Hon. John L. Harmer: Pornography damages teen brains
by: Jenniffer Wardell
Can pornography actually damage the teenage brain?
That’s one of the assertions lawyer and former California legislator and Lt. Governor under Governor Ronald Reagan, the Hon. John L. Harmer makes in his latest book, The Sex Industrial Complex. Exploring MRI research gathered by Dr. Judith Reisman, president of Arizona’s Institute for Media Education, the book claims that exposing a young person’s developing brain to pornography rewires neural connections to create a lasting addiction to pleasure-inducing brain chemicals Reisman refers to as “Erotoxins.” “Pornography creates a chemical addiction in the same way cigarettes and alcohol do,” said Harmer.
In his book, Harmer cites sources from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the British National Addiction Centre to describe how dopamine, a key drug released by the brain during arousal, has the same effect as cocaine or speed and can create the same addictions in the brain.
For children and teens, Harmer feels that the addiction could be even stronger and more damaging. The amygdala, the part of the brain that controls fear and other “gut” reactions, develops at a much younger age than the more cognitive frontal lobe, and cites information from the National Institute of Health that says the amygdala is used more often to process images even into the teenage years.Because of this, Harmer said, when teenagers look at porn the images are not only linked in the brain to feelings of lust, but to other “gut” responses that the teen might be feeling such as anxiety or shame.
As an addiction forms, lust becomes permanently linked with the more negative emotions.“Studies have shown that the human brain is the last body organ to mature,” he said. “The teenage brain is at risk because it’s a long way from being fully developed.”According to Harmer, this information may be the key to fighting back successfully against pornography makers and distributors. As an attorney in Los Angeles, Harmer assisted the district attorney in successful attempts to prosecute pornographers, and has followed the progress of similar cases all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.“
"Up until now all the litigation against porn has been criminal, but these studies are developing a basis for civil actions against the pornographers,” said Harmer. “Especially with online pornography, most people who become addicted did not willingly begin that process.“It’s like the tobacco litigation from a few years ago where the companies claimed that tobacco doesn’t cause cancer. If people have no knowledge of the risks involved, there’s no way they can assume the responsibility for those risks.”Harmer and the anti-pornography association he founded, The Lighted Candle Society in Salt Lake, are currently raising the necessary funds for a major MRI study that directly explores the negative effects of pornography on the human brain. The cost for such a project is estimated at $2-3 million.
Two years ago the society gathered a panel of neuroscientists from all across the country to develop the protocol for the test, but Harmer said that the technology has changed so much since then that they need to reconvene the panel and develop new protocols. Once this is completed, he expects the actual study to begin sometime in 2008.“We’re only using scientists from outside the state because we don’t want there to be an immediate bias against our results,” said Harmer. “It’s been a lot of work, but the truth needs to come out.”
Those looking for more information, to donate, or purchase the book, please go online to http://lightedcandlesociety.org
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Women and men say no to porn at Wheelock College
This is an interesting and great article that I'd highly recommend. Many thanks to Growingwiser for providing this link.
http://womensspace.wordpress.com/2007/03/28/women-and-men-say-no-to-porn-report-on-the-feminist-anti-pornography-conference-at-wheelock-college/
http://womensspace.wordpress.com/2007/03/28/women-and-men-say-no-to-porn-report-on-the-feminist-anti-pornography-conference-at-wheelock-college/
Monday, March 19, 2007
If You "Believe" In Porn Addiction
I recently read an article about pornography addiction that gave me a moment of clarity on the topic with just one line. The article stated, "If you believe that internet addiction is possible, then you must believe that internet pornography addiction is possible."
Having dealt with porn addiction in the background of my life for so long now, it is sometimes difficult for me to remember that many people in the world don't even believe it exists. There's often enormous skepticism expressed in mainstream media, in psychology articles, even from my own close friends. And so, in my real life the choices, behaviors, and addiction of another person are something that I have learned to speak about sparingly, keep secret, speak about anonymously online to only those who have lived similar experiences.
Any woman who has lived with a pornography addict knows that the addiction exists.
Seven years ago when I went searching for information about what I then termed as "cybersex" addiction, the only information I could find was religious based and even that was hard to find. That was not enough for me. Right or wrong, it wasn't enough for me to read that my husband's behavior and pornography addiction hurts me and my children because God thinks pornography is not ok. I wanted more concrete answers. I wanted to know.....is this really happening? Or am I going crazy? Is this as bad as I think it is, or have I become a prude? Why is it wrong? Why does this affect ME so deeply? What will happen if my children are exposed to their father's porn? Why doesn't he just stop it? Why does he say he will stop and then get better at lying about it and hiding it? Is it just me, or does it seem that what he views on the internet is becoming increasingly outlandish and obscene? What does this say about his character? My judgement in living with him and raising children with him? Is he a compulsive liar or a porn addict or both? Which is worse, the lying and lack of trust, or the porn itself? Should I stay for the best interest of my children, or leave for the best interest of my children?
At that time, there just were very few answers available online, in books, anywhere. Even our marriage therapist seemed to shift focus from these questions, seeming to not know how to deal with them, or minimized them. I ended up searching for information regarding the symptoms of his behaviors and remember doing late night web searches on "bullying," "narcissism," "sociopaths," "compulsive lying" to seek out answers to to how to better understand this crazy monster living in my house posing as my husband.
Fast forward to today. I subscribe to alerts on current news articles regarding porn addiction for mothersagainstpa.com. Each day my mailbox is flooded with news relaying everything from the most benign articles that mention pornography addiction to the most heinous relating a new celebrity, judge, lawyer, doctor, policeman, or other upstanding citizen who has been caught with child porn.
Do a Google search on pornography addiction. Pages of sites dealing with the topic come up.
This is all good in my mind. The awareness has expanded and information is more readily available. There are entire online programs geared toward the recovery of addicts, websites dedicated to information about the addiction, postings online by well educated psychologists that validate the reality of pornography addiction, counselors now specialize in sex and porn addiction recovery.
And yet still most information is written from the point of view to convince readers that this is real. I have to wonder if while porn addiction is obviously exploding all over our world why it is that convincing people it exists is still necessary. Psychologists refer to this as a compulsion, not an addiction.
I find that this further mystifies me personally because, even with news of daily high and low profile convictions regarding the use of unquestionably illegal pornography, the focus by news writers is often on the crime, not the victim, most often children, and written with the slant that porn addiction may or may not really be "real."
The increase in awareness is encouraging in some respects. But, I feel it is too slow. Too little too late. There is no sense of urgency. This progressive addiction has escalated to impacting young teens. While I was searching for "cybersex addiction" and "bullying" seven years ago, some of the porn addicts of today were just entering second grade. Teen porn has soared to to new heights of production making it the highest sought after legal pornography on the internet. While teen boys view it, so do their fathers and grandfathers.
In 2007, with pornography being the number one search on the internet, there is still very little information to be found about how this addiction phenomenon affects children and families. A paragraph here or there is all that can be found. More information and programs are available for wives and significant others of porn addicts but there is still much to be done on that front considering the toll taken on marriages, women's mental and physical health, and the resulting consequences for children of those marriages. Taking it to the next level....this is not just about our husbands anymore. It's our children who are becoming, and in danger of being the next generation of internet porn junkies.
A factor that wives of porn addicts often deal with is lack of belief in it themselves, a feeling that they have caused or contributed to the addiction, or that they are capable of supporting an addict enough that the addict will quit. A simplified belief of "if he loves me he will quit," "he must not love me enough because he won't quit," permeates new member discussion on porn addiction message boards. These false beliefs find beginnings in our own homes and from the mouths of our own addicts through gas lighting and common addict blame shifting. Perhaps because of the highly personal nature of this addiction, while our esteem plummets, so does our belief that we have the right, or even the responsibility to set a zero tolerance policy for ourselves, our kids, and to expect that this addiction be outwardly named for what it is, that information and resources to cope with it be readily available. Significant others of porn addicts upon first learning of a partner's addiction, are still often caught asking the questions of nearly a decade ago even while they live with the fallout in their own house: "Is this real?"
Until women are able to openly identify themselves as having legitimate concerns for themselves and their children in dealing with a porn addicted spouse, and to have that routinely validated in media, their therapist's office, even political discussion, a secret virus continues to infect our families.
I have often wondered WHO will do something about internet pornography addiction? The government? Health officials? Oprah Winfrey? Jerry Springer? Dateline? George Bush? Hillary Clinton? Osama Bin Laden? Or will it continue on for another decade as a topic of titillating debate about whether it's real, whether free speech is more important than cleaning up the internet. In past generations we could simply zone porn shops out of our neighborhoods. Now they're free in our homes.
If a virus ran rampant in The United States, infecting many people, causing the breakup of families, infecting children, would an agency be created to research it? Create a cure? Creating a generation of people hooked on the glare of computer generated naked images in increasingly bizarre and inhuman and violent acts in millions of home offices and across the world during work hours, school hours, late at night surely is worth looking into?
In the meantime the significant others of porn addicts are the witnesses. We have the ability to verify for one another the reality of the effect and harm of addiction. And when we believe what we know to be true, we can help other women find their way too.
In the meantime women like me can write blogs like this and hold out hope, speak up, so that my daughters will somehow be able to find a partner 20 years from now whose mind is not a cesspool of unimaginable sexual expectations and acts. And that my daughters' own minds will not be the ones clouded by these images.
Having dealt with porn addiction in the background of my life for so long now, it is sometimes difficult for me to remember that many people in the world don't even believe it exists. There's often enormous skepticism expressed in mainstream media, in psychology articles, even from my own close friends. And so, in my real life the choices, behaviors, and addiction of another person are something that I have learned to speak about sparingly, keep secret, speak about anonymously online to only those who have lived similar experiences.
Any woman who has lived with a pornography addict knows that the addiction exists.
Seven years ago when I went searching for information about what I then termed as "cybersex" addiction, the only information I could find was religious based and even that was hard to find. That was not enough for me. Right or wrong, it wasn't enough for me to read that my husband's behavior and pornography addiction hurts me and my children because God thinks pornography is not ok. I wanted more concrete answers. I wanted to know.....is this really happening? Or am I going crazy? Is this as bad as I think it is, or have I become a prude? Why is it wrong? Why does this affect ME so deeply? What will happen if my children are exposed to their father's porn? Why doesn't he just stop it? Why does he say he will stop and then get better at lying about it and hiding it? Is it just me, or does it seem that what he views on the internet is becoming increasingly outlandish and obscene? What does this say about his character? My judgement in living with him and raising children with him? Is he a compulsive liar or a porn addict or both? Which is worse, the lying and lack of trust, or the porn itself? Should I stay for the best interest of my children, or leave for the best interest of my children?
