When you start to really like something, have you felt the never-ending need to consume it in large amounts? It could be something tangible or intangible. Your favourite pizza from this one place, this one Netflix show that you’ve just started, Porn induced masturbation, it could be anything. Once you start liking something, you feel this need to consume more and more of it with every passing minute. Escalation is the name of this feeling. 

There are some substances and behaviours that can be more addictive than others. Like porn and alcohol for example. These products bring out escalating behaviours in the consumers. Typically, this behaviour is what begins the cycle of addiction.

Here’s Why Porn Consumption Is An Escalating Behaviour

If you’re used to indulging in porn once a week and it has brought you immense satisfaction so far, you’ll notice after some time that just watching it once a week won’t satisfy your needs anymore. This is because consuming porn is an escalating behaviour. 

Frequent porn consumption leads to escalation. This is a result of porn’s addictive nature. The more porn you watch, the more you crave for it. But, what’s interesting here is that you’ll crave for larger doses of it each time. With passing time, porn consumers need increasing doses of porn material to feel the same level of satisfaction they felt the last time they watched it. Today you might feel satisfied after watching one porn video, but in two-three days’ time, you’ll find yourself consuming three videos per day. 

Plus, it’s not just about the amount of porn. This also includes the kind of porn. One usually starts with softcore porn and within a few months ends up seeking out more extreme and hardcore porn. As the escalating behaviour comes into force, porn consumers crave more and more porn but start enjoying it less and less at the same time. Take this quiz to learn more about your porn viewing behaviour and figure if you’re really addicted to porn.

How Escalation Works

The escalating behaviour takes place as a result of the working of two different systems of our brain. The two systems are “Rewards” and “Cravings”. These two systems are completely independent and often are contradictive. But, this is what leads to the escalating behaviour.

Rewards

This part is smaller among the two, but it very important. This is the part of the brain’s reward system that is responsible for the “high” you feel when you really enjoy something. Any healthy reward you receive in your daily life, like sharing a kiss or winning a game, lights up this part of the brain. Unfortunately, it also reacts similarly to other harmful substances. This includes counterfeit joys one receives from drugs, porn, etc. This is the main reason, addictive substances feel extremely enjoyable at first. 

When you engage in any activity that you really enjoy, it activates the reward system in your brain and it releases a chemical called CREB. This chemical helps the satisfaction and reward fade away, ensuring you’re able to go on with your life without overriding the high. 

The more you indulge in rewarding activities, your brain releases more CREB. If the CREB level keeps building up, it’ll slowly begin to numb your entire pleasure system. When this happens, normal things that you once enjoyed will no longer be pleasurable. You’ll feel like consuming more and more of the stimulant, just to feel the same satisfaction you once did. This is exactly what escalating behaviour is. 

Researchers believe that this might also be one of the reasons why addicts often feel detached and bored constantly. 

Cravings

This is the part of the brain that generates the want for certain things in life. This part is larger and is way more powerful. It is the part of the brain’s reward system the develops the urges we feel and overtime leads the rewiring of the brain. As the brain gets rewired, the newly generated nerve connections make you crave the pleasurable acts more and more. This is how the infamous urges are birthed. The more often you repeat a behaviour, the stronger the nerve connections become. As a result of this, your cravings will also get stronger. 

One more thing that plays a huge role in this, are the triggers. A trigger can be anything that has the potential to generate cravings or urge at any given time.  It could be a song, a particular or scene, or even a location. For an addict, their entire surrounding starts to look like a huge compilation of triggers. Once you start finding something highly pleasurable and your brain gets used to it, it starts associating it with different things in your life. Triggers are formed this way. 

The triggers then lead to cravings and these cravings could then potentially lead to an addiction. 

Together these two cause trouble..

The rewards and cravings combined, make a behaviour like consuming porn highly addictive. These two are mainly responsible for the escalation in porn consumption that you notice over time. When the cravings and rewards are combined, you will experience less pleasure but will want to consume more of the commodity. With respect to a commodity like porn, over time you end up building higher tolerance. Due to this you slowly become desensitized.

Desensitization is a long-term chemical and structural change that takes place in the brain. Normally such a change takes months to develop and can take years to reverse. When you become desensitized, you become less sensitive to pleasure and there is a decline in your dopamine and opioid levels. Over time you will have to consume more and more of the stimulant to receive the same buzz you once used to enjoy.

Is There A Solution?

Don’t you ever wonder how businesses that charge for porn make money? When there is unlimited free porn on the internet? Porn escalation is how these businesses make money. In the grand scheme of things, free internet porn is just a mere appetizer. It only whets your appetite, preparing you for the full meal. 

As your porn consumption escalates, with time you would’ve consumed most of the free porn available on the internet. But since your cravings aren’t satisfied, you move on to the paid porn services. Once you’re done with that, you’ll be on the hunt for something even more extreme. This cycle is never-ending.

But remember, it’s never too late to turn around and get your life back on track. Once you start noticing certain symptoms, make an effort to replace your porn habits with much healthier habits. There are lots of resources available online to help you put an end to this problem in a healthy way. You can check out this article to know about how you can effectively and easily quit porn. 

Just remember, it’s never too late!