Podcast Notes: 17 – Porn Addiction and Its connection with Sexual Assaults

Guest: Snehal Singh – qualified forensic and clinical psychologist

Many people think that increasing porn addiction among majority increases the rate of sexual assaults. This podcast highlights the same.

Is porn really a factor that increases the rate of sexual assaults? How?

Yes, porn and addiction to porn have been proven to increase the rate of sexual assaults.
The literal meaning of “porn” or “pornography” is the recording showing what is actually done while in a sexual activity between two people.
The earlier times followed the actual meaning of porn and displayed up content regarding the “normal” sexual activity.
Today, porn includes sexual content showing “abnormal” activities, which are odd to the normal human brain.
Now, it includes content showing physical, verbal and sexual aggression.
Mostly, it is shown that women “enjoy” men being aggressive and hard on them in an exploiting way, which is surely not the case in the majority.
When one sees it repeatedly, it is recorded in mind and the mental states it as a fact.
This provokes one to try out whatever he sees.

There are different stages in which porn will affect you and your mind:

Early exposure: This is the stage when you are just exposed to porn and watching it often.
Addictive stage: one starts to watch porn daily or many times a day. The stage where one wants to stop, but is not able to.
Escalating stage: this is an unusual stage where one is bored of seeing the same things every day and wants something different or abnormal, no matter how unpleasant it is.
Sexual frustration: this is the stage where the body needs more. It really forces the mind to act it

This is how unpleasant and violence in porn leads to sexual frustration.
Watching porn is like mental stimulation, the data which is being watched on repeat is stored by the brain which changes the perception to have sexual activity. One wants to have a thrilling experience seeing it and next, trying the same on someone.
Data and surveys state that people addicted to porn have agreed to have any intention to RAPE if they don’t get caught.
Usually smaller age groups are easier to convince, hence it is easy for rapists to victimize girls rather than women.

Will a ban on porn by the government help to reduce the rate of sexual assaults? How?

For happening incidents like rapes and sexual assaults, both the government and society are equally responsible.
In a country like India where “consent” is not valued upon much, there is no point banning porn or making prostitution legal.
One has to control his own urges
Lack of awareness and education is the main reason why porn plays a negative role in such situations.

What if the content is not aggressive? Is it okay to watch porn otherwise?

It is alright to watch porn but one should remember that the limit should be taken care of.
Addiction if not too violent pornographic videos but even normal ones more than a limit creates a lack of interest in work, academics etc leading to depression and anxiety.
Bottled up stressed feelings of anxiety give rise to criminal behaviour.
Regular activity of watching porn will develop your impulsive behaviour.
Your energy levels throughout the day will do down and it will negatively affect your personality.
It is quite similar to drug addictions, therefore it affects your prefrontal cortex of the brain, reducing the power of judgment, state of right or wrong etc.

If one gets addicted to porn and wants to give up, how is it advised to come out of it?

Chirag Barjatya