Did you know that Porn actually affects your brain chemistry? After years of viewing porn, a superhighway of neurotransmitters that is associates pleasure with porn forms at the cellular level. The more you view it the more engraved this channel becomes in your Brian. Good news it is reversalable. Years of looking at porn and the addictive pattern can be overturned by changing habits. Read below to discover the science behind your brain on porn. How to erase years of Damage is important but how to stop looking at porn is the first step and thats where Blameless Ministries comes in. Check out our resources at the bottom of the blog to find out how Blameless can help you walk in freedom by the power of the Word and Spirit of God.
In a recent article on Fast Company, authors Judah Pollack and Olivia Fox Cabane wrote a fascinating piece about how our brains not only build neural connections constantly, but erase them as well. There’s an old saying in neuroscience: neurons that fire together wire together. This means the more you run a neuro-circuit in your brain, the stronger that circuit becomes. This is why, to quote another old saw, practice makes perfect. The more you practice piano, or speaking a language, or juggling, the stronger those circuits get. For years this has been the focus of learning new things.
Synaptic pruning
As it turns out, the ability to learn is about more than building and strengthening neural connections. Even more important is our ability to break down the old ones. It’s called “synaptic pruning.” As explained by Pollack and Cabane, here’s how it works:
Your brain is like a garden, except instead of growing flowers, fruits, and vegetables, you grow synaptic connections between neurons. These are the connections that neurotransmitters like dopamine, seratonin, and others travel across.
“Glial cells” are the gardeners of your brain—they act to speed up signals between certain neurons. But other glial cells are the waste removers, pulling up weeds, killing pests, raking up dead leaves. Your brain’s pruning gardeners are called “microglial cells.” They prune your synaptic connections. The question is, how do they know which ones to prune?
Researchers are just starting to unravel this mystery, but what they do know is the synaptic connections that get used less get marked by a protein, C1q (as well as others). When the microglial cells detect that mark, they bond to the protein and destroy—or prune—the synapse.
This is how your brain makes the physical space for you to build new and stronger connections so you can learn more.
Fascinating right? The article goes on how to talk about how important sleep is because that’s when the most “synaptic pruning” takes place, solidifying new connections and erasing old ones. It also talks about what you dwell on the most is going to become where your brain’s energy is spent making new connections.
Porn and pruning
Now let’s talk about how all this relates to porn. When we look at porn, connections are formed that connect viewing these sexually explicit images with pleasure. As we look at porn more frequently, those connections get stronger and stronger, while our old connections are slowly erased to make room.
Over time, the brain gets used to those connections being there, and it takes more and more porn to keep them strong. Soon, it seems porn is dominating our thoughts for most the day: When can I watch it again? What am I going to watch next? This makes it so when we try to stop watching porn, we can start to feel empty, anxious, and stressed. [4] Our brain has been customized to like–and even need–porn.
But luckily for us, this process works both ways.
Just like viewing pornography creates these connections in our brain, staying away from it will weaken them until they fade away. A porn habit can be tough to break since years of watching highly arousing images can leave quite the mark on our brains, but we can take back control over time. Remember, your brain is customizable: you decide how it changes by focusing on what you put in it.
Quitting porn is easier said than done, but if you do it, the urge for porn will surely begin to fade away. It’s just brain science. As we build positive focuses in our lives and gain more and more distance from porn, the pathways in our brain that tell us we need to power up that laptop will start to shrink. It will be slow, but it will happen. With time, the brain will eliminate the old connections associated with porn to make room for new connections. The damage that porn did will dissolve over time.
There is hope
Long story short, it is possible to delete porn’s harmful effects on your brain. Whatever connections you’ve built with your favorite porn site, it can be reversed over time. You can form new connections, make new habits, and work toward a healthier brain.
Rest assured, our brains are fully customizable, and we decide how they change.
Need help?
Blameless has amazing resources. Start with the 7 day devotional, 0r 21 day Devo. In a group setting or with one other BIBLE Study. Sign up and you won’t regret it. This is a great exit from pornography empowered by God, His power and your journey with Him. Please use the feel free to reach out if we can help you in any way. Prayer requests welcome.
This Blog was adapted from this page
Comments are closed.