The 'Reality' of Sex Addiction Stirs Debate

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Oct 15, 2009
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Mental health experts disagree whether behavior describes a true addict

Compulsive sexual behavior can be a real problem in some people, causing them to engage in risky and self-destructive acts revolving around their libido, experts say.

Mental health professionals agree that some people indulge in uncontrollable and harmful sexual behavior and that they truly cannot help themselves.

Drug use and gambling "are not biological drive states like eating or sleeping or sex," he said. "We all have a wish to eat and a wish to sleep and a wish to have sex." In other words, it's hard to ascribe to addiction something that people need to do as a part of being human.

Weiss has proposed creating a new illness category, hypersexual disorder, in the diagnostic manual that would cover the behaviors now referred to as sexual addiction.

The new diagnosis would include such activities as excessive promiscuity, overdependence on pornography and compulsive masturbation. "These behaviors have specific characteristics and cause adverse consequences when they are frequent and intense," Weiss said.
 
I engage in sexual intercourse once every 4 to 5 years. That isn't what I would call an addiction. I don't want to over do it. I'm pacing myself so I can still be having sex when I'm 105 years old!:eusa_whistle:
 
I'm not sure if I buy that it's an addiction. In one way, I tend to think it's possible. My former husband cheated on me constantly, and in looking at an online quiz, he did fit the description of a sex addict. HOWEVER...I think that just like with anything else, people overuse the term "addict" and claim it for their own simply b/c they don't want to take responsibility for their actions. I think my ex may have fallen somewhere between the two....between being an addict and using the claim to try to justify or excuse his actions. I think, like with anything else, it exists, but probably is not as prevalent as they'd like us to think.
 
Mental health experts disagree whether behavior describes a true addict

Compulsive sexual behavior can be a real problem in some people, causing them to engage in risky and self-destructive acts revolving around their libido, experts say.

Mental health professionals agree that some people indulge in uncontrollable and harmful sexual behavior and that they truly cannot help themselves.

Drug use and gambling "are not biological drive states like eating or sleeping or sex," he said. "We all have a wish to eat and a wish to sleep and a wish to have sex." In other words, it's hard to ascribe to addiction something that people need to do as a part of being human.

Weiss has proposed creating a new illness category, hypersexual disorder, in the diagnostic manual that would cover the behaviors now referred to as sexual addiction.

The new diagnosis would include such activities as excessive promiscuity, overdependence on pornography and compulsive masturbation. "These behaviors have specific characteristics and cause adverse consequences when they are frequent and intense," Weiss said.

Anybody have a guess as to how many "new illness categories" have been created over, say, the last 20 or so years to excuse bad behavior?
 
Doesn't it all fit within the category of obsessive/compulsive? That is, behavior that one engages in, even when he doesn't necessarily want to? Whether it's sex, or booze, or vacuuming all the damn time, lots of people have obsessions. Some are more destructive than others.
 
Doesn't it all fit within the category of obsessive/compulsive? That is, behavior that one engages in, even when he doesn't necessarily want to? Whether it's sex, or booze, or vacuuming all the damn time, lots of people have obsessions. Some are more destructive than others.

That is a legitimate point. I believe most OCD cases exhibit other symptoms, but perhaps sex addiction could be a form of OCD. I believe that OCS focuses around anxiety and dispelling it through compulsive actions. That would tend to put most sex addicts out of that category, but it is definately worth some thought. Until you raised it I would have clearly come down in the camp that sex addiction is bullshit, now I don't know.
 
Doesn't it all fit within the category of obsessive/compulsive? That is, behavior that one engages in, even when he doesn't necessarily want to? Whether it's sex, or booze, or vacuuming all the damn time, lots of people have obsessions. Some are more destructive than others.

Don't think so - obsessive/compulsive behavior is largely ritual. Always having to do things in a particular way over and over and over before actually committing to doing what they wanted to do in the first place. Jack Nicholson put on a great performance as an obsessive/compulsive personality in one of his more recent movies. Of course, I can't remember the NAME of the movie but Helen Hunt also starred.

My thought is that OCD is rooted deeply in one's failures or shame over something they did that wasn't right.
 
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Doesn't it all fit within the category of obsessive/compulsive? That is, behavior that one engages in, even when he doesn't necessarily want to? Whether it's sex, or booze, or vacuuming all the damn time, lots of people have obsessions. Some are more destructive than others.

That is a legitimate point. I believe most OCD cases exhibit other symptoms, but perhaps sex addiction could be a form of OCD. I believe that OCS focuses around anxiety and dispelling it through compulsive actions. That would tend to put most sex addicts out of that category, but it is definately worth some thought. Until you raised it I would have clearly come down in the camp that sex addiction is bullshit, now I don't know.

I'm thinking of a guy I've heard of who used to work in my building, years ago before our internet team blocked most websites. He was fired for constantly pulling up porn sites from his desk PC. He must have known it could be easily tracked, but he did it anyway.

Why would he risk a well-paying jiob, and his reputation, unless it was some sort of obsession?
 
Doesn't it all fit within the category of obsessive/compulsive? That is, behavior that one engages in, even when he doesn't necessarily want to? Whether it's sex, or booze, or vacuuming all the damn time, lots of people have obsessions. Some are more destructive than others.

Don't think so - obsessive/compulsive behavior is largely ritual. Always having to do things in a particular way over and over and over before actually committing to doing what they wanted to do in the first place. Jack Nicholson put on a great performance as an obsessive/compulsive personality in one of his more recent movies. Of course, I can't remember the NAME of the movie but Helen Hunt also starred.

My thought is that OCD is rooted deeply in one's failures or shame over something they did that wasn't right.

True. Then there was Howard Hughes.

Maybe those with sexual compulsions are tying to re-experience something pleasurable that occurred at one time. I talked to a psychologist once who told me that those with a bug to collect things may do this. She said that if I bought a guitar at one time, for example, and found the experince pleasurable - the shopping, the testing, the whole experience - I might want to keep repeating the experience.
 
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I had sex with a young lady some 37+ years ago. Yes, it was very enjoyable. And I still am repeating that enjoyment over and over again. Fortunately, it seems to by equally enjoyable to that no longer quite so young lady.

From observation, I would have to say that those that are constantly changing partners, or exhibiting other symptoms of "sexual addiction" probably have a problem with deriving real pleasure from the sexual experiance. After the initial period, they never seem satisfied with their partner.
 

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