Alcohol, tobacco, drugs and pictures. A BYU psychologist says they are all related -- at least when the pictures are pornographic.

While substances that chemically affect the body are usually associated with addiction, pornography also has biologically addictive qualities.

Addiction itself is directly tied to neurotransmitters in the brain that require satisfaction, said David Weight, director of clinical training in psychology at BYU.

"Like cocaine and such, the person develops receptive sites that are sensitive to those," Weight said.

But just as not everyone who drinks alcohol is an alcoholic, not everyone who views pornography is a pornography addict, Weight said.

In addition to biological factors, researchers see addiction as behavioral and psychological.

"Addiction is not easily understood. One might ask, what are the dynamics and what are they operating within them that led to their attachment to this?" Weight said.

S. Rex Goode, founder of Clean LDS, an e-mail support group for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who struggle with pornography addiction, administered a guide for bishops. The guide, written independent of the church, says addiction equals a pattern of abuse of pornography that indicates powerlessness to abstain from viewing it.

Some types of addictions have strong biological underpinnings. This can be proved when there are genetic patterns, as with alcoholism. These genetic patterns make them more susceptible to alcohol addiction, Weight said.

But an addiction to sexual images isn't usually genetic, he said.

Sexually explicit images trigger another part of the brain, the pleasure centers. In them, pleasure and pain are experienced. This part of the brain is the most primitive part that is in both humans and animals, Weight said. It triggers an appetite for the necessary things of survival -- such as food, anger and sex.

Weight says the frontal part of the brain, or the more advanced features of the brain, can override these cravings, but sometimes controlling these primitive impulses can be very difficult.

"When we try to use treatments to change people's addictions, it is very hard to change," Weight said.

In Goode's guide, he said sex addicts tend to view themselves as having heightened sexual needs above that of the general populace and often use that as an excuse for their behavior. But usually it is the other way around -- heightened sexuality is a result of their behavior, not the cause.

Bob Ridge, assistant professor of psychology, agrees with this notion.

In 1999 Ridge testified as an expert witness in the Movie Buffs trial. He was hired to research the effects pornography can have on the average adult.

Ridge and some of his students found that when people view sexually explicit materials they continue to rely on stronger forms. A person will not have as strong of an arousal with repetitive use of pornography, so the person craves stronger forms, Ridge said.

"We found that the research led to an appetite for more abhorrent forms of materials to try to get the same type of arousal," he said.

The studies suggest that looking at sexually explicit materials can make men view women as less attractive in comparison. They see a higher standard of beauty because the bar moves up from what a woman normally looks like compared to the often digitally enhanced images, Ridge said.

Weight said sometimes the term addiction is used to help people recognize that it's not just a flawed character -- there is some other process that is driving their impulses.

"Sometimes this helps people be more willing to get help. But at the same time it can sometimes act as a justification," he said.

Weight said other times people are motivated by the forbidden, so if someone is told not to look at pornography, he or she does it for that reason.

Some feel it is a bad behavior with religious and character implications, while others do not feel there is anything wrong with viewing pornography, he said.

Ridge said he was not just looking for negative effects from pornography -- but that is all he found.

"I never saw anything that made it look like maybe there is some good to it," Ridge said. "We never found anything that said we would recommend it."



Copyright Brigham Young University 28 Feb 2001