Does watching porn create mood swings.
By
Kashif Mag
By
Kashif Mag
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Does watching porn create mood swings? I'm Dr. Trishley. Let me answer that for you. Well, yes, in fact, watching pornography does cause mood swings. And in this video, I'm going to break it down in three ways.
00:17Number one, I'm going to tell you how, how it impacts your life, how these mood swings might be showing up for you. Number two, I'm going to show you the neural mechanisms behind how it shows up for you. And actually, that's one A. Those are both the same bullet point.
00:33Number two is going to be when you quit porn and leave the habit behind, what happens to your mood then? Does it get better? Does it get worse? We're going to look at what happens when you leave it behind.
00:46Then number three is going to be your awesome brain tip on how to stabilize your mood as you're leaving the habit behind. That's your brain tip for the day. So stay with me until the end.
00:57Okay, let's crank it up. Number one, what is happening in your life when you experience mood swings? And what are the neural or brain mechanisms behind those mood swings?
01:09Okay, so first what happens is you will be in situations that feel stressful more often, and you will be more stressed out by those situations.
01:23So let me explain it just a little bit. What happens is because your brain goes back to the screen so often to get a dopamine flood into your system of feel-good neurochemicals, then when you're in your world, in your life, so for example, if you're in your kitchen with your five children making them breakfast, I know that might not be your life, but that's mine.
01:47But let's say you're there in the kitchen, but let's say you're there in the kitchen, and now you have to deal with life. All these kids, you're making breakfast, yada, yada, yada.
01:54What happens is your brain is used to the flood of neurochemicals from the screen, and you have less in your system when you are in the kitchen, and it needs more and more and more.
02:05It needs to go back to the screen just to feel okay.
02:08So now that kitchen becomes twice as stressful for you as it would be for me.
02:14At the same time, your body and your brain is releasing more cortisol to offset not having the dopamine.
02:23Cortisol is the stress neurotransmitter, so not only will you perceive the kitchen scenario more stressful than I will, your ability to handle it is only half as good as my ability to handle it because your system is being flooded with stress neurochemicals at the same time.
02:45And wait for it, there's still more.
02:47So we know that when you go back to the screen often, what happens is the reward circuitry in the midbrain is basically being fried out.
02:56So your brain needs more and more and more of the dopamine just to feel okay.
03:01It's habituation.
03:01So now what also happens is your prefrontal cortex, the area in your brain that is going from the front of your brain down into the middle to pump the brakes on needing those reward, that area is underactive.
03:18It's not doing its job.
03:20So you have less of ability to be able to bring your stress down.
03:27So you and I are standing in the kitchen and things get a little stressful.
03:31It's a little stressful for me.
03:33It's seriously stressful for you.
03:35And you're perceiving it as even more stressful.
03:38Then what happens is I can deal with the stress.
03:41You can't.
03:42So you feel even more moody and irritable.
03:46And you might yell.
03:47You might freak out.
03:50You might stomp off because your brain is being flooded with the stress chemicals and you have less of the ability to handle it.
03:59Okay, so that's what's happening in mood swings.
04:01That's why when you go back to the screen and you flood yourself with dopamine, you feel okay again.
04:07But then if you go for a certain amount of time without it, you may get more irritable, which that leads us to number two.
04:14Number two is when you leave a pornography habit behind.
04:17Now what happens to your mood?
04:20Well, if you guessed it, it can get worse before it gets better.
04:25But it's worth it.
04:26It is worth it to push through.
04:28And I know you can do it.
04:30So when you feel irritable, we're going to go to the brain tip in a minute.
04:33I'm going to give you some strategies.
04:34But when you feel irritable and you are moody and your relationships are starting to be strained a little, know that you're moving in the right direction if you're leaving the habit behind.
04:46Your brain is unwiring and you are going to rewire it with these strategies.
04:52Okay, number three.
04:53So what can you do to stabilize mood?
04:56Well, you can do a lot of things.
04:58But in this video, I'm just going to touch upon a couple of things.
05:00The number one thing you can do is stick to a consistent schedule.
05:05And it's important to stick to a consistent schedule because you need time for connection with other people and try to do it in the least stressful situation.
05:15So try not to make your time for connection whilst making breakfast and lunch for five children.
05:21Because let me tell you, that's slightly stressful.
05:24But if you're hanging out and you're watching TV so you don't have to engage so much with your five kids, then that is a softer environment to engage, especially as your brain is adjusting.
05:36And then what happens is you can build up to, you know, engaging in a little bit more interaction.
05:43But give yourself some grace and ease into connection, knowing that things might trip you up more than if you were going back to your habit.
05:51So then in that consistent structured schedule, you also need time for yourself.
05:57So make sure you're giving yourself the time for your brain to not have to regulate itself in front of other people.
06:04Because self-regulation and mood regulation can be pretty challenging for you.
06:09And I just want you to know, because I know it's important to, well, actually it's important to some people, but it should be important to all people, that what I'm talking about here is based on a study from Lair and Brand.
06:19So this is all found to be true about people who consume more pornography.
06:25They have abnormal mood regulation.
06:28There's studies that prove that what I say is true.
06:31So it will become more difficult for you to regulate your mood.
06:35So give yourself an out.
06:37Read a book.
06:38Relax.
06:38Do your favorite hobby.
06:40Go for a walk.
06:41Don't put yourself in a situation where you have to be on all the time.
06:45The beautiful way that you can use your brain is have your brain be on, producing, taking information in, but then give it a break so that you can be by yourself and you can neurointegrate.
06:56I know for me, because I'm a type 5 Enneagram personality, I need lots of time to myself.
07:04And just about everybody who loves me knows that.
07:07I am on and I am just all in when I'm engaging with people.
07:11But then I'll be like, all right, peace out, because this girl has to go recover.
07:15And so if we go away with our besties, you know, I'm the one who needs to go into my room and read a book or meditate or use my brain training headband.
07:26Yes, I do that so that I can bring my system back into the middle so I can go back and engage with my friends and family and be on.
07:34I can't stay on for 10 hours.
07:35It will literally kill me.
07:37I can be on for two hours and then I need to take a break.
07:40I encourage you to do that also.
07:43So that is your brain tip.
07:45Let me give you another brain tip also that you can think about.
07:48What we're trying to do is create balance in the system so that you don't have to feel the need to go back to the dopamine for a high high.
07:56So what I'm trying to do is to help you to not hit a low low.
08:01So another way to do that is to balance your system by eating well.
08:06Eat clean.
08:08Because the more junky food that you eat, your system has to deal with toxins.
08:13And that can really make your system sluggish.
08:16It can make you feel more irritable.
08:18We know food can impact mood.
08:21So keep that balanced, structured schedule.
08:24Eat clean.
08:25Try to keep as many things in the middle and balanced as possible.
08:29But those two tips will really help you out.
08:31Okay.
08:31If you are looking for help on this journey, please go visit my website at drtrishlee.com.
08:36I am here for it.
08:37I want to support you.
08:38I want you to be successful in this reboot journey because your brain and your life will thank you.
08:45On the other side of this is a better version of yourself that I know you want and I know you deserve.
08:52So let's do this.
08:53Okay.
08:54All right.
08:54And remember, control your brain or it will control you.