[Baranovich]

I've been thinking more about the OP's question, and I just keep arriving back at the same place.

I think I can admit that yes, I am addicted to pornography to a degree. Not to the point where it prevents me totally from functioning in the real world, but I admit that there were times I chose it over socially engaging with women and people in general. Those were times that truly scared me, and compelled me to go out and start up real connections again. So I'm at least aware of the demons that haunt me and try to fight back against them.

But I don't blame that on the pornographer. Sex by it's very nature is an extremely pleasurable sensation, and can easily become addictive, especially the rush of orgasm. The problem with porn, in my case, is that I enjoy edging so much.

Psychiatrists and psychologists have compared edging to porn to a drug addict taking continuous hits of Heroine or lines of cocaine. And there is MUCH truth in that. When you edge to porn, you are literally keeping yourself at a high level of arousal for hours. Your brain is being kept in a state of constant dopamine hits, one after the other. That constant dopamine rush is exactly what the euphoria of a drug high is like.

Having said that, I cannot blame the pornographer for the way our brain chemistry works.

Burger King and other fast food chains knows how addictive their food can be, because the salt, sugar, and meat juices in their food LITERALLY taps into our biological past as cavemen. We CRAVE those flavors because our biological history has those flavors built into its circuitry from the animals we hunted. A Whopper with fries and a large coke is literally like a shot of prehistoric dopamine, we're satisfying the same urge. And the people who market their products know that as well. Salt and sugar are highly addictive, and so is sexual pleasure, and so is orgasm.

I would sum it up this way. Corporations have figured out how to tap into our deepest cravings and desires, be it sugar, salt, nicotine, or orgasm. They have figured out how to keep us coming back for more, and more, and more.

But like anything else, it's up to us to decide how much control we want to have over our own bodies.

What's the old saying about alcoholism? "One drink is too many, and ten thousand is never enough."

That sentence sums up my addiction to pornography pretty bluntly.