6 Life-Changing Benefits of Quitting Porn and Masturbation vs 6 Hidden Dangers of Continued Use

Comparison chart of quitting porn effects versus continued use

If you ask someone who regularly views pornography whether it's harmful, most will deny it. They might even reject the idea that porn can be as addictive as drugs. However, careful observation reveals a pattern: what starts as weekly viewing often escalates to daily consumption. Time allocated for work and study gradually diminishes, eventually leading to intrusive sexual thoughts even during productive hours. So, what are the real benefits of quitting porn and masturbation?

The Life-Changing Benefits of Quitting Porn and Masturbation

1. A More Positive and Healthy Mindset

Many who frequently view pornographic content and masturbate often develop two concerning symptoms:

1. A gradual psychological distortion, leading to an increased appetite for extreme content and a loss of interest in normal sexual activities. 2. A tendency to objectify people, viewing them as tools for personal gratification rather than respecting their individual will and rights.

When you stop consuming pornographic content and cease masturbation, you'll likely notice your inner world becoming healthier. Simultaneously, you'll no longer feel guilty about wasting excessive time and energy on porn consumption.

For those who follow Christianity, Buddhism, or Islam, abstaining from pornography and masturbation can also be an expression of religious devotion.

2. Increased Energy and Free Time

Many people discover that viewing porn and masturbating consume a significant portion of their time and energy, disrupting their schedules and exacerbating procrastination. Time originally intended for socializing, entertainment, and learning drastically decreases, further fueling anxiety and regret. In severe cases, the daily urge to masturbate and view porn seriously interferes with their lives.

When you quit porn and masturbation, you'll likely find yourself more energetic with abundant free time. You can then engage in activities you've always wanted to pursue, rather than being controlled by your desires. Your life becomes more fulfilling, and you gain a greater sense of achievement.

3. Improved Sleep Quality

While some studies suggest masturbation can improve sleep quality, such as this paper involving 442 women and 336 men, it's important to note that the research relied on subjective questionnaires rather than objective measurements comparing deep sleep duration before and after masturbation.

In reality, when you choose to quit masturbation and porn viewing, you're likely to develop a more regular sleep schedule and wake up feeling more refreshed. Why is this?

In real life, when someone starts browsing erotic content at night, it often means they're staying up late, disrupting their normal sleep routine. In this context, the idea that masturbation improves sleep quality becomes laughable - it's actually disturbing your sleep habits. Moreover, as addiction sets in, frequency and duration of use tend to increase. Porn addicts often browse erotic content until they're exhausted. The next morning, if urges resurface, they may continue viewing porn, leading to lethargy throughout the day.

Therefore, when you stop watching porn and masturbating, your sleep patterns are likely to become more regular. You won't need to rely on porn and masturbation to help you fall asleep.

Porn and masturbation are wolves in sheep's clothing, gradually making you dependent on them rather than becoming more independent.

4. Enhanced Focus and Concentration

The fourth benefit of quitting masturbation and porn is improved concentration.

Anyone habituated to masturbation and porn viewing will notice one thing: thoughts in their head are no longer under their control.

They'll find that whether at work or studying, pornographic images and content intrude into their minds uncontrollably, making it impossible to focus. This isn't just true in daily life; even during masturbation and porn viewing, they're not truly focused - either their mind goes blank, or they're constantly switching between different porn videos, unable to truly enjoy pleasure.

So never assume that masturbation and porn viewing can improve concentration. At those times, there's no trace of cognitive activity in your brain; desire saturates your mind.

When you stop watching porn and cease masturbation, you'll likely notice a gradual improvement in your ability to concentrate. You'll find yourself able to focus on the task at hand during work and study.

5. Enhanced Sexual Experiences

People who frequently masturbate and view porn often become sexually apathetic when faced with real-life sexual encounters, sometimes even experiencing erectile dysfunction. The root cause is that pornography provides "supernormal stimuli" - within minutes online, you can access thousands of porn videos featuring any form, ethnicity, or gender. Under such stimulation, the brain loses interest in normal sexual activity.

As a result, they may initially find that masturbation and porn viewing enhance their sex life, but this is followed by permanent damage to their sexual experiences.

When you abstain from masturbation and porn viewing, you'll likely rediscover the preciousness of normal sexual activity and appreciate it more deeply.

6. Improved Self-Control

Another benefit of quitting porn and masturbation is that you're likely to develop better self-control.

After overcoming porn and masturbation addiction, you may find it easier to quit smoking or drinking. Your life may become more disciplined. After all, once you've witnessed the turbulent waves of the ocean, you won't be amazed by the rapids of a river.

Not only will you break bad habits, but you'll also cultivate good ones. You might start going to the gym, read more books, and gradually expand your social circle and network.

So treat quitting porn and masturbation as an interesting game. When you complete it, you'll feel capable of overcoming any future life challenges.

