In February Team TRF attended the 4th International Conference on Behavioural Addictions in Haifa, Israel. It was a great learning experience.

We know that substances like alcohol, drugs and nicotine can lead to addiction in some people. In practice this means an inability to stop using despite negative consequences such as financial loss, employment difficulties, broken relationships, depression etc. What starts off as a pleasant experience turns into a nightmare as we are unable to shut off thoughts about it or cravings for it, whatever ‘it’ is. This is the hallmark of addiction. More recently, clinical healthcare professionals and academics have recognized that excessive repetition of certain behaviours can produce the same brain changes as seen in the brains of cocaine addicts or those with an alcohol disorder. Excessive internet pornography use is one such behaviour but it includes gambling, gaming, social media use, eating and shopping too. The Conference attracted the world experts in these fields.

Interviews

Mary Sharpe and Darryl Mead from TRF attended as many sessions as possible about internet porn addiction over the three days and interviewed various experts. For instance, we spoke to Professor Marc Potenza, head of psychiatry at Yale Medical School, about the developments in the classification of internet pornography as a behavioural addiction. Professor Potenza talked in particular about its classification in the ICD-11 (International Classification of Diseases, 11th edition) in 2018. The ICD is maintained by the World Health Organization. It is designed as a health care classification system providing diagnostic codes for classifying diseases, including nuanced classifications of a wide variety of signs, symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances, and external causes of injury or disease. Healthcare professionals use it to identify and treat a wide variety of conditions. In some countries it is important for health insurance reimbursement.

After editing, we will be putting the interviews onto the website so that you can benefit from the latest understanding of the experts themselves. The internet and its ready availability through smartphones and tablets has exacerbated the development of many behavioural addictions, especially to porn.