Psychologist Stephen Sammut highlights the dangers of pornography addiction and explains how you can … [+]
A new study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology discusses the dangers of porn addiction and offers a path to recovery using faith and morals. Lead author Stephen Sammut of the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio says that a focus on higher-level cognitive faculties can override the cravings from our lower brain which ultimately spur porn consumption.
“We know that faith and morals provide people with certain standards of behavior that enhance their growth and development, in addition to providing them with standards of how they should view and treat people,” says Sammut.
According to his research, it is crucial to focus recovery efforts on the areas of our upper brain that are responsible for logic and rational thinking. Porn, on the other hand, is connected to our lower brain areas which are responsible for producing pleasure and emotions. As humans, we tend to be guided more by our pleasure centers than by logic and reason.
“We know from the study of psychopathology over many years that a dysfunctional regulation of the lower brain by the upper brain is reflected in pathological behaviors,” explains Sammut.
These pathologies can take on many forms, such as gambling addiction, obsessive thoughts, rumination, alcoholism, or, in this case, porn addiction.
Sammut suggests that if we begin to use our logical thinking from our upper brain to satisfy the pleasure cravings of our lower brain, we will begin to behave in highly unacceptable ways. Porn addiction is one example of a ‘dysfunctional cognitive relationship’ where our rational brain essentially becomes a servant to our lower brain’s impulses.
According to Sammut, there are a number of ways in which this imbalance can negatively impact people’s lives. Here are three:
- Your self-worth degrades. The degradation of self-worth through pornography consumption damages your self-esteem and sex drive, leading to a host of insecurities.
- Your perception of others becomes distorted. Porn leads you to view people as objects and sources of pleasure. If this is how you view others, it may only be a matter of time before you begin mistreating the people surrounding you.
- Your perception of reality and life changes. With porn addiction, people become more comfortable dealing with the unreal and therefore sacrifice their ability to deal with reality. This ultimately impacts their ability to maintain positive social and romantic relationships.
To avoid these debilitating effects, Sammut suggests that turning to faith and morality can help reorient someone toward a more balanced relationship between their upper and lower brain.
“Faith and morals have the potential to contribute to appropriate brain functioning – that is assisting in the prioritization of the upper brain over the lower,” says Sammut. “So, it makes sense that they could be especially helpful in regards to assisting people in reducing their pornography use.”
In fact, their results from over a thousand university students found faith, morals, and personal motivation to be the primary variables reported to help reduce pornography use.
A full interview with Stephen Sammut discussing his new research can be found here: Pornography distorts our perception of reality
