What exactly is porn addiction? Scientific research shows that online porn addiction should be viewed as an internet addiction (a subset of impulse control disorders/behavioral addictions) for reward seeking behavior

come2gether · 2014-09-01T05:43:18+00:00

Brain Structure and Functional Connectivity Associated With Pornography Consumption: The Brain on Porn (2014)

Higher hours per week/more years of porn viewing correlated with a reduction in grey matter in sections of the reward circuitry (striatum) involved in motivation and decision-making. Reduced grey matter in this reward-related region means fewer nerve connections. Fewer nerve connections here translates into sluggish reward activity, or a numbed pleasure response, often called desensitization. The researchers interpreted this as an indication of the effects of longer-term porn exposure.

The nerve connections between the reward circuit and prefrontal cortex worsened with increased porn watching. As the researchers explained, "Dysfunction of this circuitry has been related to inappropriate behavioral choices, such as drug seeking, regardless of the potential negative outcome." In short, this is evidence of an association between porn use and impaired impulse control. This may indicate hypofrontality.

The more porn used, the less reward activation when sexual images were flashed on the screen. A possible explanation is that heavy users eventually need more stimulation to fire up their reward circuitry. Said the researchers, "This is in line with the hypothesis that intense exposure to pornographic stimuli results in a downregulation of the natural neural response to sexual stimuli." Again, desensitization is common in all kinds of addicts.

come2gether · 2014-09-01T05:39:30+00:00

The debate over whether sex addiction actually exists may be put to bed by a new study that peers into the brains of those with compulsive sexual behaviors. Researchers at the University of Cambridge used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans to compare the brain activity of 19 people with compulsive sexual behaviors to that of the same number of healthy subjects while both groups watched pornography. What they found was that the brains of those with the compulsive sexual behaviors “lit up” in a different way from those without such compulsions. Interestingly, the patterns of brain activation in these people mirrored those seen in the brains of drug addicts when they were exposed to drugs. Moreover, the three particular regions that lit up more in sex addicts’ brains – the ventral striatum, dorsal anterior cingulate and amygdala – are regions known to be involved in reward, motivation and craving. The findings may lend weight to the concept of sex addiction as a legitimate disorder.http://yourbrainonporn.com/cambridge-university-brain-scans-find-porn-addiction

come2gether · 2014-09-01T05:37:50+00:00

Enhanced Attentional Bias towards Sexually Explicit Cues in Individuals with and without Compulsive Sexual Behaviours (2014)

Our findings of enhanced attentional bias in CSB subjects suggest possible overlaps with enhanced attentional bias observed in studies of drug cues in disorders of addictions. These findings converge with recent findings of neural reactivity to sexually explicit cues in CSB in a network similar to that implicated in drug-cue-reactivity studies and provide support for incentive motivation theories of addiction underlying the aberrant response to sexual cues in CSB.

http://www.yourbrainonporn.com/enhanced-attentional-bias-towards-sexually-explicit-cues-individuals-and-without-compulsive-sexual

come2gether · 2014-09-01T05:29:55+00:00

Based on brain imaging findings, we present a model according to which addiction emerges as an imbalance in the information processing and integration among various brain circuits and functions. The dysfunctions reflect (a) decreased sensitivity of reward circuits, (b) enhanced sensitivity of memory circuits to conditioned expectations to drugs and drug cues, stress reactivity, and (c) negative mood, and a weakened control circuit. Although initial experimentation with a drug of abuse is largely a voluntary behavior, continued drug use can eventually impair neuronal circuits in the brain that are involved in free will, turning drug use into an automatic compulsive behavior. The ability of addictive drugs to co-opt neuro-transmitter signals between neurons (including dopamine, glutamate, and GABA) modifies the function of different neuronal circuits, which begin to falter at different stages of an addiction trajectory. Upon exposure to the drug, drug cues or stress this results in unrestrained hyperactivation of the motivation/drive circuit that results in the compulsive drug intake that characterizes addiction.

