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hey welcome back for another episode of porn brain
rewire with me Dr Trish Lee today we are going to
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discuss if porn causes ADHD yes I know that's a
big conversation that's definitely loaded but I
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wanted to broach the subject because it's
National ADHD awareness month so I talked
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to so many men who tell me that they were just
diagnosed with adult ADHD and and I got to tell
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you it chaps my AR a little bit when I hear it
so often and I'm going to tell you why but in
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this podcast what we're going to do is we are
first going to discuss what ADHD is in terms
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of brain performance in terms of frontal lobe
functioning in terms of the reward system this
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is a good conversation for everybody attention
we'll just talk about attention first and then
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the lack of attention so stay with me for that
piece then we're going to go to what porn does
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to your brain in relation to attention and focus
and ADHD then third what we're going to do is talk
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about how can you know for sure if you have what
I call quote unquote organic ADHD or if your brain
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has been impacted by porn use in a similar but
different way and then stay with me until the
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end of this podcast because of course I'm going to
have your brain hack strategy for the day on how
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you can improve your attention and focus okay so
let's dig in get your Journal out get your pen out
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so that you can process these Concepts especially
if you struggle with attention or if you have been
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diagnosed with ADHD okay number one let's talk
about what is ADHD in terms of brain performance
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or brain functioning so we are going to back up to
attention so we'll start with the conversation on
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how does a tension fall out in the brain well
basically very simplified in terms of the way
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I think about brain performance which is using
EEG electrogram there have been all the areas
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of our brain have been identified for the skill
or ability that they are in control of so we know
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that this area if you're watching me on YouTube
this area up in the left frontal lobe is the area
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that's Prim primarily responsible for attention
working memory uh over on the right hand side
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we also have impulse control and judgment so the
whole frontal Lo we're going to keep it simple I
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was going to go on and on but I I vowed to keep it
simple so we're not here for 52 minutes again but
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the frontal lobe is for attention focus working
memory on the left impulse control and judgment
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primarily on the right the entire higher frontal
lobe is for socialization and we know that the
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frontal lobe is linked through Pathways to the
reward center in the midbrain so attention is
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primarily upfront in your brain and when you have
the ability to focus and you're in Cal Focus you
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have the ability to attend you're not impacted by
distractors your brain is running at the perfect
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speed to be able to focus on what you are doing
doing and then be able to move through small steps
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to a larger end goal gleaning rewards at tiny
small pieces or at small amounts along the way
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but then culminating in the completion of a bigger
project this is called executive function at the
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completion of this bigger project your brain gets
a larger amount of dopamine so that's what optimal
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brain performance feels like when your frontal
lobe is running well now what I mean by running
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well is that it's using electrical energy at
the perfect frequency and frequency is Hertz
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it's literally cycles per second of how fast
that electrical energy is moving in your brain
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so typically between around 12 and 15 Hertz is
optimal frequency for calm Focus calmer is going
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to be down closer to 10 more focused is going to
be up to 15 Hertz 15 Hertz is 15 cycles per second
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it's your brain's humming along at a perfect
speed if you can conceptualize it and I've got
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my fingers twirling at a really comfortable rate
on YouTube if you're watching me there so what
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happens when you have difficulty with attention
one of two things or both simultaneously occur
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so one of these two things might happen or they
might happen comorbidly at the same time the first
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thing is that your brain might be running too
slow so if you have organic ADHD you were born
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with a brain that at rest or when you're trying
to focus runs a little bit slow slower closer to
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7 Hertz so it's functioning down here more slowly
which makes it difficult to attend because we want
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it up at 12 to 15 Hertz that's why doctors will
prescribe stimulant medication because the goal
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is to get this slower 5 to 7 Hertz brain to go
12 to 15 Hertz in the day unfortunately there's
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many uh very challenging ramifications to taking
a stim a stimulant medication in the short run and
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definitely in the long run so the goal is though
to speed up the brain from 5 to 7 Hertz to 12 to
