That's right gents, it's the terror-term; Erectile Dysfunction
A large part of me wonders why the hell i'm writing this post, it could well just result in mockery and mickey-taking. But then on the flip side there's the fact that from a quick Google, it looks like a lot of people have experienced this but due to lack of knowledge on the matter have suffered as a result. As someone who has experienced the horror that this affliction evokes, even if one person who's suffering but hasn't realized the cause is able to resolve the issue as a result of reading this then it's worth the mockery.
So a short back story (to hopefully prove I'm not a weirdo and this, in fact, can happen to anyone), I had been in a relationship since I was 18. Aside from a short 'crisis breakup' we had been together for eight years in total and never had issues 'in the sack' been encountered. For reasons that are too complicated and frankly uninteresting to go into, the relationship ended. As someone who too easily becomes attached to women, but also felt that I needed time to be single, I opted to abstain from one night stands and dating as a whole until I felt ready to commit again. Opting instead for treating social occasions as time to spend with friends and family rather than go on the pull, I felt that I was able to really grow as a person in the past year. Unfortunately as a typical red-blooded male, this also predictably left rather strong urges; urges I felt the need to quell.
This leads us to the crux of the story; I turned to pornography. At this point I feel I must stress I was not into anything weird, this was just bog standard, run of the mill pornography that I bet the vast majority of us here have, are or will access/ed. Whilst I will happily admit my frequency of 'use' increased as time passed, I never became what I would call addicted or viewed it excessively. I even viewed porn when I was in my long term relationship, but this was alongside having sex with my partner.
Skip forward a year, I felt I was ready to be with someone again. Fortunately it didn't take long for me to find someone I really get along with and, after a few dates (as you would expect from a respectable lady
) the relationship took the next step. All was fine, we had a couple of very great nights together and I was happy... or so I thought. After a couple of weeks I started to struggle to get aroused, things I took for granted such as erections when I woke up in the morning (sorry, too much information I'm sure; but you will see why this fact is important later) mysteriously ceased. My sex drive plummeted and as a result, so did intimacy in what should be the most exciting stage of a relationship. I was in trouble. This worried me so much I went to the doctors, something which I try to avoid at all costs being a typical male. The doctor quickly understood my symptoms and even described a few that I was having, but had not associated with my problem. She was able to explain the resolution of the issue and was even able to give a time frame before things returned to normal, so what was it?
That's right, erectile dysfunction caused through use of pornography. I'm not a biologist but from her discussion what I've gleaned is that porn causes our brain to react differently to when experiencing 'natural sex', producing a way higher level of dopamine, effectively causing your sex drive to become addicted and making it harder and harder for you to get hard (pun intended) under normal circumstances.
But I had stopped watching porn as soon as I started seeing this new girl and at first things were fine, this made no sense? Surely I should have become MORE excitable? This brings me to the cure and the horrifying 'come down':
Quit porn, cold turkey. Sounds simple right? It turns out the effects of the come down can be surprising:
First few days - Massive sex drive.
Symptoms - Horny, horny, horny
Generally no problems will present in the first few days, you will however be incredibly horny which seems logical due to removing pornography from your life. Arousal and intercourse aren't an issue.
Second week - Complete shut down
Symptoms - Complete loss of sex drive, depression, anxiety (all three quoted from doctor)
This is the one that shocked me. Many people have the experience of your sex drive completely shutting off; you no longer get aroused physically, despite still very much wanting to have sex. This is the point where I realized there was a problem. Instinctively you feel the need to turn to pornography to regain your sex drive, this is exactly the wrong thing to do as you return to square 1.
Up to 8 weeks - full recovery.
Symptoms - Return of sex drive, much greater ease of arousal than before quitting.
I guess this depends on the level of your porn use and the extent of the duration, but many seem to state that 8 weeks porn free will see you back to having the sex drive of a horny teenager. I'm only two weeks in and have got past the 'complete shut down' and feel my return to form approaching. Apparently once you're back on form,resuming watching porn at a much reduced rate will not cause problems, but returning to high frequency use will see you needing to get your high density dopamine fix in no time.
So why not just continue using porn and resume an active sex life without the fuss? A quick google will show you that hundreds of people who have been viewing porn excessively for an extended period begin to have ED issues whilst continuing use. Eventually it often leads to men needing to 'up the excitement' and view more and more extreme pornography just to get excited, leaving any chance of arousal in normal conditions by the way-side.
A few anecdotes and some helpful advice can be found all over the net, this is one useful example:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marnia-robinson/no-porn-no-viagra_b_489194.html
If you're that guy, if you take a lady home for the evening and are unable to perform and assume its nerves, if you're unable to become aroused without physical stimulation, have another think about the situation... you could well be addicted to porn.
