Simply put, porn addiction symptoms are a series of signs that you struggle with dependence on adult entertainment. These symptoms may appear differently per individual, but have common themes among all addicts.

What Does Porn Addiction Look Like? 13 Signs & Symptoms

The most common porn addiction symptoms are:

1.) You Can’t Stop Watching Porn

Similar to a substance use disorder, porn addicts are unable to quit their habit. You may develop compulsive sexual behavior, notably when you try to restrict pornography use. However, such behavior is usually difficult to counteract and met with feelings of guilt.

2.) You Have Intense Cravings

One porn addiction problem is the fact that it recircuits dopamine production in the brain. Simply put, pornography causes a surge of dopamine to enter the “reward system” in your brain. When you stop watching porn, your brain needs to relearn how to produce dopamine naturally. ¹

As such, you’ll experience cravings. These are unique to addiction as they’re one of many withdrawal symptoms that come with quitting porn.

3.) You Lose Interest in Daily Activities

As we see with other forms of addiction, pornography use may inhibit other responsibilities you have in daily life. These may include the following:

• Completing necessary tasks (i.e. shower, doing the dishes, etc.)
• Isolation from activities you previously enjoyed
• School or work
• Spending time with loved ones

As a result of this tendency, porn addiction can negatively impact those around you.

4.) You Spend Lots of Time Watching Porn

Have you ever measured how much time you spend in front of your computer screen watching pornography? It may help to keep track of this.

If you struggle with an addiction, you likely watch porn frequently for long periods. While short and infrequent periods aren’t considered addictive, they should still be avoided due to the effects of pornography on the brain.

Furthermore, you may find yourself viewing porn in inappropriate situations (i.e. at work or in a social gathering).

5.) You Spend Money on Porn

Since the internet and social media has given you so much free access to pornography, any dollar spent on it is a sure-fire sign you struggle with addiction.

Many porn sites offer a subscription service to exclusive content. While this isn’t always the case, this content is often more explicit than what you can get for free. One of the signs of porn addiction is you need more explicit content to feel the effects. ²

Naturally, spending money on porn can lead to other financial troubles (i.e. inability to pay bills). Furthermore, you may find yourself spending large sums as a means to cope with other mental health issues, such as loneliness.

6.) You Lose Interest in Your Partner

Porn addiction can have several negative effects when it comes to romantic relationships. The most notable is it makes it difficult to pair bond, often resulting in low-quality communication between sexual partners. ³

However, to take it a step further, porn also sets unrealistic expectations for what sex and intimacy really look like. As a result, you may be disappointed when you compare your sex life to what you see online.

As discussed, addiction requires you to watch more explicit content to be sexually aroused. This can also affect your partner. You may ask them to perform more explicit acts outside their comfort zone or simply lose interest entirely.

7.) You Struggle with Arousal

The more severe your porn addiction becomes, the more likely you are to experience sexual dysfunction. This can result in several health conditions, with the most notable being erectile dysfunction (ED).

The more dependent you become on porn to elevate dopamine levels in the brain, the more porn you need to view to reach feelings of pleasure and arousal. As such, you may find that you need porn to get aroused even when involved with a sexual partner.

8.) Your Expectations of Sexual Experiences are Unrealistic

The type of intimacy seen in pornography is usually unrealistic. As such, you may find your not satisfied with the fact that your partner doesn’t behave the same way as you witness online.

This may result in disappoint in your sex life. Such disappointment can lead to other problems, such as self-esteem issues or inability to organism. Remember, porn is fantasy, not reality.

9.) You Experience Physical Symptoms

While most people associate porn addiction with mental illness, it can cause physical symptoms. Excessive masturbation may result in the following: ⁴

• Genital pain
• Headaches
• Neck and back pain
• Wrist or hand pain

10.) You Struggle With Concentration

When you obsessively view porn, you may find it difficult to focus on things that aren’t related to pornography. This lack of concentration may leave you feeling:

• Agitation
• Confusion
• Frustration

Such emotions may lead to problems in other areas of your life, such as relationships and work.

11.) You Get Angry When You Can’t Watch Porn

When porn hijacks dopamine production, it makes it difficult for the brain to produce similar doses of dopamine without it. Therefore, you may experience anger and agitation when you cannot access porn (i.e. spending time with your significant other).

12.) Porn Doesn’t Satisfy You the Way it Previously Did

As we see in other types of addiction, the brain can develop a tolerance to porn. ⁵ As such, you require more porn (or more explicit content) to experience arousal. Furthermore, you may find yourself viewing other categories of pornography that previously didn’t interest you.

13.) You Use Porn to Cope with Stress

You may use porn as a way to self-medicate from negative emotions. This is similar to how some people abuse substances to avoid stress and anxiety.

The difficulty is this coping mechanism means you’re escaping your problems rather than addressing them. As a result, you may let certain mental health issues go unchecked.

How to Know if You Have a Porn Addiction

Watching porn doesn’t necessarily mean you’re addicted. Rather, it’s when you begin to prioritize porn over your well-being.

Still, we don’t recommend watching porn period as it has several negative health effects to the male brain. Since internet pornography is free and abundant, it’s easy to see why so many men develop a porn addiction problem.

While porn addiction isn’t a diagnosable condition, some doctors may consider it a hypersexual disorder. ⁶

References

¹ Love T, Laier C, Brand M, Hatch L, Hajela R. Neuroscience of Internet Pornography Addiction: A Review and Update. Behav Sci (Basel). 2015 Sep 18;5(3):388-433. doi: 10.3390/bs5030388. PMID: 26393658; PMCID: PMC4600144.

² de Alarcón R, de la Iglesia JI, Casado NM, Montejo AL. Online Porn Addiction: What We Know and What We Don’t-A Systematic Review. J Clin Med. 2019 Jan 15;8(1):91. doi: 10.3390/jcm8010091. PMID: 30650522; PMCID: PMC6352245.

³ Kohut T, Dobson KA, Balzarini RN, Rogge RD, Shaw AM, McNulty JK, Russell VM, Fisher WA, Campbell L. But What’s Your Partner Up to? Associations Between Relationship Quality and Pornography Use Depend on Contextual Patterns of Use Within the Couple. Front Psychol. 2021 Jul 30;12:661347. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.661347. PMID: 34393898; PMCID: PMC8362880.

⁴ Mehmood Qadri H, Waheed A, Munawar A, Saeed H, Abdullah S, Munawar T, Luqman S, Saffi J, Ahmad A, Babar MS. Physiological, Psychosocial and Substance Abuse Effects of Pornography Addiction: A Narrative Review. Cureus. 2023 Jan 12;15(1):e33703. doi: 10.7759/cureus.33703. PMID: 36793815; PMCID: PMC9922938.

⁵ Lewczuk K, Wizła M, Glica A, Potenza MN, Lew-Starowicz M, Kraus SW. Withdrawal and tolerance as related to compulsive sexual behavior disorder and problematic pornography use – Preregistered study based on a nationally representative sample in Poland. J Behav Addict. 2022 Oct 20;11(4):979-993. doi: 10.1556/2006.2022.00076. PMID: 36269607; PMCID: PMC9881655.

⁶ Karila L, Wéry A, Weinstein A, Cottencin O, Petit A, Reynaud M, Billieux J. Sexual addiction or hypersexual disorder: different terms for the same problem? A review of the literature. Curr Pharm Des. 2014;20(25):4012-20. doi: 10.2174/13816128113199990619. PMID: 24001295.