If you think that porn addiction can ruin your marriage, you’re right. Read on to find out how
Porn Addiction Can Cause Marital Dissatisfaction
There is some research out there that suggests porn viewing can improve a couple’s sex life. For some couples, it might add a little “spice” to an already awesome experience. But for the majority, research says that porn does the exact opposite.
The frequency of viewing pornography is the second strongest predictor of poor marital quality. You could feel betrayed and rejected. You may also feel like your husband is cheating on you with pornographic videos or images.
More and more couples report that pornographic content has caused difficulties in their relationships. Pornography is one of the most powerful predictors of poor relationship quality and stability, according to some studies. Porn Addiction has also been linked to divorce.
Statistics that support this claim
- In a 2004 report to Congress, Dr. Jill Manning shared that in her research over 56% of divorce cases involved one party having an obsessive interest in pornographic websites. Whether or not porn use leads to divorce, there’s a high chance it leads to betrayal trauma for the spouse.
- Dolf Zillman of the University of Alabama, in one study of adolescents, shows that the steady use of pornography frequently leads to abandonment of fidelity to their girlfriends.
- Steven Stack of Wayne State University and colleagues showed that pornography use increased the marital infidelity rate by more than 300 percent
- Another study found a strong correlation between viewing Internet pornography and sexually permissive behavior. Stack’s study found that Internet pornography use is 3.7 times greater among those who procure sexual relations with a prostitute than among those who do not.
Why Does Porn Addiction Affect Marital Relationships?
Porn users increasingly regard marriage as a restriction on their sexual life. They lose confidence in the importance of marriage loyalty, and increasingly question the value and feasibility of marriage as an important social system.
When wives notice that their husbands are watching porn, they feel unattractive, experience sexual anorexia, and become severely depressed.
The wife’s stress level may be so high that it requires clinical treatment of the trauma, not just discomfort.
Porn viewers value non-emotional sexual relations, so the intimacy between women and their husbands will decrease.
5 Reasons Why Porn Addiction Can Ruin Your Marriage
#1 Pornography creates unrealistic expectations about your spouse and sexual behavior
Pornography has been shown to weaken commitment in marriages because it creates an utterly false impression of what a normal body looks like and what sexual behavior is really about.
The sexual relationship is meant to be a mutually satisfying expression of each partner’s love for the other.
In contrast, porn is about self-gratification and often involves dominating or mistreating the other person.
#2 Cybersex can pose a serious threat to your relationship
Cybersex, which often takes place in these chat rooms, was a major factor in separation and divorce.
In a study on the effects of “cybersex” researchers found that more than half of those engaged in “cybersex” had lost interest in sexual intercourse.
In over 22 percent of the couples observed the spouse was no longer living with the “cybersex” addict, and in many of the other cases spouses were seriously considering leaving the marriage or relationship.
#3 Porn addiction can cause emotional detachment between you and your partner
Frequent porn use can also cause users to emotionally detach from their partners. In the most extreme cases, porn can separate the user from their partner—both in terms of time and emotions.
The resulting emotional detachment from sex is very dangerous to the viability of the marriage.
#4 Porn could possibly become the primary cause of divorces
According to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, 68 percent of divorce cases involved one party meeting a new lover over the Internet. 56 percent involved “one party having an obsessive interest in pornographic websites
47 percent involved “spending excessive time on the computer,” and 33 percent involved spending excessive time in chat rooms (a commonly sexualized forum).
#5 Use of pornography can result in lack of sexual satisfaction
The repeated use of pornography will reduce your partner’s physical attractiveness in your eyes. Their sexual activity is not too beneficial, and their sexual curiosity and creative ability become low, and their attachment also declines
In a study by Dolf Zillmann “Pornography’s impact on sexual satisfaction” it’s seen that after consumption of pornography, subjects reported less satisfaction with their intimate partners specifically, with the partners’ affection, physical appearance, sexual curiosity, and sexual performance.
In addition, subjects assigned increased importance to sex without emotional involvement. These effects were uniform across gender and population.