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15 Hertz so it's humming along so the organic
ADHD is a brain that is using two too much slow
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processing speed and the way that I talk about
this slow speed is kind of like your brain has the
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brakes on and the reason I say that is because 12
to 15 Hertz is a speed called beta and it's kind
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of perfect processing speed this slower speed 5
to 7 Hertz is called Theta Theta is like having
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the brakes on in your brain Theta is supposed to
engage to make you feel groggy and to help you
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fall asleep in the evening it's not supposed to
be engaged while you're at work or while you're at
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school that's what will drag your brain and make
you feel tired or fatigued or make it feel very
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difficult to attend it also creates impulsivity
or the need for stimulation because the slower
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running brain wants to find something to stimulate
it to help it speed up so Theta kind of gets a bad
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wrap but it gets the bad wrap because it's cre
creating all of these challenges within the day
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when we really wanted to engage in the evening
to engage the Sleep Cycle so this slow speed's
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called Theta it's like putting the brakes on but
you don't want the brakes on in your brain during
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the day you want your foot off the brake and your
brain gassing at the perfect speed 12 to 15 Hertz
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for calm Focus now I said one of two things or
both is happening the second thing is that your
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brain might be running entirely too fast it could
be running up to 30 Hertz double that 12 to 15
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Herz cycle and I've got my fingers worn Away on
YouTube so if your brain is going this fast it's
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like one of those bullet trains if you're on a
bullet train not that I've been but if you're
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on a bullet train you can't see the trees within
the forest because your brain is going so fast
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so it's difficult to focus and it's difficult to
get things done well because your brain is going
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so fast you can't slow it down enough to focus
well enough to do what you need to do to succeed
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in terms of cognition so this extra fast speed is
called high beta High beta is the speed of anxiety
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stress rushing overdrive get things done survival
mode so high beta is that extra fast speed Theta
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is the slow speed and I'm constantly talking
about these speeds here in terms of the pendulum
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fact so I told you that your brain can also be
in both of those modes simultaneously we know
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from the science that high beta and Theta coexist
comorbidly at the same time more often than not
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so if your brain is running slow because you were
born with ADHD what it inherently does is it puts
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the gas The Petal to the metal to compensate for
the slower speed for the breaking so if you were
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born with ADHD you will get this speeding up
of the brain most of the time some people don't
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but most people do and I'm going to tell you how
you can know in just a few minutes but that's the
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feeling of breaking and gassing that's the feeling
of wanting to be calm down but also wanting to be
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stimulated that's the feeling of wired and tired
and that is the pendulum brain and it creates a
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lot of strain in the system so I've started to
call it strained brain and if your brain is so
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strained it needs something to take the edge off
and that's how it feels to many people so going
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back to ADHD for a few more minutes is that we
know that ADHD is decreased functioning in the
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frontal lobe it's damage to the frontal lobe or
dysfunction damage is the wrong word that's a porn
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term I'm going to talk about that in a minute and
and you might see where I'm going with this but
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it is less than optimal functioning and I know
that you know there's neurodiversity and I'm of
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course I'm uh one of the biggest celebrators of
neurodiversity being the mama bear of five and
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a half kids that are all completely different
neurodiversity Is My Jam but what I don't enjoy
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about quote unquote neurodiversity is when
it creates problems for people and challenges
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and they don't know how to overcome it and they
struggle through life because their brain was born
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going too slow and so I've been helping people
with ADHD for over 30 years and this is something
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that's important to me because I want people to
know that's the beauty of neuroplasticity just
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because your brain is running too slow we can
make your brain run a little bit faster so that
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it's at that optimal processing speed so you can
think well you can feel well and you can perform
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better and the struggle goes down so that's what I
want people to know about ADHD but I am digressing
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here so what I'm talking about is a brain pattern
that's causing you issues and we know that the
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marker for ADHD is something that's called a
TBR Theta to Beta ratio so many times Theta is
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too high and I told you it might comorbidly have
high beta but for many people beta that 12 to 15
