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Porn on the Brain - Channel 4, Monday @ 10pm

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Thought this was interesting and worth sharing...

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/porn-on-the-brain

As part of Channel 4's Campaign for Real Sex, Porn on the Brain is an authored film by journalist Martin Daubney, who walked away from his position as editor of lad's magazine Loaded after becoming a father.

His son is now four. Confused by alarming headlines and driven by the knowledge that his boy will soon reach the age at which most children first see porn (10 years), Martin wants to find some answers. Is porn really bad for kids? Where is the evidence?

While making the film, Martin discovers that porn has changed from what he remembers as a teenager. Today's hardcore porn is extreme; it's free and it's only one click away, and Martin is shocked by what he sees.

Martin meets internationally-renowned neuroscientists, leading therapists and educators who are all concerned about the effects on vulnerable teenage brains today of free and easy access to hardcore pornography.

The film includes the shocking results of a specially-commissioned survey of teen porn habits, conducted for the documentary by the University of East London; and collaborates with the University of Cambridge to conduct the first study of its kind, scanning the brains of men who feel they are addicted to porn.

Episode will be available on demand a couple of hours after it airs.

Bonus article from The Guardian.

Brain scans of porn addicts: what's wrong with this picture?

The Cambridge University neuropsychiatrist Dr Valerie Voon has recently shown that men who describe themselves as addicted to porn (and who lost relationships because of it) develop changes in the same brain area – the reward centre – that changes in drug addicts. The study, not yet published, is featured next week in the Channel 4 TV show Porn on the Brain. Neurosceptics may argue that pictures of the brain lighting up in addicts tell us nothing new – we already know they are addicted. But they do help: knowing the reward centre is changed explains some porn paradoxes.

Once the reward centre is altered, a person will compulsively seek out the activity or place that triggered the dopamine discharge. (Like addicts who get excited passing the alley where they first tried cocaine, the patients got excited thinking about their computers.) They crave despite negative consequences. (This is why those patients could crave porn without liking it.) Worse, over time, a damaged dopamine system makes one more "tolerant" to the activity and needing more stimulation, to get the rush and quiet the craving. "Tolerance" drives a search for ramped-up stimulation, and this can drive the change in sexual tastes towards the extreme.

The most obvious change in porn is how sex is so laced with aggression and sadomasochism. As tolerance to sexual excitement develops, it no longer satisfies; only by releasing a second drive, the aggressive drive, can the addict be excited. And so – for people psychologically predisposed – there are scenes of angry sex, men ejaculating insultingly on women's faces, angry anal penetration, etc. Porn sites are also filled with the complexes Freud described: "Milf" ("mothers I'd like to fuck") sites show us the Oedipus complex is alive; spanking sites sexualise a childhood trauma; and many other oral and anal fixations. All these features indicate that porn's dirty little secret is that what distinguishes "adult sites" is how "infantile," they are, in terms of how much power they derive from our infantile complexes and forms of sexuality and aggression. Porn doesn't "cause" these complexes, but it can strengthen them, by wiring them into the reward system. The porn triggers a "neo-sexuality" – an interplay between the pornographer's fantasies, and the viewer's.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/26/brain-scans-porn-addicts-sexual-tastes

It's long but a highly recommended read.
 

maomaoIYP

Member
Well that explains certain things about my porn tastes.
I wonder if there's ever been a study on whether porn brings about positives? Like lowered aggression?
 

Raydeen

Member
Coming from Channel 4 who bought us the very first TV porn with their infamous Red Triangle movies in the early 80's....Big Brother contestants masturbating on bottles....and now live sex in a box.
 
Ive been porn and jerk free for one month now. Im not an addict anymore but i definitely was and even jerking it to porn once kinda rekindles the flame. My goal is to keep avoiding it altogether and "fix" myself. I have yet to ever cum from a blowjob because of it.
 

JohnDoe

Banned
Porn sites are also filled with the complexes Freud described: "Milf" ("mothers I'd like to fuck") sites show us the Oedipus complex is alive; spanking sites sexualise a childhood trauma; and many other oral and anal fixations.

Talk about broad strokes. These people don't know shit.
 

Truant

Member
Humans have been fucking butts since the dawn of time. Nothing new, but overstimulation is a serious issue. I quit watching porn, and I feel better.
 

Setsuna

Member
Coming from Channel 4 who bought us the very first TV porn with their infamous Red Triangle movies in the early 80's....Big Brother contestants masturbating on bottles....and now live sex in a box.

did this actually happen or are you just being crazy
 
Porn sites are also filled with the complexes Freud described: "Milf" ("mothers I'd like to fuck") sites show us the Oedipus complex is alive; spanking sites sexualise a childhood trauma; and many other oral and anal fixations. All these features indicate that porn's dirty little secret is that what distinguishes "adult sites" is how "infantile," they are, in terms of how much power they derive from our infantile complexes and forms of sexuality and aggression.
Horseshit. This isn't porn, it's sex. Really good, awesome sex. This analysis is ironically mired in neurosis itself, on the assumption that adult humans biologically somehow 'work' quite differently from their child selves. Sensual pleasure is a norm and a constant, get over it and have some fun. I love my dirty little secrets, fuck off with this horseshit.

Porn doesn't "cause" these complexes, but it can strengthen them, by wiring them into the reward system. The porn triggers a "neo-sexuality" – an interplay between the pornographer's fantasies, and the viewer's.
This is more to the point, but I see it simply as social entropy. Technology fills in more and more of the blanks that are springing up in between us as individual human beings. It can be a very good thing, it makes each one of us easier to handle, to understand and to relate to. In the case of porn (a complete misnomer these days, really), I feel I know and understand so much more about sex and sensuality as a direct result of my access to it. The downside is I remain a bit of a misfit and have less opportunity to put that learning into practice. Swings and roundabouts, eh.
 

Portugeezer

Member

kinga.gif
 
Too much of anything is a bad thing. I know this first hand, and once you cross that line it's hard to cross back.

What separates porn from everythig else is that it's free and consists of limitless variety. Having a 24 hour Internet connection can be like having an all you can eat buffet in your dining room for some people. Before you know it you're a fat, lazy fuck wondering where the last year of your life went.

It's definitely a problem, moreso for some than others. Bottom line is if you lose interest in human interaction and can't get off with another living, breathing person you have crossed that line and it's a hard journey back to normality.
 

entremet

Member
I'm one of those few who never found porn appealing. From the first time discovering my step dad's VHS stash to the internet age. I have no problem with arousal or sexual activity but watching porn always felt weird to me. I dunno know why.
 

scotcheggz

Member
Did anyone watch this? I'm watching it on +1 at the moment, it's quite interesting but I'm finding the main narrator guys faux outrage to be a bit rich considering he was the editor of loaded. Back in the mid 90s when I was 14-15, that mag taught me an AWFUL lot about drugs and sex and it wasn't all vanilla for sure. It was huge and everyone read it, so yeh, he's kinda chuffing me off lol.
 
Going without masturbating for even a few days definitely enhances the experience. I definitely think going without can also boost your confidence (or at least the increase in testosterone makes you stop giving a crap about anxiety), drive and motivation.

I just wish I could stop...
 
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