Uncovering Pornography's Impact: The Good and the Bad

Hey there everybody, and welcome to this video on understanding pornography, its use and effects. I'm your host, Dr. Donnelly Snipes. In this video, we're going to define what we're talking about when we talk about pornography. We're going to explore the prevalence of pornography use, the reasons that people engage in sex and watching pornography, and the positive and negative impacts of pornography use. And I know some people are bristling when I say positive impacts, but I think it's important that we destigmatize pornography and really start having an open and honest discussion about what's going on. There are a lot of peer reviewed articles that are in PubMed that are cited in throughout the PowerPoint that support the notion that when used appropriately, when used with care and consent, that pornography isn't necessarily harmful. So we will explore that some. What is pornography? Well, porn refers to the portrayal of a sexual subject matter primarily for the purpose of sexual arousal. It's more than just a website, it's more than just a magazine. The formats can include texts such as books or blogs, images, videos and interactive media like webcam or phone chat. Now, strip clubs, they're not media per se, but a lot of people also use strip clubs in the same way, kind of that they use pornography. And Assimilowitz and O' Sullivan in 2017 found that in North America, 88% of men and 67% of women used porn. All right, so this is not the minority of people. This is the majority of people. And I think it's important that we recognize that a lot more people are using than are telling us about that are, than are talking about it. So it doesn't seem like as many people are using. Why do I bring that up? Because if we shame people, if we stigmatize people, then they're not going to talk about it. And they're more likely to develop problems. They're more likely to hold on to their secrets. In substance recovery, we often say you're only as sick as your secrets. And if people are holding on to these secrets, then that may contribute to a sense of shame and problems later on. That same study found that men and women reported watching pornography for around 4.5 or 3.5 hours per week, respectively. So people are watching a lot of porn. It's not just five, ten minutes here or there. They're spending a fair amount of time watching porn each week. Now you can argue whether that's too much or not enough. And when we get to the next video, when we talk about the diagnostic criteria for Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder will define that a little bit more clearly. But let's just say that's the way it is. It is what it is. Additionally, older adults ages 50 to 77 use the Internet for sexual purposes as much as or even more than younger adults. If you work with people who are older, who are in this age bracket, this is something that we need to continue to ask about because people in this age range may be widows, widowers, they may be retired and lonely, sitting at home, they may have more disposable income. There's a lot of reasons why we may be seeing this go up, but it's important that we recognize that this is not just a problem for 20 somethings. This is a problem for people around 13 all the way to. Well, this article said 77, but I'm sure it goes higher. We do need to be sensitive to that. And the article further said that people who were in the older age bracket tended to engage in more online sexual activity that was interactive, whether it was phone chat or webcams or something like that, which again supports the notion that they are in part potentially seeking some interaction that maybe the younger group is not. So the, their motives for engaging in online pornography may be a little bit different, but it's still there and it's not necessarily pathological. In general, according to Castro, Calvo et Al In 2018, people have very similar reasons a lot of times for having sex versus and or using porn. Curiosity and sexual education. You can get that from both sex and porn. People have sex for social enhancement, have get into relationships with people and they may use sexual as a bargaining chip. Not that that's healthy, but it happens. And, or peer pressure. When people are, for example, pledging a fraternity, they may be pressured into watching pornography. And this is true even for young kids, high school and sometimes middle school. But it's part of the social status. You have to watch this in order to be part of the group. Sexual arousal or physical desirability of the partner is another reason somebody gets aroused, somebody gets enhanced and they want to finish that thought, so to speak. And that is a very common reason that people engage in both things. They're aroused by a human person and they engage in sex with them, consensual, of course, or they are aroused by something they're watching on in porn and again they engage in that. Online sexuality enhancement is another reason people engage in this. And there's chat and webcam. There are one way where somebody is watching someone else. There are two ways where people are engaging in sexual behavior. Both parties are engaging in sexual behavior. And there's times where there are couples on both end that engage in the sexual behavior and it increases their sense of sexual excitement. For some people, generating new and exciting sexual fantasies can happen. When you are engaging in sex or porn, when you engage in a different sexual activity for the first time, for example, then that can help create fantasies that you may hold and build on henceforth. Likewise, you may be acting out some fantasies. Mood management. We know that sex and porn orgasm produces changes in the dopaminergic, your reward system, your dopaminergic system and just