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Hertz is also running low and that's a person
with slower processing speed not the brakes on
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just the gas is going a little bit slower so when
I measure people's brain performance patterns I'm
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looking at the TBR ratio and yep we're getting
ahead of the we're putting the card ahead of the
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horse so we're not going to go there but ADHD is a
Theta to Beta ratio that's too high too much Theta
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possibly not enough beta and most times too much
High beta is coexisting and it gives a person the
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feeling of not being able to focus not being able
to attend being highly distracted hyperactivity
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hyperactivity physically is self-stimulation
using the body to offset the slow speed it
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gives people anxiety overthinking overthinking
is self-stimulation of the slower speed using
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your mind so this slow processing speed can create
a lot of challenges for people so at at the same
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time we also know that dopamine levels are low in
people who have ADHD and it that cascading of the
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neurotransmitters has to do with how the brain is
using electrical energy so the electrical energy
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in your brain is like your software it's it's
the software that's running the show and then
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the Cascade of neurotransmitters falls out from
the optimal brain performance pattern all the
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way out to highly disregulated brain patterns
dysfunctional brain patterns so essentially
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the more dysfunction the more of the Cascade of
neurotransmitters and hormones and physiological
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processes are going to change so if your brain
is in the middle in that sweet spot in the green
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zone as I call it because it's a green qeg brain
map then the processes in your body are going to
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fall out in a healthy way so the greater the
magnitude of brain dysfunction the greater
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the magnitude of dysfunction of neurotransmitters
hormones chemicals physiological processes in the
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body okay hopefully you're with me on that but
I'm going to tell you in in two more sections
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what you can do about that if you're interested
but right now let's segue to number two how does
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porn impact your brain especially in relation to
ADHD okay so now if you've been watching watching
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my videos there's over 800 videos on YouTube or
if you've been following my podcast here you know
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that the same brain pattern the pendulum brain or
the strained brain is at the core of a problematic
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porn use habit so if you've been compulsively
using pornography for 5 years 10 years 15 years
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one year if you've gone back to the screen to get
more dopamine and you might see where I'm going
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with this to get more dopamine to feel good and
to offset those feelings of needing stimulation
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or needing to be calmed down it's in fact very
much related so the question here on this video
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is does porn cause ADHD and I'm going to answer it
at the end but the the question's more difficult
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than that it's more symbiotic than just cause and
effect and that's what we're going to break down
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in just a second so if you saw the movie Venom
such a good movie I know some people don't think
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it is but Venom is kind of the you know he's
he's a symbiot I was going to say alter ego but
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he's not really an alter ego he's the symbiot to
Spiderman and then he impacts people in a negative
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way because the symbiosis means that they feed off
of each other and that's what's happening in the
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Venom movie but the symbiosis is it's a feeding
off of each other so in terms of ADHD and porn
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use they are definitely feeding off each other
but if you do not have the organic ADHD pattern
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and you are consuming pornography we know it's
decreasing functioning in the frontal lobe and
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it's desensitizing the reward center what does
that sound like it sounds like the brain pattern
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that causes ADHD so in fact it's causing the
brain pattern that causes the the symptomology
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of ADHD but they're different because ADHD is a
neurodevelopmental disorder which means your brain
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was born with that slow processing speed of too
much Theta so for some people who've had a porn
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habit for a long time your brain was not born
with too much Theta what happened was you found
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porn in adolescence and I'm going to tell you how
it happens and I think it's mindblowing I'm going
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to tell you how this happens in one second but you
found porn in adolescence and it made it so that
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your brain used Too Much Theta across the rest of
development so I'm going to say that again is that
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you found porn in adolesence when your brain was
still developing which most people do what happens
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is your brain continues to use too much Theta when
Theta should have been decreasing in terms of its
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use and this is the way that it happens and I
think this is kind of cool to know anyways is
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that when a baby is born the baby sleeps all the
time right so that means the baby's brain is using
