Joke: a father tells his son that if he masturbates, he'll go blind. The kid responds, "Can I do it until I need glasses?"
One avenue leading to sexual addiction is through a process of masturbatory conditioning (compulsive masturbation).
As a man repeatedly masturbates to a vivid sexual fantasy as his exclusive outlet, the pleasurable experiences endow the deviant fantasy (rape, molesting children, injuring one's partner while having sex, etc.) with increasing erotic value. The orgasm experienced then provides the critical reinforcing event for the conditioning of the fantasy preceding or accompanying the act.
Any type of sexual deviation can be acquired in this way, that it may include several unrelated deviations in one individual and that it cannot be eliminated even by massive feelings of guilt.
Most individuals are at risk of becoming, in time, a sexual addict, as well as conditioning themselves into having a sexual deviancy and/or disturbing/destroying a bonded relationship with a spouse or girlfriend when this occurs.
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Pornography is mainly about masturbation. Most guys don’t just look at pornography. They use the porn to masturbate. When you combine whatever message the porn is trying to send you with the hormonal rush of sexual climax, you burn that message into your brain.
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Masturbation can be addictive. Sexual addictions are in fact self-induced drug addictions. The chemicals our bodies release during sexual arousal create the same effect on the brain as drugs. Repeated masturbation reinforces a brain chemistry loop of addiction. As with drug addiction, masturbation requires an increasing amount of stimulus to achieve consistent levels of pleasure. This can lead to both an increased frequency of the habit and a never-ending search for new material to enhance the experience.
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Masturbation conditions our bodies to respond to self-stimulation, which is self-centered. This damages our ability to relate to another person sexually. Sex is a relational experience, where we give attention to another person's needs at least as much as to our own. If we've been serving our own desires habitually, we may find it difficult to give our partner the attention she desires.
Additionally, the hormones released in the brain during sexual arousal cause a bonding to whatever we are looking at and/or thinking about at the time. This can cause us to be more sexually responsive to masturbation (and its associated fantasies) than to real sex.
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Compulsive masturbation with or without pornography and compulsive viewing of porn with or without masturbation both present long-standing problems for many cybersex addicts. Whether it is through cybersex, phone sex lines, videos, porn magazines, or simply through fantasy, sex addicts can lose hours daily to the isolating activities of fantasy and masturbation. Loss of control, continuation despite negative life consequences, and preoccupation or obsession with the activity, are the characteristics of any addiction.
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