At that time, there just were very few answers available online, in books, anywhere. Even our marriage therapist seemed to shift focus from these questions, seeming to not know how to deal with them, or minimized them. I ended up searching for information regarding the symptoms of his behaviors and remember doing late night web searches on "bullying," "narcissism," "sociopaths," "compulsive lying" to seek out answers to to how to better understand this crazy monster living in my house posing as my husband.
Fast forward to today. I subscribe to alerts on current news articles regarding porn addiction for mothersagainstpa.com. Each day my mailbox is flooded with news relaying everything from the most benign articles that mention pornography addiction to the most heinous relating a new celebrity, judge, lawyer, doctor, policeman, or other upstanding citizen who has been caught with child porn.
Do a Google search on pornography addiction. Pages of sites dealing with the topic come up.
This is all good in my mind. The awareness has expanded and information is more readily available. There are entire online programs geared toward the recovery of addicts, websites dedicated to information about the addiction, postings online by well educated psychologists that validate the reality of pornography addiction, counselors now specialize in sex and porn addiction recovery.
And yet still most information is written from the point of view to convince readers that this is real. I have to wonder if while porn addiction is obviously exploding all over our world why it is that convincing people it exists is still necessary. Psychologists refer to this as a compulsion, not an addiction.
I find that this further mystifies me personally because, even with news of daily high and low profile convictions regarding the use of unquestionably illegal pornography, the focus by news writers is often on the crime, not the victim, most often children, and written with the slant that porn addiction may or may not really be "real."
The increase in awareness is encouraging in some respects. But, I feel it is too slow. Too little too late. There is no sense of urgency. This progressive addiction has escalated to impacting young teens. While I was searching for "cybersex addiction" and "bullying" seven years ago, some of the porn addicts of today were just entering second grade. Teen porn has soared to to new heights of production making it the highest sought after legal pornography on the internet. While teen boys view it, so do their fathers and grandfathers.
In 2007, with pornography being the number one search on the internet, there is still very little information to be found about how this addiction phenomenon affects children and families. A paragraph here or there is all that can be found. More information and programs are available for wives and significant others of porn addicts but there is still much to be done on that front considering the toll taken on marriages, women's mental and physical health, and the resulting consequences for children of those marriages. Taking it to the next level....this is not just about our husbands anymore. It's our children who are becoming, and in danger of being the next generation of internet porn junkies.
A factor that wives of porn addicts often deal with is lack of belief in it themselves, a feeling that they have caused or contributed to the addiction, or that they are capable of supporting an addict enough that the addict will quit. A simplified belief of "if he loves me he will quit," "he must not love me enough because he won't quit," permeates new member discussion on porn addiction message boards. These false beliefs find beginnings in our own homes and from the mouths of our own addicts through gas lighting and common addict blame shifting. Perhaps because of the highly personal nature of this addiction, while our esteem plummets, so does our belief that we have the right, or even the responsibility to set a zero tolerance policy for ourselves, our kids, and to expect that this addiction be outwardly named for what it is, that information and resources to cope with it be readily available. Significant others of porn addicts upon first learning of a partner's addiction, are still often caught asking the questions of nearly a decade ago even while they live with the fallout in their own house: "Is this real?"
Until women are able to openly identify themselves as having legitimate concerns for themselves and their children in dealing with a porn addicted spouse, and to have that routinely validated in media, their therapist's office, even political discussion, a secret virus continues to infect our families.
I have often wondered WHO will do something about internet pornography addiction? The government? Health officials? Oprah Winfrey? Jerry Springer? Dateline? George Bush? Hillary Clinton? Osama Bin Laden? Or will it continue on for another decade as a topic of titillating debate about whether it's real, whether free speech is more important than cleaning up the internet. In past generations we could simply zone porn shops out of our neighborhoods. Now they're free in our homes.
If a virus ran rampant in The United States, infecting many people, causing the breakup of families, infecting children, would an agency be created to research it? Create a cure? Creating a generation of people hooked on the glare of computer generated naked images in increasingly bizarre and inhuman and violent acts in millions of home offices and across the world during work hours, school hours, late at night surely is worth looking into?
In the meantime the significant others of porn addicts are the witnesses. We have the ability to verify for one another the reality of the effect and harm of addiction. And when we believe what we know to be true, we can help other women find their way too.
In the meantime women like me can write blogs like this and hold out hope, speak up, so that my daughters will somehow be able to find a partner 20 years from now whose mind is not a cesspool of unimaginable sexual expectations and acts. And that my daughters' own minds will not be the ones clouded by these images.
Friday, March 16, 2007
Why The Government Should Care About Pornography
TestimonyUnited States Senate Committee on the Judiciary
Why the Government Should Care about Pornography November 10, 2005
Jill Manning Sociologist , Brigham Young University
TESTIMONY OF JILL C. MANNING, M.S. HEARING ON PORNOGRAPHY’S IMPACT ON MARRIAGE & THE FAMILY SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION, CIVIL RIGHTS AND PROPERTY RIGHTS COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY UNITED STATES SENATE November 9, 2005
Thank you Senator Brownback, Senator Feingold and distinguished members of the Sub-Committee; I appreciate this opportunity to address you.
Since the advent of the Internet, the pornography industry has profited from an unprecedented proximity to the home, work and school environments. Consequently, couples, families, and individuals of all ages are being impacted by pornography in new and often devastating ways. Although many parents work diligently to protect their family from sexually explicit material, research funded by Congress has shown Internet pornography to be “very intrusive.”
Additionally, we know that a variety of fraudulent, illegal and unethical practices are used to attract new customers and eroticize attitudes that undermine public health and safety. This profit-driven assault jeopardizes the well-being of our youth and violates the privacy of those who wish not to be exposed. Leading experts in the field of sexual addictions contend on-line sexual activity is “a hidden public health hazard exploding, in part because very few are recognizing it as such or taking it seriously.”
Research reveals many systemic effects of Internet pornography that are undermining an already vulnerable culture of marriage and family. Even more disturbing is the fact that the first Internet generations have not reached full-maturity, so the upper-limits of this impact have yet to be realized.
Furthermore, the numerous negative effects research point to are extremely difficult, if not impossible, for individual citizens or families to combat on their own. This testimony is not rooted in anecdotal accounts or personal views, but rather in findings from studies published in peer-reviewed research journals. I have submitted a review of this research to the Committee, and request that it be included in the record.
The marital relationship is a logical point of impact to examine because it is the foundational family unit and a sexual union easily destabilized by sexual influences outside the marital contract. Moreover, research indicates the majority of Internet users are married and the majority seeking help for problematic sexual behaviour online are married, heterosexual males.
The research indicates pornography consumption is associated with the following six trends, among others:
1. Increased marital distress, and risk of separation and divorce,
2. Decreased marital intimacy and sexual satisfaction,
3. Infidelity
4. Increased appetite for more graphic types of pornography and sexual activity associated with abusive, illegal or unsafe practices,
5. Devaluation of monogamy, marriage and child rearing,
6. An increasing number of people struggling with compulsive and addictive sexual behaviour.
These trends reflect a cluster of symptoms that undermine the foundation upon which successful marriages and families are established. While the marital bond may be the most vulnerable relationship to Internet pornography, children and adolescents are the most vulnerable audience.
When a child lives in a home where an adult is consuming pornography, he or she encounters the following four risks:
1. Decreased parental time and attention
2. Increased risk of encountering pornographic material
3. Increased risk of parental separation and divorce and
4. Increased risk of parental job loss and financial strain
When a child or adolescent is directly exposed the following effects have been documented:
1. Lasting negative or traumatic emotional responses,
2. Earlier onset of first sexual intercourse, thereby increasing the risk of STD’s over the lifespan, 3. The belief that superior sexual satisfaction is attainable without having affection for one’s partner, thereby reinforcing the commoditization of sex and the objectification of humans.
4. The belief that being married or having a family are unattractive prospects;
5. Increased risk for developing sexual compulsions and addictive behavior,
6. Increased risk of exposure to incorrect information about human sexuality long before a minor is able to contextualize this information in ways an adult brain could.
7. And, overestimating the prevalence of less common practices (e.g., group sex, bestiality, or sadomasochistic activity).
Because the United States is ranked among the top producers and consumers of pornography globally, the federal government has a unique opportunity to take a lead in addressing this issue and the related harm. This leadership could unfold in a variety of ways. For example, through: • Educating the public about the risks of pornography consumption,
• Supporting research that examines aspects of Internet pornography currently unknown, • Allocating resources to enforce laws already in place, and lastly,
• Legally implement technological solutions that separate Internet content, allowing consumers to choose the type of legal content they wish to have access to.
In closing, I am convinced Internet pornography is grooming young generations of Americans in such a way that their chances of enjoying healthy and enduring relationships are handicapped. I hope this committee will carefully consider measures to reduce the harm associated with Internet pornography. I thank the Committee for this opportunity to testify and welcome your questions at this time.
Why the Government Should Care about Pornography November 10, 2005
Jill Manning Sociologist , Brigham Young University
TESTIMONY OF JILL C. MANNING, M.S. HEARING ON PORNOGRAPHY’S IMPACT ON MARRIAGE & THE FAMILY SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION, CIVIL RIGHTS AND PROPERTY RIGHTS COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY UNITED STATES SENATE November 9, 2005
Thank you Senator Brownback, Senator Feingold and distinguished members of the Sub-Committee; I appreciate this opportunity to address you.
Since the advent of the Internet, the pornography industry has profited from an unprecedented proximity to the home, work and school environments. Consequently, couples, families, and individuals of all ages are being impacted by pornography in new and often devastating ways. Although many parents work diligently to protect their family from sexually explicit material, research funded by Congress has shown Internet pornography to be “very intrusive.”
Additionally, we know that a variety of fraudulent, illegal and unethical practices are used to attract new customers and eroticize attitudes that undermine public health and safety. This profit-driven assault jeopardizes the well-being of our youth and violates the privacy of those who wish not to be exposed. Leading experts in the field of sexual addictions contend on-line sexual activity is “a hidden public health hazard exploding, in part because very few are recognizing it as such or taking it seriously.”
Research reveals many systemic effects of Internet pornography that are undermining an already vulnerable culture of marriage and family. Even more disturbing is the fact that the first Internet generations have not reached full-maturity, so the upper-limits of this impact have yet to be realized.
Furthermore, the numerous negative effects research point to are extremely difficult, if not impossible, for individual citizens or families to combat on their own. This testimony is not rooted in anecdotal accounts or personal views, but rather in findings from studies published in peer-reviewed research journals. I have submitted a review of this research to the Committee, and request that it be included in the record.
