“Drugs that mimic the chemical properties already in the brain and are part of this natural pleasure circuit, those are the ones that we get addicted to,” he added. “So porn isn’t crack for your eyes, crack is smoked sexual arousal.”

Struthers even contended that when people are lacking intimacy in their everyday relationships, such as with their spouse, children or parents, they will often turn to pornography to “self-medicate.”

“What happens with [porn addiction] is we starve ourselves of all these other forms of [non-genital] intimacy, and so we run to this one type of genital intimacy,” Struthers said, noting that porn then becomes “a substitute for these other forms of intimacy that we are searching for.”

“So [people] run to [porn] instead of running to those real relationships,” he added. “It’s like eating a snickers bar when you really need a salad. A snickers bar isn’t going to fulfill your proper nutritional need, and instead, it’s actually going to make you more unhealthy, but it tastes so good in that moment. So the more snickers you eat, the less sweet apples become. But if you stop eating snickers, eventually the sweetness of that apple is going to come back.”

“It’s like eating a snickers bar when you really need a salad.”
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Dr. Donald Hilton, a brain surgeon based in San Antonio, Texas, who is well-known in the medical field for his studies on pornography use, explained during his presentation the specifics of a physical pornography addiction, including how chemicals — such as dopamine and adrenaline — play a role in a user’s dependence on smut.

Eventually, as a person repeatedly uses pornography, Hilton told the gathering that the human brain physically changes itself, explaining that recent studies have proved that a human brain addicted to pornography is very similar to a human brain addicted to cocaine.

“With any learning activity, we see changes in the brain specific to the activity, whether playing the violin, juggling, taxi driving, or intense studying,” Hilton told TheBlaze. “Addiction is a powerful learning activity and also has a footprint which is characteristic in all addictions.”