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🍁 Sexual Addiction 🍁

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💡Sexual  Addiction 💡

Sexual addiction, also known as sex addiction, is a state characterized by compulsive participation or engagement in sexual activity, particularly sexual intercourse, despite negative consequences. Proponents of a diagnostic model for sexual addiction, as defined here, consider it one of several sex-related disorders within an umbrella concept known as hypersexual disorder. The term "sexual dependence" is also used to refer to people who report being unable to control their sexual urges, behaviors, or thoughts. Related models of pathological sexual behavior include hypersexuality (nymphomania and satyriasis), erotomania, Don Juanism (or Don Juanitaism), and paraphilia-related disorders.

The concept of sexual addiction is contentious. There is considerable debate amongst psychiatrists, psychologists, sexologists and other specialists whether compulsive sexual behavior constitutes addiction and therefore its classification and possible diagnosis. As of 2017, sexual addiction is not a clinical diagnosis in either the DSM or ICD medical classifications of diseases and medical disorders. Some argue that applying such concepts to normal behaviors such as sex, can be problematic, and suggest that applying medical models as such addiction to human sexuality can serve to pathologize normal behavior and cause harm.

Neuroscientists, pharmacologists, molecular biologists, and other researchers in related fields have identified the transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms of addiction pathophysiology. Diagnostic models, which use the pharmacological model of addiction (this model associates addiction with drug-related concepts, particularly physical dependence, drug withdrawal, and drug tolerance), do not currently include diagnostic criteria to identify sexual addictions in a clinical setting. In the brain disease model of addiction, which uses neuropsychological concepts to characterize addictions, sexual addictions are identifiable and well-characterized. In this model, addictive drugs are those that both reinforce and reward. Addictive behaviors (those that can induce a compulsive state) are similarly identified and characterized by their rewarding and reinforcing properties.

🍁 What is sexual addiction? 🍁

Sexual addiction is a condition in which an individual cannot manage their sexual behavior. Persistent sexual thoughts affect their ability to work, maintain relationships and fulfill their daily activities.

Other terms for sexual addiction are sexual dependency, hypersexuality, and compulsive sexual behavior. It is also known as Nymphomania in females and Satyriasis in men. While sexual addiction shares some features with substance addiction, the person is addicted to an activity, not a substance. Treatment may help, but without treatment, it may get worse. An estimated 12 to 30 million people in the United States (U.S.) experience sexual addiction. It affects both men and women.

🍁 Fast facts on Sexual Addiction 🍁

🔍Sexual addiction prevents people from managing their sexual behavior. Why it happens is unclear.
🔍It can have a severe impact on a person's life, but key bodies, such as the American Psychological Association (APA), have not yet established it as a diagnosable condition.
🔍Typical behaviors include compulsive masturbation, persistent use of pornography, exhibitionism, voyeurism, extreme acts of lewd sex, and the failure to resist sexual impulses.
🔍Treatment centers and self-help groups can help with sexual addiction.

⚠What is Sexual Addiction? ⚠

The American Society of Addiction Medicine describes addiction as "a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory, and related circuitry." A person with sexual addiction is obsessed with sex or has an abnormally intense sex drive. Their thoughts are dominated by sexual activity, to the point where this affects other activities and interactions. If these urges become uncontrollable, the person can have difficulty functioning in social situations. In some cases, a person with a healthy and enjoyable sex life may develop an obsession. They may find themselves stimulated by acts and fantasies that most people do not consider acceptable. In some cases, the person may have a paraphilic disorder, such as pedophilia. This is a diagnosable disorder. A paraphilic disorder involves sexual arousal caused by stimuli that most people do not find acceptable, for example, pedophilia. It involves distress and dysfunction. Sexual addiction has not been fully established as a medical condition, although it can adversely affect families, relationships, and lives. One difficulty with identifying sexual addiction is that people have different levels of sex drive or libido. One person may consider their partner a "sex addict" only because they have a higher sex drive.