Gary Wilson, creator of the (IMO) awesome video series Your Brain on Porn, spoke earlier this summer at TEDxGlasgow (above).
It’s likely that folks will have issues with his science, but conceptually, I’m intrigued by the parallels between porn and food addiction. We are evolutionarily driven in search of both sex and food via our brain’s reward system to insure survivability of the species. And if you believe Wilson, “extreme versions of natural rewards have a unique ability to capture us” both in terms of food and sex, leading us to patterns of overuse and addiction (6:00).
The Coolidge Effect
Wilson starts off talking about the Coolidge effect, a
phenomenon — seen in nearly every mammalian species in which it has been tested — whereby males (and to a lesser extent females) exhibit renewed sexual interest if introduced to new receptive sexual partners,even after refusing sex from prior but still available sexual partners.
Here’s a slide showing this behavior in animals (1:10):
And folks who have visited Wilson’s site will remember the story of Sooty: the guinea pig who impregnated every female he came in contact with!
Wilson points out that Internet porn is more problematic than porn of the past because it’s the Coolidge effect in action: it’s “not mere nudity but novelty” (:50) … and with a high-speed Internet connection, that’s a whole lot of novelty!
So … anyone besides me think this instinct for novelty sounds an awful lot like the tendency to eat dessert despite being full? Or overeating at a buffet? Hmmm.
Older vs Younger
As with compulsive overeating, there is a downside to Internet porn addiction. In the case of the latter, it’s erectile dysfunction. And as with overeating, abstaining from the behavior results in more normal reward response.
Curiously, Wilson notes though that for younger men, this can take twice as long (4-5 months) as it does for older men. He attributes this to the fact that younger men have been exposed to high-speed Internet porn at a much younger age, which apparently results in major changes to their brains at a more formative time. If true, this suggests why obesity in childhood may be a big, big (no pun intended) problem.
Life after addiction
Wilson talks at the end of the video about life after Internet porn addiction when energy isn’t focused on the addiction and is instead available for other pursuits (15:25):
This reminds me of Marc Lewis’ comment that turning his “energy to other highly absorbing, challenging, attractive goals was surely helpful to me” in overcoming drug addiction.
I think this is a missing piece that may explain why paleo is not a panacea for some of us (especially women). For some, eating the right foods and doing the right exercise and getting enough sleep (although all of those are fundamental) may not be enough. Some of us may need something more to resist the lure of falling back into old patterns. So it may also be critical to invest time and energy into other areas too.
The concept of “vitamin P” — or pleasure — is a bit hokey, but apparently is getting to be more popular. Getting pleasure from eating is a good start, but finding other outlets for pleasure (especially that resonate personally in terms of meaning or purpose) as well as other ways to cope are probably essential to overcoming overeating for good.
Weight Maven is written by Beth Mazur. Beth believes that obesity is more symptom than cause and that the real problem is our Western diet -- especially sugar, refined grains, and industrial oils. Beth writes about nutrition, ancestral health & food policy. And cats! 
I think this is the missing link for many of us. I’m a compulsive overeater, whether I’m eating LC, Paleo, or low fat or even “clean whole foods”! Lately, I’ve come to believe that it’s more important for me to overcome the desire to eat excessively than it is to be on a particular “diet”. What ever the underlying reason that causes one to want to eat compulsively, one simply must substitute that eating with another activity, like you said. I need to find a purposeful outlet, and until I do, It dawned on me yesterday that I could even substitute binging with some house cleaning!!! I would finally have a clean house and maybe get saner to boot!
“Lately, I’ve come to believe that it’s more important for me to overcome the desire to eat excessively than it is to be on a particular ‘diet’.”
Amen to that!!
I think that the reboot process that Gary outlines for addicted folks is just that, learning not to binge on hyper-stimulating junk by not even binging on the natural stuff, until they’ve returned to a natural level of sensitivity and to be able to feel / enjoy a normal experience, and know what satisfied and happy feels like. Most of the successful rebooters (as they call them) learn to replace that time spent binging with other activities, such as meditation, exercise, music, dancing class, a healthier diet and/or digging in at work or school. They usually relapse a few times during the process, but the idea is to see it as a learning experience, and identify what triggers lead to the relapse, and either eliminate the trigger, or when that ‘thing’ happens again, pick a different activity to distract and/or self-soothe.
We’ve had to eliminate cashews, and walnuts in any form, from our house. Neither of us can eat just a small amount of them, even if they’re unsalted and “raw”. For us, they’re a trigger we can’t calorically afford to have around at the moment.
With any kind of compulsive behavior, the drive may be less related to seeking pleasure than avoiding pain. Our brains make a lot of substances, many of which appear to be related to emotional responses. Thus, for example, when shame or regret feel overwhelming, it may be a learned (psychophysiological) natural response to escape the distressing feelings with compulsive behaviors that, in turn, soothe not through pleasure but through a transformation in our internal neurophysiological (chemical) response. Perhaps we are not “addicted” (as the concept is commonly understood) to substances or behaviors but to our perceived need to control our feelings-especially those we have learned to believe (through past experience) are associated with frightening or distressing events. Maybe the cultivation of acceptance—in terms of our emotions—helps to stop the cycle of one’s perceived *need* to change (or fix) one’s emotions. Thus, with practice, feelings that once provoked an almost automatic reaction to escape through compulsion behavior can be relearned, with practice, as passing lived experiences we do not actually need to control in order to remain okay and safe. I guess that’s one reason I like to write poetry, even *bad* poetry. It offers a very hands-on way to practice acceptance of painful feelings without automatically reacting with the urge (perceived need) to control (eliminate or reduce) the feelings. Also, many times I don’t know what the discomfort I’m feeling may be associated with (I don’t even know how to name what I’m feeling), and writing a poem that doesn’t have to make any rational or logical sense helps me get at my feelings in other ways, say, through images. It helps me practice acceptance of whatever feels bad, without that automatic reaction (compulsion) to CHANGE the experience to something less threatening—it helps me learn to let go of the illusion of control. At least that’s how I interpret some of what has happened to me in the past few years. I don’t think I suffer more. I experience suffering in a different way—and have no desire to use eating as an escape. Eating when I feel pain, shame or grief, for instance, would now make me feel worse-not better. There’s no point, no payoff.
Hmm. I apologize if that comment sounded arrogant—as if I actually have some profound knowledge on the topic! Perhaps I should add to my remark the following caveat: mostly I’m just pondering stuff in writing (such as on your blog!) and somehow seem to benefit-emotionally-from whatever dialog I snag along the way. (LOL. Different from trolling!) I don’t really understand much. Nor can I provide anything like credible supporting evidence. I’ve noticed, however, that I tend to experience a bit more gratitude, acceptance (and, occasionally, delight) when I can share conversations that feel more intimate (meaningful) than discussing the kinds or amount of foods we eat (or don’t eat.) I hope that doesn’t sound critical or snobbish. It’s a personal preference, that’s all. These days I crave discourse that *feeds* my spirit. :)