Is sexual/porn addiction part of having bipolar disorder?

@carla62 Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. I worked at a behavioral health/recovery center for many years. In my experience addictions of various types, including sexual/porn addiction co-occur with bipolar disorder but neither are symptoms of the other. I can see how Bipolar Disorder could result in a vulnerability to the development of sexual/porn addiction. Bipolar Disorder I and II are both serious mental health disorders that is so very difficult for the person and their family - as you know.

Does your son have a psychiatrist who prescribes his medication and does he take his medication as prescribed? Does he have a mental health therapist (could be his psychiatrist) who he talks to? I'm also wondering if your son believes or understands that the viewing of sex/pornographic material in his case is problematic for him?

@carla62
I feel for you and admire your motherly love of your son and desire to help him. My teen son has ADHD, anxiety and OCD and it can be exhausting so I can empathize with you. Porn addiction is linked to ADHD so I have done some research on this subject.

Here are some links on the topic of porn changing brains. My hope is you are able to get your son the help he needs to manage his mental health and any addictions that are negatively impacting his life.

1. https://www.mentalhealth.com/library/the-brains-of-porn-addicts

2. https://neurosciencenews.com/neuroscience-pornography-brain-15354/

3. https://neurolaunch.com/porn-dopamine/

4. https://therehab.com/the-neuroscience-of-porn-addiction-visual-stimuli-and-the-brain/

5. https://www.yourbrainonporn.com/relevant-research-and-articles-about-the-studies/brain-studies-on-porn-users-sex-addicts/

I would say yes, that it can be a symptom in a roundabout way- hyper sexuality especially during hypomania and mania is fairly common

Thank you for your resposne @naturegirl5. He does have a psychiatrist, I beleive he takes his medications regularly and I just found him a new therapist that he says he really likes and is better than any other therapist he's had.
I don't know what he understands about the porn and how it impacts him. We (my husband and I) just discovered, he inquired about a group meeting and went to a group meeting yesterday. I'm thinking his therapist pointed him in that direction.
We found out about the group by accident - it was a note we saw. he didn't tell us anything about it.
The hardest part is that he lives far from us and we can't see him and monitor him in person; we have to rely on phone calls and facetime.

Wow! Thank you @dlydailyhope for all this information. I read your first resource. It's really hard to read about this. I wish, as many people do, he wasn't dealing with this. I hope he can live a normal life. My husband and I constantly worry about him. When we think he's doing okay, then something new pushes us back several steps.

I appreciate you sharing these resources. It will help explain to me why he needs to look at porn and what is happening for him.
Thank you.