The marital relationship is a logical point of impact to examine because it is the foundational family unit and a sexual union easily destabilized by sexual influences outside the marital contract. Moreover, research indicates the majority of Internet users are married and the majority seeking help for problematic sexual behaviour online are married, heterosexual males.
The research indicates pornography consumption is associated with the following six trends, among others:
1. Increased marital distress, and risk of separation and divorce,
2. Decreased marital intimacy and sexual satisfaction,
3. Infidelity
4. Increased appetite for more graphic types of pornography and sexual activity associated with abusive, illegal or unsafe practices,
5. Devaluation of monogamy, marriage and child rearing,
6. An increasing number of people struggling with compulsive and addictive sexual behaviour.
These trends reflect a cluster of symptoms that undermine the foundation upon which successful marriages and families are established. While the marital bond may be the most vulnerable relationship to Internet pornography, children and adolescents are the most vulnerable audience.
When a child lives in a home where an adult is consuming pornography, he or she encounters the following four risks:
1. Decreased parental time and attention
2. Increased risk of encountering pornographic material
3. Increased risk of parental separation and divorce and
4. Increased risk of parental job loss and financial strain
When a child or adolescent is directly exposed the following effects have been documented:
1. Lasting negative or traumatic emotional responses,
2. Earlier onset of first sexual intercourse, thereby increasing the risk of STD’s over the lifespan, 3. The belief that superior sexual satisfaction is attainable without having affection for one’s partner, thereby reinforcing the commoditization of sex and the objectification of humans.
4. The belief that being married or having a family are unattractive prospects;
5. Increased risk for developing sexual compulsions and addictive behavior,
6. Increased risk of exposure to incorrect information about human sexuality long before a minor is able to contextualize this information in ways an adult brain could.
7. And, overestimating the prevalence of less common practices (e.g., group sex, bestiality, or sadomasochistic activity).
Because the United States is ranked among the top producers and consumers of pornography globally, the federal government has a unique opportunity to take a lead in addressing this issue and the related harm. This leadership could unfold in a variety of ways. For example, through: • Educating the public about the risks of pornography consumption,
• Supporting research that examines aspects of Internet pornography currently unknown, • Allocating resources to enforce laws already in place, and lastly,
• Legally implement technological solutions that separate Internet content, allowing consumers to choose the type of legal content they wish to have access to.
In closing, I am convinced Internet pornography is grooming young generations of Americans in such a way that their chances of enjoying healthy and enduring relationships are handicapped. I hope this committee will carefully consider measures to reduce the harm associated with Internet pornography. I thank the Committee for this opportunity to testify and welcome your questions at this time.
Understanding Sex and Porn Addiction
If you suspect one of your children, your spouse, a co-worker, or a friend has a problem with pornography, the following links may be of benefit:
http://www.sexaa.org/
http://www.slaafws.org/
http://www.sca-recovery.org/
http://www.siawso.org/
www.netaddiction.com/
www.thecomputertherapist.com
www.enough.org
www.sanon.org
www.heartlight.org/articles/pa-help.html
www.sash.net
www.childlustrecovery.com
www.sexualrecovery.com
http://themeadows.org/meadows-12steps1.html
http://healthymind.com/s-index.html
www.sa.org
http://www.sexaa.org/
http://www.slaafws.org/
http://www.sca-recovery.org/
http://www.siawso.org/
www.netaddiction.com/
www.thecomputertherapist.com
www.enough.org
www.sanon.org
www.heartlight.org/articles/pa-help.html
www.sash.net
www.childlustrecovery.com
www.sexualrecovery.com
http://themeadows.org/meadows-12steps1.html
http://healthymind.com/s-index.html
www.sa.org
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Criteria for Sexual Addiction
Criteria for Sex Addiction
Recurrent failure to resist sexual impulses.
More extensive/longer sexual acting out than intended.
Ongoing, but unsuccessful, efforts to stop, reduce, or control behavior.
Inordinate time spent obtaining sex, being sexual, or recovering from sexual experiences.
Feeling preoccupied with sexual behavior and/or preparatory activities.
Acting out takes significant time away from obligations: occupational, academic, domestic, or social.
Continuation of behavior despite consequences:
Risk of VDLost partner or had marital problemsLost rights to be with children Abortions/ unwanted pregnanciesCareer problemsRisk arrest
Tolerance - More frequency or intensity of behavior is needed over time to obtain the desired result.
Deliberately limiting social, occupational, or recreational activities to keep time open for acting out.
Distress, restlessness, or irritability if unable to do behavior (withdrawal)
DizzinessBody achesHeadachesSleeplessnessRestlessnessAnxiety Mood swingsDepression
A minumum of 3 of the above 10 needed are needed for sex addiction to be considered present. Most sex addicts have 5 signs, while over 50% have 7.
Material taken from research by Patrick Carnes, Ph.D.
Recurrent failure to resist sexual impulses.
More extensive/longer sexual acting out than intended.
Ongoing, but unsuccessful, efforts to stop, reduce, or control behavior.
Inordinate time spent obtaining sex, being sexual, or recovering from sexual experiences.
Feeling preoccupied with sexual behavior and/or preparatory activities.
Acting out takes significant time away from obligations: occupational, academic, domestic, or social.
Continuation of behavior despite consequences:
Risk of VDLost partner or had marital problemsLost rights to be with children Abortions/ unwanted pregnanciesCareer problemsRisk arrest
Tolerance - More frequency or intensity of behavior is needed over time to obtain the desired result.
Deliberately limiting social, occupational, or recreational activities to keep time open for acting out.
Distress, restlessness, or irritability if unable to do behavior (withdrawal)
DizzinessBody achesHeadachesSleeplessnessRestlessnessAnxiety Mood swingsDepression
A minumum of 3 of the above 10 needed are needed for sex addiction to be considered present. Most sex addicts have 5 signs, while over 50% have 7.
Material taken from research by Patrick Carnes, Ph.D.
Dr. Victor Cline
Please visit Dr. Victor Cline's website for a great deal of valuable information.
http://www.ldsr.org/info/drcline.phtml
Treatment & Healing of Pornographic and Sexual Addictionsby Dr.Victor B. Cline, PhD - April 1999
In over 25 years I have treated approximately 350 males afflicted with sexual addictions (sometimes referred to as: sexual compulsions). In about 94% of the cases I have found that pornography was a contributor, facilitator or direct causal agent in the acquiring of these sexual illnesses.
Patrick Carnes, the leading U.S. researcher in this area, also reports similar findings. In his research on nearly 1000 sex addicts as reported in his "Dan 't Call it Love", he stated: "Among all addicts surveyed 90% of the men and 77% of the women reported pornography as significant to their addiction."
I found that nearly all of my adult sexual addicts' problems started with porn exposure in childhood or adolescence (often eight years and older). The typical pattern was exposure to mild porn or sexual abuse (by friends, sibs, older individuals, or accidentally discovering the father's porn) with increasing frequency of exposure over time and eventual later addiction. This was nearly always sooner or later accompanied by masturbation.This addiction was followed by an increasing desensitization to the materials' pathology, escalation to increasingly varied, aberrant, and "rougher" kinds of erotic materials, and eventually to acting out the sexual fantasies they were exposed to. This might include exhibitionism, voyeurism, obscene phone calls, soliciting prostitutes, brief affairs, and even on occasion child molest and forced sex , most of the damage was through compulsive infidelity (sometimes infecting the wife with venereal diseases) and a destruction of trust in the marital bond which in many cases ultimately led to divorce and a breaking up of the family.
Many wives found their husband preferring fantasy sex (they would catch them masturbating to pornography) rather than make love with them, their partner. This had devastating effects on the marriage. One of my (patient) wives, in great pain, confronted her husband, "What do you see in those two dimensional faceless women that I can't give you as a loving wife--who is flesh and blood, a real person and committed to you?" The men never had an answer. To some extent they enjoyed sexual relations with their wives but most preferred the fantasy sex with masturbation because "these women" could do anything and were perfect inform and appearance! While some wives initially blamed themselves as possibly being responsible for their husband's problem they soon found that being extra affectionate with the husband in their intimate relations never solved the problem or stopped the "acting out" behavior or the constant lies and deception.
I found that once addicted, whether to just the pornography or the later pattern of sexual acting out--they really had lost their "free agency." It was like a drug addiction. And in this case their drug was sex. They could not stop the pattern of their behavior no matter how high risk it was for them or terrible the potential consequences.
In one case I had my patient give me a check for $1,000 which I put in a special bank account. Since his sexual acting out was always preceded by pornography exposure I thought we could possibly break the pattern by first stopping the pornography addiction.So I made an agreement with him that he could have his money back in 90 days if he could be 100% sober with regards to exposure to any kind of pornography. Since he was extremely tight with money this appealed to him and he agreed. He knew that he would do nothing foolish to lose that much money. If he failed the test, however, the money would go to charity (not myself, I didn't want to profit by his weakness nor have any reason to want him to fail). Unfortunately on the 87th day he relapsed.Since he had come so close to getting his money back I agreed to give him a second chance. I figured that if he could go 87 days sober, surely he could make 90. He was delighted to get a second chance. However 14 days later he relapsed again and confessed to me that even if he had given me $10,000 it wouldn't have made any difference--he would still have relapsed. He could not control himself nor his behavior no matter what the consequences.
I never used that technique again to break addictive behavior. It just didn't work. Promises, good intentions, will power, threat of job loss, the possibility of divorce, frequent reading of the scriptures or even imprisonment do not deter the behavior. None of these work.Both from my 30 years clinical work as well as frequent reviews of the literature convinces me that at least one major avenue leading to the creation of these kinds of addictions is through a process of masturbatory conditioning.
The work of R. J. McGuire suggests that exposure to special sexual experiences (which could include pornography), and then masturbating to the fantasy of this exposure, can cultivate a desire to participate in these deviant sexual acts. And it's just a matter of time before this happens.
The best evidence to date suggests that most or all sexual deviations are learned behaviors, usually through inadvertent or accidental conditioning. There is no convincing evidence, to date, suggesting the hereditary transmission of any pathological sexual behavior pattern such as rape, incest, pedophilia, voyeurism. exhibitionism, or promiscuity.
As one researcher in this area, Dr. R. J. McGuire explains it, as a man repeatedly masturbates to a vivid sexual fantasy as his exclusive outlet, the pleasurable experience endows the deviant fantasy (rape, molesting children, exposing oneself, voyeurism, promiscuity, etc.) with increasing erotic value. The orgasm experienced then provides the critical reinforcing event for the conditioning of the fantasy preceding or accompanying the act. McGuire indicates that any type of sexual deviation can be acquired in this way, that it may include several unrelated deviations in one individual and that it cannot be eliminated even by massive feelings of guilt. His paper cites many case histories to illustrate this type of conditioning.
