 In this Black Mirror Season 5 episode breakdown, we're gonna be discussing the episode Striking Vipers and the Hidden Meaning behind it. What is up, everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul, where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. And if you're new to my channel, what I like to do is take a look at movies, TV shows, the YouTube community, and all sorts of stuff, and try to see what lessons we can learn from them. So if you're into that stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And while you're at it, make sure you're following me over on Instagram and Twitter at the Rewired Soul. So real quick, before I jump into this topic from Striking Vipers, I wanna talk to you guys about something. I wanna get your feedback on something. So originally, and I might still make this video, but I was going to make a video about Striking Vipers and the complexities of sexuality surrounding that episode. After reading all of your comments on my last video and seeing different articles being written about it, seeing what's going on on Twitter, and all these other things. Like, I was having discussions with my beautiful girlfriend Tristan about it, and I wanna talk about the sexuality aspect of Striking Vipers, but I'm a straight guy. So I'm worried that that might cause a little bit of backlash. So if that's a video you would like me to make, I would like to ask your permission. I'll hit, let me know down in the comments below if you would like me to dive into that topic in a video later today or tomorrow. All right, but anyways, let's talk about this topic in Striking Vipers because I think it's an interesting topic based around where technology is going and couples and relationships. But real quick recap, the episode is about two friends, Danny and Carl, and Danny is Mary Tufio, who is his college sweetheart, and they get a game called Striking Vipers and it's like ultimate VR, but in that game you get all the feelings and sensations, so Danny and Carl, they end up hooking up inside of the game, even though Carl is playing a female character. All right, Danny and Carl both become obsessed with hooking up in that game. He starts pulling back from his relationship with Theo. She calls him out on it, even though she doesn't really know what's going on. And anyways, to repair the relationship, Danny steps away from the virtual reality relationship with Carl and he repairs his own relationship, but they end up doing it one more time and they wonder if they might be gay and they're not. So anyways, the episode ends with Theo giving Danny a pass once a year to hook up with Carl inside the game while Theo goes out and she explores other men outside in the real world, all right? So it talks about a little bit about open relationships, maybe polyamory and things like that, but what I wanted to talk about in regards to this is addiction and specifically porn addiction. So those of you who are just now meeting me, hi, my name's Chris, I'm a recovering drug addict and alcoholic. Not only have I been sober for coming up on seven years, just in a few weeks, I'm June 23rd. I also worked in an addiction treatment center for a little over three years, all right? And although we specialize in drug and alcohol addiction, we also specialize in dual diagnosis so people had mental illness, but there were also people who came in there with process addictions. So those of you who do not know what process addictions are, these are different addictions that do not involve a substance, such as shopping, gambling, love, sex, eating, all of those types of things. So some people actually had a drug alcohol addiction as well as a process addiction. I live in Las Vegas, Nevada, so I know a lot of people who have sought treatment for gambling addictions and I've helped people who have gambling addictions. So porn addiction is definitely a real thing. Now, what's interesting about this episode in Striking Vipers is showing this virtual reality aspect of people hooking up within a game. And obviously like the infamous dinner scene where Carl is with Danny at dinner and he talks about all these different things that he was trying to get that same feeling again and he even hooked up with a polar bear and all that. But like here in the real world, it's kind of interesting to see where porn addiction might get in the near future because right now we're seeing, obviously there's like sex dolls, they're coming out with like virtual reality porn where you just kind of like put on like the little face mask and it seems like you're there and everything. But if technology were to get to a place where you get all the feelings and sensations and all that, that is something that could be extremely addictive as well. I don't know if any of you ever saw the 90s movie Demolition Man, but basically in that future scenario, they were having VR sex and it was a way to do their thing but you don't have the risk of like STDs and everything like that, but it was like with two consenting people. So that is also something else to think about for the future. But when it comes to porn addiction, what we see in Striking Vipers is Danny somewhat dealing with an addiction to porn. Even Carl for that matter. So Danny is a married man, right? And what we see is that he starts drawing away from Theo and he's no longer wanting to touch her. He's always making excuses that he's tired when she wants to be intimate. And this is a big deal, not only because Theo is married to Danny and just wants love, affection and all of that, but she also wants to have another baby, all right? So this is something that actually happens in real life. There are both men and women