your brain on porn

[Ares]

I was recently watching this set of very interesing videos linked on SOTT (main link --> http://yourbrainonporn.com/your-brain-on-porn-series)
and had this following comment to make:

laura has written quite a bit about addition (the basic mechanisms seem to be the same, whether it is porn or food etc), and this video really drove the point home for me, which is --->
addiction leads to a weakening of your logical and rational thinking process, resulting in weakening of the circuits used to really THINK about the consequences of 'going for it'. on a more bigger picture level, i would say being in a state of addiction (which is more common than we realize) reduces our capacity to really think and learn on the larger issues of life that affect each and every one of us.

Perhaps (again on a bigger picture level), this is deliberate and serves the agenda of the PTB to keep the populace drugged and hence really not in a position to make personal and collective decisions about the literal survival of the human species! I am reminded of the rat experiment where the rat was implanted with an electrode and given a lever that pressed would stimulate a dopamine response. The rat literally over-stimulated itself to death, and in the process gave up thinking about all the things that would enable it to survive.

So it seems what we really ought to do is identify what addictions (food, gambling, porn + a lot more i suspect) we have and try to get rid of them as much as possible. Only this may help us 'rewire the brain' to get our thinking circuits strong again, that we may be able to make the choices we need to make to save our skins.

Now, I know the elders have already reached this conclusion, and I've read most of the links on this in the forum and on SOTT. However, there is a difference between reading/watching something and thinking it makes sense, to really UNDERSTANDING it (deep within?) and making your choices based on that. Otherwise, it just tends to be something thats floating on the top of your brain (so to speak), and you won't make any different choices because it hasn't 'sunk in' :)

hope that helps someone, as it has helped me. a good example of how knowledge protects!
cheers!

 

[Joe]

So it seems what we really ought to do is identify what addictions (food, gambling, porn + a lot more i suspect) we have and try to get rid of them as much as possible. Only this may help us 'rewire the brain' to get our thinking circuits strong again, that we may be able to make the choices we need to make to save our skins.

Indeed! And as you may have noticed, a lot of forum members are making efforts to deal with the carb addiction. It maybe the case that overcoming one addiction (with the resulting strengthening of 'thinking circuits') will make overcoming others a little easier.

 

[shadowsaround]

However, there is a difference between reading/watching something and thinking it makes sense, to really UNDERSTANDING it (deep within?) and making your choices based on that. Otherwise, it just tends to be something thats floating on the top of your brain (so to speak), and you won't make any different choices because it hasn't 'sunk in'

This seems to be my issue at this point. Is there any topics that deal with this type of situation? I haven't searched because I don't really know the keywords to use. Could one recommend some keywords so I could chase this problem down?

 

[pete02]

I was recently watching this set of very interesing videos linked on SOTT (main link --> http://yourbrainonporn.com/your-brain-on-porn-series)
and had this following comment to make:

....

Now, I know the elders have already reached this conclusion, and I've read most of the links on this in the forum and on SOTT. However, there is a difference between reading/watching something and thinking it makes sense, to really UNDERSTANDING it (deep within?) and making your choices based on that. Otherwise, it just tends to be something thats floating on the top of your brain (so to speak), and you won't make any different choices because it hasn't 'sunk in' :)

hope that helps someone, as it has helped me. a good example of how knowledge protects!
cheers!

Agreed and it has moksha! Your explanation alone helped me put it in a better perspective. Thanks for posting that. ;)

 

[cubbex]

So it seems what we really ought to do is identify what addictions (food, gambling, porn + a lot more i suspect) we have and try to get rid of them as much as possible. Only this may help us 'rewire the brain' to get our thinking circuits strong again, that we may be able to make the choices we need to make to save our skins.

Indeed! And as you may have noticed, a lot of forum members are making efforts to deal with the carb addiction. It maybe the case that overcoming one addiction (with the resulting strengthening of 'thinking circuits') will make overcoming others a little easier.

I thought this was easy and it is a pain in the but, and becoming aware of this addiction is like giving to it more strength.

 

[Pierre]

Indeed! And as you may have noticed, a lot of forum members are making efforts to deal with the carb addiction. It maybe the case that overcoming one addiction (with the resulting strengthening of 'thinking circuits') will make overcoming others a little easier.

I thought this was easy and it is a pain in the but, and becoming aware of this addiction is like giving to it more strength.

I'm not sure becoming aware of an addiction gives it more strength. Maybe when you become aware of an addiction, you simply start to see how strong it is (before you thought its strength was null since there was none)

And when you try to get rid of it, you realize it's even stronger than you thought when you discovered it! (because when you start fighting it, powerful biochemicals are released and deeply affect the body, the mind and the emotions).

So, yes addictions are powerful, but one necessary step is definitely to get aware of them. Would someone look for a cure if he thought he was perfectly healthy?

