Destructive Effects of Porn on Marriage and Relationships
Pornography use is on the rise, affecting the spouses and partners of both gay and straight relationships.
Marriages are particularly vulnerable to pornography addiction. While most spouses that watch porn are typically male, women also watch porn on a regular basis.
Is your husband or wife addicted to porn?
Pornographic content is more available than ever before. While there may not be much harm to viewing porn once in a while, pornography consumption can have destructive consequences when consumed on a regular basis.
Some signs of pornography addiction include:
- General sexual dysfunction
- Inability to maintain erections and lack of vaginal lubrication
- Lack of control despite negative effects on work, health, and relationships
- Wasted time
- Marriage and relationship difficulties
- Obsessive thoughts
- Depression, shame, and guilt
Whether your relationships is straight or gay, porn addiction can adversely affect how you interact with your partner.
The key to stopping the addiction is to learn why you or your partner use pornography in the first place. When you understand how porn addiction occurs, you can reduce porn’s impact on your marriage.
Why Porn is Addictive
It’s true that married men watch porn. Even married women watch porn, and in some cases, visiting a website will not cause porn to ruin your marriage.
While this may upset some people who consider it “emotional cheating”, it technically is not infidelity.
At the same time, most therapists believe that pornography can harm a relationship.
The key to breaking free is understanding the effect of porn on the brain and why the problem is emerging at such a high rate.
Pornography is powerful because it produces dopamine in the brain - an important neurotransmitter that acts as a “reward center”. Viewing pornography and having orgasms causes intense dopamine rushes, and this creates an addiction cycle.
Learn more about porn addiction here.
Getting Help for Your Porn Addiction
Porn addiction support is offered in various ways that include:
- Porn addiction counseling
- Faith-based porn addiction support groups, including Muslim, Christian, Hindu, and other faiths
- Online therapy
- Mobile and desktop applications that provide tools to break pornography addiction
The Addiction Journey
It’s about making a change of life
What to do if you are married to a porn addict
Breaking an addiction is not easy. If you are married to a porn addict, you may want to gently bring up the issue with compassion. Internet pornography is a new phenomenon that has made porn more available than at any other time in human history!
Rather than accusing your spouse of ruining your marriage and self-esteem, providing resources that help your partner understand the problem would be far more effective.
LadderOut Helps Break The Pornography Addiction Cycle
Improved relationships, better health, and increased prosperity are waiting on the other side of your porn addiction.
The LadderOut app provides AI-powered tools that help you block access to porn, overcome urges, and substitute healthier healthy habits that enhance your health and wellbeing.
Structure up your strategy
Gear up your fight with extensions
Daily Check-in
Recovery Plan
Skills Page
Weekly Check-in
Monthly Check-in
Support Person
Relapse Help
Statistics
Stress Chart
Porn Addiction, Marriage, and Relationships FAQ
When dealing with a husband’s porn addiction, it is essential to understand the reasons why he is viewing porn. There are physical, mental, and emotional factors behind pornography addiction, in addition to adverse health effects. By understanding the full scope of the problem, he can break the addiction.
Absolutely. Many faith-based and religious organizations provide support for porn addiction through counseling and group sessions. These include resources for those suffering from porn addiction and their spouses. You can also find many groups online if you wish to remain anonymous.
Several ways to help your partner overcome porn addiction include speaking honestly about how it makes you feel, providing information that helps them understand the problem, and providing resources that help them break their addiction. Understand that the road to recovery may be long, but it’s worth it.
First, understand that porn addiction is a problem because it is more available now than at any other time in history! It helps to learn why they are using porn in order to help them. In the meantime, there is a lot you can do to increase your self-esteem, including self-care, exercising, and eating nutritious foods.
