He said he found himself overwhelmed by lethargy when he was not working; and that it became more unbearable on weekends.

“I feel stressed out, lonely and disoriented by the quarantine so, to cope with the stress, I masturbate four times a day, every day,” Heru told The Jakarta Post, adding that prior to the pandemic, he would typically masturbate every two days.

Bertha, a 38-year-old English teacher in Jakarta, also said that she had been “paddling the pink canoe” more during the social restrictions.

“I will perform solo sex whenever I’m bored, I’ve finished my work and there’s no one around to talk to by phone. Before, I did that once in two weeks, now I could do it twice a week,” she said.

“There are so many Hollywood movies that can count as soft porn since they feature lots of sex scenes with the actors naked,” she said, referring to films like the 2002 horror flick Queen of the Damned, the 2002 thriller Unfaithful and the 1999 psychological drama American Beauty she watches as an accompaniment to her private moments.

Bertha added that she found autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) audio materials on YouTube arousing: “Voices of men in low tone and soft vocalizations sure turn me on,” she said.

Alexandra Katehakis, the clinical director of the Center for Healthy Sex in Los Angeles and also a pioneer in sex and love addiction research, said that touch, sex and orgasms were stress-relieving activities, and that people who missed the human touch because there was no one else around could touch ourselves for relief and pleasure.

“Masturbation is a healthy, pleasurable sex activity. However, when people cannot keep their commitments, start to feel more isolated, anxious, even stressed and depressed, because of excessive masturbating where pleasure becomes pain, then it’s a problem. Managing our stresses, anxieties solely through masturbation is also a problem,” Katehakis told the Post by video call.

Preoccupation was one of the hallmarks of any addiction, she said.

“If you’re constantly thinking of what kind of porn you’ll see next or obsessing over the same person over and over again; if you continue engaging in these behaviors even after you’ve faced negative consequences, like having lost a job, lost a relationship, ignored social and occupational commitments; if you’re not meeting or talking to your friends or doing your hobbies because you’d rather be with your laptop [watching porn]: these are [all] signs of sex addiction,” Katehakis explained.

Indonesian Psychological Association (Himpsi) chairman Seger Handoyo said that volunteer counselors with the Psychological Services for Mental Health program had received calls from people reporting heightened problems with “porn addiction” from stresses related to COVID-19.

The program is an initiative of the Presidential Office and can be contacted through the National COVID-19 hotline 119, extension 8.

There is a neurochemical reason why excessive masturbation and other compulsive solo sex activities, like scrolling through social media and search engine results for sexually arousing images or materials, can leave you drained and even more frustrated in the end.

“The neurochemical dopamine, which has to do with arousal, loves novelty; it’s excitatory. [Excess] excitation affects the neurochemical system: after orgasm, all the dopamine, even adrenaline, are drained from the [body’s] system, which can leave people feeling sad, even a bit depressed, at the end,” Katehakis said.

Heru admitted that his frequent solo sex activities provided only temporary relief and left him feeling empty afterward.

Katehakis said that excessive solo sex and internet porn addiction could also impair an individual’s social skills. “All these neurochemicals you release after ejaculation are the ones that regulate human bonding, like oxytocin or vasopressin for mammals,” she said.

She advised people to find multiple coping strategies so they could be resourceful in dealing with the stresses of the pandemic instead of turning to compulsive solo sex as their sole form of stress relief.

“Keep a journal, talk to a friend, take a walk, meditate, read a book. [Take] Notice that ‘I’m not really sexually aroused right now, I’m just stressed’, so you can find other coping strategies,” she said.

Katehakis added people could also maintain sensuality and bodily experiences during the lockdown.

“It can be taking a walk in the sunshine, take a great hot shower, tasting a delicious piece of fruit, having conversations with a friend that make you feel so good afterward. These are the sensual experiences to tune us in to our bodies beyond just orgasm or ejaculation, but full-body pleasure,” she said.

She explained that there was a wide range of pleasurable experiences between being isolated, feeling dull and lonely, and losing oneself in hours of internet porn.

Katehakis also advised that people could learn where they were on the sex addiction spectrum by taking the center’s online assessment (centerforhealthysex.com/sex-therapy-resources/sex-addiction-test/).

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