One of the most helpful things that I have found in refraining from PMO and “rebooting” is reminding myself of why I actually want to do this. This article contains a lot of what I remind myself of and hopefully it will be helpful to you too! Have you ever wondered if masturbation can have a negative effect on your life? Can it have a negative effect on proper sexuality? In this article I summarize some of the latest research on the relationship between abnormal sexual activity and the structure of the brain.

A lot of great research on this topic can be found here where we summarize some of the best of it.

1. The Brain Develops Pathways Based on Our Sexual Experiences

The basic point here is that continuing in a habit “creates neural pathways” that can “become the automatic pathway through which interactions with women are routed.” In other words, as these pathways are formed, they become the go to pathways that are triggered when one thinks about sexuality or watch recorded live masturbation. Unless otherwise noted, the references in this section are from Wired for Intimacy – a great read on the topic.

The brain has three major sections: the hindbrain, midbrain and forebrain.

Hindbrain: “primary job is to keep us alive and to coordinate movement.” Damage to this part of the brain is very serious.

Midbrain: focuses on “sensory-motor integration, neurotransmitter production and body movement.” This contains the “ventral segmental area (VTA) which manufactures dopamine and transmits this to other brain regions.

“This dopamine release happens in anticipation of meeting drives (like eating, drinking and sex).”

The VTA releases dopamine also in response to most addictive drugs and various disorders and addictive behaviours. Most importantly, the release of dopamine teaches us about what is important in our external surrounding, and regulates the “tension and craving for meeting a need” for which we crave. As mentioned on Your Brain on Porn (YBOP), your “reward circuitry signals that an experience is important by sending dopamine to your prefrontal cortex” (PFC). Dopamin is sometimes referred to as the pleasure chemical and it focuses our attention “on things that have significance to us.” The greater the amount of dopamine, the greater importance your brain attaches to the experience in question. Damage to this part of the brain is relatively serious but the midbrain is more flexible than the hindbrain and such damage may not be as debilitating.

Forebrain: more complex than the other parts of the brain and related to higher functions and capacities. This part of the brain deals with hormones, eating drinking and sexual activity. Our psychological experience emerges from this part of the brain. This part of the brain is more malleable than the other parts and damage is consequently more reparable.

When a man engages in the “stimulation of the penis and orgasm” the forebrain and midbrain work in tandem as there is an increase in hypothalamic activity as well as VTA activity, and this corresponds to the release of dopamine in response to sexual signals. In then end, “as sexual tension increases amygdala activity, the orgasm releases this tension and anxiety.”

“Human ejaculation due to stimulation … correlates with the euphoric, orgasmic states that are seen in heroin and cocaine use.”

In ejaculation, stimulation occurs from the spinal cord which travels up the hypothalamus and to the VTA causing the release of dopamine. This ejaculation is associated with an absence of fear because during the release of dopamine, the amygdala (emotional and fear centre of the brain) shuts down. The process of masturbation then begins to store the pattern of dopamine release and positive feelings and to reinforce the neurological pathway and habit.

2. These Pathways Become Increasingly Entrenched Over Time – Like a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

The above-described pathways are then triggered later upon sexual arousal. This is why the habit can be self-reinforcing and difficult to kick: the more abnormal sexual behavior is practiced, the more it is reinforced and the more it becomes the natural response to sexual stimuli. As Wired for Intimacy states,, “each time that an unhealthy sexual pattern is repeated, a neurological, emotional and spiritual erosion carves out a channel that will eventually develop into a canyon from which there is no escape.”

Your PFC then connects the reward of dopamine with the experience itself and forms a feedback loop that links the experience with the reward. This neural pathway means that in the future when you thing something even related to the experience, your reward circuitry will be activated through the pathway and you will crave to repeat the experience that led to the reward. In the case of masturbation, especially for young men who practice masturbation before having experienced actual sexual activity, strong pathways can be formed in the brain associating the release of dopamine (the reward) with the activity of masturbation (the experience). When a young man becomes sexually aroused, the pathway is triggered and a craving for the activity arises. Eventually, the reward system may cease responding to sexual stimulation through a sexual partner since such is unnecessary to achieve the reward on the pathway that has been formed.

3. You Become Desensitized to Normal Sexual Activity and Become Hyper-sensitized to the Abnormal Activity

As stated in YBOP, “Frequent ejaculation in animals leads to several brain changes that inhibit dopamine, and thus libido, for several days.” This normally leads to “taking a time from sexual activity” but may also lead to seeking more stimulating sources through internet pornography.

Further, the abnormal activity becomes entrenched as the memories of the above events are transformed into habits or implicit memories. An example of an implicit memory is “knowing how to ride a bike without thinking.” Thus, sexual expression becomes associated with the habit that has been formed and the pathway may become increasingly entrenched in the same way that occurs in an addiction. Thus, one become increasingly sensitized to the particular stimulation associated with the pathway that has been formed.

Continued emphasis on this pathway once an addiction is formed may lead to long term depression of sensitivity. This occurs as the reward circuitry’s “innate braking system” weakens for the pathway that has been formed. This desensitizes a person with regard to other forms of sexual pleasure and heightens sexual pleasure experienced through the engrained habit. In fact, this process is precisely the same as the process connected to food and drug addiction.

As a result of all this, many people find it difficult or even impossible to engage in normal sexual activity with another person – they have become desensitized to such activity and hyper sensitized to the abnormal activity. They crave the abnormal activity in a way that suggests their brains are simply wondering:

“why would I go through the process of this type of sexual activity when I can get my ‘fix’ through the much simpler process of the abnormal activity?”

4. This Process is Also the Key to Recovery

The fact that the process of engraining abnormal sexual stimuli in one’s neural pathways can be so detrimental to proper sexual function reflects the power and self-reinforcing nature of the process itself. But this is also a cause for hope: the same process can work in reverse and normal neural pathway. By establishing new pathways and starving the old ones through “intentionally redirecting the neurochemcial flow” of the sexual experience, we become “freed from deciding to do what is right and good as they become part of our embodied nature.”

Check out our Resources Page for some great information on finding freedom from masturbation (and pornography).