/Dons mockery-proof suit
A large part of me wonders why the hell i'm writing this post, it could well just result in mockery and mickey-taking. But then on the flip side there's the fact that from a quick Google, it looks like a lot of people have experienced this but due to lack of knowledge on the matter have suffered as a result. As someone who has experienced the horror that this affliction evokes, even if one person who's suffering but hasn't realized the cause is able to resolve the issue as a result of reading this then it's worth the mockery.
So a short back story (to hopefully prove I'm not a weirdo and this, in fact, can happen to anyone), I had been in a relationship since I was 18. Aside from a short 'crisis breakup' we had been together for eight years in total and never had issues 'in the sack' been encountered. For reasons that are too complicated and frankly uninteresting to go into, the relationship ended. As someone who too easily becomes attached to women, but also felt that I needed time to be single, I opted to abstain from one night stands and dating as a whole until I felt ready to commit again. Opting instead for treating social occasions as time to spend with friends and family rather than go on the pull, I felt that I was able to really grow as a person in the past year. Unfortunately as a typical red-blooded male, this also predictably left rather strong urges; urges I felt the need to quell.
This leads us to the crux of the story; I turned to pornography. At this point I feel I must stress I was not into anything weird, this was just bog standard, run of the mill pornography that I bet the vast majority of us here have, are or will access/ed. Whilst I will happily admit my frequency of 'use' increased as time passed, I never became what I would call addicted or viewed it excessively. I even viewed porn when I was in my long term relationship, but this was alongside having sex with my partner.
Skip forward a year, I felt I was ready to be with someone again. Fortunately it didn't take long for me to find someone I really get along with and, after a few dates (as you would expect from a respectable lady
) the relationship took the next step. All was fine, we had a couple of very great nights together and I was happy... or so I thought. After a couple of weeks I started to struggle to get aroused, things I took for granted such as erections when I woke up in the morning (sorry, too much information I'm sure; but you will see why this fact is important later) mysteriously ceased. My sex drive plummeted and as a result, so did intimacy in what should be the most exciting stage of a relationship. I was in trouble. This worried me so much I went to the doctors, something which I try to avoid at all costs being a typical male. The doctor quickly understood my symptoms and even described a few that I was having, but had not associated with my problem. She was able to explain the resolution of the issue and was even able to give a time frame before things returned to normal, so what was it?That's right, erectile dysfunction caused through use of pornography. I'm not a biologist but from her discussion what I've gleaned is that porn causes our brain to react differently to when experiencing 'natural sex', producing a way higher level of dopamine, effectively causing your sex drive to become addicted and making it harder and harder for you to get hard (pun intended) under normal circumstances.
But I had stopped watching porn as soon as I started seeing this new girl and at first things were fine, this made no sense? Surely I should have become MORE excitable? This brings me to the cure and the horrifying 'come down':
Quit porn, cold turkey. Sounds simple right? It turns out the effects of the come down can be surprising:
First few days - Massive sex drive.
Symptoms - Horny, horny, horny
Generally no problems will present in the first few days, you will however be incredibly horny which seems logical due to removing pornography from your life. Arousal and intercourse aren't an issue.
Second week - Complete shut down
Symptoms - Complete loss of sex drive, depression, anxiety (all three quoted from doctor)
This is the one that shocked me. Many people have the experience of your sex drive completely shutting off; you no longer get aroused physically, despite still very much wanting to have sex. This is the point where I realized there was a problem. Instinctively you feel the need to turn to pornography to regain your sex drive, this is exactly the wrong thing to do as you return to square 1.
Up to 8 weeks - full recovery.
Symptoms - Return of sex drive, much greater ease of arousal than before quitting.
I guess this depends on the level of your porn use and the extent of the duration, but many seem to state that 8 weeks porn free will see you back to having the sex drive of a horny teenager. I'm only two weeks in and have got past the 'complete shut down' and feel my return to form approaching. Apparently once you're back on form,resuming watching porn at a much reduced rate will not cause problems, but returning to high frequency use will see you needing to get your high density dopamine fix in no time.
So why not just continue using porn and resume an active sex life without the fuss? A quick google will show you that hundreds of people who have been viewing porn excessively for an extended period begin to have ED issues whilst continuing use. Eventually it often leads to men needing to 'up the excitement' and view more and more extreme pornography just to get excited, leaving any chance of arousal in normal conditions by the way-side.
A few anecdotes and some helpful advice can be found all over the net, this is one useful example:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marnia-robinson/no-porn-no-viagra_b_489194.html
If you're that guy, if you take a lady home for the evening and are unable to perform and assume its nerves, if you're unable to become aroused without physical stimulation, have another think about the situation... you could well be addicted to porn.
/Dons mockery-proof suit
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