Can Pornography Cause Mental Illness?

A recent study by British researchers at London's Portman Clinic — a national health survey outpatient psychotherapy clinic — revealed that 26.5% of its young patients use porn. And according to The Sun, Britain's top newspaper, this number has dramatically risen from less than 1% in the late 90s. 

I can just see it coming. Imagine sitting home watching television one day in the near future. In a commercial, you see a child go into his bedroom, lock the door, turn on his computer, and unbutton his pants. Just then, the camera cuts away to reveal a bunch of facts and figures telling us why pornography is now the latest life-crippling disease.

After the long lists of harmful and potentially deadly side effects are narrated, you watch a happy family playfully interact at the beach. You are then finally told that "thiscrapobenzohexotrampoline" (its real chemical name) is now being released as "The Porn Pill," so make sure to ask your doctor or local pharmacist.

Mark my words, you may be laughing now. But I promise you, there are some individuals in the pharmaceutical world sitting around a table trying to develop a pill and marketing strategy to combat this mental illness. Now look, I'm not saying that there are some individuals who are addicted to porn and who are destroying their lives because of it. I'm sure there are plenty of them. But I think there are many holes in this study. 

The biggest hole could be that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of computers in the world from the late 1990s. And don't forget to mention all of the other handheld electronic devices that function and can be used as computers, such as phones, tablets and handheld games. We've come a long way from the late 1990s when cable modems had barely been introduced and most of the world was still using dial-up. But nowadays, anyone can have blazing high speed access to the internet anytime and almost anywhere.

So instead of having to find dad's Playboys hidden somewhere in his room, an individual can now have access to nude women (or nude men) almost anytime he wants from one of several sources. So do we need another useless study to tell us what is already so obvious?

I've got admit, I'm not a big fan of research studies because most of the individuals behind the studies usually have an agenda. Let's take this study, for example. On the surface, the study makes it seem that pornography itself is on the rise. And I don't dispute this in the least.

If you simply look at the world we've lived in for the last 15-20 years, the message of sex has become much more openly marketed and promoted in our world. Everything from the advertisements we see to the music we listen to is promoting sex. Why? Because as the old adage goes ... sex sells! This is not new, and anyone who thinks it is simply needs to come back from the stone age and look at what's around them.

What I find troubling about this study is that it was done and run by a psychotherapy clinic. That's like asking Kentucky Fried Chicken to do a study on fried foods. I'm sick and tired of all these research firms trying to make everything into a behavior and disorder, which ultimately is going to require some kind of legislation, pill or medical procedure to fix. Linking pornography to mental illness is like linking masturbating to murder. There may be some individuals who exhibit a certain behavior, but that doesn't mean there is a correlation between the two.

The bottom line is we live in a society of abnormal and unhealthy behavior. And to blame it on an illness is simply an excuse which keeps people from taking responsibility for their lives and their actions. Too many individuals blame pornography, society and their parents for their own abnormal behavior. 

And to make it worse, we live in a litigation happy world where you can actually sue someone to prove your point. Where else can a person spill hot coffee on themselves and be awarded a monetary settlement for their own clumsiness?

It makes you laugh, doesn't it? But don't worry; the pharmaceutical companies have the answers. The next time your adolescent, prepubescent boy searches the Internet to get his rocks off, you simply can call your local doctor and have him phone in a prescription to turn your son into a zombie with a limp d*ck. I can see it now: "The Porn Pill ... It's not Your Fault!" 

Joe Amoia, The Smarter Dating Guy, is the founder and creator of SmaterDatigForWomen.com. For more info visit http://www.SmarterDatingForWomen.com and while there make sure to grab a free copy of The ABC's Of Smarter Dating; 26 Tips & Strategies to Immediately Improve Your Love Life e-book