Addictive tendencies are extremely common among all types of people. Addiction can affect the lives of those addicted as well as those around them. Most people turn to these addictive behaviors as a coping mechanism, but if we teach our children positive coping skills, they’ll be less likely to turn to unhealthy habits like drugs, alcohol, porn and binge eating.
Encourage your kids to talk about and express their feelings. When they are dealing with a difficult situation, help them talk it out, sort it out, and make a plan for how to handle it most effectively.
All of us have a reward circuit in our brains. This circuit is activated when we engage in behaviors that further our survival (having sex, eating, bonding, experiencing novelty are examples).
- Within this circuit is the brain’s reward center (the nucleus accumbens). Some substances and behaviors that are actually damaging to a person also stimulate the brain’s reward circuit and reward center.
- It is here that drug and alcohol use and porn use boost dopamine, a neurotransmitter that helps produce pleasurable feelings, thus prompting more cravings.
- In order to satiate these strong cravings, a user will return to the behaviors that gave them that initial blast of dopamine. As these behaviors are repeated, new pathways are created in this reward circuit to make it easier for dopamine to be released . Think of it like a mountain trail. The more a person uses it, the more worn and the deeper the grooves in the earth are. (Scientists refer to this phenomenon as neuroplasticity, in which the brain is continually laying down new pathways based on one’s experiences.)
- These deepening pathways are the physical evidence of tolerance. As a user becomes more tolerant, he/she needs more extreme amounts of what stimulates them to attain the “high” or, in the case of porn, the sexual release they received from earlier porn use.
Good coping skills are necessary throughout life, and the earlier kids learn, the better they’ll be able to handle challenges and emotions and the less likely they’ll turn to to addictive behaviors.
Curious to learn more? Check out our books, ; How to Talk to Your Kids About Pornography, which is also available in ; and .
Need Help with Tough Topics? We got you covered!Resources:
Your Brain on Porn: How Internet porn affects the brain (May, 2015). (n.d.). Retrieved August 22, 2015educateempowerkids