Other related studies by D. R. Evans and B. T. Jackson support his thesis. They found that deviant masturbatory fantasy very significantly affected the habit strength of the subject's sexual deviation.In the treatment of hundreds of primarily male patients with sexual pathology (paraphilias) it has consistently been found that most men are vulnerable to the effects of masturbatory conditioning to pornography with a consequence of sexual ill health. We, especially males, are all subject to the laws of learning with few or no exceptions. Any individual who does this is at risk of becoming, in time, a sexual addict, as well as conditioning himself into having a sexual deviancy and/or disturbing a bonded relationship with a spouse or girlfriend.
Being more intelligent increases the risk (in my judgement) because of the increased capacity to fantasize.A frequent side effect is that it also dramatically reduces their capacity to love (e.g. it results in a marked dissociation of sex from friendship, affection, caring, and other normal healthy emotions and traits which help marital and family relationships). This sexual side becomes in a sense dehumanized.
Most addicts develop an "alien ego state" (or dark side), whose core is antisocial lust devoid of most values. Raw id, in a sense. Or the "natural man." In time, the "high" obtained from masturbating to pornography becomes more important than real life relationships. It has been commonly thought by health educators that masturbation has negligible consequences, other than reducing sexual tension. Moral objections aside, there is at least one other exception. This would appear to be in the area of repeatedly masturbating to deviant pornographic imagery (either as memories in the mind or with explicit external pornographic stimuli which risks (via conditioning) the acquiring of sexual addictions and/or other sexual pathology.
It makes no difference if one is an eminent physician, attorney, minister, athlete, corporate executive, college president, unskilled laborer, or an average 15 year old boy or President of the U.S. All can be conditioned into deviancy. The process of masturbatory conditioning is inexorable and does not spontaneously remiss.The course of this illness may be slow and is nearly always hidden from view. It is usually a secret part of the man's life, and like a cancer, it keeps growing and spreading. It rarely ever reverses itself, and is also very difficult to treat and heal. Denial on the part of the male addict and refusal to confront the problem are typical and predictable, and this almost always leads to marital or couple disharmony, sometimes divorce, and sometimes the breaking up of other valued relationships.
One researcher, Stanley Rachman, demonstrated in the laboratory how sexual deviations could be created in adult male subjects. He was actually able to condition, in two separate experiments, 100% of his male subjects into a sexual deviancy (fetishism).
There are many approaches to treatment which usually involve individual work with a psychotherapist who has skills in successfully treating this kind of illness plus being in a 12 step group/program such as Sexaholics Anonymous. There are no costs being in such a group which is patterned after the original A. A. model. It has at its core a spiritual dimension. I have found it very helpful with this condition.I have personally found the following approach to yield the most successful outcomes for at least the type of patient population which I work with: males 15-75 from mainly middle social class backgrounds, often religious, and motivated to change (because of the threat of divorce, loss of job, family, prison, etc.).
1. If the patient is married I attempt to have the wife participate in treatment. She has been traumatized repeatedly by the husband's problem, broken promises, many lies, and she usually has a huge trust issue with him and may be debating divorce. I see them together so that the wife knows everything that goes on in treatment and we address her fears, depression, the kids acting-out as well as their stressed marriage.
2. In the first interview I have the husband outline the problem and ask him what he wants me to do. It is important that he take some initiative in his healing. Then I turn to the wife and ask if she has anything to add or correct or give her point of view of what her goals for therapy are. If on the verge of divorce-determine if she wants out or wants to stay and help or to stay long enough to see if he can change or start healing of his addiction. I talk about the importance of the wife being a part of the healing team. It goes faster if both are involved. Both are wounded. Both need help.
However there is one unchangeable rule: NO SECRETS. I tell them that secrets "kill you". They take away your power." They create shame and guilt. And even though there might be some relapses (usually minor) during treatment these need to be talked about openly in therapy or they are wasting their time and money if these are not disclosed and worked with.
I tell them that most people I know who are kicking the cigarette habit, quit 15 times before they finally really quit. Anything hidden--the spouse always sooner or later finds out about. So right to begin with: no secrets! The lies and deceptions have to stop or he won't get well.
3. I next take a history of the man's exposure to pornography and masturbation to it and sexual acting out in the wife's presence. This helps her understand more clearly that in some ways her husband was a victim too starting at an early age.
I next inquire about possible sexual abuse or early seduction of the husband as a child or adolescent, which may have eroticized him prematurely.In taking this history I start with his first memory of exposure to pornography, what its form was (internet, magazine, video, phone sex, topless bars etc.) how old he was at the time and if he masturbated to it--and continue up to today (day of interview). Was there "other" acting out? I tell the husband that I don't want all of the tiny nitty-gritty details. Only the main essentials. I do this to protect the wife from being exposed to unnecessary sordid details. These may needlessly torment or traumatize her. But she still needs to know what he did generally so she can decided whether to ever forgive him. This also means that the slate is clean. There's a "level playing field." There are no more surprises. It also means that the husband can treat his wife as a confidant on any matter in this area. She already knows it all. It takes a great burden off of him. He no longer has to "hide out" and lie anymore.
4.Then I establish a sobriety date (the date of last exposure) for all the different forms of porn or sexual acting out that he was involved with as well a the last time he masturbated. At each succeeding visit I recheck these sobriety dates. If there has been a relapse then I do relapse prevention work with him, identifying triggers that set him off, and seek ways to circumvent these. And also fortify him against the "wave" (of temptation).
5. I next explain to the wife that her husband has lost his free agency. And that' s why promises don't work. At this point he shouldn't make promises that he can't keep. Good intentions mean nothing. Her husband may intend well and really want to quit because of the terrible painful consequences but he literally cannot do this by himself yet. He has to have highly specialized help. Unfortunately at the present time most therapists do not know how to treat sexual addictions. Self control and self discipline or a rational approach generally doesn't change anything. With most people I see who are deeply addicted prayers and scripture reading are usually not enough to solve the problem even though I believe that God could instantly cure the problem if He so chose. In most cases He lets the individual work it through the long way probably because he will in the future be more likely to voluntarily choose to not repeat this very destructive behavior--of his own accord.
6. I tell both husband and wife about the "wave" which periodically hits the patient and overwhelms him with temptation. This is something most men cannot resist. One of the goals of therapy is to prepare the man to face and defeat the wave. These waves vary in intensity and frequency from several times a day to once a year or even less. Between the waves--the man feels at peace and has the mistaken notion that he has his power and can resist anything. But this is an illusion and is only temporary until the next wave hits him.I explain to the couple that as a therapist I'm like a guide to Mount Everest. I can show them how to get there but they have to walk every step of the way. They have to do all the work. I assure them there is a good possibility that they can heal. But like an alcoholic when sober, in the future they have to be careful not to expose themselves to high risk situations. I also explain that they are not mentally ill in the classical sense but that have an addiction which powerfully controls their life--somewhat like being on crack cocaine. And the journey to freedom will not be easy. It will require an enormous commitment on their part to become whole again.
7. I assign both to read Patrick Games book, "Our of the Shadows" (Compcare Publications) and Stephen Kramer's "Worth of a Soul." (Randall Book Publ.) Then later: Games newer book: "Don't call it love."
8. I assign the husband to start attending S.A. (Sexaholics Anonymous) which is a 12 step program, spiritually based. In these groups we petition the help of a Higher Power, or God, or Jesus Christ to bless us and cleanse us of our addiction. There are chapters in nearly every city in America. They are free. To find where and when one meets call Alcoholics Anonymous (in all the phone books). They will know. Your client may start with a newcomers group first, then graduate to the step-study group after a few months. For wives that have been badly traumatized by their husband's behavior they may wish to attend S-Anon (for the spouses of offenders) or even later occasionally join with their husbands at their S.A. meetings if allowed. They (the husbands) need to attend 90% of their weekly meetings for this to work and be truly healing. If the individual is relapsing at high rates they may need to attend up to three or four nights a week in order to achieve sobriety and break the stranglehold of their addiction. Thus the client regularly attends a no cost S.A. program. And he also has a private therapist who works with both he and his wife. The therapist will tailor treatment to the unique aspects of his addiction, hold him responsible for doing the things that he can still do with his free will, assist the wife with her doubts and concerns as well as anxiety and trauma which she has been dealing with. And the therapist will also answer many questions, do relapse prevention work, "fire drills", and do those many things which the group cannot do for him.
9. At these S.A. meetings they need, in time, to locate a "sponsor" which is someone who has been sober (no relapses) for a lengthy period of time who they can call (phone) in an emergency which are those occasions when the wave hits them and they are strongly tempted to act out. Their sponsor can help them stay sober--he's like a life guard.
10. Because the compulsion to act out is so overpowering you give them a mental set to just stay sober one day at a time. Think only of making it today. If you focus on a longer time period you may be setting yourself up for failure. Just get through today.11. Through close interviewing identify triggers which activate the wave (e.g. looking at porn, seeing girls in skimpy clothes, after a fight with their spouse or the spouse being out of town, driving by an adult bookstore, walking into any video store, viewing hard-R or X films, looking at ladies bra and panty ads ) and then plan strategies to avoid these or deal with them. Example: if going on a business trip and being in a hotel with access to porn movies, when checking in the hotel request the front desk to block out those channels. Call their wives at 9:00 P.M. each evening when away,12. Thought-stopping: When your client is stimulated or aroused by sexual fantasy which can lead to masturbation and the acting out cycle tell them that they have only three seconds to block or stop the thought or imagery. At the top of their voice they should yell STOP (or scream it silently if others are nearby) and visualize a policeman with handcuffs approaching--holding a big sign with the words STOP on it. This will kick the offending imagery off the mind screen briefly. But then they have to bring to mind an event in their life that has very powerful emotional significance (either positive or negative) which they ruminate about. In other words they fight fire with fire, a strong sexual fantasy with an equally powerful contrasting kind-- such as they time they helped their team win the game, a surprise birthday party, or even the death of a very close friend.. But it must be something powerful emotionally.
13. Practice"fire drills." Present to them imaginary situations which they might have to face in real life which would expose them to temptation. How would they handle it? Process their responses in great detail so if something like this should happen they would be mentally prepared to deal with it. Example: a friend at work wants to show them his latest porn. How would they handle it? The wife, of course, is listening to all of this and participating as she chooses.
