Pornophobia

Mental Health Counselling for Pornophobia the Fear of Pornography – Available in Wolverhampton and Online

Pornophobia is the Fear of Pornography or frequently may be the Fear of Using too much pornography.

On this Page:

• Pornophobia Symptoms
• Pornophobia Treatment

To some extent Pornophobia is the opposite of Porn Addiction in that it is an ‘over-exaggerated’ aversion to pornographic images or films. In truth this reaction may have more to do with the guilt or fear that a person may harbour due to social pressures and moral points of view, for example if you had a particularly religious up-bringing in which sex was regarded as a ‘sin’ or such like.

All phobias, regardless of what the feared object or circumstances are, produce feelings of Anxiety and Stress for the sufferer, and Pornophobia is no different in this sense.

Whilst the feared object or situation may seem, to other people, to be ‘ridiculous’ or ‘silly’, the person who suffers from Pornophobia knows only too well that the Anxiety that they experience is real enough.

We completely understand this here at TranceForm Psychology and will treat you and your Pornophobia seriously.

For many years Psychologists have been aware that our minds are more than capable of producing a real biological reaction to any given situation and so as long as the Pornophobia sufferer “believes” that the object or situation they fear represents danger to them, then they will experience real fear.

The majority of people who do suffer with Pornophobia recognise that their fear is “irrational” but continue to experience it regardless of this knowledge. This is why simply being told to “snap out of it” rarely produces a solution!

Pornophobia Symptoms

The symptoms of Pornophobia are very similar to other specific phobias and will often include:

• Avoid using the Internet
• Panic attacks
• Inability to Relax
• Problems Concentrating
• Being quick tempered
• Feelings of dizziness
• Prickly sensations like pins and needles
• Palpitations
• Aches & Pains
• Fatigue
• Dry and Sticky mouth
• Sweating Excessively
• Breathlessness
• Migraines and Headaches

Pornophobia Symptoms are generally automatic and uncontrollable and can seem to take over a person’s thoughts which frequently leads to extreme measures being taken to avoid the feared object or situation, what are known as “Safety” or “Avoidance” behaviours.

Unfortunately, for the sufferer, these safety behaviours have a paradoxical effect and actually reinforce the phobia rather than solve it!

Pornophobia may be the result of negative emotional experiences that can be either directly or indirectly linked to the object or situational fear.

Over time, the symptoms often become “normalised” and “accepted” as limiting beliefs in that person’s life – “I’ve learnt to live with it.”

In just as many cases, Pornophobia may have become worse over time as more and more sophisticated safety behaviours and routines are developed.

The good news is that the vast majority of people who suffer from Pornophobia will find a course of Psychological Therapy helps enormously.

Transform Your Thinking & Overcome Pornophobia

If you’re committed to overcoming your fear of pornography then we highly recommend following our Advanced Tranceformental CBT programme with Paul. Tranceformental CBT is available as Online Therapy if required.

The Tranceformental programme is a highly successful & pragmatic mental health counselling course, run over 10 sessions, that will teach you everything you need to know to understand your problem, identify how unhelpful thinking and limiting beliefs might be reinforcing the issue, and then show you how to make any changes to your unhelpful thinking styles or maladaptive safety behaviours that you may have developed as part of your coping strategies.

Our Tranceformental CBT programme is an evidence-based, research supported approach used by mental health practitioners around the World.