Pornography and loneliness feed off of each other in a toxic way, creating a “vicious cycle” that erodes human relationships and the health benefits those relationships provide, according to a marriage and family therapist and scholar.
“If loneliness can lead to pornography use, and pornography use may bring about or intensify loneliness, these circular linkages may create a vicious cycle, pulling the user even further from health-promoting relationship connections,” said Mark Butler, a professor in the school of family life at Brigham Young University, in an essay on the Institute for Family Studies blog Tuesday describing research he conducted recently.
Human sexuality is biologically and neurologically tethered to a relationship experience, Butler explained, and is “carefully designed to support both conception and bonding.”
Yet, “when pornography is used to trigger the sexual system, the biology of the sexual system produces a false relationship experience, offering temporary ‘relief’ from lonely feelings, but soon enough, the user again faces a real-world relationship void.”
“That emptiness may trigger loneliness. Additionally, porn invites the mental fantasy of a relationship experience. Thus, the mind fantasizes and biologically the sexual system tricks the brain into imagining it’s having a relationship experience and can thus mask loneliness — but only temporarily.”
He continued that the storylines present in porn present false and unrealistic narratives about sexuality that prove disappointing. Users cannot escape the fact that when the experience of porn is over, they remain…
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