14. No more masturbation. Stop masturbating. That risks further conditioning into deviancy. Recognize that this may be difficult and not even possible immediately. But have them keep a record of those days where this occurs and strive for reducing its frequency but especially--if they do it--refrain from fantasizing deviant imagery. In contrast have them imagine loving their spouse at this time. Check their calendar at each session. See if they can slow it down with the ultimate goal of being free of this behavior. Our experience is that this is not an impossible goal. Many addicts do quit.
15. Do marriage counseling. Do those things that will help improve their marital relationship. Give them assignments to have fun together, improve intimacy, take marriage seminars, participate in sports of their choice together, be friends, etc.
16. Do stress reduction therapy. If they have financial problems work out solutions or refer them to agencies that can help here. If they have out-of-control children give them support in dealing with this. Or if the wife suffers greatly put her in a non-S.A. 12 step program--just to provide her with a support group and place where she can be nurtured.
17. When relapses occur don't "beat them up" but point out the positives, what can be learned that will protect them in the future, that this is just part of a growth experience. Give them hope. Point out all the progress made in other areas and all the good things done.
18. Have them keep a daily journal recording fantasies and behaviors. Then review and process these during therapy.
19. Give them further books to read such as Patrick Carnes later books like "Contrary to Love" and the more recent, "Don't Call It Love". Also the S.A. Big Books (with lots of case histories and biographies of recovering addicts stories).
20. Other techniques used include: apology sessions, medications like depo provera to temporarily reduce the sex drive including eliminating sex fantasies, autobiography, covert sensitization, family of origin work, developing a sobriety contract, healthy sexuality education, social skills work, etc. You may have to work with wounds from childhood where they may struggle with shame, feelings of worthlessness, have needs to punish themselves, where their self image is distorted and negative, or where they were emotionally abandoned and unloved by their parents or caretakers. They need to be given hope. They need to know that their counselor respects and cares about them as human beings.
21. And lastly--if an inappropriate image or tempting thought appears on your client's mind screen have them close their eyes and say, "Thank you God!. I appreciate your reminding me of my weakness. This will help me get well! !" Give them support in their spiritual life. Encourage their reconciliation and relationship with Deity.Remember to tailor your therapy to the special needs of the couple. You will never use all of these techniques. Chose only those that best fit your client's special needs. A skilled therapist familiar with treating sex addictions plus involvement with S.A. are both needed to bring about change and healing. This is one illness where you cannot get well on your own unless God grants you a miracle.
http://www.ldsr.org/info/drcline.phtml
Treatment & Healing of Pornographic and Sexual Addictionsby Dr.Victor B. Cline, PhD - April 1999
In over 25 years I have treated approximately 350 males afflicted with sexual addictions (sometimes referred to as: sexual compulsions). In about 94% of the cases I have found that pornography was a contributor, facilitator or direct causal agent in the acquiring of these sexual illnesses.
Patrick Carnes, the leading U.S. researcher in this area, also reports similar findings. In his research on nearly 1000 sex addicts as reported in his "Dan 't Call it Love", he stated: "Among all addicts surveyed 90% of the men and 77% of the women reported pornography as significant to their addiction."
I found that nearly all of my adult sexual addicts' problems started with porn exposure in childhood or adolescence (often eight years and older). The typical pattern was exposure to mild porn or sexual abuse (by friends, sibs, older individuals, or accidentally discovering the father's porn) with increasing frequency of exposure over time and eventual later addiction. This was nearly always sooner or later accompanied by masturbation.This addiction was followed by an increasing desensitization to the materials' pathology, escalation to increasingly varied, aberrant, and "rougher" kinds of erotic materials, and eventually to acting out the sexual fantasies they were exposed to. This might include exhibitionism, voyeurism, obscene phone calls, soliciting prostitutes, brief affairs, and even on occasion child molest and forced sex , most of the damage was through compulsive infidelity (sometimes infecting the wife with venereal diseases) and a destruction of trust in the marital bond which in many cases ultimately led to divorce and a breaking up of the family.
Many wives found their husband preferring fantasy sex (they would catch them masturbating to pornography) rather than make love with them, their partner. This had devastating effects on the marriage. One of my (patient) wives, in great pain, confronted her husband, "What do you see in those two dimensional faceless women that I can't give you as a loving wife--who is flesh and blood, a real person and committed to you?" The men never had an answer. To some extent they enjoyed sexual relations with their wives but most preferred the fantasy sex with masturbation because "these women" could do anything and were perfect inform and appearance! While some wives initially blamed themselves as possibly being responsible for their husband's problem they soon found that being extra affectionate with the husband in their intimate relations never solved the problem or stopped the "acting out" behavior or the constant lies and deception.
I found that once addicted, whether to just the pornography or the later pattern of sexual acting out--they really had lost their "free agency." It was like a drug addiction. And in this case their drug was sex. They could not stop the pattern of their behavior no matter how high risk it was for them or terrible the potential consequences.
In one case I had my patient give me a check for $1,000 which I put in a special bank account. Since his sexual acting out was always preceded by pornography exposure I thought we could possibly break the pattern by first stopping the pornography addiction.So I made an agreement with him that he could have his money back in 90 days if he could be 100% sober with regards to exposure to any kind of pornography. Since he was extremely tight with money this appealed to him and he agreed. He knew that he would do nothing foolish to lose that much money. If he failed the test, however, the money would go to charity (not myself, I didn't want to profit by his weakness nor have any reason to want him to fail). Unfortunately on the 87th day he relapsed.Since he had come so close to getting his money back I agreed to give him a second chance. I figured that if he could go 87 days sober, surely he could make 90. He was delighted to get a second chance. However 14 days later he relapsed again and confessed to me that even if he had given me $10,000 it wouldn't have made any difference--he would still have relapsed. He could not control himself nor his behavior no matter what the consequences.
I never used that technique again to break addictive behavior. It just didn't work. Promises, good intentions, will power, threat of job loss, the possibility of divorce, frequent reading of the scriptures or even imprisonment do not deter the behavior. None of these work.Both from my 30 years clinical work as well as frequent reviews of the literature convinces me that at least one major avenue leading to the creation of these kinds of addictions is through a process of masturbatory conditioning.
The work of R. J. McGuire suggests that exposure to special sexual experiences (which could include pornography), and then masturbating to the fantasy of this exposure, can cultivate a desire to participate in these deviant sexual acts. And it's just a matter of time before this happens.
The best evidence to date suggests that most or all sexual deviations are learned behaviors, usually through inadvertent or accidental conditioning. There is no convincing evidence, to date, suggesting the hereditary transmission of any pathological sexual behavior pattern such as rape, incest, pedophilia, voyeurism. exhibitionism, or promiscuity.
As one researcher in this area, Dr. R. J. McGuire explains it, as a man repeatedly masturbates to a vivid sexual fantasy as his exclusive outlet, the pleasurable experience endows the deviant fantasy (rape, molesting children, exposing oneself, voyeurism, promiscuity, etc.) with increasing erotic value. The orgasm experienced then provides the critical reinforcing event for the conditioning of the fantasy preceding or accompanying the act. McGuire indicates that any type of sexual deviation can be acquired in this way, that it may include several unrelated deviations in one individual and that it cannot be eliminated even by massive feelings of guilt. His paper cites many case histories to illustrate this type of conditioning.
Other related studies by D. R. Evans and B. T. Jackson support his thesis. They found that deviant masturbatory fantasy very significantly affected the habit strength of the subject's sexual deviation.In the treatment of hundreds of primarily male patients with sexual pathology (paraphilias) it has consistently been found that most men are vulnerable to the effects of masturbatory conditioning to pornography with a consequence of sexual ill health. We, especially males, are all subject to the laws of learning with few or no exceptions. Any individual who does this is at risk of becoming, in time, a sexual addict, as well as conditioning himself into having a sexual deviancy and/or disturbing a bonded relationship with a spouse or girlfriend.
Being more intelligent increases the risk (in my judgement) because of the increased capacity to fantasize.A frequent side effect is that it also dramatically reduces their capacity to love (e.g. it results in a marked dissociation of sex from friendship, affection, caring, and other normal healthy emotions and traits which help marital and family relationships). This sexual side becomes in a sense dehumanized.
Most addicts develop an "alien ego state" (or dark side), whose core is antisocial lust devoid of most values. Raw id, in a sense. Or the "natural man." In time, the "high" obtained from masturbating to pornography becomes more important than real life relationships. It has been commonly thought by health educators that masturbation has negligible consequences, other than reducing sexual tension. Moral objections aside, there is at least one other exception. This would appear to be in the area of repeatedly masturbating to deviant pornographic imagery (either as memories in the mind or with explicit external pornographic stimuli which risks (via conditioning) the acquiring of sexual addictions and/or other sexual pathology.
It makes no difference if one is an eminent physician, attorney, minister, athlete, corporate executive, college president, unskilled laborer, or an average 15 year old boy or President of the U.S. All can be conditioned into deviancy. The process of masturbatory conditioning is inexorable and does not spontaneously remiss.The course of this illness may be slow and is nearly always hidden from view. It is usually a secret part of the man's life, and like a cancer, it keeps growing and spreading. It rarely ever reverses itself, and is also very difficult to treat and heal. Denial on the part of the male addict and refusal to confront the problem are typical and predictable, and this almost always leads to marital or couple disharmony, sometimes divorce, and sometimes the breaking up of other valued relationships.
One researcher, Stanley Rachman, demonstrated in the laboratory how sexual deviations could be created in adult male subjects. He was actually able to condition, in two separate experiments, 100% of his male subjects into a sexual deviancy (fetishism).
There are many approaches to treatment which usually involve individual work with a psychotherapist who has skills in successfully treating this kind of illness plus being in a 12 step group/program such as Sexaholics Anonymous. There are no costs being in such a group which is patterned after the original A. A. model. It has at its core a spiritual dimension. I have found it very helpful with this condition.I have personally found the following approach to yield the most successful outcomes for at least the type of patient population which I work with: males 15-75 from mainly middle social class backgrounds, often religious, and motivated to change (because of the threat of divorce, loss of job, family, prison, etc.).
1. If the patient is married I attempt to have the wife participate in treatment. She has been traumatized repeatedly by the husband's problem, broken promises, many lies, and she usually has a huge trust issue with him and may be debating divorce. I see them together so that the wife knows everything that goes on in treatment and we address her fears, depression, the kids acting-out as well as their stressed marriage.
2. In the first interview I have the husband outline the problem and ask him what he wants me to do. It is important that he take some initiative in his healing. Then I turn to the wife and ask if she has anything to add or correct or give her point of view of what her goals for therapy are. If on the verge of divorce-determine if she wants out or wants to stay and help or to stay long enough to see if he can change or start healing of his addiction. I talk about the importance of the wife being a part of the healing team. It goes faster if both are involved. Both are wounded. Both need help.