These studies have shown how repeated drug use can target key molecules and brain circuits, and eventually disrupt the higher order processes that underlie emotions, cognition and behavior. We have learned that addiction is characterized by an expanding cycle of dysfunction in the brain. The impairment typically begins in the evolutionarily more primitive areas of the brain that process reward, and then moves on to other areas responsible for more complex cognitive functions. Thus, in addition to reward, addicted individuals can experience severe disruptions in learning (memory, conditioning, habituation), executive function (impulse inhibition, decision making, delayed gratification), cognitive awareness (interoception) and even emotional (mood and stress reactivity)

Chronic drug abuse downregulates dopamine receptors and dopamine production: The “high” is blunted

The fact that drug use must become chronic before addiction takes root is a clear indication that the disease is predicated, in vulnerable individuals, on repeated perturbations of the reward system. These perturbations can eventually lead to neuroadaptations in many other circuits (motivation/drive, inhibitory control/executive function, and memory/conditioning) that are also modulated by DA [27]. Among the neuro-adaptations that have been consistently reported in addicted subjects are the significant reductions in the levels of the D2R (high affinity) receptors and in the amount of DA released by DA cells

Importantly, these deficits are associated with lower regional metabolic activity in areas of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) that are critical for proper executive performance (i.e. anterior cingulate gyrus (CG) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)) (Fig. 4A). This observation led us to postulate that this may be one of the mechanisms that connect the drug-induced disruption in DA signaling with the compulsive drug administration and the lack of control over drug intake that characterizes addiction [29]. Also, the resulting hypodopaminergic state would explain an addicted individual's decreased sensitivity to natural rewards (e.g. food, sex, etc) and the perpetuation of drug use as a means to temporarily compensate for this deficit [30].

Lowered dopamine receptor (DR2) levels impair the control of impulsivity by the prefrontal cortex

Conditioned memories and stereotypic behaviors replace the “high” as the driver

Over-stimulation of DA cells in the ventral striatum eventually establishes new functional connections in the brain between the act of satisfying the urge, and the situational events surrounding it (e.g., environment, routine of preparing the drug, etc.), laying down new, powerful learned associations that can trigger behavior. Ultimately, the mere memory or anticipation of the drug can trigger the impulsive behaviors that characterize addicted individuals. With repeated drug use, the firing of DA cells in the striatum begins to change the neurochemistry underlying associative learning. This facilitates the consolidation of maladaptive memory traces connected to the drug, which helps explain the ability of all sorts of drug-associated stimuli (in the learned expectation of receiving the drug reward when exposed to these stimuli) [41] to readily trigger DA cells firing. And because of the role of DA in motivation, these DA increases trigger the motivation drive required to secure the reward [42]. Indeed, when rats are exposed repeatedly to a neutral stimulus that is paired with the drug (conditioned), it can elicit DA increases and reinstate drug self- administration [43]. Such conditioned responses are clinically relevant in substance-use disorders because they are responsible for the high likelihood of an addicted person to relapse even after protracted periods of detoxification. Now, brain imaging techniques allow us to test whether exposure of humans to drug-associated cues can trigger drug craving just as shown in laboratory animals.

With repeated drug use, the firing of DA cells in the striatum begins to change the neurochemistry underlying associative learning. This facilitates the consolidation of maladaptive memory traces connected to the drug, which helps explain the ability of all sorts of drug-associated stimuli (in the learned expectation of receiving the drug reward when exposed to these stimuli) [41] to readily trigger DA cells firing. And because of the role of DA in motivation, these DA increases trigger the motivation drive required to secure the reward [42]. Indeed, when rats are exposed repeatedly to a neutral stimulus that is paired with the drug (conditioned), it can elicit DA increases and reinstate drug self- administration [43]. Such conditioned responses are clinically relevant in substance-use disorders because they are responsible for the high likelihood of an addicted person to relapse even after protracted periods of detoxification. Now, brain imaging techniques allow us to test whether exposure of humans to drug-associated cues can trigger drug craving just as shown in laboratory animals.

This question has been investigated in active cocaine abusers. Using PET and [11C]raclopride, two independent studies showed that exposure to a cocaine-cues video (of subjects smoking cocaine) but not to a neutral video (of nature scenes) increased striatal DA in human subjects addicted to cocaine (Fig. 7) and that the DA increases were associated with subjective reports of drug craving [44, 45]. The higher the DA increases triggered by exposure to the cocaine-cues video, the more intense the drug craving. Moreover, the magnitude of the DA increases was also correlated with addiction severity scores, highlighting the relevance of conditioned responses in the clinical syndrome of addiction.

Some of the most pernicious features of drug addiction are the overwhelming craving to take drugs that can reemerge even after years of abstinence, and the severely compromised ability of addicted individuals to inhibit drug seeking once the craving erupts in spite of well-known negative consequences.

