Dr. K's ED Statistic Should Change How Every Man Thinks About Porn

[00:00:00]30 years ago, only about 5% of men under the age of 30 struggled with erectile dysfunction. Today, that number is closer to 20%.

[00:00:11]Think about that for a second. We're talking about healthy young men in the prime of their lives. I was listening to a conversation between Dr. K and Andrew Huberman this week, and Dr. K shared that statistic, and honestly, it made me pause. It made me stop what I was doing.

[00:00:30]So, before you immediately think about testosterone, blood flow, or medications, I want you to ask yourself a completely different question.

[00:00:44]What changed? This video is brought to you by my Harper Collins published book, Mind Over Explicit Matter. If you're ready to quit porn and reclaim your life mentally and physically, go over to drtrishlee.com/book.

[00:01:03]Because our genetics didn't change in the last 30 years, young men didn't suddenly become biologically broken.

[00:01:10]Some of them think they are. So, if the body hasn't fundamentally changed, then what has? When I heard that statistic, it actually made me smile a bit. Not because it's funny, because it's not.

[00:01:22]Honestly, I think it's heartbreaking. I smiled because I had the thought, >> [snorts] >> "Finally. Finally, this conversation is making its way into the mainstream."

[00:01:33]I've been talking about this for years, but what Dr. K said next is actually the part that grabbed my attention. He pointed out that many of these young men can still get an erection. Their bodies work. The problem often isn't getting aroused in and of itself. The problem is maintaining arousal with a real-life partner. To me, that's a completely different conversation because it immediately tells us this may not be simply an erection problem. It likely is a reward system in the brain problem.

[00:02:09]Now, once you hear it that way, you start noticing the clues everywhere.

[00:02:14]Think about how many Blue Chew ads with young women in them that you see every time you go to a pub or over the last few years. They're on comedy podcast, sport podcast, YouTube channel, social media. They are literally everywhere.

[00:02:30]Marketing companies don't spend millions of dollars advertising products where there isn't demand. They're responding to data. That tells me that someone else is seeing exactly what Dr. K is seeing and what I've seen for years, that more and more young men are looking for help.

[00:02:48]But I don't think the advertisements are the story. I think they're the evidence that something much bigger has been happening underneath the surface. If you followed me for any length of time, you already know that I almost never start with symptoms. You know where I start, right? With the brain. Because symptoms tell us what is happening, but the brain tells us why and where it's happening.

[00:03:16]And I think we've been asking the wrong question. Instead of asking, "Why are so many young men experiencing ED?" I should be asking a different question.

[00:03:26]What has these young men's brains been learning over the last 30 years that it wasn't learning before that? Think about the environment today that young men grow up in, that we all grow up in.

[00:03:40]Unlimited internet, smartphones before their brains were fully developed, social media, streaming, gaming, sports betting, infinite scrolling, hypersexual content, and of course, unlimited online pornography. Every one of these industries is competing for the exact same thing, your attention. The longer that they keep your attention, the more successful they become. So, let me ask you something. Do you think that your brain experiences that environment every single day and stays the exact same? Of course, it doesn't. Healthy brains adapt. That is, in fact, what they're designed to do.

[00:04:23]Here's the part I think that almost everybody misses. Your reward system is constantly learning what deserves your attention. Whatever repeatedly captures your attention eventually begins to capture your desire. That's why I created the phrase desire miswire. I don't think most young men have lost their desire. I think, and I see it in their brains, that their desire has gradually been redirected. When the reward system spends years learning that stimulation means endless novelty, instant gratification, and of course, constant intensity, then real life starts competing with an environment it was never designed to compete against. And I think that's exactly what Dr. K was describing. These young men aren't necessarily incapable of becoming physically aroused. Their body still work. But when they're with a real life partner where intimacy is slower, where it requires more vulnerability, and where it's beautifully imperfect, the reward system is making a comparison. The body is infailing. The reward system is comparing to high-level artificial intensity. I honestly believe that this is one of the biggest shifts that we need to make in men's health Because it changes the question from what's wrong with my body to what has my brain learned. If today's conversation is making you think differently, I'd love to know. Leave me a comment and answer one question. What do you think has changed over the last 30 years? I generally read the comments and so many of these videos begin because of the conversations that we have together. And if you're enjoying these neuroscience deep dives, make sure you subscribe.

[00:06:15]Because this is exactly where we're headed. We're taking the biggest conversations happening in culture and asking what they teach us about our brains. Now, here's the hopeful part and honestly, it's my favorite part of the entire conversation. If your brain has learned these patterns, well, your brain can learn new ones. That is the beauty and the gift of neuroplasticity. I don't believe this generation is broken. I believe this generation's brains adapted to an environment that no previous generation had ever experienced. And if the environment helped shape the brain one way, well, then intentional practice can help shape it in the other direction. That's why I've built and spent my career helping people understand their brains before trying to change them. I don't guess, I measure.

[00:07:06]Because once you understand what your brain has adapted to, you can begin teaching it something better. So, I hope that today's conversation has you wondering what your brain has learned.

[00:07:18]And I would love to invite you to spend time with me. Go over to drtrishlee.com.

[00:07:22]I've redesigned it for Desire Rewire.

[00:07:26]There, you'll get practical neuroscience tips, brain health education, and everything that I teach here. You also can schedule time for a clarity call to find out how your brain is performing and what it needs to perform and function better and how that rolls out into your body. You can schedule a brain map assessment with me because meaningful change doesn't begin with guessing. It begins with understanding and measuring. So, let's go back to the question we started with. What changed?

[00:07:56]Young men didn't suddenly become weaker leading to sexual arousal dysfunction.

[00:08:02]It's the environment that changed, and young men's brains adapted to it. But, that's good news because if your brain adapted once, it in fact can adapt again in the other direction. If it became miswired, and your desire is miswired, it can become rewired, and then eventually it can be hardwired for life.

[00:08:25]That's why I never lose hope because every relationship, habit, goal, every single future is experienced through a brain, and brains can change and improve. All right, thanks for spending time with me, and as always, remember control your brain, or in fact, it will control you. Join me on the brief on Friday, and I'll see you next time.