Gary Wilson > Quotes

“I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self. Aristotle”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“We are what we repeatedly do. Aristotle”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“A young psychiatrist, himself newly recovered from porn-induced sexual dysfunction,[182] pointed out that the internet porn phenomenon is only 10 or 15 years old, and way ahead of the research. He notes: Medical research works at a snail's pace. With luck we'll be addressing this in 20 or 30 years ... when half the male population is incapacitated. Drug companies can't sell any medications by someone quitting porn. We”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“No matter how miserable they are, porn seems like a way to feel good a solution rather than a source of problems.”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“As psychologist Susan Weinschenk explained,[52] ‘dopamine causes us to want, desire, seek out, and search’. Yet ‘the dopamine system is stronger than the opioid system. We seek more than we are satisfied. ... Seeking is more likely to keep us alive than sitting around in a satisfied stupor.”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“Choice is a subtle form of disease. Don DeLillo, Running Dog”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“Viewers routinely spend hours surfing galleries of porn videos searching for the right video to finish, keeping dopamine elevated for abnormally long periods. But try to envision a hunter-gatherer routinely spending the same number of hours masturbating to the same stick-figure on a cave wall. Didn't happen.”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“In particular, a great deal of recent research suggests that the more that people’s reward systems are tuned to forming social connections with others, the more likely they are to be both more physically healthy and more psychologically well balanced. This is what makes internet pornography addiction so troubling. It represents a tuning of the reward system from a very healthy type of reward, that of forming a genuine and intimate connection with another, into a type of reward that removes the user from social contact, and often leaves them feeling lonely and ashamed rather than connected and supported.”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“Yet pornography transforms that drive into a force that primarily motivates the completely solitary and unproductive activity of masturbation.”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“Addiction to internet pornography is a very real phenomenon with a very real impact on well-being. It is a phenomenon which has grown exponentially in the last decade, even though it has remained largely invisible and undetected by society. Tragically, its risks continue to be ignored or actively denied by all but a few enlightened medical professionals. It is a phenomenon that is not just here to stay, but also likely to increase. It is almost certainly the cause of the widespread sexual dysfunction found in recent studies of late adolescence.[1] It is a problem that is most likely impacting you, or your loved ones, without you even being aware of it.”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“With multiple tabs open and clicking for hours, you can 'experience' more novel sex partners every ten minutes than your hunter-gatherer ancestors experienced in a lifetime.”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“Brains are plastic. The truth is we are always training our brains – with or without our conscious participation. It’s clear from countless reports that it’s not uncommon for porn users to move from genre to genre, often arriving at places they find personally disturbing and confusing.”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“Once we begin to think clearly about neuroplasticity we are inevitably drawn to the question of what we want from life – what we consider to be a good life. Each of us must answer that for ourselves. But we are best able to do so when we understand the threats that some substances and behaviours pose to our capacity to choose the lives we want.”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“Sensitisation leads to high spikes of dopamine in response to cues and triggers associated with use. The dopamine spikes occur before ingesting the drug or masturbating to porn, and are experienced as cravings to use. However, on exposure to the same old stimuli less dopamine (and less opioids) are released (desensitisation). This dampening of pleasure occurs during drug use or while masturbating to porn. The activity is experienced as less pleasurable, increasing cravings for more.”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“But CREB’s effects don’t limit themselves to a user’s ‘drug’ of choice. Other things that used to make a porn viewer feel good, such as socializing, watching a movie or playing a favourite game, pale because of the dulling effects of CREB. Desensitisation leaves us bored, less satisfied, and often searching for anything to increase dopamine. It can lead a porn fan straight back to porn.”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“researchers sprayed sexually receptive female rats with cadaverine (the odour of decaying flesh) and placed them in cages with eager young virgin males. Normally rats avoid decaying flesh. It’s innate; it’s not a learned behaviour. They will bury dead buddies and wooden dowels soaked in cadaverine. However, with their dopamine soaring in anticipation, these guys mated and ejaculated several times. A few days afterward, the young males were placed in a large cage with normal-smelling females and females smelling like death. The cadaverine-conditioned rats got it on indiscriminately.”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“While sexual conditioning is the principal brain change responsible for porn-induced ED, it alone cannot account for all the symptoms men experience. Two of the most common, yet hard to explain, symptoms are the loss of morning wood (nocturnal erections) and the dreaded flatline. The absence of nocturnal erections generally occurs prior to quitting porn. It’s important to note that urologists often use the absence of nocturnal erections to distinguish psychological ED from organic ED (i.e. blood vessel or nerve problems). It’s possible that some men with porn-induced ED, accompanied by no morning wood, are incorrectly diagnosed as having organic ED. In contrast, the temporary flatline occurs after eliminating porn use. It typically manifests as lifeless genitals, no libido and the loss of attraction to real people.”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“sexual arousal induces dopamine levels comparable to morphine, and lights up the same nerve cells hijacked by cocaine and meth (in contrast with other natural rewards). Internet porn addiction may turn out to be the ‘purest’ behavioural addiction in that the brain changes found in porn addicts could most closely resemble those seen in substance addicts.”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“Incidentally, the claim that watching sunsets is no different that viewing porn was actually tested and debunked in a 2000 brain scan study.