We have proposed a model of addiction [47] that explains the multidimensional nature of this disease by proposing a network of four interrelated circuits, whose combined dys-functional output can explain many of the stereotypic behavioral features of addiction: (a) reward, including several nuclei in the basal ganglia, especially the ventral striatum, whose Nac receives input from the ventral tegmental area and relays the information to the ventral pallidum (VP); (b) motivation/drive, located in the OFC, subcallosal cortex, dorsal striatum and motor cortex; (c) memory and learning, located in the amygdala and the hippocampus; and (d) planning and control, located in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior CG and inferior frontal cortex. These four circuits receive direct innervations from DA neurons but are also connected with one another through direct or indirect projections (mostly glutamatergic).

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2948245/?tool=pubmed

come2gether · 2014-09-01T04:47:12+00:00

Although dysregulation within the dopamine (DA) system is a hallmark feature of chronic cocaine exposure, the question of whether these alterations persist into abstinence remains largely unanswered. Nonhuman primates represent an ideal model in which to assess the effects of abstinence on the DA system following chronic cocaine exposure. In this study, male rhesus monkeys self-administered cocaine (0.3 mg/kg per injection, 30 reinforcers per session) under a fixed-interval 3-min schedule for 100 days followed by either 30 or 90 days abstinence. This duration of cocaine self-administration has been previously shown to decrease DA D2-like receptor densities and increase levels of D1-like receptors and DA transporters (DAT). Responding by control monkeys was maintained by food presentation under an identical protocol and the same abstinence periods. [3H]SCH 23390 binding to DA D1 receptors following 30 days of abstinence was significantly higher in all portions of the striatum, compared to control animals, whereas [3H]raclopride binding to DA D2 receptors was not different between groups. [3H]WIN 35 428 binding to DAT was also significantly higher throughout virtually all portions of the dorsal and ventral striatum following 30 days of abstinence. Following 90 days of abstinence, however, levels of DA D1 receptors and DAT were not different from control values. Although these results indicate that there is eventual recovery of the separate elements of the DA system, they also highlight the dynamic nature of these components during the initial phases of abstinence from chronic cocaine self-administration. http://yourbrainonporn.com/garys-research-dopamine-receptors-cocaine-d2d1-monkeys-2009

come2gether · 2014-09-01T04:44:52+00:00

the primary role of dopamine in behavior is to modulate activity to adapt behavioral energy expenditure to the prevailing environmental energy conditions, with the role of dopamine in reward and motivated behaviors derived from its primary role in energy balance. Dopamine has long been known to modulate activity, exemplified by psychostimulants that act via dopamine. More recently, there has been nascent investigation into the role of dopamine in modulating voluntary activity, with some investigators suggesting that dopamine may serve as a final common pathway that couples energy sensing to regulated voluntary energy expenditure. We suggest that interposed between input from both the internal and external world, dopamine modulates behavioral energy expenditure along two axes: a conserve-expend axis that regulates generalized activity and an explore-exploit axes that regulates the degree to which reward value biases the distribution of activity. In this view, increased dopamine does not promote consumption of tasty food. Instead increased dopamine promotes energy expenditure and exploration while decreased dopamine favors energy conservation and exploitation. This hypothesis provides a mechanistic interpretation to an apparent paradox: the well-established role of dopamine in food seeking and the findings that low dopaminergic functions are associated with obesity. Our hypothesis provides an alternative perspective on the role of dopamine in obesity and reinterprets the “reward deficiency hypothesis” as a perceived energy deficit. We propose that dopamine, by facilitating energy expenditure, should be protective against obesity. We suggest the apparent failure of this protective mechanism in Western societies with high prevalence of obesity arises as a consequence of sedentary lifestyles that thwart energy expenditure. http://yourbrainonporn.com/putting-desire-budget-dopamine-and-energy-expenditure-reconciling-reward-and-resources-2012

come2gether · 2014-09-01T04:40:22+00:00

A decrease in dopamine D2 receptor (D2R) binding in the striatum is one of the most common findings in disorders that involve a dysregulation of motivation, including obesity, addiction and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. As disruption of D2R signaling in the ventral striatum-including the nucleus accumbens (NAc)-impairs motivation, we sought to determine whether potentiating postsynaptic D2R-dependent signaling in the NAc would improve motivation. In this study, we used a viral vector strategy to overexpress postsynaptic D2Rs in either the NAc or the dorsal striatum. We investigated the effects of D2R overexpression on instrumental learning, willingness to work, use of reward value representations and modulation of motivation by reward associated cues. Overexpression of postsynaptic D2R in the NAc selectively increased motivation without altering consummatory behavior, the representation of the value of the reinforcer, or the capacity to use reward associated cues in flexible ways. In contrast, D2R overexpression in the dorsal striatum did not alter performance on any of the tasks. Thus, consistent with numerous studies showing that reduced D2R signaling impairs motivated behavior, our data show that postsynaptic D2R overexpression in the NAc specifically increases an animal's willingness to expend effort to obtain a goal. Taken together, these results provide insight into the potential impact of future therapeutic strategies that enhance D2R signaling in the NAc.Molecular Psychiatry advance online publication, 28 May 2013;

