Anne Truong MDMen's Sexual Health Doctor

Why Porn Makes You Anxious & Unmotivated 🛑 #MentalHealth #PIED

14 May 2026 · 1 min

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In this segment, Dr. Anne Truong explains how pornography initially triggers a large dopamine release that feels rewarding, but repeated exposure quickly leads to a reduced baseline dopamine response. As the brain adapts, it requires increasingly stronger dopamine inputs to achieve the same feeling of pleasure. This neurochemical shift results in anxiety, apathy, and a loss of motivation, as the individual experiences the opposite emotional state when dopamine levels are insufficient. The explanation links the short‑term dopamine high from porn to longer‑term mental‑health consequences such as heightened anxiety and decreased drive.

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If it doesn't get that high release of dopamine, it make you anxious. It make you kind of apathetic. It make you kind of not motivating. And what you said, lack of response. Okay? So your body said, "Oh, I like the dopamine, but I don't have the same amount of dopamine. I'm gonna be the opposite." Because dopamine make you feel good, make you feel like on top of the world, confident, but then When you don't have it, it's the opposite. That's what porn does, is that in the beginning it releases that dopamine, but then after a while watching it, even after a week or a couple weeks of watching it, your brain needs more dopamine input in order to make you feel good.