Dirty mind or Victim?

     

     If someone approached you and said they haven't had any for awhile and they can already feel it going in good and hard and coming out nice and soft, would you be offended? You shouldn’t, maybe if you took your mind out of the gutter for a second, you would see that all they want is a piece of gum.  As we get older, our innocent minds seem to fade away.  What was once a simple lollipop being enjoyed by a woman, is now a turn on for any men within close proximity.  Not all men and women are guilty of having a dirty mind, those who do, may be able to fault pornography and sexual endeavors for their colorful thoughts.  In the very second it takes you to read this sentence, $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography.  

Pornography is still taboo in many communities, but the statistics don’t lie, taboo or not, sex really does sell.  According to the “Family Safe Media” website, as of 2006, Pornography is a $97.06 billion industry on a world-wide scale, and technology giants such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, Apple, Netflix and EarthLink don’t earn as much as the pornography industry, combined. With sex being an obvious fixture in media and technology, it is more than understandable why some people just can’t get their minds out of the gutter.

Studies show other porn like addictions, it is expected that your thoughts or actions may be altered in other aspects in your life that are not sex related if you are addicted to porn.  Texas Southern University grad student Kanetra Moses disagrees. “Why should porn affect my mindset?  Porn is just a movie and the people in them are actors,” Moses says. That may be true, but an article on the “All About Life Changes” website, written by recovering a porn addict, begs to differ.  “My ideas and thoughts became fixated on what got me ‘high’ and fed my ‘pleasure.’ Those planted thoughts formed my concept of reality, my feelings toward girls, life, and myself. As a young person, I really believed these thoughts were ‘mine’ alone and didn't hurt anyone else. But as I matured, I began to realize that my thoughts affected my attitude and my attitude affected my conduct and that affected everyone else!”

According to the “Psychology Today” site, and the “Net Nanny” blog prove that pornography is a legitimate addiction.  Being addicted to sexual media causes the body to release chemicals such as pinephrine, testosterone, endorphins (endogenous morphine), oxytocin, dopamine, serotonin, phenylethylamine,³ and other pharmacological stimuli.  Psychologist and published author Sandra Ackerman, says that the chemicals the body releases when enjoying porn triggers the brain to seek an immediate reaction or solution to the high that has developed. 

These same addicting behaviors are developed from shopping, video games, and other addictions of choice.  It may be farfetched or a bit drastic to compare minor addictions to porn, but in order grow or have a healthy relationship with those around you, people addicted to porn should try to moderate the amount of control they allow sexual media to have on their mind, whether it be clean or dirty.