statistically, it is predominantly men who develop porn addictions, but these can be people who are in long-term relationships or even married and they become addicted to porn. Like, I don't know if you guys have ever seen the numbers on this thing, but like websites like Porn Hub, they have insane, insane numbers. And this is like a multi-billion dollar industry. So yeah, we are currently living in a time in 2019 where porn is more easily accessible than it's ever been in the history of mankind, all right? And this is something that can actually damage relationships. And basically the addiction aspect of it, what happens to many people is that they start to swap that out with their own reality. And the way the brain works with how we form habits and addiction is we start to get a trigger and then we do a certain behavior and then our brain wants to repeat that cycle. So someone might start doing that on a daily basis, they might start doing it a little bit more often, maybe after breakfast or after lunch or when they get home from work. And it turns into a cycle where they no longer have control because the urge is so strong, but it starts to affect their actual relationships. And I don't know if you guys have ever seen it, like when I first started on YouTube and I was like, I don't know how it was coming up. Maybe it was just a big fad going on, but there was something called the no-fap challenge, all right? And it was mainly men making videos like you guys can go search this out on YouTube, but it was men who were making a commitment to not self-please themselves or watch porn for a certain amount of time. And some of them made videos about this, talking about like porn addiction and the way it releases dopamine and the way it's habit-forming and all those things and talking about how this was a way to break that addiction. And I didn't like look into the science of it, but what they were saying based on my knowledge of addiction and neuroscience, like it made sense, all right? And what's interesting in the episode of Striking Vipers is on Carl's end, even though Carl is not in a committed relationship, you can see how his addiction was becoming bigger and bigger and bigger because when he was going out on dates, he was more withdrawn as well. So if any of you out there are struggling with this, just know that there is help even for porn addiction and it's nothing to be embarrassed about. Like all of us are in some way, shape or form addicted to something. Like the three main reasons that we abuse some kind of substance or an action are to get a feeling, to get rid of a feeling or to have an escape, all right? And some people do this with drugs and alcohol, obviously. Some people do this with... Some people do this with food, but in order to discover if you have an addiction, you have to look at like, is this negatively impacting your life? Like, are your eating habits negatively impacting your life? Drugs or alcohol, right? Porn is the... Oh, God, cats. Six and a half hours later. Where was I? Where was I, cats? A few moments later. So the primary thing to look for if you believe that this has become a problem in your life, whether it's food, sex, drugs, alcohol, gambling, whatever it is, is ask yourself, is this negatively impacting your life? Like something that I was taught a long time ago when it comes to my own addictions with drugs and alcohol was, it's not that every time you do this thing, you get into trouble, but if you look at your life and all of the negative things going on in your life, if they are a result of that thing that you're doing, then maybe it's time to address it. So if you believe that you are struggling with an addiction to anything, whether it's porn, sex, drugs, alcohol, whatever it is, like just ask for help. Ask for help. Like, there are many different options. Like I would recommend talking to a doctor about it, see if they can recommend like a therapist or maybe treatment depending on how severe the addiction is. You could talk to your insurance company, see if they can help you out by linking you up with a therapist. It's inside of your network through like 12 step meetings. Like 12 step meetings, they have kind of like a mentorship group. Like, so there are things like sex, love, anonymous. So many people who struggle with porn addictions or even sex and love addictions, they will go to groups like this, all right? Because these are really different than drugs and alcohol. So for example, with drugs and alcohol, I practice complete abstinence. I've had no drugs, no alcohol for seven years, but when it comes to something like sex or food, right, like these are things that you need to survive. So those 12 step programs are a little bit different. So do some research, check them out, talk to somebody, like recovery is possible. So if it's affecting your relationship, just go get help, all right? But if you have any questions about this or any other topics that you want me to discuss, involving like sex or love or porn addiction, let me know down in the comments below. And don't forget, if you want me to make a video about the complexities of sexuality in regards to striking vipers from Black Mirror season five, let me know down in the comments below. All right, but that's all I got for this video. If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell because I make a ton of videos. And a huge, huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on Patreon. You're all amazing. And if you would like to support what I'm doing here and get access to some other perks and benefits, click or tap on that Patreon icon right there, all right? Thanks again so, so much for watching. I'll see you next time.