The desire to pursue sex comes from a neurochemical called dopamine. Dopamine isn't a chemical that gives us pleasure; rather, it's a chemical that makes us seek pleasure. The "good feelings" we get after we catch what we're seeking are caused by opioids. Dopamine--the chemical that causes us to crave and search after what we want--is stronger than the opioids. Addiction is virtually wanting run amok.
Dopamine lusts after novelty. In test studies on male rats, the rat's reward circuitry began pumping out less and less dopamine with the current female in the cage. When a new female was introduced, the dopamine surged through the roof. Human beings aren't that different from rats in this regard: less dopamine is released in regards to a man's wife than is in regards to his neighbor's wife. Australian researchers showed an erotic film to a group of men and measured their arousal; as they grew accustomed to the film, they were less and less aroused. When a new eroticism was introduced, their arousal shot sky high. All this comes into play with internet porn because internet porn is never short on novelty. The dopamine keeps on squirting as you flip through image after image, and this can actually alter the physiological condition of your brain.
Desensitization is what happens when the dopamine and dopamine receptors decline in the brain's complex reward circuitry. The result is that the porn addict is less sensitive to pleasure: because he has seen so many naked women, they don't bring his brain pleasure anymore. He wants that dopamine kick, so he escalates in what he watches. When you take a sexual act that is forbidden, or fear-producing, it gives off a bigger chemical kick. This is why someone who gets into pornography watching naked women shower together can end up not being able to feel aroused unless he's watching violent rape scenes, little children, or sexual acts outside the bounds of his own orientation. (It's important to note that when a straight man can't get aroused unless he's watching gay porn, it isn't because his orientation has changed; rather, it's a product of desensitization, which CAN be reversed) The desensitized addict is gradually escalating in the content of what it takes to get that "kick," and the usual day-to-day pleasure of life seem drab in comparison to pornography.
Sensitization isn't the opposite of desensitization. It's what happens when anything affiliated with an addict's addiction is more compelling than anything else. The nerve connections in the brain's reward circuitry are rewired to come alive with any addiction-related thoughts or cues. The addict thus becomes hyperactive towards anything associated with that addiction. Many porn addicts have reported becoming aroused when they step into a room with a computer.
Hypofrontality is far more physiological than the preceding two effects of binging on pornography. The gray- and white-matter in the frontal-lobe are reduced, resulting in a reduced ability to exercise self-control as well as a weakened ability to foresee consequences for your actions.
In these ways (and many others) the brain literally changes due to consuming pornography. The extreme novelty of internet porn (the ability to look at anything you want as fast as you want) results in addicts reporting not feeling aroused for "real sex," and even suffering pornography-induced impotence. It's no surprise, then, that copulatory impotence (being able to "get it up" for porn, but not for partners) is so frequent. Other symptoms of "watching too much porn" or "masturbating too much"* include delayed ejaculation, little satisfaction (the more you seek satisfaction, the less satisfaction you actually find), worsening social anxiety and lack of confidence, erectile dysfunction, morphing porn tastes that don't match your orientation, an inability to concentrate, restlessness, depression, anxiety, and brain fog. Many of these aren't connected to the pornography directly but are caused by the altered dopamine and dopamine receptors in the brain.
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