In the olden days, the word ‘addiction’ was largely confined to either dependence on substance (addiction to drugs) or behavioral addiction (gambling). Addiction can be defined as the repetition of a habit which an individual does with his/her complete knowledge. In other words, they clearly know and understand that they have to leave the particular habit of either ingesting a substance or performing a specific action, but cannot refrain from doing the same. The habit may prove harmful in the long run as it might lead to compulsive use.
Pornography can be found in various forms such as books, postcards, photographs, drawing, animation, film, video (video games). Before two decades, if an individual has to watch porn, he has to rent out a video. Although growth of internet has brought many advantages, there are also few exceptions like porn, which any one can access by a single click.
As with all addictions, individuals of all ages share this vice of pornography, they usually start with soft porn. Similar to drugs, they will also need larger doses to make them feel high. They will start searching for more explicit porn content. Although no survey has been done to clarify the factor from small to high dosage, it cannot be ruled out that watching porn leads to negative effects in many cases such as:
Addicts feel isolate, spend large amount of time locked in their rooms or own world. Watching pornography individually separates them from social contact dissolving into a fantasy world far from reality. Pornographic addicted individuals may indulge in imagination with multiple partners by watching porn thus causing disillusionment in family lives.
Men, who are addicted, try to become dominant, introvert, deal with anxiety, and develop low self esteem. Porn makes the real universe and world boring leaving its viewers dissatisfied and less sensitive to the emotional feelings of everyday life. According to a survey, men exposed to large volume of pornography tend to be less responsible in their career and suffer from reasoning ability.
Men who view pornography in a very young age have been found to view women only as objects of desire than to have respect for them as human beings. They can also suffer from guilt, shame, failure of rejection or humiliation.
The best way to overcome the addiction is to become socially active. Isolation and loneliness are said to be the main contributing factors. Addicts who have been given proper professional guidance and assistance have overcome and conquered their habit of watching porn.