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Porn vs. Cocaine

Dr. Robert Weiss LCSW, CSAT

As discussed in previous posts (hyperlinks), humans have a pleasure center in the brain that gives us a reward (feelings of pleasure wrought by the release and reception of dopamine) for behaviors that help us survive as both individuals and as a species. For example, cooperation, food, belonging, and sex are all behaviors that are essential for survival. Engaging in these behaviors creates natural rewards that motivate us to do things that keep us and our species alive.

Another useful bit of neurobiological information is that addictions burn discernible “pathways” in the brain. Over time, as addiction progresses, these pathways are reinforced to a point where scientists can tell if a person is addicted simply by looking at an fMRI scan of their brain. An addict doesn’t even have to be actively engaging in the addiction for observers to know they’re an addict. We can even tell what kind of an addict that person is. If they’re an alcoholic, we can tell by looking at their brain. If they’re an opiate addict, we can tell. If they’re a cocaine addict, we can tell that, too.

Except we might be wrong about the cocaine addict because that person might also be a porn addict. In other words, cocaine addict and porn addict brains are relatively indistinguishable. This means the neurochemical impact of cocaine and the neurochemical impact of porn addiction are the same. We will discuss the importance of that fact in a few moments. For now, simply file away the idea that from a neurobiological standpoint, the impacts of cocaine and pornography are shockingly similar.

Now let’s talk about dopamine, the neurochemical most directly associated with the formation and maintenance of addiction. Dopamine action occurs in a part of the brain known as the nucleus accumbens, which is more commonly referred to as the rewards center. When the rewards center of our brain is activated, we experience pleasure. Mostly this occurs with life affirming activities like eating, hanging out with friends, and being sexual, motivating us to engage in these behaviors and keep both ourselves and our species alive.

Our baseline level of dopamine (an arbitrary number set by neuroscientists for ease of use) is 100. When we are at rest with nothing much going on, good or bad, our dopamine level is 100. When we eat a nice meal, our dopamine level increases to about 120. Hanging out with friends gets us to around 130. Eating a nice meal with friends pushes the dopamine up a bit further. With orgasm, we reach the top of the naturally occurring rewards scale: 200.

  • Baseline: 100
  • Food: 120
  • Time with Friends: 130
  • Orgasm: 200

Unfortunately, addictive drugs (especially stimulants like nicotine, cocaine, and methamphetamine) and addictive behaviors can hijack the dopamine reward system, potentially causing the release of higher amounts of dopamine than we get through natural rewards. Though neuroscientists have not yet measured the increase for addictive behaviors like porn and gambling, they have measured the increase for the most common stimulant substances.

  • Nicotine: 220
  • Cocaine: 350
  • Methamphetamine: 1300

That’s right, nicotine gives a bigger dopamine rush than an orgasm! Is it any wonder people struggle to quit cigarettes? Meth, of course, provides a veritable explosion of dopamine, and, as such, it is generally regarded as the absolute hardest drug to quit and stay quit. (It also rots people’s teeth—the hardest substance in the human body—so imagine what it does to the soft tissue of brains, livers, kidneys, and the like.)

This brings us back to cocaine. As stated earlier, fMRI scans show that the brains of cocaine and porn addicts are virtually indistinguishable. From this, we may conclude that the high provided by pornography closely matches the high provided by cocaine—a dopamine rush of 350. Massive!

Interestingly, pornography gives users a bigger high (350) than the orgasm (200) that is supposedly the goal of porn use. In fact, many porn addicts describe the orgasm at the end of a porn binge as a letdown. This reinforces the idea that sex and porn addiction are not about sex itself. Instead, they’re about the incredibly intense anticipatory high wrought by sexual fantasy—a high that equals the high of cocaine.

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