Did porn warp me forever?

  We have tested and tasted too much, lover--
  Through a chink too wide there comes in no wonder.
  But here in the Advent-darkened room
  Where the dry black bread and the sugarless tea
  Of penance will charm back the luxury
  Of a child's soul, we'll return to Doom
  the knowledge we stole but could not use.

For me, in this day and age, its really hard to say one way or the other. How poorly done and/or wrong will it be, and is having it done that way better than nothing? I can't know, but I suspect that with societal attitudes on sex, "some porn is fine, how much is too much is different for everybody and here's how to tell where the line is" is too complicated of a message to effectively communicate. If it is even allowed to be communicated at all. Don't forget widespread acceptance of "abstinence only" rubbish isn't far behind us, I'm reminded of this every time I visit family in the South and see the big labels on every gas station condom dispenser reminding me that the only real way to avoid HIV/AIDS is monogamy and abstinence before marriage. Whereas growing up in the North, we didn't even have those dispensers. I suspect their presence is related to the greater taboos about sex in those areas, but in the north I was never scared away from buying rubbers at the counter when I was young.

The difference between internet porn and porn from the past is just the abundance of new material that there is. Each time you view something new, your brain gives a hit of dopamine. In fact, porn addicts are not really addicted to porn, they're addicted to the chemical sensations that their brain provides. At the basic level, it really is not much different from any other addiction. Old, offline porn is different in that it gets stale pretty quickly. There are only so many times you can look at a magazine or video without it getting boring.

The problem with this is that your dopamine levels get out of whack. You need a higher and higher amount to feel satisfied. This is how people get roped in. This also caused normal, life things that were once enjoyable to become less so, such as hanging out with friends or programming. Life just becomes more dull. In fact, now that I have learned about this, whenever I see a post on HN about how someone has lost their interest in programming or other activities, the first thing I think of is probably this person has a porn addiction. It's not a far stretch seeing as how most of HN is young men. Having drastically reduced the amount I see, I have noticed many benefits in my life including better health and ability to focus better.

Porn, like other addictions, are also a way of masking stress and a way of distracting yourself from negative emotions. Dr. Gabor Mate has done great research linking addictions of any kind to stresses in the body. Porn gives a way to temporarily release the stress but puts the person in a vicious cycle of causing more long-term stress.

Personally, I use the recovery information from http://www.feedtherightwolf.org. It has been the only thing I have across which can really break the cycle.

As someone else pointed out the videos from http://yourbrainonporn.com/your-brain-on-porn-series will really help you understand what is going on in your brain.

Porn is porn, masturbation is not sex, its not the same thing, and its not even close, porn is just a masturbation aid. I suppose it could also be useful in some very limited way to figure out if some weird kinky stuff turns you on.

What I have learned from porn: The vast majority of it is comically bad when it comes o depicting what actual good sex is like. I sometimes wonder if people think this is real and feel a little bit bad for them, same as I feel sorry for people who think WWF wrestling is real. Lots of real world sex with different partners will get you over it quick.

Porn is to sex like WWF wrestling is to fighting.

For those dudes who actually want to get seriously into it theres a vast body of literature, tantra, deida, and I also like the tao of sexology.