The Hidden Crisis – Porn Addiction
The insidious poisoning
Throughout my career, I’ve spent many decades working with young people. First in Child Protective Services, and later in Secondary Education. During those years, like all of us, I’ve seen the world of young people change dramatically. The arrival of the internet and mobile phones is one of the biggest shifts I’ve witnessed. With just a click, you can pull the entire world into your living room: good news, beautiful stories, but also pure garbage that pollutes your mind. For example, a while ago, I read a striking article about the insidious poisoning of young lives by pornography. Back in the day, you had to go to special stores for that. It certainly wasn’t just handed out to kids, or passed around the schoolyard if a classmate brought a book from his dad. Today, things are different – more cunning, easier, and sadly, more pervasive.
The biggest culprits
You might not see it immediately, but something is seriously wrong with many of our boys. According to psychologist Philip Zimbardo, they seem to be disappearing, socially and sexually overshadowed by girls. Just look at the numbers: boys are five times more likely to have ADHD and drop out of school thirty percent more often. A dark shadow hangs over them. The two biggest culprits? Gaming addiction and, even worse, pornography. The latter, especially, is causing immense damage.
Just talking
Maybe you’ve noticed it too: boys often freeze up as soon as a girl is nearby. They no longer know how to talk, how to look, or even how to hold their hands. The art of making contact is completely lost. Zimbardo calls it fear of intimacy, and that fear only seems to be growing. It’s almost as if an invisible wall has been erected between the sexes.
The porn tsunami
Where does this fear come from? Zimbardo points the finger at the enormous amount of pornography available everywhere nowadays. He explains it’s not a normal addiction. With drugs, you want more of the same, but with porn, you’re constantly seeking something new, something more extreme. They call it ‘arousal addiction’. Just an example: Hollywood makes about 400 films annually, while 11,000 porn videos roll off the presses! This flood of images overwhelms young brains and changes them. Boys no longer know how the real world works, while girls are miles ahead of them.
Science sounds the alarm
Zimbardo isn’t the only one ringing the alarm bells. More and more scientists, like the Italian Carlo Foresta and Gary Wilson (known for his book ‘Your Brain On Porn’), are seeing what’s happening. These aren’t moral crusaders, but researchers who come with concrete evidence. Wilson even has a website, yourbrainonporn.com, where he meticulously explains what porn does to your brain: depression, impotence, loss of self-confidence… a whole laundry list of misery.
A dopamine playground
Wilson explains how this internal wrecking ball works. Normally, your reward system releases dopamine when you experience pleasant, natural things like a hug, a good conversation, or friendship. That gives you a warm, satisfied feeling. But artificial stimuli from porn, gambling, or games disrupt that system. You get a peak, but then you sink deeper than ever before. Your dopamine level goes on a rollercoaster: high peaks, deep valleys. That low baseline makes your brain desperately search for the next ‘kick’, and that’s how you end up in a vicious circle. Before you know it, you only feel ‘normal’ when you’re watching porn.
A stubborn addiction
It gets even worse: recovering brains create new connections, literally storing porn as ‘amazing’. That causes an incredible craving. And because your dopamine level is so low, many people relapse. Wilson reveals something shocking: “Your natural willpower, which helps you resist temptations, is affected by porn. It changes the frontal lobe, the part of your brain responsible for impulse control. Your ability to foresee the consequences simply disappears.” It’s like your brakes just stop working.
The pain of withdrawal
And as if that’s not bad enough, your body also works against you when you try to quit. After a few days without porn, your brain releases noradrenaline, a stress hormone that causes a rotten feeling during withdrawal. “Quitting really takes a lot of perseverance,” Wilson admits. “Your brain can no longer rely on those intense, artificial dopamine shots. At the same time, your stress level rises and your self-control is weakened. Boys get the idea that they’re better off with porn than without.” A perfect trap, really.
The brain recovers
Fortunately, there’s good news too: your brain is plastic, meaning it can reprogram itself. “If you know these withdrawal symptoms are temporary, it’s easier to keep going,” Wilson says. “Within a few months, your brain can function normally again.” But the first step is to admit there’s a problem. A problem that’s slowly eating away at our boys. The question isn’t whether we want to see this, but whether we’re still on time to do something about it. Because while we’re discussing, another generation of boys is going under. Silently, invisibly, but mercilessly.
How can a young man live a pure life? By letting himself be guided by Your word. With my whole heart I want to follow You. Help me not to stray from You. (Ps. 119:9 HTB)
The data for this article comes from CIP.
@wimvanputten