Sex Addiction
Sex addiction is the inability to continue monogamy, to avoid sexual thinking, and to have sexual relations regardless of partner’s identity. The pleasure obtained from this kind of relationship is not really true, and sex addicts may be aware of the fact that this pleasure is just fake.
For sex addicts, the goal is to do the job, so the person feels temporarily comfortable after doing so, but after a while they want to do it again. This continues in the form of a vicious circle
Sex addicts engage in sexual activity not to enjoy but to escape from pain, to feel sensual or to avoid stress.
Almost all sex addicts feel guilt and shame, feelings of strong isolation and loneliness, a sense of hopelessness, and conflicting values and personal beliefs.
What are the types of sex addiction?
Sex addiction manifests itself in different acts. So the addict does things like masturbation, having sex and tracking pornographic websites, going to strip clubs and discos, doing a lot of immoral things, and can ruin their personal lives and negatively affect the lives of many people around them.
1. Take a look and excite: A snooper can watch a woman sitting by a bedroom window or wandering around the room for hours without feeling bored. He can masturbate when watching her, and even go and ejaculate in front of her. This falls within the range of
"sexual harassment"
2. Pornographic movies: an addict of this type can spend his money and time on pornographic magazines, strip shows, movies and pornographic websites.
3. Internet Sex Addiction: The addict can download many porn applications to have access to sex chat rooms without having to meet the person on the other side. Internet is the reason for more people to become sex addicts and for addicts themselves to become more and more of addicts.
4. Masturbation: Even though masturbation is considered as a normal behavior, addicts can sometimes hurt themselves. Many cases of addiction can lead to failure to achieve sexual desire or to lack of masculinity.
5. Sexual relationship associated with money: Until they get to change the sexual partner, some people might have sexual relationships associated with money.
6. Serious crimes such as child harassment and rape.
On whom is sex addiction mostly noticed?
It is noticed on 3% of males and 1% of females. It also increases in women more with the use of internet.
It is also observed on 8% of men and 3% of women in the United States, and on 4.2% of males and 1.5% of females in Italy.
It is mostly seen in the 25-50 age groups. The fact that people do not provide honest explanations in these matters makes it difficult to predict the social dimension of the problem. Almost everyone can be affected by this addiction, from an ordinary housewife to a judge and this shows that sex addiction is not linked to the educational status or to the person’s occupation.
Sex addiction is more noticeable on women with a better economic and social status and the opposite applies for men. When the bad socio-economic status of the man makes him incapable to enjoy anything outside their work, sex seems to be the best alternative.
Only 72% of sexual offenders and 38% of rape committers comply with sex addiction standards.
How is sex addiction treated?
Long-term psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy may be necessary to treat sex addiction. Behavioral, cognitive, dynamic and existential techniques can be applied according to the characteristics of the individual in order to create a balanced mood by finding and reconstructing the mental problem underlying the unconscious.
