Is Porn Harmful to Your Relationship?

Many therapists have changed their attitudes about pornography in the age of the internet. There was a time, before the world wide web, when the view of pronography was that it was often crude and objectified people, especially women, but that it didn’t pose the danger that therapists see now.

More and more clients in counseling report a transformation in their use from an escapist diversion that could result in enhancing their sexual relationship with their partner to an entrenched habit that can destroy their relationships.

Each partner has a right to their private sexuality as long as it doesn’t impact their relationship.

The easy accessibility and the quick and certain stimulus to the brain’s pleasure centers and the resulting release of dopamine and other soothing chemicals can diminish the drive toward connecting with a partner although one forfeits the intimacy and increasing connection. As with most habits, the continual usage, establishes a neural pathway that becomes the default path.

Wendy and Larry Meltz, experts in marital and sex therapy, cite the following alarming statistic – 50% of the divorce cases in 2008 involved pornography, according to a survey of lawyers belonging to the American Association of Matrimonial Attorneys. The Meltzes point out the need for an increase in awareness of the tremendous potential of pornography to result in compulsive use and addiction. Understanding the neurobiology of the brain’s pleasure centers and how they function can aid in understanding how easily use can turn compulsive and destructive.