 

[Ares]

Indeed! And as you may have noticed, a lot of forum members are making efforts to deal with the carb addiction. It maybe the case that overcoming one addiction (with the resulting strengthening of 'thinking circuits') will make overcoming others a little easier.

I agree Perceval. One thing I'd like to point out is that sometimes when we introspect about these things and how they affect us, it is easy to see through some behaviour as being in an addiction, while others (maybe those we have invested a lot of wishful thinking in?) are not as obvious. And graduating from seeing the obvious to seeing the 'not so obvious' is what takes a lot of time, in my experience. But then others have done it, then why can't i/us? :) but it takes dedication, and that only comes when you understand what the stakes really are.

This seems to be my issue at this point. Is there any topics that deal with this type of situation? I haven't searched because I don't really know the keywords to use. Could one recommend some keywords so I could chase this problem down?

I am not sure there is any 1 thread that spells it out for you (although I haven't looked in a while now, maybe you'd like to start? :), but basically any articles or forum threads dealing with the brain response to addition and drugs are a good start. I stumbled into this area while doing research on smoking, and the classic articles of Laura on SOTT ('Let's light up',I think it was) explains this wonderfully well. Just goes to show how connected everything is ---> you begin learning about something and you realize you have learnt something else entirely!

Agreed and it has moksha! Your explanation alone helped me put it in a better perspective. Thanks for posting that. ;)

No problem, realized its high time i participate more in the forum as much as i can :)

I thought this was easy and it is a pain in the but, and becoming aware of this addiction is like giving to it more strength.

This is like saying learning more about your disease will make you more ill! If you watch the (admittedly long) video, the first thing the guy says you ought to do is understand that you have an addiction - a lot of people simply assume they are perfectly fine. Once you do realize this, the way to get rid of it is to know the cues- situations that trigger an addition. In his video, a good example is being along at home while the partner is away (assuming you can surf the web), and understanding that when you are in these situations, your reward center overpowers your rational thinking process which removes your ability to clearly think about the situation - thus giving into the addiction because you aren't thinking straight. And this becomes progressively worse the more you give in, because it rewires your brain along those areas you have most used - the reward centers! I speculate doing this to the extreme will result in an inability to think straight about anything at all, resulting in wasting away/death (look at drug users).

I again highly recommend the articles Laura has written about this topic to learn more. There is a book that is referenced in this video series - The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge. That is my next stop :) (has anyone read it yet)

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[cubbex]

I preffer Belibaste explanation, I wasn't saying that it would be better to not understand it, but indeed when you become aware of your addiction you really understand that you were always a slave for your body, realizing you are weaker than you thought.

Also another interesting thing is that become addicted to porn is one thing, become addicted to masturbation is a different thing, because you don't need porn to masturbate but some can't masturbate without seeing porn. And well I thought seeing porn was there as an effect of not having a partner, because if you have a partner and you are still seeing porn then is like cheating, and that for me its really amazing, people with a partner still addicted to porn, like just having a partner to mantain an emotional feeding relationship jo!

 

[RedFox]

I thought the video was a really good guide to addiction in general, and I could see a lot of new connections to the Work in general when watching it.
The point is I think that its likely that Everything we do mechanically is actually running through the 'addiction' mechanism (hippocampus/Dopamine - automatic reward centre). Even automatic behaviour that is destructive is probably triggering the reward centre.

 

[Franco]

I thought the video was a really good guide to addiction in general, and I could see a lot of new connections to the Work in general when watching it.
The point is I think that its likely that Everything we do mechanically is actually running through the 'addiction' mechanism (hippocampus/Dopamine - automatic reward centre). Even automatic behaviour that is destructive is probably triggering the reward centre.

I agree with Redfox, interesting videos in regards to addiction in general and also motivation.

He also explains why carbs/sugar are addictive and shows how food addiction can be worse than cocaine.

He says all mammals get bored of their mates sexually, male and female, not sure if this applies to everyone and every mammal.

Also nice explanation why over doing things desensitizes your brain and causes cravings and vicious circles.

 

[Iron]

He also explains why carbs/sugar are addictive and shows how food addiction can be worse than cocaine.

He says all mammals get bored of their mates sexually, male and female, not sure if this applies to everyone and every mammal.

Also nice explanation why over doing things desensitizes your brain and causes cravings and vicious circles.

I think the author of the series is not considering higher emotions. Since 2D is devoid of a higher emotional centre connection, I think its a pretty accurate representation of most 3D humans, OP or not, function, unless one devotes him/herself to the path of reaching higher development.

Another aspect is that at some level our core narcissistic hurts may have made us dependent on those addictive behaviours as an desperate effort to numb ourselves to the inner pain. So, by fighting the addictions perhaps you are speeding up emotional healing as well, as I see both interconected.