Porn Can Cause Brain Damage ?

Addiction to pornography among children can cause brain damage leading to depression and behavioral problems that can be just as serious as those caused by illegal drugs.

Donald Hilton Jr., a neurosurgeon from the Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, mentioned that pornography addiction could cause changes in the brain’s neurotransmitters and may interrupt oxygen metabolism in the brain.

Hilton said such changes would cause the brain to focus too much on pleasure receptors, thus failing to control behavior.

“Just like other addictions, pornography addiction will interrupt dopamine, which functions as a neurotransmitter, and it will cause a part of the brain to shrink,” Hilton said. The shrinkage occurs in the Ventral Tegmental Area, or VTA, at the front of the brain.

Hilton said children were susceptible because the part of the brain that controls memory is not yet fully developed.

He said with time the porn-damaged brain can heal itself but will never return completely to normal.

‘I’ve found

that porn addiction is

the hardest

to escape’

Donald Hilton Jr., neurosurgeon