‘There is always another picture or site available’

“PORNOGRAPHY is the crack cocaine of sex addiction.”

This is the view of Eoin Stephens, director of education and training at PCI College and the Centre for Sexual Addiction (CSA) in Dublin.

When the centre was established nine years ago pornography was well down on the list of concerns. Mr Stephens said the availability, affordability and anonymity of internet pornography has prompted its meteoric rise above all else on therapists’ problem sheets.

He said it appeals because it needs scant personal investment and extreme sexual situations become nice and exciting. Like any addiction it is completely artificial with intensely mood-altering affects.

It means people spending inordinate amounts of time and money constantly scouring the internet for videos and pictures.

“It is similar to gambling in that there is always another picture there or another site popping up. Maybe the next one will be better or more exciting and that is reinforced by the actual physical arousal in men so people get hooked,” he said.

In extreme cases the addiction bubbles to the surface as a quick release for sex offenders.

Mental health professionals still do not fully accept pornography addiction is a certifiable condition. It is not recognised on the universal diagnosis scale for psychiatric illnesses.

For the past 10 years an internal debate has raged within the American Psychological Association about the experiences of people who feel addicted to pornography and other sexual practices.

It has even been the subject of a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill but no definitive decision has been reached.

Dr John Hunter is an expert in treating sex offenders from his base at the University of Virginia. He is among the foremost researchers in juvenile sex offenders and said whether or not society decides to label the behaviour as an addiction this debate should not take away from the impact it has on people.

“It is becoming a major problem in the work that we are doing. I have kids in treatment who if they are left unsupervised for any length of time are breaking into their therapists’ computer trying to download porn. There is this compulsion there,” he said.

However, most cases dealt with by behavioural counsellors are not at this extreme or institutional level.

Mr Stephens said it is common to see professional men who wandered into the realm of internet pornography only to become consumed by it.

He said, however, this demographic is changing and recently the age profile of clients has started to include younger men.

“In the past few years the majority of our clients, particularly in this area, would never have been to a counsellor before.

“It is so accessible that as an addiction it develops quite quickly and recently we are seeing a lot more people in their 20s than before when it would have been middle-aged men mostly,” he said.

The CSA does not have figures on how widespread the problem is in Ireland. Mr Stephens is guided by American statistics which suggest 8% of people who view pornography on the internet will develop an addiction.

This can be seen against the backdrop of other, albeit limited, research on internet activity.

Sextracker estimates 70% of pornography is downloaded during working hours and Ireland has witnessed a number of high-profile dismissal cases in recent years where bosses have acted on employees’ internet activity. Mr Stephens said this is where the attraction starts and when it gets serious it is the litmus test separating the serious addicts from the foolhardy internet enthusiast.

“Most people will get their first warning when they get caught and they will stop but the addict might give it a break, but they will go back.

“They just cannot pull themselves away,” he said.