At what point does hanging out here start looking like a porn addiction?

[dirk2024]

Porn addiction has been shown to be not a thing. People like porn, so they read or watch it. It’s not addictive in the normal sense of the word. Not like say nicotine. More scare stories put out by religious zealots.

Are you sure about that?

 

[NotWise]

Some time in the last few months I read that researchers (I think they were at UCLA) concluded that porn wasn't the cause of apparent porn addiction. Instead, the apparent addiction was strongly associated with a conservative religious background. The same researchers expressed concern about porn addiction in previous publications, but then wrote it off as not real.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

'I'm not addicted. I can get off whenever I want to.'

 

[MrHereWriting]

At what point does hanging out here start looking like a porn addiction?​

To an observer, it's when they see you elevate a thing above everything else, whether you draw away from the life you've created to pursue that thing or you always have that thing with you even if you're functioning at a high level.

To the addicted it never looks like addiction, you wake up one day and realize you're addicted and you can't stop doing what you're doing without some form of help.

Anyone who says "I was addicted to something so I stopped doing it, no problem" is a liar. If you can stop because you decided to stop and you actually stop without trouble, it means you recognized you were abusing something to the detriment of your life and so you stopped. Addicts can't stop like that.

 

[TheRedChamber]

I dunno. I've got the day off today and my plan was check my AH messages, have a cheeky wee wank, and then get on with my novel chapter.

Now I'm sitting here thinking that I'm going to get around to that porn any minute now. Might just check if there's anything in the Feedback section worth commenting on.

 

[MrHereWriting]

I dunno. I've got the day off today and my plan was check my AH messages, have a cheeky wee wank, and then get on with my novel chapter.

Now I'm sitting here thinking that I'm going to get around to that porn any minute now. Might just check if there's anything in the Feedback section worth commenting on.

Missing out on a wank because you're "socializing" online isn't indicative of an addiction. But, if your forum reading and writing is causing you to miss out on things that have real meaning to you that you'll feel guilty about later, then maybe you're addicted.

But, should you ever suck dick to get access to this forum then I'd say you are definitely addicted.

 

[SimonDoom]

I'm not qualified to have an opinion about whether it can be addicted in a clinical sense. It's not a narcotic. But obviously, like a lot of things, some people have an unhealthy compulsion to watch it and that can impair their lives.

 

[MrHereWriting]

I'm not qualified to have an opinion about whether it can be addicted in a clinical sense. It's not a narcotic. But obviously, like a lot of things, some people have an unhealthy compulsion to watch it and that can impair their lives.

In a clinical sense, the definition of addiction is: Is it profitable to label something as an addiction? If yes, then yes.

 

[NuclearFairy]

My simple rule of thumb for whether something is or is not an addiction: Would you steal from your grandmother to do it?

My grandmothers were both terrifying. It'd probably be safer to steal from the dealer.

 

[Statius]

Oh. My. God.

I recall some of your diatribes on ADD/ADHD. On a LOT of things. On how hyperfocus proved ADD doesn’t exist. I recall you implying more smacking would solve it. That sort of thing.

Have you had an epiphany? Don’t make me go find that thread.

Edit: my point being the radicalized king of dismissing things saying what you said is. Wow. But sorry. This post of mine further derails from a good discussion. I regret this post

Don't regret it. I am ADHD, and pple who say it isn't real because of hyper focus (which I have because of my ADHD, unmedicated) have no idea what it's like. The hyper focus is the flip side to not being able to focus on anything. The cause being, as I describe it, is the brain being stuck on a loop and you can't break away from it. Sometimes you can trick yourself out of it, other times you simply have to wait it out, which is where I am currently at.

 

[jsmiam]

To further clarify the point I’m attempting to make: Some people, whether it’s porn or following influencers or just being online too much (remember, part of the OP’s question was about time here), do lose control.

And for those who lose control, it’s a problem, it can be a severe problem, regardless of what it’s called.

I’m proposing calling it different names, all at least a little negative, so a person with a problem is more likely to find one that sticks in their head, so they can find a way out of it.

Who cares what we call it? I suppose that also means I’m contradicting myself. If a person wants to call it addiction, I guess they can.

My dislike of the word is this: it is misused by some as a way of dodging responsibility for things they know they shouldn’t be doing. (I’m keeping it simple here, dwelling on bad habits and bad behavior, where some deeper issue such as OCD isn’t at play.)

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

When you sit naked on the sofa every morning drinking coffee with one hand, reading lit and stroking with the other

I thought that was Wednesday...

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

My simple rule of thumb for whether something is or is not an addiction: Would you steal from your grandmother to do it?

Does pirating her WIFI to get on the internet count?

 

[OffNSFW]

The most effective treatment for sex addiction is CBT.

 

[alohadave]

The most effective treatment for sex addiction is CBT.

Promising people a good time is hardly the way to break an addiction.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

The most effective treatment for sex addiction is CBT.

There's also growing research that psychedelics have a strong impact on addiction and PTSD type behaviors.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

That sounds interesting. How so?

It evidently rewires parts of the brain. Check these for info from NYU and the VA

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I will. Tomorrow. It's midnight where I'm at. So influences in a positive way then?

Yes.

 

[THBGato]

I think I'm there and have been for sometime. I do need to take a break, pick up other neglected hombres.

 

[gunhilltrain]

AH is more like watching train wreck porn.

You can't not watch.

Somebody here once accused me of posting train wreck porn. It's amazing how many tractor-trailers get stuck at grade crossings. But I will restrain myself.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Having posted all that, I don't see spending time in the forum, at least this one, as a sign of that. The AH more of a place to hang out, bullshit and procrastinate.

Now lit as a whole? It can certainly lead to or feed it. Sex stories, cam girls, porn threads, sexual role plays, am pics, the personals, chat, it has a lot to offer in the realm of porn.

One would hope that the stories here have some plot and characterization, but it's not always a requirement.

 

[lovecraft68]

One would hope that the stories here have some plot and characterization, but it's not always a requirement.

Many do, many are 'one handed' but that brings up the interesting question of "Is an erotica story that's slow burn and have some depth still something that feed the need for porn?" Even well developed stories need to get down and dirty at some point.

 

[Gamblnluck]

When you sit naked on the sofa every morning drinking coffee with one hand, reading lit and stroking with the other

Gotta wonder if both hands are occupied, how do you scroll down the page?

 

[MaturemanAJ]

Gotta wonder if both hands are occupied, how do you scroll down the page?

Iced coffee and a straw

 

[Gamblnluck]

I tend to agree that “addiction” is a misused word for things like this.

But rather than ten pages of us arguing about the definition of addiction, what if we open the conversation into things like “out of control habit”, “irresponsible behavior”, “disruptive habit”, “incredible waste of time”, “poor prioritization”? Or even into “destructive habit”, “obsessive behavior.”

I agree with this. Porn may not be physically addictive which is what Emily was referring to with her comparison to nicotine, but it CAN be emotionally addictive as in a time-consuming interest. Also I think it enures us less than positive activities or desensitizes us to pleasurable ones. People tend to expect wilder and kinkier things in their own sexual activities. It is the idea that "just fucking is not quite as good".
Of course when you are 'just fucking' you might be remembering that story you read on Lit....