How to Stop Porn Addiction – Don’t Watch the Super Bowl
Posted by Kurt Smith, MFT, AFC on Sat, Feb 11, 2012
Want to know how to stop porn addiction? Don't watch the Super Bowl.
The number of blatantly sexual commercials that ran during the 2012 Super Bowl shocked me. And I must qualify myself as not being a prude, and very accustomed to getting exposed sexually suggestive images when watching sporting events on TV. This Super Bowl, however, took it to a whole another level.
As a professional counselor who helps men with addiction to porn, I make this prediction -- more men are struggling with how to stop porn addiction because they watched the Super Bowl.
Here’s some of the highlights of what men watching were exposed to:
- Toyota had a commercial with 7 bikini wearing women posing as living room furniture;
- Teleflora ran an advertisement with a super model sexually rolling stockings up her leg and talking seductively to the men watching;
- Fiat's ad had a beautiful woman seducing a man by dropping whipping cream on to her cleavage;
- GoDaddy.com, never to be out done, had Danica Patrick and Jillian Michaels dressed in leather skirt and pants writing on the body of a nude super model.
The GoDaddy.com commercial ends with the announcer telling viewers to "see a lot more now at GoDaddy.com.” Another GoDaddy.com Super Bowl commercial featured Danica again sexually dressed and telling two young men that at GoDaddy.com you can "make your business and personal Internet dreams come true." Both gave direct instruction to go online and look at sexual images – the last thing a guy needs to hear if he’s wrestling with how to stop porn addiction.
Every man who saw these ads had his brain receive visual stimuli that was pleasing. When the brain gets this, it wants more. Sadly, most guys were not aware this was even happening and how they were being prepped to struggle with addiction to porn in the coming days.
Seeing these commercials was a recipe for failure if you were looking to stop porn addiction:
Sexual Images + Brain Reward + Verbal Instruction how to get more = Addiction to Porn
What's a guy to do if he wants to know how to stop porn addiction? 1) Wake up and become aware of all the ways your brain is being exposed to sexually suggestive images; 2) Start to stop yourself from looking.
I’ll share what the next steps are in how to stop porn addiction in another post. In the meantime, you can click here to find more help on porn addiction.