Science

For sure. I'm reminded of the mice in isolation choosing drug water and mice who are otherwise fulfilled with stimulation, friends, etc. choosing the normal water instead. Physical dependency to a fulfilled mouse would probably be like dealing with a sprained ankle or a cold. They're not going to keep hurting their ankle.

I suppose the argument is that, in the absence of physical harm and a lack of necessity for health, then one must question what the harm of the behavior is. This is to say that food isn't an addiction because without it you can't survive. With gambling, it's clear that there's a harm because you run out of money. With porn, you run out of cum. Do you or the people you care about give a shit? Is it getting in the way? Like are you missing appointments and classes to masturbate? Are you exposing others to adult material? If not and you don't care, the psychologist doesn't need to get involved. To my understanding a mental health professional is trying to alleviate the pain and symptoms of mental distress. If you're not developing a physical dependency/physical harm, the compulsion isn't distracting you, and you don't feel incongruent for doing it, then the psychologist for whom this piece is written, needn't concern themselves.

If you feel incongruent, it's worth exploring with the "modern, adult, self-determining eyes" that the author mentions. Your solutions aren't one size fits all. Maybe your path away from pain is saying that porn is... le good! or you believe there are more ethical sources of pornogrpahy so you only use that type you resonate with. But also, maybe, your relationship with pornography was a proxy for some other argument with a significant other or your #1 compulsion when you're avoiding discomfort. Where if you make peace with the reason for the proxy the urge to use goes away as well. Maybe you lament doing it instead of being awesome, so you should escape your comfort zone before you jork peanits.

Did I do honor to what you quoted and elaborated on or did I walk away rambling?

which isn’t really productive in my view.

The author made a case for why such a distinction is important.

I will add something to the arguments made by the authors of this study: Having demonstrated that it is the moral conflict and self-identity of porn addict which is harmful, it is thus upon us to confront the social, media, and clinical use of this concept. It causes and perpetuates harm by focusing attention upon porn rather than the true cause: the moral conflict over one’s sexual desires. Clinicians who continue to promote the idea of porn addiction are, like those who promote age-regression hypnosis or recovered memory therapy, engaging in malpractice. Websites and advocacy groups that promote and encourage identification as porn addicts are doing harm to their followers, and can become like the hucksters promoting naturopathic treatment despite federal medical groups identifying such treatments as ineffective and potentially harmful. Ultimately, all should be held accountable for their inaccurate, outdated, and exploitative actions.

Chuds love to just blame somebody instead of interrogating a situation.