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primarily extra slow speed Delta the baby sleeps
all the time then into childhood the baby sleeps
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less and is awake more and is highly imaginative
and creative that means the brain starts using
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more Theta less Delta then in Young when you're a
young child and into adolescence what happens is
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you sleep even less and your brain starts using
more beta and using less Theta but if porn gets
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into the mix at that time in development the
decrease in Theta doesn't happen it actually
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increases because of porn use and the beta use
doesn't increase it stabilizes and stays there and
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every time you go back to porn you're increasing
the use of theta decreasing functioning in the
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frontal lobe and you're also desensitizing the
reward center through high levels of dopamine
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and so in fact if you consume pornography for any
amount of time you can in fact cause the creation
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or the Inception of the ADHD brain pattern in
your brain okay so now going back to the the
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idea of symbiosis is that people who have organic
ADHD naturally want more stimulation and so in
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a research article that's by Kenneth Blum uh and
Associates he talks about it as reward deficiency
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syndrome and that ADHD is one diagnosis that
falls into reward deficiency syndrome and what
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that means is it's a brain with less dopamine
that seeks out more dopamine or seeks out more
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stimulation to feel good so that's the symbiotic
nature is that if you are born with ADHD you have
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a stronger propensity to want to go to porn to
feel good because inherently your brain needs it
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more than an optimally developed brain that uses
faster processing speed you want the stimulation
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more and then knowing that that brain pattern is
linked to the anxiety brain pattern you also want
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the calming more so if you actually are diagnosed
with Organic ADHD you need porn more than a person
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who wasn't born with Organic ADHD but then in
watching porn your brain is accelerating the
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ADHD pattern so you need it more and more and more
and more because that's the nature of dopamine and
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even if you weren't born with the organic ADHD
pattern you are creating it and reinforcing it
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over time over and over and over so porn can cause
the feelings of ADHD because it causes the ADHD
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brain pattern for those who weren't born with
it those who were born with ADHD have a higher
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likelihood of wanting to go to porn to feel calmed
and stimulated but in doing so it's worsening the
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ADHD brain pattern that's the takeaway from all
of this I'm going to say it one more time if you
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were born with ADHD there's a higher likelihood
that you want to go into the screen to consume
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pornography to feel stimulated and calmed but in
doing so you're worsening your ADHD if you weren't
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born with ADHD you likely found it in adolescence
and started to brew the ADHD brain pattern in
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there that wasn't there inherently when you were
born but the more you've gone back to porn you are
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making it so that your brain uses the ADHD brain
pattern and in fact then you're giving yourself
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symptoms of ADHD like lack of focus difficulty
with executive function easily distracted impulse
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control and judgment issues and social anxiety
so let's Segway to number three how do you know
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if you have organic ADHD or if you might have porn
induced ADHD so this is how you know before third
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grade before you found porn one or the other did
you have learning challenges people with Organic
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ADHD they struggled with learning all along and
they might have had hyperactive Behavior when
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they were young they had some self-stimulation
behaviors and then when porn came into the mix
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porn became came the self-stimulation behavior so
an easy way to think about it is you know before
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third grade or before you found porn did you have
learning challenges was learning difficult for you
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did you have some of these symptoms and if the
answer is yes it's likely you have the organic
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ADHD pattern which put you more at risk for
enjoying porn because of the reward deficiency
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syndrome that that pattern gives your brain now if
you were a strong learner until you found porn and
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then in middle school and in high school things
started to crap the bed a little bit and the
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struggle became real in college then it's more
likely that it's porn induced ADHD because your
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brain was using 12 to 15 Hertz when you were young
and then when porn came into the mix it started to
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increase the slower speed five to seven Hertz
and if you kept going back you're slowing your
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brain down even more now another thing happens
in porn too is that it will lower power in the
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brain and if you consume a lot of pornography for
over the course of a long time frequent consistent
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and especially intense and especially if you are
involved in edging in any way which means you're
