FAQ: What Does Science Say About Porn Addiction?

There's good news here. If you asked me this question 5-10 years ago, I would have said "not much"!! It has taken the academic world a while to acknowledge just how damaging pornography can be to someone's well-being as well as their relationships. Research into gaming addiction is better funded than research into porn addiction!! However, there is emerging research on the topic and it is proving what we have known all along: Porn is bad for you. Who knew!!

The academic world catching up is a good thing because it means more research will be done which should lead to the development of better tools, models and mechanisms for recovery. But already, there is research indicating that in a clinical environment, porn addiction can be healed. That is awesome news because if it can be experienced in a controlled clinical environment, then there is hope it is possible for just about anyone.

Here's what you need to take away from this: Recovery is possible. Before the academic world started researching this, we already had plenty of evidence that you could fully recover. Now we have some credibility from the science world to back it up! If you want to learn more, I encourage you to start with this paper which nicely summarizes reserach findings from the last decade or so: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4600144/