A new survey of people aged 15 to 29 found that 82% of women and 100% of men viewed porn due to easy access on phones, porn consumption has increased rapidly in recent years.

It was only in the early nineties that people were just relying on static images in magazines.

I mean embarrassing.

A new survey found that 82% of people failed when trying to quit pornography.

So today We are going to explain exactly what happens to your brain and body.

When you try to quit porn on day one of quitting pornography, you likely won't notice much within the 1st 24 hours.

Most men and women had overall good moods and we're excited by the task trying to not look at porn.

Maybe they had some extra time to read a book, cook a new meal, stare at a wall.

It's on day two of quitting porn.

When physiological symptoms started to appear, you may be asking how much porn do you have to be watching to have physiological symptoms when trying to quit.

And this is a nuanced question.

Most academic studies on the neurophysiology of pornography use involved people who self identify as having PP you Problematic porn use, this is not directly related to how much you consume, but whether you feel porn is negatively affecting your life.

In 2011, of men were viewing porn every day.

Now the number seems to be closer to 39% but the change in self diagnosed pp you patients hasn't changed as drastically as you'd think right now.

Studies say around 6% of people admit that they have problematic porn use again.

This is people self identifying as having a problem with porn and then seeking out help.

Either way, studying people with P.

P.

U.

Is currently the only way that we can study how porn affects all of us.

On day two of quitting is when people with PP you reported increased anxiety, inability to sleep, inability to concentrate and wanting porn more than three times per day.

This is because problematic porn use does change your brain.

It affects the noggin.

Your brain has neural plasticity, meaning it physically changes in response to your behavior.

The change happens here in the gray matter of your brain, which physically changes due to porn.

Use an example of how gray matter changes, involves juggling.

A group of 24 non jugglers had their brains scanned.

They were divided into two groups.

One group practice juggling for three months, the other didn't.

After three months they had their brains scanned again and the jugglers had significant changes in gray matter associated with processing and storage of complex visual motion.

Using MRI brain scans of 28 men with P P.

U.

And 24 men without.

It was found that there was a physical change in the ventral striatum of men with PP.

You this is the part of the brain linked to wanting and involves dopamine.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter directly linked to our evolution and survival has a big impact on our behavior.

And if you've been watching a saP science for the past 10 years, we talk about it's because it makes us crave the things we need to survive like food, Love, friendship.

But also two things related to porn, which are novelty and sex, surfing porn, keeping a bunch of tabs open, figuring out the right one for you keeps dopamine levels in your brain high for long periods of time and this can physically change your ventral striatum and it's the reason why on the second day of quitting porn, you might actually physically struggle on day 4-7 is when most people go back to viewing porn.

A big reason for returning was anxiety.

One study found that people with people you exhibited higher traits of anxiety than controls, even though both groups didn't have a diagnosed anxiety disorder.

People with problematic porn use were using porn to alleviate their anxiety, but most people said it actually didn't help interestingly, a lot of the neurological studies found that people with problematic porn use want porn more, but don't like it anymore than control groups.

This wanting is because porn effects your reward systems, your dopamine levels by being a super normal stimulus.

A super normal stimulus is a term coined by Nicholas Stenberg is something with exaggerated versions of normal stimuli that amplify the qualities that make it more compelling than the real thing.

Studies with birds show adding a fake super normal, vividly spotted plaster egg to a nest.

Makes a mother rather sit on it than a real more pale colored eggs.

Or male jewel beetles will rather copulate with a beer bottle cap as the dimpled bottoms are more intriguing than a real bottle.

That's right, beetles are out here banging beer bottle caps for humans.

A super normal stimulus can be junk food.

A soft drink is a lot more compelling than the equal calories of radishes or porn enhanced novel sexual situations with easy access can be more compelling than real sex.

It's for this reason that many people cannot last longer than 4 to 7 days without watching porn.

A survey found that on day 14 of no porn is when watching porn starts to feel like an intense novel experience.

Again, the effects that porn have on dopamine levels can make it harder to delay rewards in all aspects of your life.

And on day 14 is also when the survey found that people could do challenging tasks for longer times and delay gratification better, essentially watching porn on your phone is a quick fix and I notice what I'm doing it a lot.

I do have a harder time like sitting down and reading a book or working on work for long periods of time.

So they say it takes two weeks to start to feel like you can delay gratification better after watching too much porn on your phone on day 30 is when you will notice a change in concentration and have clearer thoughts.

One study had people abstained from junk food and another group abstained from porn and found the people who abstained from porn were better at delaying gratification and had less brain fog than those who abstained from junk food after three months, if we go back to the jugglers is when they notice gray matter returned to baseline, they asked both groups, the ones that could now juggle and the ones that couldn't to stop practicing juggling for three months.

And this is how long it took.

The gray matter to go back to quote unquote normal.

So after three months of no porn, you can expect gray matter changes in your brain in relation to the lack of porn use when it comes to advice for quitting anything, it's really challenging to figure out what works for you.

I personally think knowledge is power and just understanding what I've taught, you could maybe help you at least realize the impact that these things can have on you physically.

Some studies suggest mindfulness and meditation to kind of slow down the stimulus that is life.

Other studies recommend replacing porn use with other novel experiences, trying a new meal to cook, going and having a drink with a new friend, maybe try masturbating without porn.

That might be interesting.

I also think it's important to acknowledge that a lot of these studies are rooted in homophobia and transphobia and queer phobia.

It's very weird.

These studies seem to start by saying you might have an issue if you're looking at gay porn or lesbian porn or transport before even getting into any of the science, which is a red flag for me.

I think, why don't you explain the science first before you start to explain what you think is non normal porn use?

I just think it's important that people know this because I think this information is important.

Sexual health is important.

We need to talk about it, porn use is insane now because of the internet.

We need to talk about it and it's just sad that it's been co opted by these misogynist, homophobic and queer phobic people.

Also, according to google trends, porn use has increased in the pandemic, especially in countries where there were stay at home orders.

So yes, I think now more than ever it's important for us to learn about problematic porn use and go forth in the world as sexually healthy animals.

This is an interesting video leave comments below about your relationships to porn.

I'll be responding to them.

Maybe being a little bit more truthful in the comments.