However there is one unchangeable rule: NO SECRETS. I tell them that secrets "kill you". They take away your power." They create shame and guilt. And even though there might be some relapses (usually minor) during treatment these need to be talked about openly in therapy or they are wasting their time and money if these are not disclosed and worked with.
I tell them that most people I know who are kicking the cigarette habit, quit 15 times before they finally really quit. Anything hidden--the spouse always sooner or later finds out about. So right to begin with: no secrets! The lies and deceptions have to stop or he won't get well.
3. I next take a history of the man's exposure to pornography and masturbation to it and sexual acting out in the wife's presence. This helps her understand more clearly that in some ways her husband was a victim too starting at an early age.
I next inquire about possible sexual abuse or early seduction of the husband as a child or adolescent, which may have eroticized him prematurely.In taking this history I start with his first memory of exposure to pornography, what its form was (internet, magazine, video, phone sex, topless bars etc.) how old he was at the time and if he masturbated to it--and continue up to today (day of interview). Was there "other" acting out? I tell the husband that I don't want all of the tiny nitty-gritty details. Only the main essentials. I do this to protect the wife from being exposed to unnecessary sordid details. These may needlessly torment or traumatize her. But she still needs to know what he did generally so she can decided whether to ever forgive him. This also means that the slate is clean. There's a "level playing field." There are no more surprises. It also means that the husband can treat his wife as a confidant on any matter in this area. She already knows it all. It takes a great burden off of him. He no longer has to "hide out" and lie anymore.
4.Then I establish a sobriety date (the date of last exposure) for all the different forms of porn or sexual acting out that he was involved with as well a the last time he masturbated. At each succeeding visit I recheck these sobriety dates. If there has been a relapse then I do relapse prevention work with him, identifying triggers that set him off, and seek ways to circumvent these. And also fortify him against the "wave" (of temptation).
5. I next explain to the wife that her husband has lost his free agency. And that' s why promises don't work. At this point he shouldn't make promises that he can't keep. Good intentions mean nothing. Her husband may intend well and really want to quit because of the terrible painful consequences but he literally cannot do this by himself yet. He has to have highly specialized help. Unfortunately at the present time most therapists do not know how to treat sexual addictions. Self control and self discipline or a rational approach generally doesn't change anything. With most people I see who are deeply addicted prayers and scripture reading are usually not enough to solve the problem even though I believe that God could instantly cure the problem if He so chose. In most cases He lets the individual work it through the long way probably because he will in the future be more likely to voluntarily choose to not repeat this very destructive behavior--of his own accord.
6. I tell both husband and wife about the "wave" which periodically hits the patient and overwhelms him with temptation. This is something most men cannot resist. One of the goals of therapy is to prepare the man to face and defeat the wave. These waves vary in intensity and frequency from several times a day to once a year or even less. Between the waves--the man feels at peace and has the mistaken notion that he has his power and can resist anything. But this is an illusion and is only temporary until the next wave hits him.I explain to the couple that as a therapist I'm like a guide to Mount Everest. I can show them how to get there but they have to walk every step of the way. They have to do all the work. I assure them there is a good possibility that they can heal. But like an alcoholic when sober, in the future they have to be careful not to expose themselves to high risk situations. I also explain that they are not mentally ill in the classical sense but that have an addiction which powerfully controls their life--somewhat like being on crack cocaine. And the journey to freedom will not be easy. It will require an enormous commitment on their part to become whole again.
7. I assign both to read Patrick Games book, "Our of the Shadows" (Compcare Publications) and Stephen Kramer's "Worth of a Soul." (Randall Book Publ.) Then later: Games newer book: "Don't call it love."
8. I assign the husband to start attending S.A. (Sexaholics Anonymous) which is a 12 step program, spiritually based. In these groups we petition the help of a Higher Power, or God, or Jesus Christ to bless us and cleanse us of our addiction. There are chapters in nearly every city in America. They are free. To find where and when one meets call Alcoholics Anonymous (in all the phone books). They will know. Your client may start with a newcomers group first, then graduate to the step-study group after a few months. For wives that have been badly traumatized by their husband's behavior they may wish to attend S-Anon (for the spouses of offenders) or even later occasionally join with their husbands at their S.A. meetings if allowed. They (the husbands) need to attend 90% of their weekly meetings for this to work and be truly healing. If the individual is relapsing at high rates they may need to attend up to three or four nights a week in order to achieve sobriety and break the stranglehold of their addiction. Thus the client regularly attends a no cost S.A. program. And he also has a private therapist who works with both he and his wife. The therapist will tailor treatment to the unique aspects of his addiction, hold him responsible for doing the things that he can still do with his free will, assist the wife with her doubts and concerns as well as anxiety and trauma which she has been dealing with. And the therapist will also answer many questions, do relapse prevention work, "fire drills", and do those many things which the group cannot do for him.
9. At these S.A. meetings they need, in time, to locate a "sponsor" which is someone who has been sober (no relapses) for a lengthy period of time who they can call (phone) in an emergency which are those occasions when the wave hits them and they are strongly tempted to act out. Their sponsor can help them stay sober--he's like a life guard.
10. Because the compulsion to act out is so overpowering you give them a mental set to just stay sober one day at a time. Think only of making it today. If you focus on a longer time period you may be setting yourself up for failure. Just get through today.11. Through close interviewing identify triggers which activate the wave (e.g. looking at porn, seeing girls in skimpy clothes, after a fight with their spouse or the spouse being out of town, driving by an adult bookstore, walking into any video store, viewing hard-R or X films, looking at ladies bra and panty ads ) and then plan strategies to avoid these or deal with them. Example: if going on a business trip and being in a hotel with access to porn movies, when checking in the hotel request the front desk to block out those channels. Call their wives at 9:00 P.M. each evening when away,12. Thought-stopping: When your client is stimulated or aroused by sexual fantasy which can lead to masturbation and the acting out cycle tell them that they have only three seconds to block or stop the thought or imagery. At the top of their voice they should yell STOP (or scream it silently if others are nearby) and visualize a policeman with handcuffs approaching--holding a big sign with the words STOP on it. This will kick the offending imagery off the mind screen briefly. But then they have to bring to mind an event in their life that has very powerful emotional significance (either positive or negative) which they ruminate about. In other words they fight fire with fire, a strong sexual fantasy with an equally powerful contrasting kind-- such as they time they helped their team win the game, a surprise birthday party, or even the death of a very close friend.. But it must be something powerful emotionally.
13. Practice"fire drills." Present to them imaginary situations which they might have to face in real life which would expose them to temptation. How would they handle it? Process their responses in great detail so if something like this should happen they would be mentally prepared to deal with it. Example: a friend at work wants to show them his latest porn. How would they handle it? The wife, of course, is listening to all of this and participating as she chooses.
14. No more masturbation. Stop masturbating. That risks further conditioning into deviancy. Recognize that this may be difficult and not even possible immediately. But have them keep a record of those days where this occurs and strive for reducing its frequency but especially--if they do it--refrain from fantasizing deviant imagery. In contrast have them imagine loving their spouse at this time. Check their calendar at each session. See if they can slow it down with the ultimate goal of being free of this behavior. Our experience is that this is not an impossible goal. Many addicts do quit.
15. Do marriage counseling. Do those things that will help improve their marital relationship. Give them assignments to have fun together, improve intimacy, take marriage seminars, participate in sports of their choice together, be friends, etc.
16. Do stress reduction therapy. If they have financial problems work out solutions or refer them to agencies that can help here. If they have out-of-control children give them support in dealing with this. Or if the wife suffers greatly put her in a non-S.A. 12 step program--just to provide her with a support group and place where she can be nurtured.
17. When relapses occur don't "beat them up" but point out the positives, what can be learned that will protect them in the future, that this is just part of a growth experience. Give them hope. Point out all the progress made in other areas and all the good things done.
18. Have them keep a daily journal recording fantasies and behaviors. Then review and process these during therapy.
19. Give them further books to read such as Patrick Carnes later books like "Contrary to Love" and the more recent, "Don't Call It Love". Also the S.A. Big Books (with lots of case histories and biographies of recovering addicts stories).
20. Other techniques used include: apology sessions, medications like depo provera to temporarily reduce the sex drive including eliminating sex fantasies, autobiography, covert sensitization, family of origin work, developing a sobriety contract, healthy sexuality education, social skills work, etc. You may have to work with wounds from childhood where they may struggle with shame, feelings of worthlessness, have needs to punish themselves, where their self image is distorted and negative, or where they were emotionally abandoned and unloved by their parents or caretakers. They need to be given hope. They need to know that their counselor respects and cares about them as human beings.
21. And lastly--if an inappropriate image or tempting thought appears on your client's mind screen have them close their eyes and say, "Thank you God!. I appreciate your reminding me of my weakness. This will help me get well! !" Give them support in their spiritual life. Encourage their reconciliation and relationship with Deity.Remember to tailor your therapy to the special needs of the couple. You will never use all of these techniques. Chose only those that best fit your client's special needs. A skilled therapist familiar with treating sex addictions plus involvement with S.A. are both needed to bring about change and healing. This is one illness where you cannot get well on your own unless God grants you a miracle.
Testimony of Dr. Mary Anne Layden, University of Pennsylvania
Given at a Science, Technology, and Space Hearing:The Science Behind Pornography Addiction Thursday, November 18 2004 - 2:00 PM - SR 253
http://commerce.senate.gov/hearings/witnesslist.cfm?id=1343
The Testimony ofDr. Mary Anne Layden Co-Director, Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program,Center for Cognitive Therapy University of Pennsylvania
Thank you, Senators, for allowing me to speak to you today.
Pornography, by its very nature, is an equal opportunity toxin. It damages the viewer, the performer, and the spouses and the children of the viewers and the performers. It is toxic mis-education about sex and relationships. It is more toxic the more you consume, the “harder” the variety you consume and the younger and more vulnerable the consumer.
The damage is both in the area of beliefs and behaviors. The belief damage may include Pornography Distortion, Permission-Giving Beliefs and the attitudes about what constitutes a healthy sexual and emotional relationship. The behavioral damage includes psychologically unhealthy behaviors, socially inappropriate behaviors and illegal behaviors.
Let me give some examples. Pornography Distortion is a set of beliefs based in pornographic imagery, sent to the viewer while they are aroused and reinforced by the orgasm. An example of Pornography Distortion would include beliefs such as “Sex is not about intimacy, procreation or marriage. Sex is about predatory self-gratification, casual recreation, body parts, violence, feces, strangers, children, animals and using women as entertainment.” All of these are messages regularly sent by pornography.
