Former Team GB diver Freddie Woodward was a teenager when he realised he had a problem with porn. "Every time I sat down to revise, all I wanted to do was open those sites," he revealed. By age 12, he was regularly visiting what he calls "hardcore" sites.
As his career progressed - which included representing his country in the Olympics - he was watching adult content several times a day. Now aged 30, the Olympian has told the BBC how he eventually curbed his habit by shifting his mindset. "You can't be the person who is trying to quit porn.
You have to be someone who doesn't watch porn, and that takes a lot of work," he said. So how can you spot when a porn habit has become unhealthy, and how can you tackle it? Although it has become a common phrase, "porn addiction" is not an officially recognised condition in its own right.
"We know a lot of people have a problem with porn," explains sex and relationship psychotherapist Silva Neves, who says the matter has become more prevalent among clients at his private practice. But experts are divided as to whether it is a true "addiction" – like someone might experience with drugs, for example – and how best to deal with it. Researcher Campbell Ince, from Australia's Monash University, says the vast majority of clinicians now agree people can suffer from "problematic porn use", but there is still a lot to figure out about its causes and treatments.
This means there is no definitive list of symptoms or treatments available to those worried they may be addicted. Some clinicians approach it as a compulsive sexual behaviour disorder, a condition recognised by the World Health Organization. This is sexual behaviour that "feels out of control, is causing significant distress, and despite repeated attempts to control it, they can't," explains psychotherapist Dr Paula Hall, who works privately at the Laurel Centre, a sex and porn addiction centre, and also runs a not-for-profit service.
The NHS does say, external it is possible to be addicted to "just about anything", including sex. So what are the markers of an unhealthy porn habit? Neves says it's "not about the frequency or duration, it's about the damage to your life".
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