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Porn Sites Try a New Service for Users: Therapy
Q&As and livestreams about addiction are now part of the package for Pornhub and Stripchat
As internet pornography has become more widespread, so too has hand-wringing about its potential harms. In 2016, a Time cover story examined pornography as “a threat to virility.” And many people take the very idea of porn addiction as a given — even as academic and medical communities remain largely undecided about how to diagnose or treat such an addiction or whether excessive consumption of pornography can be considered an “addiction” at all.
For porn consumers — particularly young ones who are still learning about healthy sexual habits — the current state of the conversation around porn addiction can feel decidedly one-sided. If you find yourself struggling with anxiety over your own porn habits, a Google search is likely to lead you to an anti-porn resource like Fight the New Drug, a Utah-based nonprofit founded by a group of Mormons, or Your Brain on Porn, a site run by self-identified recovering porn addicts, where total abstinence from adult content is presented as the only healthy solution.
Many sexual health professionals see that message as troubling. While it’s true that a small number of people have unhealthy, compulsive…
