Joseph McCarthy
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2025
(OP is a work in progress, will take a few days)
(Click "Watch" if you want to be notified when it's finished since I'll post a reply when it is)

Why Porn Is Bad For You:
This section will focus on why porn is bad for you personally as an individual. Porn affects you both psychologically and physiologically in negative ways. It desensitizes you and lowers your disgust reaction. Essentially, you're self-brainwashing. If you've ever wondered how lolcows can be into such disgusting things, it did not happen overnight. Porn is also bad for others too, as many pornstars have been human trafficked and platforms like PornHub do not remove rape or underage content from their website. But I'll go more into that in the section "Why Porn Is Bad For Others".(Click "Watch" if you want to be notified when it's finished since I'll post a reply when it is)

Why Porn Is Bad For You:
I. How porn can become an addiction
II. How porn can lead to extreme paraphilias
III. How porn affects your brain
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Reduced Empathy
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Brain Fog
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Lowered Motivation
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IV. How porn affects your body, not just your brain
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Erectile Dysfunction (ED)
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Peyronie's Disease (PD)
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Benefits of Semen Retention (SR)
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Porn addiction functions similarly to drug addiction. Drug addicts require more and more of the drug to "feel the same high". Porn addicts become bored of scenes once they've seen them enough times. Multiple viewings of the same scene result in less of a response. Desensitization results from too much dopamine, the brain's pleasure chemical. Drug use and porn consumption turn your brain's dopamine production as high as they can go.
Several academic studies have observed this.
[Study] Novelty, conditioning, and attentional bias to sexual rewards
(PubMed + Full Text) (Archive) DOI:
Novelty-seeking and cue-conditioning are fundamental processes underlying preference and approach behaviors implicated in disorders of addiction. This study compared 22 men with compulsive sexual behaviors (CSB) and 40 healthy volunteers using behavioral tasks and fMRI.
[Study] Brain structure and functional connectivity associated with pornography consumption: the brain on porn
(PubMed) (Full Text) (Archive) DOI:
This study investigated whether frequent pornography consumption is associated with differences in brain structure and function. It studied 64 healthy adult males with a wide range of self-reported pornography viewing habits (averaging about 4 hours per week, but ranging from 0 to 19.5 hours). Using 3-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), they measured: 1) gray-matter volume, 2) brain activity during a task where they viewed sexual and non-sexual images (a cue-reactivity paradigm), and 3) functional connectivity between brain regions while participants were at rest.
[Study] Exploring the Relationship between Sexual Compulsivity and Attentional Bias to Sex-Related Words in a Cohort of Sexually Active Individuals
(PubMed) (Full Text) (Archive) DOI:
This study investigated whether sexually active individuals show an attentional bias toward sex-related words and how this bias is related to sexual compulsivity and the duration of sexual activity (how many years they had been sexually active). The participants were 55 sexually active heterosexual adults (28 male, 27 female). This study demonstrated how the level of desensitization correlated directly with the extent of compulsive porn consumption.
Several academic studies have observed this.
[Study] Novelty, conditioning, and attentional bias to sexual rewards
(PubMed + Full Text) (Archive) DOI:
Novelty-seeking and cue-conditioning are fundamental processes underlying preference and approach behaviors implicated in disorders of addiction. This study compared 22 men with compulsive sexual behaviors (CSB) and 40 healthy volunteers using behavioral tasks and fMRI.
- Enhanced Preference for Sexual Novelty: Individuals with CSB showed a greater behavioral preference for choosing novel (over familiar) sexual images compared to neutral images.
- Generalized Reward Conditioning: The CSB group demonstrated a stronger preference for stimuli conditioned to both sexual and monetary rewards, suggesting a broader sensitivity to reward-related cues, not just sexual ones.
- Neural Habituation in the dACC: In the fMRI task, CSB subjects showed a more rapid decrease (habituation) in dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) activity when viewing repeated sexual images. The degree of this habituation was correlated with their behavioral preference for sexual novelty.
- Dissociable Mechanisms for Attentional Bias: The study found that the previously observed early attentional bias to sexual cues in CSB was linked to cue-conditioning, not to novelty preference. This suggests two separate cognitive pathways are at play.
