Scott Brassart

What is porn addiction? What does it look like? How do you know the difference between a person who uses pornography and a person who’s addicted to it? These are questions we hear a lot at Seeking Integrity. This post is designed to help answer these questions.

The basic criteria that sex and porn addiction therapists use to diagnose porn addiction are the same as with any other addiction, be it substance or behavioral. The three benchmarks are:

1. Preoccupation to the point of obsession with a substance or behavior (in this case, the behavior is viewing porn)
2. Loss of control over use of the substance or behavior (typically evidenced by multiple failed attempts to quit or cut back)
3. Negative consequences related to the obsessive, out-of-control use of a substance or behavior

If this sounds like you or someone you care about, we suggest taking the following super-quick porn addiction test. Please note that this short quiz is a preliminary assessment tool. Your answers can help you, in conjunction with a licensed professional, identify issues you may or may not have with pornography, one of which could be porn addiction. To take the test, simply answer yes or no to each of the following questions.

1. Do you ever feel overly distracted by, preoccupied with, or obsessed with pornography?
2. When you start to use pornography, do you sometimes have trouble stopping, consistently looking at it for longer periods than intended?
3. Do you ever use porn as a way to avoid stress, anxiety, loneliness, boredom, or other forms of emotional discomfort?
4. After you use porn, do you sometimes regret it or feel depressed?
5. Have you ever promised yourself or another person that you would stop using porn, only to break that promise later?
6. Do you ever look forward to events with family/friends ending so you can look at porn?
7. Have you ever kept secrets about or lied about your porn use?
8. Have you ever experienced negative consequences related to your porn use – relationship trouble, social/emotional isolation, issues at work/school, etc.?
9. Does your porn use potentially offend others, violate community standards, or place you in danger of arrest?
10. Do you feel restless, irritable, or discontent when you are unable to use porn?

Our experience at Seeking Integrity tells us that a ‘yes’ response to three or more of the ten questions listed above indicates that porn addiction may in fact be an issue. Experience also tells us that most porn addicts, if they are completely honest with their responses, will answer yes to at least half of these questions.

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If you or someone you care about is struggling with sex, porn, or substance/sex addiction, help is available. Seeking Integrity offers inpatient treatment for sex, porn, and substance/sex addicts, as well as low-cost online workgroups. At the same time, SexandRelationshipHealing.com offers a variety of free webinars and drop-in discussion groups, podcasts, and more.