By Seth Dorman

World revenue generated by pornography in 2006 was $97 billion. According to an article in the Surgical Neurology International journal that dollar figure is “more than Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, Apple and Netflix combined.” Is this mere entertainment or free expression? Recent research has provoked some to start calling pornography “the new narcotic” because it functions similarly to addictive drugs, only more powerfully. With the advent of the Internet, pornography has become affordable, accessible and anonymous. Thus it is no surprise that it has become an epidemic. In America, there are an estimated 2 million cocaine addicts, 2 million heroin addicts and 44 million pornography addicts. This is no innocent addiction; it is distorting and destroying people and relationships. In itself, it is the symptom of a deeper problem.

According to William M. Struthers, a professor of psychology at Wheaton College, pornography uses “the same neural circuit, has the same effects with respect to tolerance and withdrawal and has every other hallmark of addiction.” Pornography triggers dopamine, which in turn causes addiction. It is like a pathway in the brain: as it is used, it becomes more permanent. The occasional footpath soon becomes the four-lane highway. It becomes the primary way the brain interacts with sex. Because the brain tissue involved with sex is especially malleable, these pathways eventually become almost permanent. Porn literally reshapes the brain. It is also permanent, as author Morgan Bennett writes in her article “The New Narcotic”: “Another aspect of pornography addiction that surpasses the addictive and harmful characteristics of chemical substance abuse is its permanence. While substances can be metabolized out of the body, pornographic images cannot be metabolized out of the brain because pornographic images are stored in the brain’s memory.” Pornography is dangerously addictive.

Besides being at least as addictive as cocaine and heroin, pornography is at least as dangerous — not only for the person using it, but for society as a whole. It trains its users to objectify human beings, encourages selfish views of sex, undermines marital intimacy, implants harmful expectations for men and women and can increase the chance of infidelity. Patrick Hough, assistant director of the Witherspoon Institute, says in his article “The Social Costs of Pornography,” some studies show that because of pornography, “[c]hildren, adolescent boys in particular, are more inclined to violence, aggression and sexual coercion of peers, are more susceptible to sexual coercion by peers and adults. Adolescent girls are more inclined to tolerate emotional, physical, and sexual abuse.” Pornography warps those who use it and has negative effects on the surrounding society.

However, pornography itself is a symptom of something deeper. Pornographic addictions are caused by desires. In order to deal with the symptom, one needs to deal with the underlying cause of the symptom. The cause of pornography is not a loving, controlled, selfless sex drive, but lust — the impulse to gratify sexual desires at the cost of the objectification of human beings, for sexual gratification with no connection to committed love. To be free of the symptom, this desire must be checked and defeated by stronger desires: a commitment to loving and respecting people as people, a desire to respect ourselves as people and a view of sex that is inextricably bound with selfless, marital, committed love. Maybe we can become addicted to that. But if people are honest with themselves, unless they get outside help, they probably won’t be. Some paths are too well worn to change on our own.