How often do you watch porn? And would you consider that a healthy amount or are you compulsive about it?
Watching porn has become the norm for many who use it to spice things up in the bedroom or while away lonely nights.
But new research suggests that not all porn viewers are the same and, instead, can be split into three groups.
What’s concerning, though, is that only one of those groups is considered healthy.
A study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine revealed there are recreational, compulsive and distressed porn viewers.
Recreational viewers account for 75 percent of all participants in the study, watching an average of 24 minutes of porn a week.
This group consisted of mainly women and people in relationships.
It was closely followed by the distressed group, who watched porn for the least amount of time – about 17 minutes per week.
As the name suggests, the distressed group associate their emotional distress with watching X-rated material.
Then there is the compulsive group.
This group may have made up just 11.8 percent of the participants, but watched a staggering 110 minutes of porn per week.
Researchers discovered that men were more likely to fall into this category.
The experts from Université Laval in Quebec who conducted the study said only those who were recreational viewers were healthy porn watchers.
To conduct the study, the researchers asked 830 people to report how often they watched porn, then measured it against how compulsive their porn habits were and their level of distress while viewing porn.
Recreational users reported higher sexual satisfaction and lower sexual compulsiveness, avoidance and dysfunction.
Compulsive users experienced lower sexual satisfaction and dysfunction and higher sexual compulsiveness and avoidance.
Those who were highly distressed but watched porn less were sexually less satisfied and reported less sexual activity and more sexual dysfunction and avoidance.
The experts concluded that the study “confirms the existence of recreational and compulsive profiles but also demonstrates the existence of an important subgroup of not particularly active, yet highly distressed consumers.”
But while the majority who watch porn appear to be able to do so in a healthy manner, it can be a problem for some.
It is still not classified as a true addiction, but some researchers believe a person can become addicted to watching porn in the same way they can become addicted to drugs and alcohol.
Others argue that there is not enough evidence to support it being treated as an addiction.