Does an Attachment to Pornography Use Help Predict Sex Addiction?
Recent work from a team of American researchers indicates that people affected by sex addiction sometimes have a “passionate attachment” to pornography use, although such an attachment doesn’t strictly predict the presence of addiction.
People affected by sex addiction sometimes manifest their condition through excessive consumption of online pornography or other forms of pornographic material. In a study published in 2014 in the journal Addictive Behaviors, a team of researchers from Bowling Green University sought to determine if a “passionate attachment” to pornography use is linked to any given person’s odds of developing sex addiction-related symptoms. The researchers concluded that, while an attachment to pornography is associated with sex addiction, people who develop this type of relationship to pornography consumption don’t necessarily qualify as sex addicts.
Sex Addiction and Pornography
Telltale symptoms of sex addiction center on significant harm or diminished daily function caused by repeated, excessive involvement in sexual activities or in sex-based thoughts or fantasies. The underlying basis for the harm and/or loss of function associated with the condition is a lasting change in normal brain function that produces altered brain chemistry and damaging patterns of behavior. In some important respects, this change mimics the changes that appear in the brains of people who repeatedly and excessively consume alcohol or mind-altering drugs or medications. However, substance use is not the root problem. Terms used to identify the presence of sex addiction and other forms of non-substance-based addiction include addictive disorder, process addiction and behavioral addiction.
Excessive pornography use can lead to substantial changes in several addiction-related brain areas, according to the results of a study published in July 2014 in the American Psychiatric Association journal JAMA Psychiatry. The authors of this study, a team of researchers from three German institutions, assessed the brain function of a group of generally healthy men known to consume various forms of pornography. After completing this assessment, they concluded that these men’s chances of undergoing potentially addiction-promoting brain changes increased in rough proportion to their level of pornography intake. However, the researchers did not determine if the observed brain alterations were caused by excessive pornography consumption or alternately acted as pre-existing predictors of such excessive consumption.
Passionate Attachment to Pornography
In some cases, a passionate person feels in control of his or her feelings and behaviors. However, in other cases, a passionate person may lose the ability to regulate his or her feelings or behaviors. Psychiatrists and psychologists sometimes refer to in-control passion as harmonious passion; conversely, they sometimes refer to out-of-control passion as obsessive passion. In any given case, a passionate attachment to pornography use or any other activity may be based on harmonious passion, obsessive passion or a combination of these two forms of passion.
Impact of a Passion for Pornography
In the study published in Addictive Behaviors, the Bowling Green researchers used information drawn from 221 young men enrolled in college to assess the relationship between a passionate attachment to pornography consumption and the presence of sex addiction. (The researchers employed the alternate term sexual compulsivity.) They used the same information to assess the relationship between a passionate attachment to pornography and a craving for pornography use. The researchers used a screening tool to gauge each participant’s sex addiction risks. They also used screening tools to measure levels of pornography-related harmonious passion and obsessive passion. In addition, the researchers looked at additional factors that included each participant’s general tendency toward sensation-seeking behavior, relative ability to control Internet use and history of pornography consumption.
After completing their analysis, the researchers concluded that both a harmonious attachment to pornography use and an obsessive attachment to pornography use are associated with substantially increased chances of exhibiting signs of sex addiction. In addition, they concluded that both forms of attachment are associated with increased cravings for pornography consumption. However, the researchers also found that the presence of a harmonious or obsessive attachment to pornography does not strictly predict the presence of sex addiction. Instead, they concluded, doctors and other health professionals should conduct any screenings for sex addiction and level of craving for pornography separately from any screenings for a passionate attachment to pornography.