Or wait… is it the other way around?
Research has been done, surveys have been taken, and arguments have been traded back and forth for a while on this.
My intent as I write this is not to just add more noise to the discussion – nor is it to delve into the psychological connections between the two.
I simply want to bring up one word: Hope.
It’s difficult to bring up the topic of depression without also bringing up hope. In fact, most definitions you can find of “depression” include the term “hopeless” or “hopelessness” in them.
You’ve probably heard this often-repeated description of “insanity”:
Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.
“Depression,” then, can perhaps be described similarly, with just a slight modification:
Doing the same thing over and over again hoping for different results, but never getting them.
Now, think about the times you have viewed porn in the past – were you… Bored? Angry? Lonely? Frustrated? Ashamed? Stressed out?
It’s well known that porn use and other compulsions are often used as “escapes” from reality. But what follows the escape? One psychiatric journal describes the process like this:
“The obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors reduce anxiety and distress, but they create a self-perpetuating cycle. The sexual activity provides temporary relief, but it is followed by further distress.”
Yes, it’s true – porn and sexual compulsion will provide an escape from your current circumstances. It will cause you to forget everything else going on in your life… for a moment. But that temporary relief is followed by further, more intensified distress. Thus, a cycle is formed, and one begins doing the same thing over and over again, hoping for different and better results, but never getting them.
Have you ever been there? Have you felt the depression that accompanies a shattered hope for change, or an ‘escape’ that turned into a trap?
What’s important to understand is that porn can never truly satisfy or fulfill anyone’s hopes. It can only shatter them.
If you’re feeling depressed, my question is: Where are you putting your hope?
Don’t put it in things that only provide fleeting comfort. Instead, put it in the One who can give you freedom and joy like you’ve never known before.
Psalm 42:5 – “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”