Effects on the brain and psyche. 1. Many people believe that images that we view are harmless, or that the only harm it inflicts is moral in nature. 2. Our brain is like a supper sophisticated computer, any image we take in stays with us and is forever recorded and becomes a part of our psyche. We may not want to remember certain things we have scene, but it will always be there, and you may not always be able to control when it will surface. Example: I was a Police Officer for ten years and a Detective for most of that. I also served several years on the Metro S.W.A.T. team. I have observed more than my fair share of gruesome sights. I have investigated more deaths and attended more autopsies than I care to remember. At one point I was called out for SWAT on an individual that wanted to commit suicide and was barricaded in is house. I will not go into detail but while dealing with the particular circumstance I was exposed to the most horrific scene. As the other Officers I dealt with the incident and did my job, and later that night I did not think much about it. Several days later however I started to experience nightmares, irritability and an inability to keep from replaying in my mind every dead body I had ever investigated. I sought help and found out that I along with the other officers at the scene had been experiencing Post traumatic stress disorder. I was able to work through the problem and resume my duties, unfortunately some of my colleagues were not able to work through the incident and ended up leaving the profession. If you think that images can not hurt you think again. 3. when one views pornography several things begin to happen. Blood vessels dilate the heart rate speeds up and chemicals are released into the brain. These chemicals are called endorphins and endorphins are custom made in the body to produce the feeling of pleasure and euphoria. Each individual produces endorphins that are designed specifically to work the best for that person. These chemicals when appropriated in the body in the prescribed amounts and through normal means, they work perfectly. Pornography like any other external stimulus acts on the amount and frequency that these chemicals are released Pornography actually causes a chemical bath in the brain, when this happens the endorphins released are 5 to 7 times more addictive than cocaine. The addiction begins and at that point the addict can receive a chemical bath just by thinking about previously viewed pornography, or by rehashing fantasies that were concocted while viewing pornography. I have known individuals who would receive an endorphin release just by hearing the sound the computer makes as it logs onto the internet. Prolonged use of pornography will actually alter the chemistry of the brain. People in this condition need constant stimulation and endorphin release just to feel some what normal. If the stimulus stops usually a deep depression or anxiety takes them over. Like any other addiction the mild images that you begin with will soon lose their effect in the release of endorphins, and to obtain the same level of excitement more and more vulgar scenes will be sought out until you are far from the person you were when you started. As a Police Officer I investigated a young man who started by viewing swim suit models on the internet, in a matter of months he had reached the depths of depravity. He had devised a plan to kid nap, torture and then kill a young girl to gratify his now warped lusts. If you indulge in pornography you will become desensitized to that which is wholesome, good and natural and be left to pursue that which is filthy, vulgar and unnatural. |
