in 2019 pornhub reported 115 million visits per day a new survey of people aged 15 to 29 found that 82 percent of women and 100 of men viewed porn due to easy access on phones porn consumption has increased rapidly in recent years it was only in the early 90s that people were just relying on static images in magazines i mean embarrassing a new survey found that 82 percent of people failed when trying to quit pornography so today we are going to explain exactly what happens to your brain and body when you try to quit porn
on day one of quitting pornography you likely won't notice much within the first 24 hours most men and women had overall good moods and were excited by the task trying to not look at porn maybe they had some extra time to read a book cook a new meal stare at a wall it's on day two of quitting porn when physiological symptoms started to appear you may be asking how much porn do you have to be watching to have physiological symptoms when trying to quit and this is a nuanced question most academic studies on the neurophysiology
of pornography use involve people who self-identify as having ppu problematic porn use this is not directly related to how much you consume but whether you feel porn is negatively affecting your life in 2011 13 of men were viewing porn every day now the number seems to be closer to 39 but the change in self-diagnosed ppu patients hasn't changed as drastically as you'd think right now studies say around six percent of people admit that they have problematic porn use again this is people self-identifying as having a problem with porn and then seeking out help either way
studying people with ppu is currently the only way that we can study how porn affects all of us on day two of quitting is when people with ppu reported increased anxiety inability to sleep inability to concentrate and wanting porn more than three times per day this is because problematic porn use does change your brain it affects the noggin your brain has neuroplasticity meaning it physically changes and responds to your behavior the change happens here in the gray matter of your brain which physically changes due to porn use an example of how gray matter changes involves
juggling a group of 24 non-jugglers had their brains scanned they were divided into two groups one group practiced juggling for three months the other didn't after three months they had their brains scanned again and the jugglers had significant changes in gray matter associated with processing and storage of complex visual motion using fmri brain scans of 28 men with ppu and 24 men without it was found that there was a physical change in the ventral striatum of men with ppu this is the part of the brain linked to wanting and involves dopamine dopamine is a neurotransmitter
directly linked to our evolution and survival has a big impact on our behavior and if you've been watching asap science for the past 10 years we talk about it a lot and it's because it makes us crave the things we need to survive like food love friendship but also two things related to porn which are novelty and sex surfing porn keeping a bunch of tabs open figuring out the right one for you keeps dopamine levels in your brain high for long periods of time and this can physically change your ventral striatum and it's the reason
why on the second day of quitting porn you might actually physically struggle on day four to seven is when most people go back to viewing porn a big reason for returning was anxiety one study found that people with ppu exhibited higher traits of anxiety than controls even though both groups didn't have a diagnosed anxiety disorder people with problematic porn use were using porn to alleviate their anxiety but most people said it actually didn't help interestingly a lot of the neurological studies found that people with problematic porn use want porn more but don't like it any
more than control groups this wanting is because porn affects your reward systems your dopamine levels by being a super normal stimulus a super normal stimulus is a term coined by nicholas tinberg is something with exaggerated versions of normal stimuli that amplify the qualities that make it more compelling than the real thing studies with bird show adding a fake super normal vividly spotted plaster egg to a nest makes a mother rather sit on it than a real more pale colored eggs or male jewel beetles will rather copulate with a beer bottle cap as the dimpled bottoms
are more intriguing than a real bottle that's right beetles are out here banging beer bottle caps for humans a super normal stimulus can be junk food a soft drink is a lot more compelling than the equal calories of radishes or porn enhanced novel sexual situations with easy access can be more compelling than real sex it's for this reason that many people cannot last longer than four to seven days without watching porn a survey found that on day 14 of no porn is when watching porn starts to feel like an intense novel experience again the effects
that porn have on dopamine levels can make it harder to delay rewards in all aspects of your life and on day 14 is also when the survey found that people could do challenging tasks for longer times and delay gratification better essentially watching porn on your phone is a quick fix and i notice when i'm doing it a lot i do have a harder time like sitting down and reading a book or working on work for long periods of time so they say it takes two weeks to start to feel like you can delay gratification better
after watching too much porn on your phone on day 30 is when you will notice a change in concentration and have clearer thoughts one study had people abstain from junk food and another group abstained from porn and found the people who abstained from porn were better at delaying gratification and had less brain fog than those who abstained from junk food after three months if we go back to the jugglers is when they noticed gray matter returned to baseline they asked both groups the ones that could not juggle and the ones that couldn't to stop practicing
juggling for three months and this is how long it took the gray matter to go back to quote unquote normal so after three months of no porn you can expect gray matter changes in your brain in relation to the lack of porn use when it comes to advice for quitting anything it's really challenging to figure out what works for you i personally think knowledge is power and just understanding what i've taught you could maybe help you at least realize the impacts that these things can have on you physically some studies suggest mindfulness and meditation to
kind of slow down the stimulus that is life other studies recommend replacing porn use with other novel experiences trying a new meal to cook going and having a drink with a new friend maybe try masturbating without porn that might be interesting i also think it's important to acknowledge that a lot of these studies are rooted in homophobia and transphobia and queer phobia it's very weird these studies seem to start by saying you might have an issue if you're looking at gay porn or lesbian porn or trans porn before even getting into any of the science
which is a red flag for me i think why don't you explain the science first before you start to explain what you think is non-normal porn news i just think it's important that people know this because i think this information is important sexual health is important we need to talk about it porn use is insane now because of the internet we need to talk about it and it's just sad that it's been co-opted by these misogynist homophobic and queerphobic people also according to google trends porn use has increased in the pandemic especially in countries where
there were stay-at-home orders so yes i think now more than ever it's important for us to learn about problematic porn use and go forth in the world as sexually healthy animals this is an interesting video leave comments below about your relationships to porn i'll be responding to them maybe being a little bit more truthful in the comments make sure you subscribe ask us any questions you want to see us answer here on asap science and we'll see you next week for a new science video
