4.3 A pleasure or a crutch?
Reading Time: 1.5 minutes
An important reminder β the main reason that users find it difficult to quit is due to the belief theyβre giving up a genuine pleasure or crutch. Itβs essential to understand that youβre giving up absolutely nothing whatsoever. The best way to understand the subtleties of the ππππ trap is comparing it with eating. The habit of regular meals causes us to not feel hungry between, only aware of hunger if the meal is delayed. Thereβs no physical pain, just an empty insecure feeling recognised as hunger. The process of satisfying our hunger is a very pleasant experience.
Pornography appears to be almost identical, but itβs not. Like hunger, thereβs no physical pain and the reward mechanism behaves in similar ways, but itβs this similarity to eating that tricks the user into believing thereβs a genuine pleasure or crutch. Although eating and ππππ appear to be very similar, in reality theyβre exact opposites.
- You eat to survive and energise your life, whereas ππππ dims and cuts down your mojo.
- Food genuinely tastes good and eating is a genuinely pleasant experience that we enjoy throughout our lives. π―πππ involves self-sabotaging the happiness receptors and thus destroys your chances to cope and feel happy.
- Eating doesnβt create hunger and genuinely relieves it, whereas the first ππππ session starts the craving for dopamine and each subsequent session. Far from relieving it, it ensures suffering for the rest of your life.
Is eating a habit? If you think so, try breaking it completely! To describe eating as habit would be like describing breathing as a habit β both are essential for survival. Itβs true that people have the habit of satisfying their hunger at different times with varying types of food, but eating itself isnβt habit. Neither is ππππ. The only reason a user fires up the browser is trying to end the empty feelings the previous session created, at different times with varying escalating genres.
On the internet, ππππ is frequently referred to as a habit and for convenience EasyPeasy also refers to the βhabitβ. However, be constantly aware that ππππ isnβt habit, itβs drug addiction! When we start to use ππππ, we have to force ourselves to cope with it. Before we know it, weβre escalating into increasingly bizarre and shocking ππππ. The thrill is in the hunting, not the killing, with dopamine rapidly leaving the body after orgasm, explaining why users want to βedgeβ (delaying orgasm) through flicking between multiple browser windows and tabs.