(PubMed) (Full Text) (Archive) DOI:
This study investigated whether frequent pornography consumption is associated with differences in brain structure and function. It studied 64 healthy adult males with a wide range of self-reported pornography viewing habits (averaging about 4 hours per week, but ranging from 0 to 19.5 hours). Using 3-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), they measured: 1) gray-matter volume, 2) brain activity during a task where they viewed sexual and non-sexual images (a cue-reactivity paradigm), and 3) functional connectivity between brain regions while participants were at rest.
- Smaller Gray Matter Volume: Higher pornography consumption was linked to less gray matter volume in the right striatum, specifically the caudate nucleus. This region is a core part of the brain's reward system.
- Reduced Brain Activity During Cue Reactivity: When viewing sexual images, men who consumed more pornography showed lower activity in the left striatum (putamen). The putamen was confirmed to be specifically responsive to sexual versus non-sexual images.
- Weaker Functional Connectivity: More frequent use was associated with reduced functional connectivity between the right caudate and the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) . The DLPFC is a key area for cognitive control and top-down regulation of behavior.
- Consequence of Intense Stimulation: The changes in the brain's reward system (striatum) and its reduced connection to the prefrontal control center could be a result of neural plasticity. In this view, chronic, high-intensity exposure to pornography might alter the brain's structure and wiring, similar to changes observed in substance addictions.
- A Pre-existing Condition: Alternatively, these brain differences could be a pre-existing condition. Individuals with a less responsive reward system or weaker prefrontal control might be predisposed to find pornography more rewarding, leading to higher consumption.
(PubMed) (Full Text) (Archive) DOI:
This study investigated whether sexually active individuals show an attentional bias toward sex-related words and how this bias is related to sexual compulsivity and the duration of sexual activity (how many years they had been sexually active). The participants were 55 sexually active heterosexual adults (28 male, 27 female). This study demonstrated how the level of desensitization correlated directly with the extent of compulsive porn consumption.
- Overall Attentional Bias: As a group, participants were significantly slower to name the colors of sex-related words compared to neutral words, demonstrating a clear attentional bias to sexual stimuli.
- Positive Correlation: There was a significant positive correlation between sexual compulsivity (SCS score) and the magnitude of the attentional bias.
- Critical Interaction (Experience x Compulsivity): The relationship was more complex. A regression analysis revealed a significant interaction:
- For individuals with low sexual compulsivity, attentional bias levels were similar regardless of how long they had been sexually active.
- For individuals with high sexual compulsivity, the pattern reversed: greater attentional bias was linked with lower levels of sexual experience, while those with more experience showed less bias.
II. How porn can lead to extreme paraphilias
The Coolidge Effect is a biological phenomenon observed in many animal species where there is renewed sexual interest when introduced to a new partner, even after being sexually satiated with a previous one. This effect is driven by dopamine release in the brain's reward system in response to novelty, which reactivates sexual motivation and shortens or eliminates the post-ejaculation refractory period. It has evolutionary roots in maximizing reproductive success by encouraging males to mate with multiple females.
The Coolidge Effect is observed even in humans with pornography, in both men and women. What this means is that porn consumers don't just want more porn, but they want more imaginary partners and situations.
Consumers may also seek out other aspects of pornography, such as secrecy, shock value, taboos, and shame. These things offer varying ways to feed a desire for novelty and excitement. And for consumers who consistently view this type of material, it is possible to find their sexual interests eventually deviating in very unexpected directions. In one 2016 study, researchers found that 46.9% of respondents reported that, over time, they began watching pornography that had previously disinterested or even disgusted them. These findings are consistent with other research that demonstrates that changing tastes and escalation are not uncommon experiences among consumers of porn.
[Study] Online sexual activities: An exploratory study of problematic and non-problematic usage patterns in a sample of men
(ScienceDirect) (Full Text) (Archive) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.11.046
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The Coolidge Effect is observed even in humans with pornography, in both men and women. What this means is that porn consumers don't just want more porn, but they want more imaginary partners and situations.
