What’s wrong with porn?

“Does porn affect me? There’s nothing wrong with it. I’m not hurting anybody. It won’t harm me or my marriage. So what is the big deal with watching porn?”

Let’s put it this way, “What’s wrong with smoking cigarettes? They aren’t hurting me. I run a mile a day, and I don’t have lung cancer.”  

But the truth is little by little smoking cigarettes will start to affect you. They will harm your breathing, your heart, and your lungs. You might not see the repercussions now, but as time progresses, you will. 

The same principle applies to porn. You might not see the repercussions now, but eventually, it will start to contaminate your life. You’ll find yourself isolating, and porn will take over your marriage, impact your intimacy, spoil your walk with God, and change the way you see people. How does this happen? There was a time when you casually watched porn, but that changed as your consumption grew little by little. 

In our lives, we need a new perspective on how we view small doors. Small doors can lead to significant problems. 

Song of Solomon 2:15 says, “It’s the little foxes that spoil the vines.” 

In other words, it’s not always the big things that take us down, the little things do too. When we fail to guard our lives against pornography, this little fox will take us down. And whatever enters our hearts will ultimately impact our decisions. Our decisions are a reflection of what’s in our hearts. It’s imperative to guard ourselves against what we look at.

Porn Shrinks Your Brain:

According to LiveScience.com, The brains of men who watch lots of pornography tend to be smaller in certain key areas and have fewer connections than those of other men, a new study has found.

The differences appeared in a brain region called the striatum, which is associated with reward and motivation.

Other Damaging Effects of Porn:

According to RewardFoundation.org other porn hazards include: 

Social isolation by withdrawing from social activity, developing a secret life, lying and deceiving others, becoming self-centered, and by choosing porn over other people.

Sexually objectifying other people by treating people as sexual objects, judging people primarily in terms of their sexual body parts, disrespecting other people’s needs for privacy, and being insensitive about sexually harmful behavior.

Sexual problems due to loss of interest in sex with a real partner, difficultly becoming aroused or achieving an orgasm without porn, intrusive thoughts/fantasies/images of porn during sex, having difficulty connecting love and caring with sex, increased interest in risky/degrading/abusive/illegal sex, and growing dissatisfied with sex.

Self-loathing by feeling disconnected from personal values, beliefs, and goals. Loss of personal integrity. Damaged self-esteem. A persistent sense of guilt and shame and feeling controlled by porn. 

Neglecting important areas of life such as personal health, family life (neglecting spouse, children, and household responsibilities), work and school pursuits, finances (spending on porn depletes resources), and spirituality (alienation from the faith and spiritual practice).

Addiction to porn by craving porn intensely and persistently. Difficulty controlling thoughts of, exposure to, and use of porn. Repeated failures to stop using porn, requiring more extreme content or intense exposures to get the same effect and experiencing discomfort and irritability when deprived of porn. 

How to guard yourself against pornography: 

To guard yourself against pornography, you have to watch out for places of temptation. If your computer tempts you to watch it, download our accountability software X3Watch to help you when the temptation arises. If you’re on social media and you see something that arouses you scroll away from it or block that person. If you’re taking a shower and you get tempted to watch porn in the shower, leave your phone in the living room. You have to be mindful of your triggers.

Proverbs 4:23 (NIV) says, Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

The condition of your heart determines the course of your life. Rather than doing everything externally to stop watching porn, begin a work internally. You will see everlasting results when you work on your heart. A healed heart will give you a set-free life.