An increasing number of men are seeking treatment for an addiction to watching porn, which has resulted in “carnage” in their personal lives and relationships, a treatment service leader has said.
Prof Colin O’Gara, head of addiction services at St John of God Hospital in Dublin, said he is receiving several referrals a week for compulsive porn watching, a trend that he said has “100 per cent changed” in the last year.
The trend is mostly among men, with 80 per cent of referrals in this cohort, he said.
Prof O’Gara, who is a clinical professor of psychiatry at University College Dublin, said compulsive use of porn is a “substantial issue because so much of the internet is dominated by porn”.
“If you increase access to any process or substance, the end harm generally increases. This is persistence with the behaviour in face of adverse consequences,” Prof O’Gara
“The porn product is actually toxic. What it does, particularly in men, is it destroys relationships and it creates unrealistic expectations and it desensitised men to what would be considered normal, helpful intimacy. It’s usually carnage.”
Prof O’Gara said behavioural addictions to porn watching, gambling, shopping and other activities often arise out of trauma, loneliness and distraction.
“What I see in porn, often it’s not about sex. We do have compulsive masturbation, masturbation goes with the porn, but in a lot of cases it is a disease of distraction. People, rather than scrolling, will go on to porn and it becomes this obsession,” he said.
“My experience of dealing with men who view porn excessively is that it’s absolutely toxic and it causes havoc within not only the obvious relationships: your partner or close family, but in wider circles too.”
Dr Colin O’Gara, consultant psychiatrist and head of addiction services at St John of God Hospital pictured at the 35th St John of God Research Foundation conference on Tuesday. Photograph: Marc O’Sullivan
Prof O’Gara was speaking at the 35th annual research conference held on Tuesday by St John of God Research Foundation, which highlighted concerns around behavioural addiction among the Irish public.
Prof O’Gara said the advancements in artificial intelligence, virtual reality and robotics are all going to further challenges in this area.
“AI has been used in the gambling industry for a long time. It’s predicting who’s going to win money and it’s going to predict who’s going to predict how it’s going to bring the biggest return to shareholders,” he said.
“In terms of porn, I mean it’s pretty dystopian. There’s AI girlfriends and boyfriends that our teenagers are using and interacting with, but there’s also VR and then the potential for robotic partners. If you can go into a world and get lost there for a day, that’s not going to be good for productivity or somebody’s development.”