simply decreasing sexual tension. Sometimes sexual tension builds for whatever reason and you feel like the need to let it out, if you will. So some people have sex, other people, if they don't have a partner to have sex with, watch porn. Now there are some things that porn is good for that sex is not good for. If you will, the structural characteristics of the medium of pornography. You have anonymity, you have convenience, and you have the chance to explore your sexuality without concerns for safety or judgment. And there were some other articles that I read that I'll talk about later. But people who have non mainstream, non vanilla, non heterosexual sec sexual preferences and attitudes and etc, their sexuality may find porn very validating when in real life they are receiving a lot of criticism. So that may be one place where they feel understood or accepted. And there's all kinds of problems with the fact that that's the only place they feel understood or accepted. But that's a different video for many people who, not the majority, but for many people who are trying to discover their sexuality as youth and teenagers especially, they may engage in watching porn to try to figure out what it is that they like and to try to figure out what their sexuality really is. And some people have different sexual appetites in relationships and they don't want to cheat on their spouse. They're not begrudging their spouse the fact that they have different sexual appetites, but they have a stronger libido and as a result they're like, well, I don't want to cheat on you. However, I have this need. And if the partner is not wanting to take care of that need to fulfill that need and is open to letting them meet their sexual needs through porn, then that works for some couples. It doesn't work for all couples. And again, we're going to talk about in a few minutes the fact that one of the biggest issues or problems with porn and relationships is when there is secrecy, when there's hiding when it's not talked about and accepted on both part by both parties. Reasons people have sex instead of using porn. Things that porn can't provide. Interpersonal porn doesn't generally provide a self esteem boost. It's not a way to express love and commitment to your partner by watching it, unless maybe you're watching it together in order to enhance intimacy. But in general, it's more of a sex thing than a porn thing. Revenge is another reason people may have sex. It tends to have more power to it when people are having revenge sex than when they're watching porn and masturbating to it. That's not healthy. It's not a healthy reaction to a bad situation. But we're just identifying the motives that come up in the research and mate guarding. And I'm not exactly sure they didn't effectively define what mate guarding was. Goal attainment is another reason that people may engage in sex and that's to acquire resources, whether it's money, social status, power, or just experience. Some people's goal is just to figure out how do I do this and how can I make this experience more pleasurable? Positive physical impacts of pornography now, when we talk about motivational enhancement, when we talk about behavior, we have to recognize that every behavior we do is more rewarding than its alternative. We choose the more rewarding option. And so there are rewards to this. Now, whether you agree they're rewards or not, whether you agree they're more rewarding than the alternative or not is sort of irrelevant. It's the person who is watching the porn. And we can apply the same theory to alcohol use or cocaine use or anything else that for some reason they are finding engaging in that behavior more rewarding than another alternative. So the positive physical aspects, it allows individuals to explore their own sexuality, desires and even limitations in private. They're trying to figure out what is it that I can do and can do effectively. Pornography may facilitate masturbation, serving as an outlet for sexual tension. It can provide that physical relief and does tend to trigger the relaxation response. It may serve as a less risky outlet for sexual release than hookups, like going on an app and trying to find somebody to just randomly have sex with, or going to a club or a bar and picking somebody up. Obviously there's a lot of risks there. It affects brain reward systems that are mediated through dopamine, endorphins, oxytocin, which is our bonding chemical, and gaba. So even when people are watching porn, when they have an orgasm, we see an increase in oxytocin levels, the person feels more receptive to others for a moment. And how long that lasts depends on the person and a lot of other factors. But we do know that a lot of the relaxation bonding, positive mood neurochemicals increase after orgasm. We also know that for a lot of people with porn addiction, as opposed to non problematic porn use, people who develop porn addiction tend to be more stimulated by the anticipation than the actual orgasm. So that is a treatment issue. But I digress. What are the negative physical impacts of porn? Well, as you would expect, there's several. The first of which is hormone changes. Overuse of porn reduces gray matter in the brain and disrupting the HPA axis. We've talked in other videos about how the brain is adaptive. And when you are flooding it with dopamine, whether it's because of orgasm or cocaine or something else, when you're flooding it with dopamine on a regular basis, it is becomes what we call neurotoxic. And the amount of excitatory neurochemicals in the brain is too much. So neurons start dying, we start seeing a shrinkage, especially in the hippocampus, of brain density. Good thing is neurogenesis or increasing neurons can happen in recovery. But it's important to recognize that regular overexposure to these excitatory neurochemicals is stressful on the brain and is going to have negative consequences when the HPA axis is imbalanced. Remember, that's your stress response that also causes hormonal imbalances, including imbalances in your gonadal hormones, testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, dhea, the list goes on your thyroid hormones and your cortisol levels. So we start to see people developing emotional dysregulation as a result of overuse of porn because their HPA axis, their stress response becomes uncalibrated. So then their emotional response, their emotional response to stress, if you will, also starts to become uncalibrated. Neurotransmitter imbalances. When the brain starts saying we've got too much dopamine come in, we've got too much endorphin coming in, whatever, then the balance of neurotransmitters changes. And when the person's not using, then the they actually don't have, if you will, enough activity in the dopaminergic system. So they start feeling sluggish and flat and depressed. And when they do use, then they get that rush, but it's all or nothing, it's flat or furious. If you Will there's impaired sleep quality? Well, if the person is edgy, if they're irritable, if they're experiencing emotional dysregulation, it's likely it's going to be harder to sleep. It's likely that they may also have other things like ruminations and cravings that are keeping them up when they're trying to go to sleep. The impaired sleep quality is a stressor on the body. So that further impacts the HPA axis and the dysfunction that we've got going on and just makes the problems worse as this system becomes progressively uncalibrated or disrupted. Cortisol, which is normally an anti inflammatory, it's a steroid hormone. But when your body is exposed to it too much, too long, eventually it says, hey, you know, I need to send out these inflammatory markers to fix any damage that's been done. And I have videos on the HPA axis if you want to learn more about that. But basically, when we're under stress, cortisol is released initially. And one of the things cortisol does is suppress pain and suppress inflammation. So we're not focusing on that. We're able to focus on fight or flee. Then when we're safe, cortisol subsides and inflammation goes up and all of the little fixers go out and they look for any damage. But when that cortisol never subsides, eventually the fixers go out in the storm and try to repair the body as best as they can. Neuroimaging studies show similarities in the brain structure and responses between people with compulsive sexual behavior disorder and substance and behavioral addictions. So we are seeing neuroimaging studies that are demonstrating that the pathways that are different in people with substance and other behavioral addictions are similarly different in people with compulsive sexual behavior disorder. There is a neurological neurochemical aspect to what's going on into the recovery process. Excessive consumption of porn has been found to be inversely associated with sexual satisfaction and can lead to sexual dysfunction. So the more you use, the less satisfied you are with sex. The more you use, the lower the response, the lower the dopaminergic and pleasure response is to the orgasm. People with compulsive sexual behavior disorder often experience withdrawal symptoms. Now we're still in the negative physical effects of porn use. And at this point we're talking about problematic porn use, not just regular old porn use. Regular old porn use people aren't going to have withdrawal symptoms. Frequent sexual thoughts that are difficult to stop are one of the Common symptoms, difficulty controlling the level of sexual desire. So they are constantly having a lot of sexual tension, irritability, frequent mood changes, and sleep problems. And as we discussed earlier, these are all also symptoms of dysfunction of the HPA axis. So we see there is a one to one correlation between problematic use. When people start overusing or using excessively, that HPA axis becomes disrupted. And then when they're not using, they experience withdrawal. Positive interpersonal aspects of porn. And yes, there can be some positive ones. So bear with me here. Building trust and reducing fear of rejection by bringing couples together over a shared experience that facilitates intimacy and secure attachment. When couples watch porn together, it sometimes facilitates discussion and opens that door to talk about what I like or what I hope or I'd like to try that, or definitely no where. People in many cultures are very shy about discussing what they want sexually. They're more than happy to tell you exactly how to make their burger in a restaurant or something. But behind closed doors with something as intimate as sex, they're like, yeah, nah, I don't want to talk about that. So when couples watch porn together, it can facilitate those discussions. Now remember, there are all different types of porn. There are. There is some porn out there that I think we can all agree is what we'll call pathological or antisocial that, you know, would probably not be something you choose to watch with a partner. But then there's other porn out there that has a variety from what in the back in the day, when I was younger, we used to call soft core porn all the way up to stuff that's harder core but is not detrimental in some way in terms of facilitating secure attachment. You may be scratching your head on that one. When couples watch together, they are paying attention to one another. It's theoretically quality time where they're able to be open with one another. They're able to be responsive to one another and create safety where they can say, hey, we're going to watch this and we can talk about it. I'm not going to be critical of what you say. So it can open a door