Are you suffering from webcam addiction? Webcam addiction is a concept that may seem ridiculous on its face. However, it’s becoming a real problem thanks to the proliferation of webcam sites and online pornography in general.
Are you addicted to porn or cams?
Much like porn, webcam addiction not only drains your wallet, but has negative effects on your body, your brain, and your sex life. Excessive use of webcams will affect your relationships and keep you from enjoying actual sex, sometimes inducing erectile dysfunction or worse.
While there’s nothing wrong with enjoying webcams from time to time, addiction is unhealthy and can lead to numerous repercussions for your life. Read on to find out what webcam addiction is and how you can combat it if you have it.
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Porn and Webcam Addiction
The past decade has seen an explosion in the availability of pornography online. High-speed broadband Internet made it much easier for porn companies to distribute content to users, and the rise of “tube” sites such as YouPorn and PornHub allowed users to access millions of pornographic videos at the click of a mouse.
High-speed Internet also facilitated the rise of webcam sites such as My Free Cams, which allow webcam models to sell their services directly to customers.
One of many cam sites available.
Webcam shows differed from porn videos in that they were interactive: instead of watching a prerecorded clip, users could solicit live performances from models in exchange for tips. This allowed men to watch whatever acts they wanted, as well as develop an emotional connection with models they really liked.
The sheer availability of porn online has led to numerous studies into how it affects the minds of its users. Sites such as Your Brain on Porn have compiled considerable evidence of the negative aspects of porn use, many of which apply to webcam use as well.
The central issue with porn use in the modern era is that mens’ brains are overloaded with sexualized content to a degree that men who lived in the past never had to contend with. Additionally, boys are now able to access porn at younger and younger ages thanks to the Internet. Here are some of the negative effects of porn and webcam usage.
1. Porn and webcam use abuses the brain’s dopamine and creates addiction
Dopamine is a chemical secreted by the brain whenever something pleasurable is encountered, creating a feeling of satiation. While it’s normal to feel pleasure from things such as eating, having fun, or having sex, porn and webcams artificially stimulate dopamine production, causing addiction.
Because there’s no limit on how many cam girls you can enjoy in a certain time period—unlike other types of addictions—it is very easy to become addicted.
Another factor in dopamine production and porn and webcam addiction is the Coolidge effect, in which men have a burst of virility and dopamine when switching to new sexual partners. Webcams allow men to switch between new models rapidly, further increasing their chances of addiction due to the added novelty.
The Coolidge effect.
Because the human brain cannot distinguish between a live woman and a model on a screen, masturbating to porn or webcam models can easily become a substitute for actual sex. Users can also switch between multiple models during a single session, amplifying the Coolidge effect in their brains and furthering their addictions.
Here’s a quote from a case study on how porn and webcam addiction can turn a man’s life on its head:
“Steve felt lifeless and empty, devoid of energy, interest, or capacity of enjoyment. The only thing that gave him a sense of aliveness was a sexual encounter. For months after his wife declared that she was leaving, he found that his sexual fantasies and urges to masturbate were becoming more and more imperious. He realized that if he did not masturbate, he would remain “horny” all day, which would make him feel restless, irritable and discontent.”
2. Porn and webcam addiction harm your imagination
Absent pornography use, most men have sexual fantasies based on their imaginations: girls they are dating/married to, know socially, or celebrities they find attractive. Porn and webcam abuse replaces your imagination with what you see in videos or on webcam streams, altering your sexual tastes and making it more difficult to become aroused by actual women.
What porn does to your mind.
In adult men, porn and webcam addiction can cause erectile dysfunction, as screen-induced addiction leaves them unable to be attracted to flesh-and-blood women. For younger men and boys, heavy porn and webcam use can permanently alter what they are attracted to, making them addicted to particular fetishes.
Like other addictions, porn and webcam addiction often forces users to seek bigger highs—in the form of more extreme content—as they develop a tolerance to less extreme content. For example, some porn addicts report that they started watching gay porn despite not being gay; they had become so desensitized to heterosexual porn that gay porn became the only way they could get off.
3. There is no limit to porn and webcam use, facilitating addiction
With many types of addictions, there is a natural limit of how much the body can take before it is forced to stop indulging temporarily. For example, consuming too much alcohol or drugs in a single sitting will result in the user throwing up, passing out, or possibly dying from an overdose.
Porn/cams don’t affect you like drink or drugs do.
With porn and webcam addiction, there are no physical limitations to overindulgence aside from ejaculation, which can easily be overcome once the user’s refractory period ends. This makes it easy for users to become hooked.
