Does Porn Cause Anxiety?

Anxiety and porn, porn and anxiety: does porn cause anxiety, or does anxiety drive you to watch porn? Perhaps it even goes both ways? These struggles encompass two growing challenges in our society today. Both porn and anxiety are gaining influence on our everyday lives and struggling with them together is more and more common. If you think you may be fighting both, what can you do about it? It’s time for answers.

Anxiety and Porn Addiction: A Dual Diagnosis Challenge

When you watch porn, it’s easy to do so to explore your sexuality, as a form of entertainment, or perhaps as a way to reduce stress. It may feel like something you choose to do at your leisure in the privacy of your own home. However, while it may start out this way, your porn consumption can soon spiral into porn addiction or hypersexual disorder. This often happens when you begin to use pornography to cope with something deeper. For many, the deeper, behind-the-scenes issue is unresolved past trauma (even adverse childhood experiences). 

As trauma affects your mental health and ability to self-regulate your emotions, you can develop mental health disorders as a result. Often, this may produce increased anxiety and eventually an anxiety disorder. As you deal with the effects of anxiety, porn can become a go-to way to self-medicate due to its strong feel-good effects. 

However, your brain eventually develops a tolerance for porn, so you have to watch more (and more often) to get the same pleasure. That’s why many people may innocently start out watching porn, only to see it spiral into an uncontrollable addiction. When this happens, you have co-occurring disorders (anxiety and porn addiction) on your hands and need dual diagnosis treatment in order to heal. 

Alternatively, Does Porn Cause Anxiety?

On the other hand, can porn cause anxiety? The porn and anxiety causation may feel a bit like a chicken and the egg scenario, but in reality, you can end up struggling with both anxiety and porn addiction, no matter which came first. With that said, does porn cause anxiety? The short answer is yes. 

Watching pornography on a consistent basis may feel good in the moment. But over time, according to The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, regular internet porn consumption can lead to insecurity, reduced sexual well-being, and yes…anxiety. As you watch more and more porn, you may soon realize the magnitude of your behaviors. This can cause you to feel guilt and embarrassment as you struggle to overcome shame associated with your porn consumption. This may drive you into isolation, fearing what people would do if they found out about “the real you” and your porn struggles. And all of these negative feelings only combine to produce more anxiety. 

As porn takes over your life, it may get in the way of your dating prospects, leading to further anxiety. Or alternatively, if you are dating someone while watching porn, you may wonder if you’re now cheating on them. It’s likely you also fear that your significant other will discover your secret porn struggles. And because sex depicted in porn isn’t realistic, you may also struggle with performance anxiety (even porn-induced ED) in the bedroom with your partner. 

Porn and Anxiety: A Vicious Cycle

As these scenarios and struggles pile up, you may find yourself dealing with anxiety on a regular basis. If you’ve already been using porn as a way to cope with negative feelings, your anxiety challenges will drive you to watch more porn to self-medicate. But your continued porn usage (and potentially more extreme forms of pornography as your habit builds) only generates more negative feelings, leading to anxiety and porn and porn and anxiety on repeat. The vicious cycle continues. 

Anxiety and Porn Addiction Symptoms

Because the answer to does porn cause anxiety is yes, it’s quite possible you may be reading this now struggling with both anxiety and porn addiction. But how can you know for sure? Let’s take a look at both the symptoms of porn addiction and the symptoms of anxiety:

Porn Addiction Symptoms

• Losing track of time watching porn
• A lack of control over your urges to watch porn
• Thinking about porn most of your day
• Watching porn over personal responsibilities, work obligations, or spending time with others
• Watching porn in risky environments, such as at work or in public
• Wanting to stop your porn usage, but being unable to quit
• Watching porn despite the negative consequences it causes
• Hiding your porn habit from others

Anxiety Symptoms

• Consuming thoughts associated with worry
• Feeling restless or nervous
• Having a sense of panic or impending danger
• Difficulty sleeping
• Increased heart rate
• Hyperventilating
• Sweating
• Avoiding situations or places that generate anxious feelings

Does Porn Cause Anxiety? YES. Then What Should You Do About It?

If you can relate to symptoms of both anxiety and porn addiction above, you may be wondering what to do next. This question may even drive you into further anxiety or stoke your desire to watch porn to cope. Instead of continuing the vicious cycle, you need to seek professional help from a dual diagnosis treatment center. 

At Integrative Life Center in Nashville, TN, our dual diagnosis treatment program can address the underlying past trauma associated with your anxiety and porn addiction. With our help, you can overcome both struggles for good, all in one place. To learn more, contact our team today. 

 

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