Is Sex Addiction Really Fuelled By Porn?
November 26, 2015
For years we have believed that sex addicts were being spurred on by the amount of porn they were watching. After all, there are thousands, if not millions, of porn sites out there, with many of them offering a variety of free videos for you to watch and jerk off to. For a long time it just seemed to make sense that porn fuelled sex addiction, and so when people said a lot of us found ourselves agreeing… but it seems that it is no longer the case.
It seems that, throughout the years, there have been plenty of studies to suggest that, actually, porn is not fuelling sex addiction that all, and that it is simply a case of the sex addicts feeling more ashamed of their porn watching habits than other people… but these studies aren’t making big waves. Instead, people are still insisting that sex addiction is fuelled by porn, and the other studies are simply swept under the rug. Why is that, and can we really say once and for all that porn isn’t fuelling sex addiction?
What is sex addiction?
A lot of people will simply say that sex addiction is when you have a high sex drive, and so your desire to have sex goes through the roof. They believe that you want it all of the time and that is what sexual addiction is.
However, many believe that it isn’t that simple. For a lot of people, they think that sexual addiction is actually when you begin to have compulsive sexual thoughts and the urge to act out these thoughts overrides your other thoughts.
Like other addictions, being a sex addict isn’t fun. It is very stressful, as it can turn into a progressive intimacy disorder, and the desire and need for sex all of the time take over your life.
Plenty of people wrongly assume that being a sex addict simply means that you are horny and eager to have sex all of the time, but that isn’t the case. It is a real physical need to have sex and to do sexual things all of the time, which can be difficult to overcome, especially when it is such a hard addiction to not only be treated for, but also to diagnose.
Does it really exist?
One of the biggest problems we face is that it is ridiculously difficult to try and actually prove that sex addiction exists. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (otherwise known as DSM-5) still has not listed sexual addiction as a mental disorder, and that isn’t the only problem.
There have been so many studies throughout the years that have pointed out, quite clearly, why sexual addiction shouldn’t be a part of the DSM-5, and why it shouldn’t really be considered in any of the mental disorder lists that are used by health organisations.
They suggest that, since it is so difficult to prove that sex addiction, or hypersexual disorder, really exists, we can’t possibly include it any of the lists health professionals and organisations use when trying to diagnose the problems that people are facing.
A number of different studies have actually suggested that it is almost impossible to prove if sex addiction is real. Previously, people simply believed that sex addiction was caused by a high sex drive or watching too much porn, but a lot of the studies found that people with high sex drives weren’t obsessed with sex.
Porn doesn’t fuel sex addiction
For years people have assumed that porn is to blame for a lot of the problems that people face. If they are having trouble connecting with a partner in the bedroom, the blame is put on porn. If they don’t last long in bed and struggle keeping it up, porn gets blamed. It is the same for sexual addiction.
However, researchers in Croatia have actually spoken out to say that, according to their study, “high sexual desire is not a facet of so-called ‘sex addiction’“, and so porn is not directly fuelling sexual addiction in people.
The study looked at 1,998 men, who were first split into three different groups. There was the control group, the hypersexual disorder group, and the high sex drive group. They found that the number of men crossing over and falling into the hypersexual disorder group and the high sex drive group was “negligible”, suggesting that there really isn’t a cross over.
In fact, the study found that “the [high sex drive] group differed from controls only in reporting more positive attitudes toward pornography use”. This clears it up once and for all that “sex addicts” don’t actually engage more with porn, and that when they do their experiences are more negative than others.
And yet…
Finally we have an answer! And yet, if you check the news for sex addiction, despite these findings many of the newspapers will declare that “porn helps feed sex addiction” and that “easy access to online porn” is being “blamed for the rise of compulsive sexual behaviour”. The study has, basically, been ignored.
Why has it been ignored? Well, for a start the study goes against pretty much everything that we have been told about sex addiction. People want to believe that, if they don’t watch much porn, they won’t become addicted to sex.
Porn gets a lot of the blame for things that happen in society, so it is only natural that studies suggesting we are wrong are ignored. If we actually take notice, we might have to admit we were wrong after all of the time!
What do you think about this? Does sexual addiction really exist and is porn to blame, or are we looking at the wrong things when discussing this hot topic? Let us know in the comment box below.
Since then she has gained a fine reputation with her blogs on sex advice, sexual health and amusing news stories from around the globe. She is also a campaigner for the rights of sex workers from all over the world.
In her spare time, Lara keeps herself active by going running, and is something of a film buff. She also loves to go travelling.
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