Permission-Giving Beliefs are a set of beliefs that imply that my behavior is normal, acceptable, common and/or doesn’t hurt anyone so I have permission to continue to behave in the way that I am. In all types of violence and addiction, Permission-Giving Beliefs are involved. Examples would include “All men go to prostitutes” “Women like sex mixed with violence” and “Children enjoy sex with adults”. These particular Permission-Giving Beliefs are also common in pornography.
Both Pornography Distortion and Permission-Giving Beliefs increase the problem of mis-education about sexuality and relationships. For example, the myth that women are sexually aroused by engaging in behaviors that are actually sexually pleasuring to men is a particularly narcissistic invention of the pornography industry. This is sexual mis-education.
The consequences of all these distorted beliefs are varied. For the viewer, pornography increases the likelihood of sexual addiction and they respond in ways similar to other addicts. Sexual addicts develop tolerance and will need more and harder kinds of pornographic material. They have escalating compulsive sexual behavior becoming more out of control and also experience withdrawal symptoms if they stop the use of the sexual material. The executive who goes to his office and logs on to the Internet porn sites at 9:00 AM and logs off at 5:00 PM is out of control and risks a great deal. Research indicates that 70% of the hits on Internet sex sites occur between 9-5 on business computers. Research also indicates and my clinical experience supports that 40% of sex addicts will lose their spouse, 58% will suffer sever finanacial losses, and 27-40% will lose their job or profession. Those whose marraiges don’t end, may find themselves increasing dissatisfied with their spouses appearance and sexual behavior and increasingly sexually acting out which leads to an increase in sexually transmitted diseases. Research indicates that even non-sex addicts will show brain reactions on PET scans while viewing pornography similar to cocaine addicts looking at images of people taking cacaine. This material is potent, addictive and permanently implanted in the brain.
Those who use pornography have also been shown to be more likely to engage in illegal behavior as well. Research indicates and my clinical experience supports that those who use pronography are more likely to go to prostitutes, engage in domestic violence, stranger rape, date rape, and incest. These beahviors should not be suprising since pornographic videos contaning all of these themes are readily available and the permssion-giving beliefs of these pornographic videos reinforced by the orgasm say that all these behaviors are normal, acceptable, common and don’t hurt anyone.
I have also seen in my clinical experience that pornography damages the sexual performance of the viewers. Pornography viewers tend to have problems with premature ejaculation and erectile dysfunction. Having spent so much time in unnatural sexual experiences with paper, celluloid and cyberspace, they seem to find it difficult to have sex with a real human being. Pornography is raising their expectation and demand for types and amounts of sexual experiences at the same time it is reducing their ability to experience sex.
The viewers are not the only ones to be affect by pornography. The performers are damaged as well although the performers were often damaged before they entered the industry. No healthy six-year-old growing up in a healthy home environment says, “I hope I grow up to be a porn star, stripper or prostitute”. Those who now work in the porn industry were often little girls who got into their beds each night, rolled themselves into a fetal position and each night he came in a pealed her open. They work in the porn industry with its physical invasion and visual invasion because it feels like home. Once they are in the industry they have high rates of substance abuse, typically alcohol and cocaine, depression, borderline personality disorder which is a particularly serious disorder and dissociative identity disorder which used to be called multiple personality disorder. The experience I find most common among the performers is that they have to be drunk, high or dissociated in order to go to work. Their work environment is particularly toxic. One study on strippers indicated that they were likely to be punched, slapped, grabbed, called cunt and whore and to be followed home or stalked. Not surprisingly, these women often work with bodyguards. This live form of pornography causes violence and the customers receiving these Permission-Giving Beliefs become carriers of these beliefs back to their homes, onto their jobs, into the street, onto the school yard. There they encounter women and children who do not have bodyguards.
The terrible work life of the pornography performer is often followed by an equally terrible home life. They have an increased risk of sexually transmitted disease including HIV, domestic violence and have about a 25 % chance of making a marriage that lasts as long as 3 years.
The viewers and the performers of pornography are the most direct victims. However, the children and the partners are also damaged by this industry. My clinical experience indicates that the spouses of porn viewers are often depressed, and are more likely to have eating disorders, body image disorders and low self-esteem. These wives can’t function in the fake sexual world in which their husbands live. The wives may try to please their spouse by engaging in sexual behaviors that they find degrading. The wife may think that they can increase the sexual energy in the relationship and satisfy her husband if she views the pornography with him. My clinical experience is that these wives often get a short-lived boost in sexual activity but soon she notices that when her husband is having sex with her, he is turning around to watch the porn on the TV screen. She then realizes that he isn’t having sex with her at all. He’s masturbating inside her body while he is having sex with the women on the screen.
Some wives will resort to plastic surgery especially breast implants. Research indicates that women who get breast implants are four times as likely to commit suicide as other women are.
The children also show the damage. As pornography becomes normalized, it is left around the house. Children can get exposed to it. These are tender minds that are just developing their conceptualizations of sex. Normalizing abnormal sex increase the likelihood that they will engage in these behaviors. This increases the likelihood of early sexual experience and with it, the increasing risk of pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases. These children often think that all relationships are sexual. That sex is the core of their personalities and is the way in which you raise your self-esteem. This may be one reason that we see sexual addiction running in families. The distorted beliefs are not only reinforced but modeled as well. In one report in Australia, children who had become sexual predators before the age of 12, all had experienced pornographic material on the Internet and large number believed that the only use of the Internet was for pornographic material.
Children who have porn-viewing fathers complain that when he looks at them it feels “creepy”. The parental gaze has now become the “porn gaze”. The child of the porn user finds that every thing is now about sex.
There are no studies and no data that indicate a benefit from pornography use. If there were a benefit, then pornography users, pornography performers, their spouses and their children would show the most benefit. Just the opposite is true. The society is awash in pornography and so in fact the data is in. If pornography made us healthy, we would be healthy by now.
Back to Witness List
http://commerce.senate.gov/hearings/witnesslist.cfm?id=1343
The Testimony ofDr. Mary Anne Layden Co-Director, Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program,Center for Cognitive Therapy University of Pennsylvania
Thank you, Senators, for allowing me to speak to you today.
Pornography, by its very nature, is an equal opportunity toxin. It damages the viewer, the performer, and the spouses and the children of the viewers and the performers. It is toxic mis-education about sex and relationships. It is more toxic the more you consume, the “harder” the variety you consume and the younger and more vulnerable the consumer.
The damage is both in the area of beliefs and behaviors. The belief damage may include Pornography Distortion, Permission-Giving Beliefs and the attitudes about what constitutes a healthy sexual and emotional relationship. The behavioral damage includes psychologically unhealthy behaviors, socially inappropriate behaviors and illegal behaviors.
Let me give some examples. Pornography Distortion is a set of beliefs based in pornographic imagery, sent to the viewer while they are aroused and reinforced by the orgasm. An example of Pornography Distortion would include beliefs such as “Sex is not about intimacy, procreation or marriage. Sex is about predatory self-gratification, casual recreation, body parts, violence, feces, strangers, children, animals and using women as entertainment.” All of these are messages regularly sent by pornography.
Permission-Giving Beliefs are a set of beliefs that imply that my behavior is normal, acceptable, common and/or doesn’t hurt anyone so I have permission to continue to behave in the way that I am. In all types of violence and addiction, Permission-Giving Beliefs are involved. Examples would include “All men go to prostitutes” “Women like sex mixed with violence” and “Children enjoy sex with adults”. These particular Permission-Giving Beliefs are also common in pornography.
Both Pornography Distortion and Permission-Giving Beliefs increase the problem of mis-education about sexuality and relationships. For example, the myth that women are sexually aroused by engaging in behaviors that are actually sexually pleasuring to men is a particularly narcissistic invention of the pornography industry. This is sexual mis-education.
The consequences of all these distorted beliefs are varied. For the viewer, pornography increases the likelihood of sexual addiction and they respond in ways similar to other addicts. Sexual addicts develop tolerance and will need more and harder kinds of pornographic material. They have escalating compulsive sexual behavior becoming more out of control and also experience withdrawal symptoms if they stop the use of the sexual material. The executive who goes to his office and logs on to the Internet porn sites at 9:00 AM and logs off at 5:00 PM is out of control and risks a great deal. Research indicates that 70% of the hits on Internet sex sites occur between 9-5 on business computers. Research also indicates and my clinical experience supports that 40% of sex addicts will lose their spouse, 58% will suffer sever finanacial losses, and 27-40% will lose their job or profession. Those whose marraiges don’t end, may find themselves increasing dissatisfied with their spouses appearance and sexual behavior and increasingly sexually acting out which leads to an increase in sexually transmitted diseases. Research indicates that even non-sex addicts will show brain reactions on PET scans while viewing pornography similar to cocaine addicts looking at images of people taking cacaine. This material is potent, addictive and permanently implanted in the brain.
Those who use pornography have also been shown to be more likely to engage in illegal behavior as well. Research indicates and my clinical experience supports that those who use pronography are more likely to go to prostitutes, engage in domestic violence, stranger rape, date rape, and incest. These beahviors should not be suprising since pornographic videos contaning all of these themes are readily available and the permssion-giving beliefs of these pornographic videos reinforced by the orgasm say that all these behaviors are normal, acceptable, common and don’t hurt anyone.
I have also seen in my clinical experience that pornography damages the sexual performance of the viewers. Pornography viewers tend to have problems with premature ejaculation and erectile dysfunction. Having spent so much time in unnatural sexual experiences with paper, celluloid and cyberspace, they seem to find it difficult to have sex with a real human being. Pornography is raising their expectation and demand for types and amounts of sexual experiences at the same time it is reducing their ability to experience sex.
The viewers are not the only ones to be affect by pornography. The performers are damaged as well although the performers were often damaged before they entered the industry. No healthy six-year-old growing up in a healthy home environment says, “I hope I grow up to be a porn star, stripper or prostitute”. Those who now work in the porn industry were often little girls who got into their beds each night, rolled themselves into a fetal position and each night he came in a pealed her open. They work in the porn industry with its physical invasion and visual invasion because it feels like home. Once they are in the industry they have high rates of substance abuse, typically alcohol and cocaine, depression, borderline personality disorder which is a particularly serious disorder and dissociative identity disorder which used to be called multiple personality disorder. The experience I find most common among the performers is that they have to be drunk, high or dissociated in order to go to work. Their work environment is particularly toxic. One study on strippers indicated that they were likely to be punched, slapped, grabbed, called cunt and whore and to be followed home or stalked. Not surprisingly, these women often work with bodyguards. This live form of pornography causes violence and the customers receiving these Permission-Giving Beliefs become carriers of these beliefs back to their homes, onto their jobs, into the street, onto the school yard. There they encounter women and children who do not have bodyguards.
