In a 2012 interview, Dr. Patrick Carnes (the man who coined the term sex addiction) related a story about a patient who had been exposed to pornographic pictures as a young boy, and that man would continue to seek out the same kinds of pornography he saw in those pictures for years. Dr. Carnes stated that this man’s emotional development was stunted at the age when he first encountered those pictures and continued to seek them out. 1 ...
In 2012, TEDxGlasgow hosted a talk called The Great Porn Experiment by a man named Gary Wilson. In this talk, Wilson–an adjunct lecturer of biology at Oregon State University–would present a case for the view that Internet pornography has stolen a generation of young men through addiction. Two years later in 2014, Gary would publish a book that went into far greater detail than his TED talk. The book, Your Brain on Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction, explores the neuroscience of addicion and intersplices quotes from NoFap (a forum for non-religious porn addicts) that typically confirm or elaborate on the various points presented throughout the book. Basically, Gary’s book explains what the science says about porn addiction, and then underscores the point with firsthand accounts from his collection of quotes from NoFap users. ...
I’ve noticed a rather commonly held belief among men who flock to porn recovery forums. It seems many of these men, particularly the college-aged variety, regard it as a healthy behaviour and a sure-sign of recovery to hook up with strangers or people they barely know for sex (as an alternative to using porn). Whenever I come across such posts, I’m always skeptical of two things: one of the author’s authenticity, and two of his sincerity. ...