One clinical psychologist is claiming there is no scientific evidence that proves someone can be a porn "addict," Science Daily reported last Wednesday.
In an article titled "Pornography Addiction Model," David Ley, a clinical psychologist who practices in Albuquerque, New Mexico, writes that other medical professionals and the media define porn addiction as a disease. As a result, little attention is paid to the advantages of watching porn. Ley's article was published in the journal Current Sexual Health Reports.
"Rather than helping patients who may struggle to control viewing images of a sexual nature, the 'porn addiction' concept instead seems to feed an industry with secondary gain from the acceptance of the idea," Ley wrote, according to Science Daily.
Ley, who is also executive director of the behavioral health program New Mexico Solutions, reviewed studies on pornography addiction that are currently available. Ley found that only 37 percent of the studies described constant use of porn as an addiction, while only 27 percent of the studies actually cited data.
Ley said the studies showed a lack of experimental structure and methodology, Science Daily reported. Thus, there is little evidence that excessive porn watching can be an addiction.
"We need better methods to help people who struggle with the high frequency use of visual sexual stimuli, without pathologizing them or their use thereof," Ley wrote, according to Science Daily.
There is also little evidence to support the belief that porn use causes erectile dysfunction, or changes the viewer's brain, Ley wrote. Instead, porn can actually be beneficial to how the viewer feels about his or her own sexuality.
Watching porn can also increase the quality of life and pleasure in long-term relationships, Ley wrote, according to Science Daily. The legal system also benefits from porn- it provides an outlet for illegal sexual impulses, and has even been linked to a decrease in child molestation cases, Ley wrote.
