A simple test shows whether YOU might be watching ‘too much’ porn…

International behavioral experts have developed a new test to measure whether someone watches ‘too much’ porn.

The psychologists developed the scale after becoming concerned about mounting evidence that overuse of adult materials can significantly harm health.

It helps therapists diagnose problematic pornography use (PPU), where a person has difficulty controlling their urges to masturbate to porn, even when it is negatively impacting their life.

Doctors emphasize that porn consumption can be part of a functional sex life.

However, experts fear that PPU is on the rise and has been linked to a range of conditions, including erectile dysfunction, anxiety, depression and withdrawal symptoms.

The phenomenon arose alongside the spread of pornography via the Internet, which is easily accessible on PCs or smartphones.

Britain has the second highest number of Internet porn searches in the world, with an average of 16,600,000 porn searches per month.

Nine in ten adults now admit to viewing adult material.

Meanwhile, two-thirds of young people now regularly use online pornography, according to Paracelsus Recovery, a leading mental health and addiction clinic.

A quarter of 16 to 21 year olds first saw pornography on the internet when they were in primary school. By age 13, 50 percent had been exposed.

Some research shows that one in ten adults now suffer from some degree of PPU, while rates are higher among young people. They are allowed to watch porn a maximum of 12 hours per week.

The international experts – including academics from Nottingham Trent University – created their Problematic Pornography Consumption Scale by surveying hundreds of porn users, of both genders.

It resulted in an 18-point questionnaire that you can complete at home – and which you can find here.

The developers claim that the result is 98 percent accurate in determining whether someone is suffering from PPU.

Men appeared to score high more often than women, regardless of their sexual orientation.

About four percent of the study participants fell into the ‘at-risk’ category for PPU, the experts claimed.

Problematic pornography use has six core elements around which the questions have been developed.

The first is salience – referring to how important pornography is in the person’s life, and to what extent it dominates their thinking, feelings and behavior.

The second part refers to mood change – how much they use masturbation in porn as a way to make them feel a certain way.

This can be both exciting and relaxing.

The third is conflict – how much impact masturbation to porn has on significant others, whether it interferes with work or educational commitments.

This also refers to internal conflict: someone who knows the activity is causing problems, but feels helpless to cut down or stop.

The fourth part is tolerance – the way in which increasing amounts of activity, in this case from masturbation to porn, are needed to achieve the desired mood-altering effects.

This not only means more time spent watching, but also more diverse and extreme phonographic content consumed.

The fifth dimension is related to relapse – attempts to abstain and then return to the problematic behavior patterns.

The sixth and final factor is withdrawal: unpleasant feelings and emotional states that occur when a user tries to quit porn.

Earlier this week, MailOnline reported that regular porn users who try to quit suddenly can experience physical withdrawal symptoms such as headaches, chills and even nausea.

Recognizing that many of these ‘symptoms’ were similar to those reported by drug addicts, a team from the Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brazil, began investigating whether PPU was also linked to other health problems.

They found that, like drugs and other compulsive behaviors such as compulsive gambling, PPU can cause physical withdrawal symptoms.

After looking at fourteen separate studies, they concluded that this was the case; in fact, 72 percent of people with PPU are affected by withdrawal symptoms.

One study found that 57 percent of participants experienced “cravings,” while 52 percent also experienced heightened emotions, difficulty concentrating, and nervousness.

A smaller number – about one in 20 – reported sleep problems, headaches, sweating, chills and nausea when they tried to quit porn.

Other studies also found that participants abstained from self-reported symptoms such as depression, brain fog, feelings of loneliness and restlessness.

The researchers found that in most cases, people had an “intense craving” for masturbating to porn, which caused them to relapse.

They noted that several of these withdrawal symptoms were observed in regular porn users who were not classified as severe enough to have PPU.

Following the review, the authors called for further research to investigate the onset, characteristics, duration and proportion of withdrawal symptoms.