Erectile dysfunction is becoming more common in young men, with a quarter of all those newly diagnosed now under 40. And experts believe that a major factor in this rise is performance anxiety triggered by pornography. Dr Catherine Hood, a psychosexual therapist and specialist in sexual medicine, explains: “Pornography is fantasy material that is made for arousal, so it is designed to press all the buttons at once.
“You don’t go and watch a Marvel movie and come out thinking you can fly, but people watch porn and think that’s reality. It’s selling an experience that real life can’t match and that sets up quite a poor expectation in young men about what their bodies are capable of. This fuels anxiety around sex and it can become difficult to get an erection as a result of pornography.
“We have also seen a rise in anxiety more generally, particularly in younger adults, and we know this generalised anxiety is often a factor with ED as it becomes another focus for a brain that’s already overthinking a lot, and physiologically, anxiety reduces arousal.”
Experts say men watch porn and believe this is reality
This was highlighted in an evidence review in the International Journal of Impotence. It reported that 37 per cent of men with ED also had an anxiety disorder, prompting researchers to….READ FULL ARTICLES