to really have some very vulnerable conversations and enhance a sense of safety. Because once you have a vulnerable conversation and it goes, okay, you feel safe, you feel heard, you feel validated, then how easy, how much easier is it to have other conversations that may have been slightly uncomfortable? It's like, well, if I can talk about that, I can talk about it. Anything. It enhances sexual communication, typically around a stigmatized subject. So if there's a particular sexual activity that someone is interested in, then watching porn together can enhance discussion around that. Another study found that couples who share the consumption of porn may be may open avenues for sharing sexual fantasies. Once they start feeling comfortable talking about what they're seeing on the screen or they're seeing in the images, then they may start feeling more comfortable talking about what they think about when they're in the privacy of their own mind. And that's even more vulnerable. But it does open up that avenue. It does open that door for people to feel more comfortable sharing what is it that I want? What is it that I need sexually in order to feel fulfilled? Some studies indicate that shared consumption of porn can lead to heightened sexual satisfaction among couples by enhancing arousal and reducing inhibitions. Sometimes watching porn together increases libido, increases arousal. Some other Like I mentioned earlier, some people will engage in webcam sexual activity with another couple. There are a lot of ways that this may happen when it's consensual, when it is done safely, then it can lead to heightened sexual satisfaction. It can support monogamy in certain situations in which partners are separated from conduct contact for extended periods. One of the most prominent examples is the military. If someone is deployed overseas, they may not be able to have video chats or phone chats with their significant other on any sort of regular basis, but their libido is still there. They're in a really stressful situation, so their libido and some sometimes may even be heightened. And porn use may be an outlet for them in order to reduce their sexual tension without cheating on their significant other. Again, part of it depends on the communication between the two people. Whether one partner says, I just, I don't want to know about it. Just do what you need to do. Just don't, you know, have sex with somebody else. Or they may say, I want to know about it, or I'm giving you permission to do what you need to do, whatever it is. But it needs to be an open discussion between partners for one partner to not potentially feel betrayed. Negative interpersonal aspects in retrospect or in contrast, couples may experience increased guilt, anxiety and emotional distancing affecting their relationship quality. Watching porn if one person's watching and another person's not, then that can create distance between the two because the person who's not may feel like they are inadequate in some way. They may interpret what's going on negatively. There are a lot of reasons that porn use in relationships when people are in relationships can have detrimental consequences. If there's not open communication, understanding, acceptance, etcetera Overuse can also lead to attachment issues, increased fear and rejection, and poor self esteem. Again, they found the the effects of porn use were regulated or related to people's attitudes toward toward pornography. So if one partner was adamantly for pornography and one partner was adamantly against pornography, you can see there's going to be conflict. If both partners are okay with it, then you can see where there might not be conflict if in a relationship. Additionally, partner awareness of each other's use was also found to be significantly related to the impact on the relationship. Greater porn use discrepancies were also associated with increased male relational aggression, lower female sexual desire, less positive communication, and lower relationship satisfaction and stability for both partners. So even if, according to this study, even if you're aware of what's going on, if there's a huge discrepancy between one partner's use and another partner's use, that often leads to communication problems. So ultimately it's really important to step back and look at if this behavior is problematic, what about it is problematic? Do you have an issue? Do you disagree conceptually with pornography? You know, is that where the problem lies? Is it a self esteem issue where you feel invalidated? Is it an emotional attachment issue where you feel like there's been distancing? What's been going on? What effect is the pornography having on your relationship and why? And then approaching it from that perspective, other negative impacts of porn on interpersonal relationships is the impact on self esteem and body image. Porn use can contribute to negative body image and self esteem both in the porn user and someone in a relationship with a porn user. The porn user may see the person on on screen and think, oh my gosh, I'm never going to look like that person. Well, very few people are. And the partner of the porn user may look, look at the video and say, I'm never going to look like that person, so my partner isn't going to desire me the same way that they desire this person they're watching in the porn film. Additionally, consumption of pornography may contribute to unrealistic expectations about sexual interactions, perpetuating harmful sexual norms and possibly contributing to the objectification of others. Now, the study actually said women, but there are a lot of women who watch porn and there are a lot of people who objectify, whether you are a man or a woman who objectify men that are in the porn, porn films and porn images, etc. So I think it's important that