[ 121] Cocaine addicts and healthy controls viewed films of: 1) explicit sexual content, 2) outdoor nature scenes, and 3) individuals smoking crack cocaine. The results: cocaine addicts had nearly identical brain activation patterns when viewing both porn and a crack pipe. However, for all subjects brain activation patterns when viewing nature scenes were completely different from the porn-viewing patterns. All subjects had the same brain activation patterns for porn. The important takeaway is that drugs can activate the ‘sex’ neurons and trigger a buzz without actual sex. So can internet porn. Golf and sunsets cannot.”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“of the reward circuitry leads to a localized rebellion. If DeltaFosB is the gas pedal for bingeing, the molecule CREB functions as the brakes. CREB dampens our pleasure response.[134] It inhibits dopamine. CREB is trying to take the joy out of bingeing so that you give it a rest. Oddly enough, high levels of dopamine stimulate the production of both CREB and DeltaFosB. Our bodies are equipped with countless feedback mechanisms to keep us alive and functioning well. It makes perfect sense for mammals also to have evolved a braking system for bingeing on food or sex. There comes a time to move on and take care of the kids or maybe hunt and gather. But the glitch in the CREB/DeltaFosB balancing act is that it evolved long before humans were exposed to powerful reinforcers such as whiskey, cocaine, ice cream, or porn tube sites. All have the potential to override evolved satiation mechanisms, including CREB’s brakes. Put simply, CREB doesn’t stand much chance in the era of supernormal stimuli and widely available prescription and illicit drugs. What’s CREB to do in face of a Big Mac, fries and milkshake dinner, followed by 3-hour Mountain Dew-fuelled Call of Duty session, and two hours of surfing PornHub while smoking a joint? What array of enticements did a 19-year old hunter-gatherer encounter to goose his dopamine? Perhaps a second helping of overcooked rabbit meat or watching the four girls he’d known since birth tan hides.”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“What do guys who successfully recover from porn-induced ED suggest? Suggestion number one is to eliminate porn, porn substitutes, and recalling the porn you watched. Or to put it another way, eliminate all artificial sexual stimulation. By artificial I mean pixels, audio and literature. No porn substitutes, such as: surfing pictures on Facebook, Snapchat or dating apps, cruising Craigslist, underwear ads, YouTube videos, ‘erotic literature’, etc. If it’s not real life, just say ‘no’. Content isn’t as much the issue as whether you are mimicking the behaviours that wired your brain to need novel, screen-based stimulation. The second suggestion is to rewire your sexual arousal to real people. While this helps everyone recover, it may be a key component for young men with little or no sexual experience. This does not mean that you need to have sex to rewire. In fact, slowly getting to know someone is probably the best path. Hanging out, touching, and making out help connect sexual arousal and affection to a real person, and may be essential to recovery.”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“Nature plays a cruel joke. CREB’s attempt to suppress dopamine and endogenous opioids to urge ‘over indulgers’ to take a break works against a chronic porn user. Numbing his pleasure response can drive him to seek out more extreme material, often swiping from clip to clip in search of the one that will restore his dopamine levels. Put simply, CREB can lead to tolerance, which may result in compulsive porn use and escalation.”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“This all happens unconsciously. All you know is that you instantly have an overwhelming ‘need’ to view porn. It can feel like a matter of life and death, such that all your resolutions take flight. In drug addicts the cue-induced dopamine spike can be as high as the spike from actually taking the drug,[133] and this is likely true for some porn users as well. I caught a glimpse of a porn pic the other day and there was a distinct buzz in my brain, almost like a hot flash. Fortunately it freaked me out enough to get away fast.”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“Dopamine is yelling, ‘This activity is really important, and you should do it again and again.’ DeltaFosB’s job is to ensure you remember and repeat the activity. It does this by rewiring your brain to want whatever you have been bingeing on. A spiral can ensue in which wanting/craving leads to doing, doing triggers more surges of dopamine, dopamine causes DeltaFosB to accumulate – and the urge to repeat the behaviour gets stronger with each loop.”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“When an addict stops using, DeltaFosB slowly degrades and is back to normal levels about two months after the last binge. However, the sensitised pathways remain, perhaps for a lifetime. Remember, the purpose of DeltaFosB is to promote the rewiring of the brain so that you will experience a bigger blast from whatever you have been over consuming. This memory, or deeply ingrained learning, lingers long after the initiating events.”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“Real sex is touching, being touched, smells, connecting and interacting with a person, all without a voyeur’s eye view. Dopamine is odd. It shoots up when something is better than expected (violates expectations), but drops when expectations are not met.[163] With sex, it’s nearly impossible to match internet porn’s level of surprise, variety and novelty. Thus, once a young man thoroughly conditions himself to porn, sex may not meet his unconscious expectations.”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“This is how scientists investigate sensitisation in the lab. They condition porn users’ sexual arousal and dopamine activation to items that are not normally arousing. Such research helps explain why turning on your device or hearing your parents leave the house can give you ants in your pants. One of these studies also found that porn addicts habituated faster to sexual images. Their reward systems lit up less for familiar porn. To prevent habituation, the porn addict needs to seek out a constant supply of novel porn, perhaps conditioning himself to new genres along the way.”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“One outcome of chronic porn use is unanticipated sexual conditioning – which wasn’t likely in baby boomers using Playboy. A millennial may easily wire his sexual excitement to a screen, constant novelty, voyeurism or bizarre acts. Worst case, he eventually needs both porn’s content and delivery-at-a-click to achieve an erection or sustain arousal. Before I quit I had the utmost trouble getting off. I actually had to close my eyes and imagine a CONSTANT stream of porn to climax. I was more or less using my girlfriends’ bodies to help me jerk off. After a long streak without porn, I could climax easily, without thinking about it. It was a miracle. It was the best feeling ever.”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“The earliest people to report porn-related problems in online forums were typically computer programmers and information-technology specialists. They had acquired high-speed internet porn ahead of the pack”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

“All subjects quickly conditioned their arousal to symbols predicting porn. But compared to controls, the compulsive porn users’ reward systems reacted more strongly to cues (symbols), and conditioning occurred more rapidly.”
― Gary Wilson, Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction