These days, it’s never been easier to spend more and more of your time online. The internet can be a powerful tool, but it can also be a powerful temptation, especially when it comes to pornography.
While there are many different effects of porn on the brain, one element that most people don’t realize is impacted is your social anxiety. Today we want to look at the various ways that porn addiction can shape your brain and make you more susceptible to bouts of high stress.
What is Social Anxiety?
Before we can learn how porn triggers this effect in the brain, we should first understand what it is. Social anxiety is defined by one’s feelings of inadequacy and the fear of being judged negatively by other people. These emotions can be triggered by any social interactions, even those that may seem innocuous on the surface.
As you can imagine, being addicted to porn (and the internet, in general) can have a massive impact on social anxiety. In some cases, it may even create a problem that previously didn’t exist. Let’s see why this happens.
Porn and Self-Esteem
For the most part, social anxiety can be linked to one’s self-esteem. If you don’t value yourself highly, then you are much more likely to assume that others will view you the same way. Porn, unfortunately, can lower your self-esteem dramatically, even if it was in a healthy place to begin with.
When watching porn, many users report lower feelings of self-worth. But why is this the case? Typically speaking, there are a couple of reasons for this.
First, the people in porn movies are usually highly attractive and desirable. When comparing yourself to them, you may feel less-than-adequate to meet up to their standards.
For men, this effect can be exacerbated when it comes to penis size. Many men already report feeling inadequate with regards to their size, so watching porn can heighten these emotions. In many cases, the men in pornographic material are above average, which can make all men feel like they can’t compete.
The second reason that porn can lower one’s self-esteem is that it can highlight dissatisfaction with one’s sexual capabilities. For example, if you’re single and addicted to porn, then it can make your loneliness feel even more significant. You’re not engaging in the same sexual activities as those people onscreen, so you feel like you’re missing out or that you’re incapable of experiencing the same things.
Finally, porn can affect one’s sexual performance and libido. In many cases, watching too much explicit content can reduce your abilities in the bedroom, which can lead to lower self-esteem. Performance anxiety can affect men regardless of their viewing habits, but being addicted to porn can make things so much worse.
Overall, the lingering effects of porn and its impact on your self-esteem can increase your social anxiety levels. As your esteem diminishes, you start to worry more and more about being judged by others, even those who are close to you. Over time, the effects can become devastating and lead to social withdrawal.
Porn Addiction and Shame
While watching explicit content on its own can reduce your self-esteem, the shame of hiding your habits can also make things like social anxiety worse. If you’re always worried about your partner, your friends, and your family finding out about your addiction, then it can create powerful emotions that can cripple your ability to form positive social bonds.
As your addiction becomes more prevalent, your shame can increase to match, until you try to shun all outside interactions in an attempt to shield yourself from the burden of getting caught. In extreme cases, it can manifest itself in social isolation, which can create a multitude of other problems.
Social Anxiety and the Internet
While porn can have a powerful effect on the brain and your self-esteem, too much time on the internet, in general, can have a similar impact. Thus, if your becoming addicted to explicit content as a continuation of spending too much time online, your social anxiety can worsen much more rapidly.
Why does high internet usage create these problems? Here are a few reasons.
- Social Insulation – when you’re online, you can keep yourself safe by sticking to a certain “bubble” of people. Because going outside that bubble can induce anxiety, you avoid it at all costs.
- Lack of Interaction – the more time you spend on the internet, the less time you spend with other people. Without exposure to social interactions, your anxiety levels can increase as you start to overthink and overanalyze everything.
Break the Cycle
Unless you want to be crippled by social anxiety (and the other myriad effects caused by porn addiction), you have to put yourself on the path to recovery. Fortunately, doing this can alleviate both problems at once, provided that you have a support network to help you.
You don’t have to let your addiction define you. Recognizing that you have a problem is the first step towards overcoming it.