we really look and take a broader understanding of objectification and how in some cases porn may lead to people viewing others just as objects or tools for their own pleasure, as opposed to human beings with feelings. The normalization of aggressive or degrading acts in some porn can affect societal views on what constitute health constitutes healthy sexual interaction. And I will go off on a little diatribe here about fifty Shades. Fifty Shades. In most circles, people have agreed that it was not an adequate word or safe and sane representation of bdsm. And the key phrases in BDSM type relationships are safe, sane and consensual. There is not manipulation. There is not the heavy handedness that we really saw, especially in the movies. So I think it's important that we recognize, yeah, some people engage in BDSM and that is done in a safe, sane and consensual way. They're wanting to do that for some reason. And it, when they do, helps them feel empowered. It doesn't make them feel less than. It doesn't make them feel degraded. And when we get to the video on bdsm, we'll talk about how that dynamic actually happens. But that's too much to go into right now. Another negative interpersonal aspect is it may contribute to or normalize poor interpersonal boundaries, a lack of trust in real life sexual relationships, and an inability or difficulty finding real life relationships due to difficulty getting aroused without certain behaviors. Some of the things that are portrayed in pornography are on the extreme side. And there are some people who are perfectly willing and maybe even excited about engaging in some more extreme behaviors, but they are not the majority of people out there. So it becomes harder for someone who watches a lot of pornography to find partners who are as adventurous as they are. Additionally, physical safety and boundaries. It's important that people remember that no matter what you see on screen in real life, no means no. And it's okay to say no. It's okay for a sub to use the safe word. It's okay for someone in the midst of a sexual activity to say, no, this isn't, no, we're not going here. And that's really important. But that message often gets obscured in a lot of the pornography films. Interpersonal boundaries. Some people are just fine. And maybe embracing of swinging, cuckolding and even cheating porn tends to mainstream a lot of that, normalize a lot of that behavior. But that may not be mainstream for everybody in your social circle. So it's important to recognize that what again, watching porn, being aroused by these behaviors, not necessarily anything wrong with it, but it's important to recognize it. It may be hard to find other people who are Interested in engaging in those relationships, engaging in those interactions where other people are involved in the sexual activity. And I guess I should have also included exhibitionism and voyeurism there. Emotional lack of empathy or other awareness when, when people are used to watching porn and masturbating to porn, they don't have to have any awareness of what the other person is feeling. That's they're on the other side of the screen. However, that also desensitize, that desensitizes them. So when they are in relationships with people in real life, they tend to be very self focused and not focused on the other person, not empathizing with the other person, not being aware of how that person's feeling and reacting. And that can be very damaging to trust in relationships. They also may disregard other people's feelings, thinking it's for show. If they're in a sexual situation with someone in real life, they may think that the person is acting upset or acting angry just to get attention because that's what they saw in porn, when in reality they're upset and they want you to actually stop and sub drop. And this is another one I'm not going to go into in depth in this particular video. We'll talk about it more in the video on bdsm. But when people engage in BDSM activities, it requires a great deal of trust and vulnerability. And after the scene is over foreign, it's important to be emotionally empathetic with one another. It's really important for the dom to make sure that the sub feels safe, feels accepted, feels loved afterwards, and not just, you know, wham, bam, thank you, ma', am, if you will. That's what we used to say in my day. And cognitively disregarding differences about what partners feel or think is right or, or wrong can also occur. So if you see things in pornography, if certain behaviors get normalized in your mind through watching pornography and you get together with someone who doesn't have those same beliefs about sex or about porn, then invalidating their thoughts, telling them that they're wrong, telling them that they are being, quote, prudish, can be very hurtful and insensitive. So it's important to recognize the impact that porn can have on the porn user's ability to respect people's boundaries. Does this happen to everybody that watches porn? Of course not. Does it happen to everybody who excessively watches porn? It's more likely, but not to everybody. However, for from a personal standpoint, it's important that you're aware of maintaining healthy boundaries in your Relationships and looking at what impact that porn might be having on your relationships and your views of others. Positive and negative emotional aspects of porn. This is a short one. For some individuals, porn can serve as a temporary escape for stress or emotional turbulence. We know this, we already talked about this. Dopamine, endorphins, serotonin, oxytocin, all that stuff comes out after orgasm or during orgasm. We also have the anticipation building up to the sexual act that can be very distracting. People aren't thinking about the report they've got to do or what their boss said to them