A Sydney clinical psychologist has suggested an explosion in porn viewing has contributed to surging levels erectile dysfunction.
His warning comes as medical practitioners are calling for further training on pornography addictions to address what they say is a growing problem among young people in the smartphone era.
The federal government is currently exploring age-verification protocols for online pornography sites with the average age of first exposure to pornography in Australia being around 11-years-old.
A Burnet Institute study found there was an extremely high use of porn among Australian teenagers in the smartphone era.
Billy Stoupas, 32, a GP in Oakleigh on the outskirts of Melbourne’s CBD, said doctors need training on how to talk to young people about pornography.
“I’m a relatively young man so I’m across it, but it is a newer problem,” he told news.com.au. “I just don’t think there is enough education in medicine. It isn’t taught at medical schools.
“Someone comes in feeling anxious, how do you know it is the porn they are watching? We know how to ask the questions about relationship stressors but we are not taught how to explore the issue of pornography in a relationship.”
Dr Stoupas says he is not anti-porn and believes “it can be accessed in a healthy way”, but argued there was an issue with the way young people were consuming it and the expectations it creates.
“You need an understanding of the showmanship and the theatre in it,” he said. “A lot of boys (even adults) can’t process it at that age.
“If they are not getting oral sex for 15 minutes, like they saw in porn, are they going to be less happy in a relationship?,” he said.
“The average time of intercourse is a few minutes but the expectations from porn is you are going to be hard for an hour, non-stop.
“I’ve had young adults talk about their first sexual encounter and it is not what they expected, they had these high expectations from porn and they feel astray.
“Others cannot maintain sexual intimacy with their partner, while others experience erectile dysfunction.”
Dr’s theory for erectile dysfunction explosion
Sydney clinical psychologist Angus Munro said the problem is far greater than people realise.
“Often it is has a hand in instigating and maintaining other disorders such as depression and anxiety,” he said.
“A sizeable number of young men who present with depression and social anxiety will reveal problematic levels of internet porn used when questioned and therapeutic rapport has been achieved.”
He said referrals skyrocketed after Covid lockdowns, something he puts down to the pandemic.
“The physical and emotional isolation during Covid, I would say increased the use of porn for many young guys and a percentage of them reached problematic or addictive levels,” Mr Munro said.
“When society returned to more normalcy many of these guys found general mood and anxiety issues that had not abated and found erectile difficulties when initiating new relationships that they had not previously experienced.”
Mr Munro says GPs are often the gateway to help you men.
“I do not know one GP who has any knowledge of internet porn addiction,” he said.
“When a young man presents with erectile dysfunction they seem to be almost universally prescribed Cialis and Viagra and/or told it is just performance anxiety.
“I think GPs need to screen for this. There are some measures of porn addiction that have been created in the last few years with indicative cut off points and reasonable initial psychometrics.
“It would be profitable for a GP to screen for porn addiction for any young male who presents with depression, anxiety or ED. Initially a simple question to help decide if further assessment is required.”
The reported prevalence of erectile dysfunction in young men has increased globally over the last decades, from 2 per cent to 5 per cent between 1999 and 2002 to 20 per cent to 30 per cent in more recent years, studies suggest.
“It should also be pointed out that erectile dysfunction can occur without a person being considered addicted to internet porn,” Mr Munro said.
“However, there is no other plausible argument I have seen to account for the enormous spike in ED in recent decades.”
Mr Munro says porn and food addictions are often the hardest addiction to overcome.
“Food and sex are tightly wired into your primitive brain,” he said. “When overcoming addictions in those areas, a person is not trying to rid themselves of sex or food, they are trying to redirect to a more nuanced or values-based interaction with them.
“That part of the brain is quite a blunt instrument and can easily be triggered to think the person is reducing their survival … chances and push back quite dramatically. Most other addictive processes don’t have that extra element attached.
“This is above and beyond the normal withdrawal processes which are at the heart of addiction maintenance. It’s not uncommon for people to say that beating heroin was easier than beating internet porn. I’ve heard that sort of thing more than once.”
The Australian Medical Association was contacted for comment but declined an interview request. A spokesman told news.com.au the association was currently in the process of development a policy around pornography addiction.
Story Credit: news.com.au