Dr. Norman Doidge, a psychiatrist and New York Times best-selling author of The Brain That Changes Itself, explains, “Pornography satisfies every one of the prerequisites for neuroplastic change. When pornographers boast that they are pushing the envelope by introducing new, harder themes, what they don’t say is that they must, because their customers are building up a tolerance to the content.”
Consumers may also seek out other aspects of pornography, such as secrecy, shock value, taboos, and shame. These things offer varying ways to feed a desire for novelty and excitement. And for consumers who consistently view this type of material, it is possible to find their sexual interests eventually deviating in very unexpected directions. In one 2016 study, researchers found that 46.9% of respondents reported that, over time, they began watching pornography that had previously disinterested or even disgusted them. These findings are consistent with other research that demonstrates that changing tastes and escalation are not uncommon experiences among consumers of porn.
[Study] Online sexual activities: An exploratory study of problematic and non-problematic usage patterns in a sample of men
(ScienceDirect) (Full Text) (Archive) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.11.046
t
III. How porn affects your brain
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Reduced Empathy
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Brain Fog
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Lowered Motivation
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IV. How porn affects your body, not just your brain
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Erectile Dysfunction (ED)
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Peyronie's Disease (PD)
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Benefits of Semen Retention (SR)
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The brain is plastic. You can reverse the desensitization effects of pornography. Habits are formed by reinforcing neural pathways, so if you stop enforcing those pathways, you will crave porn less. While guilt can motivate healthy change, shame fuels porn habits, so be patient with your progress. Admitting you have a problem is the hardest step, so by reading this thread, you're already making progress. Here are two different methods for beating a porn addiction:
I. Easy Peasy Method
https://easypeasymethod.org/
II. Flying Eagle Method
https://flying-eagle-method.org/
Because all addictions act on the same mechanisms in your brain, any general addiction recovery methods will also work for recovering from porn addiction.
https://easypeasymethod.org/
II. Flying Eagle Method
https://flying-eagle-method.org/
Because all addictions act on the same mechanisms in your brain, any general addiction recovery methods will also work for recovering from porn addiction.
Drug addicts don't just harm themselves, they impact those around them, like partners and family members. Porn addicts also affect others. It impacts your partner (or love life if you do not have one). It impacts children who are raised on it with unrestricted Internet access. Even the porn industry itself is full of abuse and human trafficking. Major platforms like PornHub have been caught keeping up rape/underage content on their websites knowingly. Porn is also very tied to the transgender movement.
I. How it affects your love life
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II. Abuse and human trafficking of pornstars
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III. How children raised on porn are affected
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IV. How porn is connected to transgenderism
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II. Abuse and human trafficking of pornstars
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III. How children raised on porn are affected
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IV. How porn is connected to transgenderism
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Would you want your future daughter to become a prostitute? I'm assuming not. If there were "nothing wrong with prostitution", then you shouldn't feel disgusted by the idea of your daughter becoming one, or disgusted by the idea of becoming a Gay-For-Pay Free-Use hole yourself. The problems with prostitution do not go away when you legalize it either.
I. section
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Polyamory and "open relationships" are becoming more common. These individuals often try to justify it by using the Coolidge Effect that I mentioned in the first section, "Why Porn Is Bad For You". But they fail to realize that humans are more complex than monkeys. Polyamory becomes even more of a disaster if you have kids. If this thread isn't enough to dissuade you from polyamory, read r/polyamory. Don't forget that there's a non-zero chance your partner gets more side-partners than you do.
I. Sexual Jealousy
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II. "New Relationship Energy" (NRE)
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III. Not compatible with raising kids
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II. "New Relationship Energy" (NRE)
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III. Not compatible with raising kids
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work in progress
I. What is a kink?
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"Kink Communities"
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II. Slippery Slope
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III. Psychological Effects
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"Kink Communities"
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II. Slippery Slope
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III. Psychological Effects
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- With your own thread. Your family members all now know of your deviancy.
- Getting arrested because you can't prove to the police that it wasn't a real drugging and rape, the girl from Tinder just told you she had a rape roleplay fetish and a drugging fetish.
- Trooning out and then killing yourself because You Will Never Be A Woman.
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