Cyber-porn Dependence: Voices of Distress in an Italian Internet Self-help Community

摘要

This study analyzes narratives of cyber-porn users and defines major patterns of distress as self-reported by contributors to a self-help group in the Internet. It applies narrative analysis methodology to 2000 messages sent by 302 members of an Italian self-help Internet community for cyber-porn dependents (noallapornodipendenza). This paper focuses directly on the narratives of cyber-porn dependents, as they define themselves to analyze the major patterns of distress and characterize the extent and manifestations of their self-defined dysfunction. According to these testimonials in the collected messages, we should suggest that cyber-porn dependence is for many a real mental disorder that can have destructive implications for personal well-being, social adaptation, work, sex life and family relations.