4. Webcam addiction is expensive
In contrast to porn sites, of which there are countless free ones, webcam models charge money for men to use their services, making an addiction a pricey endeavor. Here’s how one man on Reddit described the effects of webcam addiction on his wallet:
Cams can get REALLY expensive.
“I’m tired of it draining my bank account. There are a few times that it drained my account to the point of it being in the NEGATIVE. Yet, I always kept coming back for more despite saying I would never do it again. Because of this addiction, I have basically no emergency money in case I lose my job or something bad happens.”
But when an addiction takes hold, it can do terrible things for your bank balance. Take this horror story for example. A guy addicted to cams and one porn star model named Maitresse Madeline in particular spent $42,000 in a bidding war fo a 1 hour fetish session! Yes, you read that right.
5. Webcam addiction harms your ability to form relationships with women
As stated above, porn and webcam addiction harm your attraction to actual women, leading to erectile dysfunction. However, because users interact with webcam models on a personal level, these transactions can take the place of actual relationships in the user’s mind.
It’s hard to get dates or form a relationship with women.
Because webcam models are sex workers, they will say or do whatever they have to in order to make their customers happy, and while there’s nothing wrong with this, it’s no substitute for having a girlfriend or wife who genuinely cares about you.
Webcam addiction can subsequently harm your ability to form relationships with women by giving you unrealistic expectations, since “relationships” with webcam models lack the rough edges and patches that real relationships inherently have.
Not only that, men who are addicted to cams have reportedly found it hard to get sexually aroused by normal women who are seemingly less sexy in their looks and don’t have the same sexual appeal that a professional cam model would have.
How to Cure Webcam Addiction
If you find yourself spending inordinate amounts of time and/or money on webcam models, you need to stop. Here are some methods you can use to combat your addiction.
1. Use a web filter program to block cam sites
There are numerous website filtering programs you can download to your computer that can be used to block webcam and porn sites. Programs such as K9 Web Protection and Net Nanny are easy to install and can be readily configured to block pornographic content from your computer.
Most popular porn/cam blocking software.
To keep yourself from merely using the password to unblock webcam sites, one thing you can do is choose a randomly generated password that is eight or more characters long.
A long password made up of numbers, symbols, and both upper- and lowercase letters will be harder for you to memorize, forcing you to go to your email should you need to look it up and making the process of getting onto webcam sites much harder.
2. Keep track of things that can give you the urge to access cam sites
What triggers your urges?
Given how sexualized modern society is, there are numerous stimuli you can encounter on a day-to-day basis that could give you the urge to go to a webcam site. Note down what you react the most strongly to so you have an easier time resisting it. When you successfully resist your urges to watch webcam models, you’ll get a self-esteem boost that will propel you to greater heights.
3. Find an accountability partner
Find an accountability partner.
Having a friend or other close person in your life to keep track of you and make sure you don’t fall off the wagon can make it all the easier to kick your webcam addiction.
You might be thinking “No way am I going to tell other people about my addiction to cams”, but trust me… if you want to conquer this sickness then you should do it, because it’s proven that an accountability partner is much more likely to help you achieve your goals.
4. Reduce your Internet usage
Track your time spent on cam sites.
Many webcam addicts report that much of their addiction is fueled by overusing the Internet, as they will resort to porn when they are bored and having nothing else to do.
If you don’t need to be on the Internet, get off your computer and go do something else. Engaging in hobbies or hanging out with friends instead of killing time online won’t just help curb your webcam addiction, it’ll also be better for you in general.
5. Read up on porn and webcam addiction
Websites such as the aforementioned Your Brain on Porn and r/NoFap are treasure troves of information when it comes to porn and webcam addiction. You can also find many YouTube videos on the subject as well.
Reduce your time spent masturbating to porn/cams.
By understanding how webcam addiction works, you can recognize the signs of it in yourself and how to combat them. You can also get help from other users of these sites who are going through the same struggles as you.
It’s also worth asking yourself if you have specific reasons for abusing webcam sites. By tackling the specific issues that have driven you to a webcam addiction, you can more easily root out the problem and get rid of it.
Conclusion: What to do next…
Never before in the history of humankind has so much pornography been so easily available. It’s entirely possible that boys growing up today have seen more naked women than all of their male ancestors combined.
Webcam addiction is a product of the Internet porn glut, created due to the human brain not being able to handle constant sexual stimulation, and the harm it is causing men is only now beginning to be understood.
If you’re addicted to porn or webcam models, you’re far from the only one, and you can break out of it. While there’s nothing wrong with enjoying webcam sites from time to time, an addiction will harm your physical health, your relationships with women, your sex life, and your bank account.
With the strategies in this article (make sure you re-read everything above) and elsewhere, you can curb your webcam addiction and restore your brain and body to normal. Good luck!