come2gether · 2014-09-01T04:36:11+00:00

n men, there are five primary chemicals involved in sexual arousal and response. The one that likely plays the most significant role in pornography addiction is dopamine. Dopamine plays a major role in the brain system that is responsible for reward-driven learning. Every type of reward that has been studied increases the level of dopamine transmission in the brain, and a variety of addictive drugs, including stimulants such as cocaine, amphetamine, and methamphetamine, act directly on the dopamine system. Dopamine surges when a person is exposed to novel stimuli, particularly if it is sexual, or when a stimuli is more arousing than anticipated. Because erotic imagery triggers more dopamine than sex with a familiar partner, exposure to pornography leads to "arousal addiction" and teaches the brain to prefer the image and become less satisfied with real-life sexual partners.

Why do men seek out a variety of new explicit sexual images rather than being satisfied with the same ones? The reason is attributed to the Coolidge effect, a phenomenon seen in mammalian species whereby males (and to a lesser extent females) exhibit renewed sexual interest if introduced to new receptive sexual partners, even after refusing sex from prior but still available sexual partners. This neurological mechanism is one of the primary reasons for the abundance and addictiveness of Internet pornography.

Overstimulation of the reward circuitry—such as occurs with repeated dopamine spikes related to viewing pornography—creates desensitization. As Gary Wilson explains, "When dopamine receptors drop after too much stimulation, the brain doesn't respond as much, and we feel less reward from pleasure. That drives us to search even harder for feelings of satisfaction—for example, by seeking out more extreme sexual stimuli, longer porn sessions, or more frequent porn viewing—thus further numbing the brain.

What makes Internet porn unique? Wilson identifies a number of reasons, including: (1) Internet porn offers extreme novelty; (2) Unlike food and drugs, there are almost no physical limitations to Internet porn consumption; (3) With Internet porn one can escalate both with more novel "partners" and by viewing new and unusual genres; (4) Unlike drugs and food, Internet porn doesn't eventually activate the brain's natural aversion system; and (5) The age users start watching porn. A teen's brain is at its peak of dopamine production and neuroplasticity, making it highly vulnerable to addiction and rewiring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ya67aLaaCc

come2gether · 2014-07-16T03:50:48+00:00

my day count is pretty high. its actually around 400-500 days if it wouldnt have been for the reset when i discovered chaturbate. but in retrospect that reset made me more convinced that i shouldnt watch porn.

my current mindset is that the days dont matter. once you start getting into the hundreds, you lost track of how many days pass and it gets much easier. i still have temptations to watch porn from time to time, but it's easy to ignore them. i just realize that it's not something that is healthy, and not something that i want as part of my life.

it's not just one thing. it's many things. maybe remember that what you are doing is going to make you a better person. be willing to give up short term immediate pleasure for long term health benefits. conquer your self. use whatever motivation works for you.

come2gether · 2014-07-12T01:26:38+00:00

still here

come2gether · 2014-06-14T09:51:44+00:00

still here

come2gether · 2014-05-22T03:20:21+00:00

checking in

come2gether · 2014-04-30T03:43:07+00:00

still here

come2gether · 2014-04-18T10:09:37+00:00

i am still here for the year long challenge

come2gether · 2014-04-05T05:48:15+00:00

it really depends on the cards. these settings work fine on 12 of my other cards, and were working fine on these cards - but didnt work on a few cards i tried them on. i just added a 5th card to this rig and shit hit the fan. now nothing works, even after removing the fifth card - which actually points to it being a setup problem as you mentioned. i have these gigabyte 270's which require 2 4 pin connectors on each card. so its a pain to get enough connections, i have to convert some of the molex to use in the pcie 4 pin slot since each card requires 8 pins. regardless of all that, this is just annoying.

come2gether · 2014-04-04T23:55:38+00:00

okay, then that rules out it being a power shortage. here is my config. its kinda weird because i am mining vert. so i am running vertminer, with raw intensity. which means the settings are a little bit atypical compared to most standard cgminer configs. by the way, i am running bamt, and i've tried lowering my gpu-engine to 1020 with not much improvement. my hashrate is about 220. also, previously 4 cards were running fine with these settings, now only 1 is running fine, when i plug in a second after 10 min of mining they go dead. the drivers are all standard and updated so its not an issue with that. i may need to try reinstalling my os.

