A fresh new FINAL reference!!!! Drawn by the wonderful Tea_Finch on twitter!
Now, researchers have put a nail in the coffin of porn addiction. Josh Grubbs, Samuel Perry and Joshua Wilt are some of the leading researchers on America’s struggles with porn, having published numerous studies examining the impact of porn use, belief in porn addiction, and the effect of porn on marriages. And Rory Reid is a UCLA researcher who was a leading proponent gathering information about the concept of hypersexual disorder for the DSM-5. These four researchers, all of whom have history of neutrality, if not outright support of the concepts of porn addiction, have conducted a meta-analysis of research on pornography and concluded that porn use does not predict problems with porn, but that religiosity does
If the concept of pornography addiction were true, then porn-related problems would go up, regardless of morality, as porn use goes up. But the researchers didn’t find that. In fact, they cite numerous studies showing that even feeling like you struggle to control your porn use doesn’t actually predict more porn use. What that means is that the people who report great anguish over controlling their porn use aren’t actually using more porn; they just feel worse about it.
Having moral conflict over your porn use (PPMI) does turn out to be bad for you. But that's not because of the porn. Instead, higher levels of moral conflict over porn use predict higher levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and diminished sexual well-being, as well as religious and spiritual struggles. In one study by Perry and Whitehead, pornography use predicted depression over a period of six years, but only in men who disapproved of porn use. Continuing to use porn when you believe that it is bad is harmful. Believing that you are addicted to porn and telling yourself that you're unable to control your porn use hurts your well-being. It's not the porn, but the unresolved, unexamined moral conflict.
This is a really good writeup.
Something it leaves out, which I think is very important and a major nail in the coffin of “porn addiction”, is that researchers did brain scans of “porn addicts” and found that they have the opposite response to the brains of people addicted to drugs, alcohol, and gambling:
When studying addictions, there are known relationships between certain stimuli and reactions in the brain. These reactions have, in some instances, become the benchmark for what constitutes an addiction and addiction-based behaviors. There has been heated debate over the very existence of porn “addiction” and what that addiction would look like when studied. In the largest neuroscience study of porn addiction to date, research conducted at UCLA found a clear reversal of the brain’s typical addiction response in study participants when they were shown sexual images. With the use of brain wave monitoring, participants who reported major problems controlling their viewing of sex films showed decreased brain reactions when shown the sexual images, rather than heightened activity as having a “porn addiction” would suggest. The study shows that the brain does not react the way an addict’s brain would react to cues for their drug of choice. In fact, the study shows that the hypothetical “sex addict” brain reacts in the opposite way that a drug addict’s brain reacts, questioning whether sex addiction actually exists. “This finding is important, because it shows a reversal of a part of the brain response that has been consistently documented in other substance addictions and gambling disorder,” Prause said. She also noted that this was consistent with their previous study, in which participants served as their own control and no relationship existed between the severity of their sex film problems and their brain response. Many self-identified “hypersexual” people say they have an uncontrollable urge for sexual stimuli, and that it has resulted in negative life consequences such as loss of jobs or loss of relationships. For this reason, many clinicians have suggested that "sex addiction" be diagnosed much like drug addiction. “While we do not doubt that some people struggle with their sexual behaviors, these data show that the nature of the problem is unlikely to be addictive,” said Prause.
This matters because a) the treatment for someone with an addiction that has affected their brain is different to people who are having problems that don’t have those effects, and b) the belief that porn is addictive like alcohol is a major plank in conservative attacks on it (and on sex workers). The reason that this has come back up now is that both Republicans and Democrats in Texas are trying to force porn websites to post disclaimers about porn being “biologically addictive” when it isn’t.
Hi hello it seems I’ve caught a rare strain of art block that makes me unable to draw in anything other than Kid Pix Deluxe 4™, but I still need to buy groceries and stuff so!! I’m gonna try my hand at some experimental commissions.
If you have some kind of whimsical OC and you want me to let me loose on them, now’s your chance! Give me a character and I will cook up something cool — there's no pose/style/background tiers, though I will try to put an equal amount of effort into every drawing.
Payment in USD through PayPal invoice only.
More info under the cut!
One single republican decided to base his vote on a reasonable evaluation of available data and it quite possibly improved thousands of lives. I hope maybe in my lifetime I’ll see an America where that isn’t shocking for a politician to do, and maybe one in which people’s entire well being doesn’t come down to just one extra guy having a shred of decency.
something very charming about “I don’t really know what’s going on here but I don’t think it’s my problem” as a response to the anti-trans hysteria
If you do want to go toe to toe with cops don’t do it at the main protest in your area. Start shit across town and split the cops’ resources. “Open a second front” so to speak and take some of the heat off of the people they have absolutely no qualms about harming. Split up and open up a third front, a fourth. Keep moving and keep them moving.
armed-joy
even the cities with the largest police budgets only have enough force multipliers for one big containment
Baby season kicking my ass this year.
