Ten-year porn veteran Missy Martinez reflects on the mental, emotional and physical challenges that she encountered in the adult-entertainment industry.
For those of you who may not know me, I’m Missy Martinez and was a porn star for 10 years. Ten … sticky years. Since retiring two years ago, I’ve done a lot of reflecting and a key observation stood out to me: Shooting porn is hard! No, I’m not just talking about erect dicks; I mean that it can be mentally, emotionally and physically difficult.
I wanted to take a second and share some of my thoughts and experiences to help shed some light on something that’s often glossed over: the challenges that porn stars can face.
MENTAL
If you follow me on Twitter, you have seen how vocal I am about mental health. Yes, I know it’s not a sexy topic, and posting about struggles and tribulations can be off-putting for some fans. Porn performers are not exempt from mental health issues, and I started vocalizing my issues. For me, porn was draining mentally. You have to be “on” 100% of the time when in front of the camera or behind your phone screen, which is tiring to say the least. Having to be happy, bubbly and horny 24/7 takes a toll, and it caused fatigue for me. I began to lose sight of who I was outside of “Missy.” It was very easy and appealing to let my real self go and get absorbed into the persona of my stage name. “Missy” is never depressed. “Missy” doesn’t have to pay bills. “Missy” doesn’t have a care in the world! As optimal and ideal as this might sound, it’s dangerous water to wade in.