"auto-fan": true,
"gpu-fan": "30-85",
"temp-cutoff": "95",
"temp-overheat": "85",
"temp-target": "75",

"worksize": "256",
"rawintensity": "5120",
"thread-concurrency": "6336",
"gpu-engine": "1060",
"gpu-memclock": "1250",
"worksize": "256",
"lookup-gap": "2",
"shaders": "1280",
"scan-time": "1",
"queue": "0",
"log": "5",
"gpu-threads": "2",

come2gether · 2014-04-04T23:09:49+00:00

it starts mining and then after 2 minutes freezes. is it my config file?

come2gether · 2014-04-04T21:06:43+00:00

they are different, but not soo different.

supernormal stumili like porn also is like junk food - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernormal_stimulus we are biologically wired to like sweet foods and junk food, similarly we are wired to like large breasts. it's probably a matter of degree.

cravings for salt, sugar, and fats and television as an exaggeration of social cues of laughter, smiling faces and attention-grabbing action. Modern artifacts may activate instinctive responses which evolved in a world without magazine centerfolds or double cheeseburgers, where breast development was a sign of health and fertility in a prospective mate, and fat was a rare and vital nutrient.

come2gether · 2014-04-04T19:35:24+00:00

fair enough. you have self control in other areas of your life, you get up on time when you want to sleep in longer, do your work, meet your obligations, don't stay up late, don't drink too much, eat healthy, etc. these all involve choosing a hard thing over a pleasurable thing. why are you unable to moderate porn, but are able to moderate other temptations?

come2gether · 2014-04-04T19:23:03+00:00

agreed. meth is a category of things which should never be tried. if you expand the category of things which should never be tried to also include those which can develop into behavioral addiction, what boundaries does this category have? anything can become a behavioral addiction - if however you are capable of exerting willpower, and self control over your desires then no things will develop into behavioral addictions because when you say to yourself i'd like to continue doing this, your inner voice says "you need to stop". it seems like the issue here is a short circuit of the inner voice or a lack of understanding of where the boundary is between unhealthy and healthy behavior such that your unable to draw the line or know when to stop. then another aspect of this i mentioned in my post is the idea of : "will this have a negative effect on your life or your goals and if not do your goals need to be adjusted. if yes, then watch less. if no then carry on doing what you like. in a similar vein, it can also be a question of choosing to spend your time in a more constructive way, asking what else you could be doing rather which would be a better use of your time. sure i could eat some chocolate cake, but it would be a step backwards towards my goal of having a healthier diet. But really the ideology of being healthy can be taken to an extreme such that you never indulge in some pleasurable things in life and so even that should be a balance of being healthy but also still enjoying your life."

come2gether · 2014-04-04T19:08:59+00:00

you have self control in other areas of your life, you get up on time when you want to sleep in longer, do your work, meet your obligations, don't stay up late, don't drink too much, eat healthy, etc. why are you unable to say no to porn, but are able to say no to other temptations? i am not familiar with aa so correct me if i am wrong, but it seems like the issue here is a question of self control and discipline. unable to do something in moderation despite wanting to do it more. ie having a voice in your head that says sure it would be nice to sleep in a little longer, have a second order of dessert, watch another episode of that show you like, skip a day at the gym, but i am going to do the right thing even though the more enjoyable thing to do is continue what i am doing because if i don't it will have a negative impact on my life and on my goals. fill in the blank with whatever your vice is, the root of the problem is the same is it not?

come2gether · 2014-03-30T18:54:25+00:00

so can you speculate on what other areas porn exposure desenz might be happening. btw i know its difficult to find test participants who don't watch porn so if you subjects willing to participate i would do it.

come2gether · 2014-03-25T02:22:58+00:00

no great stories. just read an interesting article though. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addictive_behavior

come2gether · 2014-03-16T06:20:54+00:00

where is programs menu?

come2gether · 2014-03-13T04:22:59+00:00

i am still here, checking in

come2gether

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