Is this a porn addiction?

[Lightfittings]

15 mins or so a day, most days.

Would you class that as a porn addiction?

Not quite sure why you need to label it as addiction? Why is the label important 🤔 so you can have ammunition in an argument? or you can make them see sense and get help? You cant "make" them do anything.

If the activity is causing you impact - then you can control your reaction - you cant change their actions.

What is the impact to you?

What are you like without it? Before it?

That is regular/daily porn use not addiction.

It’s not even very day, so no.

I am referring to myself. Just had a conversation with some friends yesterday who described a similar amount and frequency as an addiction. Just wondered what the hive mind thought.

I don't think it alters my behaviour. I often go without it (eg when away from home) and it's fine although I sometimes wish it was there.
Before it I obviously want it. But nothing out of the ordinary, I would say. I guess I don't really know.

No, that's not an addiction. That's just him having his daily wank.

It’s ether addiction or habit depends if you can give it a miss for a few days

That sounds like heavy use or habitual reliance rather than addiction.

I think generally, all the massive ethical issues aside, porn use doesn't appear to have any benefits but does frequently have negative impact on users, so I can understand people considering daily use to be negative/addictive behaviour.

Yes habit is a good word I think. The world doesn't end without it for a few days.

It's me. Not talking about someone else.

Using the word addiction can be unhelpful. Its not about frequency or duration.
Is it problematic behaviour that you want to change? Does it feel compulsive? Could you easily stop for 3 months? Are you using it to emotionally regulate/numb out? If you feel stressed/bored/lonely is it your go to? Are you happy to spend your time in that way? Does it align with your own morals and principles.

If you kept a daily diary are there connections in time and mood that might become evident?

Often in recovery many find that it had a far more detrimental effect on them than they realised. We would always recommend 130 days detox.

Can you get there without using porn? That to me is more problematic, when you train your brain to react to that visual stimulus to a point where it starts affecting your ability to have fulfilling sex with a real person.

This. Stay away from it for a month and see what the outcome is.

However short or infrequent, viewing porn damages the individual's moral sensibilities as it inures them to the exploitation of others.

🙄

The couple of things to watch out for are:

• Can you get off without it, just using your imagination?
• Are you looking at relatively normal stuff (i.e. passionate sex) or are you finding you need something a little edgier to get off, and is that taste changing over time?

[citation needed]

Nonsense.

OP, 15 minutes of porn a day isn’t an addiction. It’s just a wank.

This is what people tell themselves to avoid having to really think about exactly what they are watching.

Can you masturbate without it?

I’ll own up here OP and say I previously had a similar issue. I’m not sure if it was an addiction because I dropped it easily in the end but it was a bad habit.

Now I may watch once every few months and it’s a real life couple having what feels like normal couply sex. Otherwise I just listen to music or podcasts or even drum up mad fantasies about celebs I’ve fancied etc from imagination.

No

I think addiction would be more if you were wanting/ doing it every minute of every day and when your not doing it your thinking about doing it. Are you in a relationship and is your relationship intimate? I would only consider porn to be a problem if its prioritised over a real sexual relationship.

Just to add, in my case I have a higher than average sex and my partner had a lower sex drive. I was mostly watching porn to help offset the times when I felt desire for him but he didn’t want to have sex. It didn’t affect the sexual energy of the relationship because I had so much of it!

and to add that it became a problem for me mainly due to the moral aspect of how women are treated. I think the 15 mins thing is irrelevant - if you think this is a problem, as I did, then then it probably is for you.

Thanks for the replies.

Can I get off without it? Yes.

Am I currently in an intimate relationship? No. But that's not through lack of trying, and certainly not a choice I make because porn is more appealing.

Am I looking at 'normal' stuff? Yes.

Is the stuff I'm looking at changing? No.

It is 'just a wank' (hate that word).

Is it problematic behaviour that you want to change? I don't think it's problematic, and I wouldn't change it unless the consensus was that it was problematic.

Does it feel compulsive? No.

Could you easily stop for 3 months? I can easily stop for a week's holiday so I presume so.

Are you using it to emotionally regulate/numb out? No.

If you feel stressed/bored/lonely is it your go to? No.

Are you happy to spend your time in that way? Yes.