when they're in the midst of a sexual activity. So when all of those circuits are firing, so to speak, it does provide some escape and relief. Negatively, there can be increased feelings of loneliness and detachment when the porn is over, when the orgasm is over, when you quote, sober up, you may come to recognize that you're still by yourself and it can compound those feelings of loneliness and isolation. Especially if your self esteem is taking a hit by watching the porn to begin with and thinking, I'm never going to be able to do that. Reduced emotional intimacy in real world relationships can also happen, like we talked about on the last slide, but because in porn, it's not about creating intimacy. In porn, it's about having sex. A study published in 2020 found that problematic pornography use was significantly associated with poor mental health outcomes, including depression and anxiety. Which came first, the depression and anxiety or the problematic porn use? The article didn't really look at that, but. But it doesn't matter. If somebody is using porn excessively, engaging in problematic porn use, they are going to disrupt the HPA axis, they are going to cause neurochemical changes that can lead to symptoms of depression and anxiety. And likewise, if they were depressed or anxious before then, those problems already existed in their neurotransmitter balance and porn's probably just going to make it worse. So we have to recognize this in the treatment of or in addressing any issues that arise from excessive pornography use and cognitive aspects. Positively, porn may allow people to understand and refine their sexual schema, challenge pre existing attitudes and perceptions. As I mentioned before, this can be true for populations that have been historically marginalized and minimized, discriminated against. But it can also be liberating for some people who have been grown up, who have grown up being told that sex is for procreation, not recreation, and being sexually active is not something that is prim and proper. For example, what a lot of women were told in, in my day, back in the day, negatively Cognitive distortions, including all or none, thinking, jumping to conclusions and overgeneralization can also happen when people are watching porn, they're seeing it and they're thinking, all right, when I go out to meet somebody, I'm either going to succeed and we're going to have sex or I'll fail. They minimize the connection. As I mentioned, what happens in porn is squished down into, you know, anywhere from four minutes to an hour and a half if it's a full movie or something. But that's not how it happens in real life. There is a process of developing connection in many cases. So instead of thinking, if we meet and we don't have sex, then it's a failure, thinking, how did I move toward my ultimate goal of having sex with this person if they won't have sex with me, there's something wrong with me. So that's that, all or nothing. Thinking, if, if they don't have sex with me, then it, it must be me. And that's also personalization. If they won't have sex with me, they have somebody else. Well, gosh, that's jumping to a conclusion. Maybe they're just not in the mood to have sex right now, or maybe they're not attracted to you. It's not that they have somebody else. That may just not be their thing. Maybe they're asexual, who knows? And finally, all people, like in the Reddit forums, there's often frequent discussions, unfortunately, of women talking about how they get into a sexual encounter with somebody, that it's one of those first time encounters, or, you know, they've only been dating for a little while and the partner starts trying to choke them. And it seems to be that choking has been mainstreamed because of porn. And assuming that all people like to be choked is a gross overgeneralization. It's important to communicate with your partner and not just assume. Well, I saw it on every porn film that I watched, therefore every person must like this. No, that's just a false conclusion on so many different levels. And porn can create unrealistic expectations about sexual experiences. Like anything that you, that you see in the media, any, anything that you see in the, in the movies, it's been airbrushed, it's been shot six times. It's. You've got different angles and different cuts. It's not what it actually looked like in, if you were sitting there watching it happen. It has been carefully curated to look perfect. But real life ain't never perfect. Pornography varies in content. Attitudes about pornography also vary Widely, research has shown that porn use is quite prevalent across ages and genders. Like I said, all the way from early adolescence or younger up through 7780 and beyond. Like other addictions, some people use porn and have no ill effects to it, but others may quickly develop an addiction to it. They may quickly develop addictive behavioral patterns. And there's no one thing that you can point to and say, this person is more at risk and this person is not. We don't understand addiction enough to be able to say that. We do know that there are certain risk factors that can make people more likely to quickly develop a addiction to a particular behavior. But again, we can't just step back and go, all right, let me run a blood test on this person, and I can tell you what they're at risk for in terms of addiction. Porn is here to stay, and healthy management requires an open dialogue about it. If we continue to force people to keep it in. In the shadows, in the background, to whisper about it, instead of saying, yeah, I watch porn, or whatever they're gonna say, then we're promoting stigma, we're promoting shame, we're promoting secrets and stigma. Shame and secrets almost inevitably lead to poor mental health and sometimes physical health outcomes.