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going back to porn or masturbation or fantasy
without orgasm to keep your brain lingered in this
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dopamine state if you are involved in any of that
and you're really struggling with Focus attention
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and distraction and erectile dysfunction likely
what's happened is you've shifted your brain into
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drain brain which is like an artificially induced
long-term dopamine induced State and it can create
00:23:53
porn induced ADHD because your brain is stuck in
neut neutral there's no more gassing there's no
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more breaking you're stuck in neutral that's a
an escalation type of brain pattern that comes
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out of long-term porn use whether you had organic
ADHD or not okay so another way that you can know
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if you have true organic ADHD and if it's more
porn induced ADHD is to have a qeg brain map
00:24:22
this is what I do all day every day I can use
technology in your home which makes it so easy
00:24:28
I work with people all over the world I can see
exactly what brain patterns your brain is using
00:24:35
I can see if it's more organic I can see if it's
more porn induced ADHD I can see if there's the
00:24:43
anxiety piece I can see exactly how much Theta is
being used in the frontal lobe or anywhere else
00:24:51
it's very measurable it's called quantitative EEG
electron Seagram and it measures how your brain is
00:24:58
performing in all of the areas that I talked about
and I can even see the magnitude of ADHD I can see
00:25:05
the magnitude of porn induced ADHD I can see the
magnitude of erectile dysfunction meaning I can
00:25:13
see if you're one level off from optimal if you're
six levels off from optimal in every single brain
00:25:19
area and then obviously the more dysfunction
the more it changes all of that Cascade of
00:25:26
neurotransmitters hormones and physiological
processes that's why the bigger the dysfunction
00:25:31
the bigger the problems you'll have so that's how
you can know foso that's how you can know for sure
00:25:39
is doing a measurable brain map and if you're
interested go over to Dr Trish le.com uh under
00:25:44
work with Dr Trish Lee there's a tab that says
qeg Brain map check it out you'll see the brain
00:25:49
pattern for ADHD you'll see the brain pattern
for internet addictions they are different um
00:25:55
but they are symbiotic and uh they're like Venom
in nature okay so what's your brain hack strategy
00:26:03
for the day so this is an easy one it's probably
going to frustrate you if you are struggling with
00:26:09
Focus distraction attention it is imperative that
you stop watching pornography whether you have the
00:26:17
organic ADHD brain pattern or the porn induced one
if you are struggling with thinking cognition if
00:26:25
you have brain fog brain fog's different than
ADHD it is more of a porn induced ADHD because
00:26:32
it's born out of a different brain pattern if you
struggle with any of this you can make it better
00:26:39
by not watching porn so that is the takeaway
because I want you to know no matter if you
00:26:45
have organic or not porn is making it worse and I
get emails from people all the time saying I can't
00:26:50
believe how much better I feel I thought you were
nutty when I first heard you but then I've been
00:26:56
able to stay out of the screen for 35 days 172
days and my life is completely different so if you
00:27:03
want your brain to heal you have to stay out of
the screen then I've already told you our brains
00:27:09
can use neuroplasticity neuroplasticity is our
brain's changeability it isn't inherent that it's
00:27:16
going to heal it has to be pushed in a direction
and our brains are plastic so they will follow
00:27:23
the direction they are pushed in so right now if
you're going back into the screen you're pushing
00:27:28
your brain in the direction of ADHD so that's why
when you stop watching porn you stop pushing your
00:27:36
brain in the direction of ADHD so you've unwired
that piece but it doesn't mean you've rewired
00:27:43
your brain back to Optimal processing of calm
Focus that's what we need to get you to do so
00:27:52
if you've already if you're able to stay out of
pornography and stay out of the screen if you're
00:27:58
not let me start there if you're not able to you
need to check out my 90day complete essential
00:28:03
guide It's essential that you stop watching porn
so if you're not able to stop watching porn go to
00:28:09
my website under porn brain rewire check out the
digital programs the 90-day program is what you
00:28:14
need it has everything to stay out of the screen
but if you've already been able to stay out of
00:28:19
the screen and your brain hasn't rewired itself I
offer a really short course called Brain Training
00:28:25
101 where I teach you how to use technology and
I've talked about the brain training headband
00:28:31
on this podcast before but I know that nobody
understands what I'm talking about so if you
00:28:38
get into Brain Training 101 and at this recording
it's $49 it's very affordable I teach you how to
00:28:44
use that headband so that you can train your brain
out of the ADHD pattern into the optimal pattern
00:28:51
by yourself at home and it's very efficient it's
quite affordable and and it'll totally help you so
00:28:59
if you're still watching porn you need to get into
the 90-day program I also teach you how to use
00:29:04
that technology there but if you've been able to
stay out of the screen and you think you have that
00:29:08
buttoned up Brain Training 101 might be a good
start for you and I'll make sure we put the link
00:29:13
for that program below um but you can go over to
Dr Trish le.com scroll all the way to the bottom
00:29:19
and there's a workshops page there but this is
what I want you to know this is the brain hack is
00:29:25
that you can take the control back I know it seems
like a cliche uh little saying that I made up a
00:29:33
long time ago but it's totally true so if you're
giving the control over to porn it is controlling
00:29:39
your brain and at the same time ADHD this pattern
that's in there whether you were born with it
00:29:45
or not it might be controlling you to a certain
degree and you can take that control back when you
00:29:51
use technology to heal your brain technology and
Neuroscience you need the tech you need the proper
00:29:59
strategies also that's what's in those programs
it will bring your brain back it'll create more
00:30:04
neuroplasticity and it'll allow your brain to heal
I've helped so many people who had oppressive ADHD
00:30:12
that was just dragging them down and now they
don't have it anymore and I owe it to the tech
00:30:19
and the strategies that I was able to help these
people do this for themselves that's what I want
00:30:25
you to know neuroplasticity can be your best
friend or your worst enemy let's make it your
00:30:30
best friend okay go over to Dr trc.com and until
next time control your brain or it'll control you