I should also mention that this bunny is the sixth we've gotten this season that was brought into someone's house by their outdoor cat. I know every vet blog on this site sounds like a broken record, but for the love of god, keep your cat inside.
To address the people in my askbox and the tags of this post who are wondering why this rabbit isn't "tubed" because "thats how our wildlife clinic does things and you're causing this animal to be habituated":
Placing a feeding tube in an animal when it is not medically indicated to do so is ethically dodgy as fuck.
This rabbit was not a neonate when this picture was taken, and was not a neonate when initially presented to us. To place a feeding tube in him would require us to unnecessarily sedate and/or GA him, and we did not consider that necessary or worth the risk.
The rabbit is not habituated to any worrisome extent. While he would take milk from the syringe, he would immediately try to bolt once finished. We do not feed wild mammals/birds in my clinic without first masking, gowning, double gloving, and wearing a feature obscuring face shield. In short, we look like this:
We do not feed wildlife while looking or smelling like any human they are likely to encounter in the wild. If that rabbit was habituated, then it was habituated to the smell of latex rubber gloves and the sound of annoying ass coveralls rubbing against themselves.
@onenicebugperday i found this pretty boy awhile back :]
was frantically trying to get him away from where people may accidentally step on them D:> there's also the fourth picture where i was both panicking and trying to get a nice picture when i first discovered they were there
Dang that is one gorgeous little guy!
So we definitely need more positive representation of DID, but you know what would be funny? Mildly inconvenient representation of DID.
Oh the world is ending and you need to know about this one specific thing? Yeah I have a guy for that but he doesn't feel like fronting right now
Sorry what's happening rn is this the bad guy? Yeah I just switched in idk what's going on
I know you're dating one alter but we're currently co-con with another alter who hates you so idk how I'm feeling rn
And just who do i think I am? It's funny you should ask that I actually don't know right now
Wait I just remembered this. here u go :3
honourable mention
ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ
smallmetal
ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ
smallmetal
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smallmetal
ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ
smallmetal
ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ
smallmetal
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smallmetal
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smallmetal
ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ
smallmetal
ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ
xloy4lty
the 'Kon :)' in the list of things you're pleased about in aeiwam has be EXCITED please tell us more (if you want to)!
Soon after Masaki died, Isshin Kurosaki moved his family. It's mostly because the original clinic didn't feel haunted- if Masaki's spirit were still here, Isshin would know what to do, but instead he felt like his heels were dogged by the hole where she used to be.
It didn't hurt that the new place was larger, in a better school district, and closer to his friend Ryukken. He's almost feeling cheerful about the new place when Ichigo runs up the stairs and from room to room before calling dibs on one, because he's a big kid now and doesn't want to sleep where he has to listen to his dad snoring all night >:(.
Isshin felt slightly less cheerful when he looked out the big window in Ichigo's room to determine if he needs to put up some child safety grates, and realized their new neighbor was a taxidermist.
"I feel like it gives them a sort of dignity- A Life After Life, if you will." she said when he went by to make sure his neighbor was only eccentric and not something out of a horror movie. He wasn't entirely sure which, actually- Ms. Tanaka was an octogenarian with skin like tissue paper and a back like a question mark, but her living room was a veritable zoo of reconstituted animals, many of them former pets, if the number of domestic cats was anything to go by.
"Oh. Yeah!" Isshin grinned, terrified, and was struck by the idea of some goon in the 12th division slavering in the afterlife, desperate for her to shuffle off the mortal coil and bring her undoubted skills with dead bodies to R&D. "We've always been very spiritual people."
(Continued under the readmore)
I just remembered that back in '08 or so I joined a college-AU livejournal rpg with a Grimmjow Jaggerjack, notable for being a culinary arts major who smuggled a big fucked-up alley cat into his dorm room and spoiled it rotten, frequently seen afterwards snuggling it like a baby. Does this have anything in common with your take on him?
You know? I needed something for Grimjoww to be Fucking Weird About, and *food* is an extremely funny thing for him to be weird about. Both because in canon he uh, ate a bite of each of his besties for Friendship Reasons, and because you can't tell me whatever food Aizen was serving in Las Noches didn't completely suck ass. Aizen is a man who thinks Black Pepper is "too spicy" and that Oregano is "Exotic". The man has all-white interiors, all-white fashion, and probably eats exclusively white and off-white foods as well.
