, many users report withdrawal symptoms. ● Avena, N. M. and P. V. Rada. “Cholinergic modulation of Food and Drug Satiety and Withdrawal.” Physiology & Behavior 106, no. 3 (2012): 332–36. —

This might sound bad but it is actually very good. Like a marathon runner who learns to love the burn because it means they are growing stronger and faster we can celebrate the pain. Withdrawal sucks and it can be frustrating but it means our brain is changing. Instead of looking at it as evidence of how messed up you are think of it like burning calories or soreness after a workout.

And guess what? People have found that when they approach their withdrawal symptoms with this type of positivity they find them less powerful and shorter. So it’s a win-win.

 

The brain can regain sensitivity to healthy, everyday activities. ● Lisle, Douglas and Alan Goldhamer. The Pleasure Trap. Summertown, TN: Healthy Living Publications. —

One of the main parts of our brain that is affected by porn use is our reward center. Basically what happens is that thing gets over-clocked. This results in it producing less of the the “happy chemicals” (dopamine, serotonin, adrenaline, etc) and also becomes less responsive to them. Which means it takes more to make us feel good.

If we eliminate porn as our main source of these chemical releases our brain will start looking for new ones. We need start to connecting to positive things in our live that support our physical, emotional, mental and social health. These connections might start off small but they will grow and eventually replace the old neural pathways.

 

Research indicates that damaged frontal lobes can recover once constant overstimulation stops. ● Kim, Seog Ju, In Kyoon Lyoo, Jaeuk Hwang, Ain Chung, Young Hoon Sung, Jihyun Kim, Do-Hoon Kwon, Kee Hyun Chang, and Perry Renshaw. “Prefrontal Grey-matter Changes in Short-term and Long-term Abstinent Methamphetamine Abusers.” The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmocology, 9 (2006): 221–28.

Addiction can cause actual brain-damage, the most common of which is frontal-lobe shrinkage. This is the part of the brain that deals primarily with choice, logic and reasoning. This change is one of the main reasons scientists believe addictions can become so powerful, it’s like we’re missing the part of our brain that helps us make good choices.

What’s the silver lining?

It grows back!

Like anything it takes time but victory after victory will make a difference. The coolest part is that as our brain gets healthier it can theoretically get easier. Recovery teaches us core principles and builds specific habits that support the development of that decision-making part of our brain. Think of it like a muscle that gets bigger and stronger the more you use it.

All it takes is practice.

 

 

My Story: The Girl Who Beat Her Addiction To Porn

 

 

 

My story is probably one you’ve heard a thousand times. When I was way too young, I heard words I didn’t understand and saw some things I shouldn’t have. Porn planted a seed in me that grew and grew until it took over and robbed me of my happiness, my relationships and countless other things. I found myself repeatedly seeking things that shocked and disgusted me but I kept going back. The crazy part was that I was so overwhelmed by the desire for more that I didn’t even realize what it was doing to my life. It wasn’t until a role model from my church taught us about the harmful effects about pornography that I realized I had a problem. It was the first time someone talked to