The terrible work life of the pornography performer is often followed by an equally terrible home life. They have an increased risk of sexually transmitted disease including HIV, domestic violence and have about a 25 % chance of making a marriage that lasts as long as 3 years.
The viewers and the performers of pornography are the most direct victims. However, the children and the partners are also damaged by this industry. My clinical experience indicates that the spouses of porn viewers are often depressed, and are more likely to have eating disorders, body image disorders and low self-esteem. These wives can’t function in the fake sexual world in which their husbands live. The wives may try to please their spouse by engaging in sexual behaviors that they find degrading. The wife may think that they can increase the sexual energy in the relationship and satisfy her husband if she views the pornography with him. My clinical experience is that these wives often get a short-lived boost in sexual activity but soon she notices that when her husband is having sex with her, he is turning around to watch the porn on the TV screen. She then realizes that he isn’t having sex with her at all. He’s masturbating inside her body while he is having sex with the women on the screen.
Some wives will resort to plastic surgery especially breast implants. Research indicates that women who get breast implants are four times as likely to commit suicide as other women are.
The children also show the damage. As pornography becomes normalized, it is left around the house. Children can get exposed to it. These are tender minds that are just developing their conceptualizations of sex. Normalizing abnormal sex increase the likelihood that they will engage in these behaviors. This increases the likelihood of early sexual experience and with it, the increasing risk of pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases. These children often think that all relationships are sexual. That sex is the core of their personalities and is the way in which you raise your self-esteem. This may be one reason that we see sexual addiction running in families. The distorted beliefs are not only reinforced but modeled as well. In one report in Australia, children who had become sexual predators before the age of 12, all had experienced pornographic material on the Internet and large number believed that the only use of the Internet was for pornographic material.
Children who have porn-viewing fathers complain that when he looks at them it feels “creepy”. The parental gaze has now become the “porn gaze”. The child of the porn user finds that every thing is now about sex.
There are no studies and no data that indicate a benefit from pornography use. If there were a benefit, then pornography users, pornography performers, their spouses and their children would show the most benefit. Just the opposite is true. The society is awash in pornography and so in fact the data is in. If pornography made us healthy, we would be healthy by now.
Back to Witness List
Judith Reisman, Senate Testimony
Given at a Science, Technology, and Space Hearing:The Science Behind Pornography Addiction Thursday, November 18 2004 - 2:00 PM - SR 253
The Testimony ofDr. Judith Reisman , California Protective Parents Association
Good afternoon, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. I am Judith Reisman, Ph.D., president of the Institute for Media Education, specializing in the communication effects of images on the brain, mind and memory; fraud in the human sexuality field; and the addictive properties of sexually explicit images, commonly called pornography.
Thanks to the latest advances in neuroscience, we now know that pornographic visual images imprint and alter the brain, triggering an instant, involuntary, but lasting, biochemical memory trail, arguably, subverting the First Amendment by overriding the cognitive speech process. This is true of so-called “soft-core” and “hard-core” pornography. And once new neurochemical pathways are established they are difficult or impossible to delete.
Pornographic images also cause secretion of the body’s “fight or flight” sex hormones. This triggers excitatory transmitters and produces non-rational, involuntary reactions; intense arousal states that overlap sexual lust--now with fear, shame, and/or hostility and violence. Media erotic fantasies become deeply imbedded, commonly coarsening, confusing, motivating and addicting many of those exposed. (See “the Violence Pyramid” at http://www.vbii.org/violence.html) Pornography triggers myriad kinds of internal, natural drugs that mimic the “high” from a street drug. Addiction to pornography is addiction to what I dub erototoxins -- mind-altering drugs produced by the viewer’s own brain.
How does this ‘brain sabotage’ occur? Brain scientists tell us that “in 3/10 of a second a visual image passes from the eye through the brain, and whether or not one wants to, the brain is structurally changed and memories are created – we literally ‘grow new brain’ with each visual experience.”
This scientifically documented neurochemical imprinting affects children and teens especially deeply; their still-developing brains process emotions differently, with significantly less rationality and cognition than the adult brain.
Children and others who cannot read will still instantly decode, feel and experience images. Largely right-hemisphere visual and non-speech stimuli enter long-term memory, conscious and unconscious. Any highly excitatory stimuli (whether sexually explicit sex education or X-Rated films) say neurologists, “which lasts half a second within five to ten minutes has produced a structural change that is in some ways as profound as the structural changes one sees in [brain] damage...[and] can...leave a trace that will last for years.”
Pornography psychopharmacologically imprints young brains – thereby invalidating notions of informed consent. Moreover, the mainstreaming of pornography since the 1950’s directly coincides with the unprecedented explosion in sexual disease and a huge, exponential increase in new types of pornographic copycat sex crimes by and to juveniles and adults. Such facts should inform the legal arguments about free speech versus pornography in public and even private venues. I have spent decades documenting the effects of pornographic “humor” and photos on children, fathers, husbands and wives and communities, much of which is found in my book, "Soft" Porn Plays Hardball, 1990, in my U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) report, Images of Children, Crime and Violence in Playboy, Penthouse and Hustler, and in my white paper on “The Psychopharmacology of Pictorial Pornography: Restructuring Brain, Mind & Memory & Subverting Freedom of Speech” (http://www.drjudithreisman.com/brain.pdf).
A basic science research team employing a cautiously protective methodology should study erototoxins and the brain/body.
State-of-the-art brain scanning studies should answer these questions with hard, replicable data. As with the tobacco suits, these data could be helpful in litigation and in affecting legal change.
Testimony from victims and police commonly finds pornography an on site sex crime manual. In one 1984 Senate hearing, John Rabun, now COO of DoJ’s Missing and Abducted Children Center, testified that when arrested, “all, that is 100%” of rapists, pedophiles, etc., in their study possessed adult pornography, “such as Playboy, on up….”
An offensive strategy should be planned, mandating law enforcement collection of all pornography data at crime sites and judges, police, lawyers and law schools should receive training in the hard data of sexology fraud and erototoxins as changing brains absent informed consent.
Congress should end all Federal funding of educational institutions that train students with bogus Kinseyan academic pornography and/or that teach pornography as harmless. Congress should also remove the authority of so-called sexology institutes--most of whom are pornography grantees--to confer professional credentials and serve as expert witnesses.
These are concrete steps that can and must be taken to redress the effects of pornography on our children, our communities and our country.
Thank you very much.
Back to Witness List
The Testimony ofDr. Judith Reisman , California Protective Parents Association
Good afternoon, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. I am Judith Reisman, Ph.D., president of the Institute for Media Education, specializing in the communication effects of images on the brain, mind and memory; fraud in the human sexuality field; and the addictive properties of sexually explicit images, commonly called pornography.
Thanks to the latest advances in neuroscience, we now know that pornographic visual images imprint and alter the brain, triggering an instant, involuntary, but lasting, biochemical memory trail, arguably, subverting the First Amendment by overriding the cognitive speech process. This is true of so-called “soft-core” and “hard-core” pornography. And once new neurochemical pathways are established they are difficult or impossible to delete.
Pornographic images also cause secretion of the body’s “fight or flight” sex hormones. This triggers excitatory transmitters and produces non-rational, involuntary reactions; intense arousal states that overlap sexual lust--now with fear, shame, and/or hostility and violence. Media erotic fantasies become deeply imbedded, commonly coarsening, confusing, motivating and addicting many of those exposed. (See “the Violence Pyramid” at http://www.vbii.org/violence.html) Pornography triggers myriad kinds of internal, natural drugs that mimic the “high” from a street drug. Addiction to pornography is addiction to what I dub erototoxins -- mind-altering drugs produced by the viewer’s own brain.
How does this ‘brain sabotage’ occur? Brain scientists tell us that “in 3/10 of a second a visual image passes from the eye through the brain, and whether or not one wants to, the brain is structurally changed and memories are created – we literally ‘grow new brain’ with each visual experience.”
This scientifically documented neurochemical imprinting affects children and teens especially deeply; their still-developing brains process emotions differently, with significantly less rationality and cognition than the adult brain.
Children and others who cannot read will still instantly decode, feel and experience images. Largely right-hemisphere visual and non-speech stimuli enter long-term memory, conscious and unconscious. Any highly excitatory stimuli (whether sexually explicit sex education or X-Rated films) say neurologists, “which lasts half a second within five to ten minutes has produced a structural change that is in some ways as profound as the structural changes one sees in [brain] damage...[and] can...leave a trace that will last for years.”
Pornography psychopharmacologically imprints young brains – thereby invalidating notions of informed consent. Moreover, the mainstreaming of pornography since the 1950’s directly coincides with the unprecedented explosion in sexual disease and a huge, exponential increase in new types of pornographic copycat sex crimes by and to juveniles and adults. Such facts should inform the legal arguments about free speech versus pornography in public and even private venues. I have spent decades documenting the effects of pornographic “humor” and photos on children, fathers, husbands and wives and communities, much of which is found in my book, "Soft" Porn Plays Hardball, 1990, in my U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) report, Images of Children, Crime and Violence in Playboy, Penthouse and Hustler, and in my white paper on “The Psychopharmacology of Pictorial Pornography: Restructuring Brain, Mind & Memory & Subverting Freedom of Speech” (http://www.drjudithreisman.com/brain.pdf).
A basic science research team employing a cautiously protective methodology should study erototoxins and the brain/body.
State-of-the-art brain scanning studies should answer these questions with hard, replicable data. As with the tobacco suits, these data could be helpful in litigation and in affecting legal change.
Testimony from victims and police commonly finds pornography an on site sex crime manual. In one 1984 Senate hearing, John Rabun, now COO of DoJ’s Missing and Abducted Children Center, testified that when arrested, “all, that is 100%” of rapists, pedophiles, etc., in their study possessed adult pornography, “such as Playboy, on up….”
An offensive strategy should be planned, mandating law enforcement collection of all pornography data at crime sites and judges, police, lawyers and law schools should receive training in the hard data of sexology fraud and erototoxins as changing brains absent informed consent.
Congress should end all Federal funding of educational institutions that train students with bogus Kinseyan academic pornography and/or that teach pornography as harmless. Congress should also remove the authority of so-called sexology institutes--most of whom are pornography grantees--to confer professional credentials and serve as expert witnesses.
These are concrete steps that can and must be taken to redress the effects of pornography on our children, our communities and our country.
Thank you very much.
Back to Witness List
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