Grimjoww is now going to be VERY weird about food and that's gonna mesh HILARIOUSLY with Orihime's culinary aesthetics.
trying hork bajir for a change. ended up with a kinda halfassed Toby, a random sketch of a young male.. aaand an attempt at Jara Hamee and Ket Halpak gone outta control.
Humanity has finally reached the stars and found out why no one had contacted us. The universe is in a sad state. As such, Doctors without Borders, Red Cross, and many othe charities go intergalactic.
The thing the recruiters don’t tell you about space battles is that you die slowly.
Ships don’t blow up cleanly in flashes and sparks. Oh, if you’re in the engine room, you’ll probably die instantly, but away from that? In the computer core, or the communications hub? You just lose power. And have to sit, air going stale and room slowly cooling, while you wait to find out if the battle is won or lost.
If it’s lost, nobody comes for you.
It had been about half a day (that’s a Raithar day, probably a bit shorter than yours) and Kvala and I were pretty sure we had lost. Kvala was injured, Traav and I were dehydrated and exhausted, and Louv was dead, hit by shrapnel when the conduits blew.
Most fleets give you something, of course. For Raithari, it’s essence of windgrass. I looked at the vial.
“It’s too soon,” Traav said.
Kvala gestured negation, shakily. She had been burned when conduits blew, and her feathers were charred, and her leftmost eye was bubbly and blind now. Even if we were rescued, she probably wouldn’t survive. “You know we’re losing the war.”
They couldn’t deny that. “It doesn’t mean we lost the battle.”
“Doesn’t it? The Chreee have better technology. Better resources. And they have their warrior code. They don’t care if they die.”
“We can’t give up!” Traav protested. They were young, a young and reckless thar who had listened to a recruiting officer and still believed scraps of what they had been told. “Any heartbeat now—”
There was a clunk. Something had docked with our fragment of the ship.
“You see?!” Traav crowed triumphantly.
Kvala exchanged glances with me. The Chreee never bothered to hunt down survivors. What was the point, after all?
The Aushkune did.
There weren’t supposed to be Aushkune here. They were supposed to hide in nebulas.
But if there were—
If there were, we were too late. The windgrass couldn’t possibly destroy our nervous systems in time to stop the corpse-reviving implants, and once you were implanted, it was over—or it would never be over, depending on how you looked at it and whether Aushkune drones were aware of anything—
Footsteps.
Bipedal. The Aushkune were supposed to be bipedal.
And then the blast door opened, and a figure stood in it. My first thought was, robot? That’s almost worse than Aushkune . . . But no, it was a being in some sort of suit.
Who wore suits?
“Friendly contact,” the suit’s sound system blared, as the being moved over to Kvala. “Urgent treatment. Evacuation.”
“Who are you?” Kvala struggled upright.
Despite the primitive suit, the blocky being was using up-to-date medical scanners. “Low frequency right angle shape,” it explained—or maybe didn’t explain. Two more figures came into the room and put Kvala firmly onto a stretcher.
“You’re with the Chreee, aren’t you?” Kvala was not at all happy to be on a stretcher.
“Not Chreee,” the sound system said. “You Man. Soil Starship Nichols.” The being hesitated. “Rescue Chreee as well. On ship. Will separate.”
“You what?” I said faintly. Who would do that?
“Oath,” the being explained.
“What kind of oath? To what deity?”
The shoulders of the being moved up and down. “Several different. Also none. For me, none. Just—oath.”
I exchanged glances with Traav, who looked as unsettled as I was. I had never, ever heard of groups cooperating when they couldn’t even swear to or by the same power.
The being scanned me. “Have water,” it said. “Recommend.”
Raithari have fast metabolisms. I could—would—die of thirst quickly, and painfully.
“Where will you take us,” Traav asked, “after you give us water?”
“Raithari to Raithar. Chreee to Chreeeholm.”
“Chreeeholm would kill them for failing,” Traav remarked.
The being hesitated, and then said, “War news sometimes bad. Sometimes lie.”
We had learned long ago not to believe the recruiting officers, but what did that have to do with anything?
“And you—what?” I asked. “Just fly around looking for battles and rescuing victims?”
The being seemed to consider this. “Best invention of soil,” it said finally.
Most of what it was saying didn’t make any sense. Did it worship soil? But it had said that it had sworn to no deity . . .
Madness.
On the other hand—war was a deliberate, rational act by deliberate, rational people, and I wanted no more of it. So why not embrace madness and see what happened?
“Soil Starship—Rrikkol?” I asked, stumbling over the word.
“Yes. Soil Starship Nichols.”
I followed the being in the suit.
Took me well over a minute to realize "low frequency right angle shape" was Red Cross.
This whole thing is brilliant with translation stuff.