The 6 Hidden Dangers of Continued Porn Use and Masturbation

1. Porn Destroys Reward and Motivation Mechanisms

The human brain contains two types of chemicals: one controls desire for future events, while the other governs present feelings. Dopamine, mentioned earlier, controls anticipation of future events, while endorphins, serotonin, and oxytocin control our current feelings. Here's how they work:

Dopamine: Controls people's expectations and desires for things, not satisfaction. It's involved in long-term goal planning and can lead to addiction but also extraordinary resilience in pursuing goals.
Endorphins: Essentially a painkiller, produced during prolonged aerobic exercise like long-distance running, endorphins create a sense of pleasure.
Oxytocin: The "love hormone" makes us form more positive memories of others, increases empathy, and willingness to protect group reputation while reducing prejudice. Women produce large amounts during childbirth and breastfeeding.
Serotonin: Provides a calm and pleasant sense of well-being.

Porn addicts secrete large amounts of dopamine, urging the body to seek out pornographic content. However, there are two dopamine circuits in the human brain. One is the reward circuit, mainly enhancing human desire for survival necessities; the other is related to the prefrontal cortex (especially the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), participating in higher cognitive functions such as decision-making, planning, inhibitory control, and social interaction, helping to enhance people's resilience in pursuing goals.

Under normal natural conditions, both circuits work normally. For example, when humans see delicious food, the desire circuit stimulates people to eat, promoting behaviors that help survival. But pornographic content is not a normal natural behavior, leading to excessive enhancement of the desire circuit and oversecretion of dopamine, while the prefrontal cortex gradually atrophies due to disuse. Simultaneously, some brain areas like the striatum become less sensitive to dopamine stimulation, and to feel stronger stimulation, people further pursue more erotic content. But when they actually get pornographic content, they feel anxious and unable to enjoy the current content because endorphins, oxytocin, and serotonin, which control current feelings, are not secreted.

Eventually, addicts cannot set or complete any long-term goals. Porn addicts may even develop to the point where they can skip meals just to browse pornographic content, while completely unable to immerse in the present or feel any happiness or joy. For porn addicts, nothing in the world besides pornography can make them feel pleasure anymore.

2. Reproductive Organ Diseases

Pornographic content can easily lead to sexual arousal, causing frequent brain arousal states during porn viewing. Reproductive organs repeatedly become engorged with blood, and viewers habitually masturbate, easily leading to the following problems:

Urethritis Neglecting personal hygiene or minor urethral damage during masturbation can increase the chance of bacterial invasion, causing inflammation.
Chronic prostatitis leading to frequent urination, urgency, and incomplete emptying Frequent masturbation can cause prolonged prostate congestion, compressing the urethra and creating an environment more conducive to bacterial growth. Additionally, frequent masturbators are often under significant mental stress, which is also considered a potential cause of chronic prostatitis.
Cervical inflammation Poor personal hygiene and unsterilized tools increase the risk of infection.
Sexual dysfunction Psychological barriers, anxiety, and tolerance can lead to loss of normal sexual function.

If porn addicts also engage in various high-risk sexual behaviors, they may also be at risk for:

HIV
Gonorrhea and syphilis
Cervical cancer

3. Loss of Anticipation for Normal Sexual Behavior

Due to extensive browsing of erotic content, the brain has already developed tolerance. Many sexual acts in porn are often exaggerated, completely different from real-life sexual experiences. Many people become depressed and lose interest in normal sex life due to inability to achieve their psychological expectations, even developing sexual repression and other psychological problems, while also causing relationships with partners to become less harmonious.

4. Damage to Appearance

Due to extensive porn viewing, viewers often have unhealthy habits such as staying up late and sitting for long periods, leading to endocrine disorders. Frequent orgasms can also lead to deficiencies in some trace elements and loss of physical strength. Therefore, porn addicts' appearance can change dramatically, such as oily skin, acne, blackheads, dry and frizzy hair, bad breath, withered appearance, and overall lack of confidence and vitality.

5. Social Barriers

Unable to make eye contact with others, sensitive and insecure inside, incapable of any public speaking. When meeting someone they like, they dare not engage in normal communication or have the courage to ask them out. Personality becomes more irritable and pessimistic, with increasing frequency of emotional outbursts, further preventing the building of good interpersonal relationships. Especially for teenagers, whose minds are not yet fully developed, porn addiction causes them to be unable to accept rejection from anyone in the real world. Any small setback can drive them into the arms of pornography, seeking "comfort" in the virtual world.

6. Decline in Work and Study Abilities

Due to addiction to pornography, large amounts of time and energy are consumed daily. Even when not browsing porn, erotic content constantly replays in the mind, making it impossible to concentrate on current tasks. Meanwhile, the brain's memory capacity drastically reduces, unable to retain any effective information. Porn addicts simultaneously face decline in energy, intelligence, and concentration, further affecting work and study performance, leading to low self-confidence and mood, and in more severe cases, depression and neurasthenia. These symptoms are also related to atrophy and damage to the brain's amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex.

The figure below shows the relationship between weekly pornography viewing duration and brain gray matter volume for 64 volunteers (gray matter plays a crucial role in decision-making, cognition, learning, and memory). Both from the graph and statistical test results (r64 = 0.389, P < .01), it's evident that the longer the time spent viewing pornographic content, the smaller the brain's gray matter volume. The relationship between time spent viewing pornography and brain gray matter volume

By understanding these benefits of quitting porn and masturbation, as well as the dangers of continued use, you can make informed decisions about your sexual health and overall well-being. Remember, breaking free from porn addiction is a journey, but the rewards are substantial and life-changing.

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