Why are beautiful women addicted to pornography?

Why do so many women like porn? Philip Hodson, a psychotherapist at the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, says the question of women habitually viewing pornography has never been raised openly in consulting rooms before. This is a relatively new problem that is just beginning to be exposed... Traditionally, women have been against pornography. This is mostly seen as a male thing, because normally men are the ones who are easily stimulated by the images. But that doesn't mean women aren't like this. It's just that men are more likely to do so. . . . . . . . . .

One study found that 17% of women reported being addicted to online pornography.

It was a perfectly normal day when Carolyn first noticed the increasing role pornography was playing in her life. With 15 minutes left before she was due to leave for a job interview, she opened her laptop to copy an extra copy of her resume when she saw a video downloaded from pornhub.com on her screen.

“I remember feeling sucked in, and I wanted so badly to feel that same numb state I felt when I watched pornography and didn’t move for two minutes,” Carolyn said. "I was really torn between my own conscience and the risk of being late for the interview.

But I pressed the play button anyway and fast-forwarded to the scene I wanted to see. This took 2 minutes. "But the relief didn't last long. "Then I hated myself, hated myself for giving in to myself, hated myself for getting turned on by images of women being treated like pieces of meat. But I still can't stop. ”

Although there is still controversy over whether pornography addiction exists, Caroline, a 21-year-old British graduate who has just finished treatment with a sex addiction therapist, hopes the therapist can help her control her addiction. Caroline was 15 or 16 when pornography began to flood the Internet. At first, she watched pornography just out of curiosity. She and her friends regarded pornography as a graphic form of sex education. She doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with it and it’s a fashion for girls of her generation and they have the freedom to be spectative.

Later, after college, her job became frustrating, and pornography became a form of escape, a tool to help her get away whenever she felt anxious and bored. "I'd be at home all day sitting in front of my computer. I'd wake up with these thoughts in my head all day, and I'd end up looking for porn on the Internet, trying to distract myself, eating, and then I'd go back to the computer and look for more porn. No one would ever know. But I didn't get much done. It was like a constant battle between my sexual urges and my ability to control myself. I'd say to myself: 'This can't hurt.' But then I'd start to hate myself for giving in; for having wasted so much time on this."

Caroline's situation is not unique. As the fact that women watch and enjoy pornography becomes more and more accepted, the fact that some people become addicted and have difficulty stopping is increasingly denied. Jason Deen, founder and counsellor of Breaking Pornography, the UK's leading pornography advice unit, says nearly a third of his clients are women struggling with pornography. Two years ago, there were no female customers. More than 6 in 10 women said they had visited pornographic websites. A 2006 survey by Internet Filter Review found that 17% of women claimed to be addicted to Internet pornography.

Ding En said: "I still remember when I first met my first female client two years ago, I thought it was unusual. Now I receive about 70 female clients a year. They come to seek help for different reasons, but not because their male partners have problems in that regard."

Jason says there are slight differences in the way men and women become addicted. The general pattern is the same, with the stages of exposure, addiction, and becoming indifferent to increasingly explicit images. The biggest difference between male and female porn addiction is that women experience a greater level of shame. “Porn addiction is considered a male problem, so it’s unacceptable for women to be addicted,” Dinn said. “Women have a hard time letting go of the idea that porn addiction is evil, dirty, and wrong.”

Orgasm releases dopamine and oxytocin, which bring a feeling of euphoria that is often compared to the high from taking drugs, and viewers of online pornography claim they experience an almost trance-like feeling, a sense of ecstasy and power they can't find in the real world. "The PC becomes an arousal zone. The more you try not to think about pornography, the more it becomes ingrained in you. Then the brain becomes programmed to view pornography as the only way to deal with anxiety."

However, what is truly striking about porn addiction sites is the desperation and loneliness of the addicted women, and the early age at which they start using porn. Many say the problem dates back to when they were 12-15 years old, before they even had boyfriends.

"It all started when I was 14 and I happened to search for some images while doing homework," wrote a 19-year-old college student. "Just because I typed 'cream and sugar' into Google, I knew my parents wouldn't notice. I knew how to get around parental controls and I was very careful to delete my history and search engine searches every time."

Philip Hodson, a psychotherapist at the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, said the issue of women habitually viewing pornography was not something that had been raised openly in consulting rooms before. This is a relatively new problem that is just beginning to be exposed... Traditionally, women have been against pornography. This is mostly seen as a male thing, because normally men are the ones who are easily stimulated by the images. But that doesn't mean women aren't like this. It's just that men are more likely to do so.

Women who frequently watch pornography suffer from depression and low self-esteem because it is difficult to reconcile their enjoyment of watching pornography with their intellectual disgust at seeing women treated as sex objects. "Even if you don't agree with what you're watching, pornography has an immediate effect on the body, mind, and spirit...

So women may find that their bodies are saying yes, even when their minds are saying no – and that can be very frustrating. ”

But as pornography has become more widely available, Hudson has noticed that women are now using it as a form of disembodied sexual release, just as men have long done. "For women, and for men as well, the Internet allows for a desire to be met in a somewhat primitive and crude way, and it's quick and easy. Why sing a love song to someone and go through all the courtship rituals with another person when you can have Google?"

Hodson also said it was important not to become single because it turned watching pornography into a disaster. For many women, celibacy is not accepted, whether because they reevaluate and find that pornography use becomes a problem, becomes boring, or their lives once again become filled with other, better options.

"I think the word addiction is a bit problematic," he said. "Sexual desire is a very natural instinct. What is the level of sexual dysfunction and what is sexual frigidity? If a woman can orgasm after watching pornography for two minutes, even if she watches it 10 times a day, that's only 20 minutes a day."

"But if it becomes a habit that affects other areas, maybe it's time to reevaluate and realize that this isn't the whole story for your life. Forgive yourself for giving in to temptation and having multiple orgasms. And if you still can't let it go, know that there are people out there who can help you."

Christopher Leonard, founder of the UK's first support group run by women for women, has written a new book about female porn addiction called Dirty Girls Come Clean.

A staunch Christian, she first encountered pornography at the age of 11, through a magazine belonging to her brother, and was addicted for eight years until her sudden awakening when she was about to hook up anonymously with an online friend. Leonard recalled: "I had no friends. No passion. I lived with one mission and one purpose: pornography. Any way I could get it, I did it. Wherever and whenever, home, school, friends' houses, summer camp, and yes, church: my addiction followed me everywhere.

"Pornography, masturbation, cybersex, cam sex, phone sex. You name it, I've seen it, done it, and loved it. No matter how many times I told myself I had to stop, I just couldn't."

Leonard, a trained counsellor, calls porn addiction among women "epidemically widespread and silent". In most cases, the women she sees believe they are the only ones struggling with this issue. “Pornography and sex addiction have long been identified as a men’s problem,” Leonard said. "But it's an unspoken struggle for women. We have to give them the opportunity to say: 'Me too.'"