Understanding Sexual Addiction

Before one can begin to understand the complexities of sexual addiction it must be adequately defined. The National Council on Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity has defined sexual addiction as “engaging in persistent and escalating patterns of sexual behavior acted out despite increasing negative consequences to self and others.” (Herkov) It is important to note that this means that sexual addiction isn’t just the desire to have sex more than normal but also that the addict engages in activities regardless of and consequences. The addict must also escalate their behaviors over a period of time in order to be considered an addict. This doesn’t mean escalating it to illegal actions but merely increasing the rate at which they engage in the behaviors. They may engage in increased sexual behaviors in order to achieve the same results, in the same way that an opiate addict increases use of painkillers because of built up tolerances.

Sexual addicts can’t all be considered the same. The idea of a sexual addict is one of a person who engages in illegal activities in order to achieve sexual relief. This is not necessarily true. Most sexual addicts never progress past excessive masturbation, extensive porn use, or phone and computer chat services. Some addicts do go past these basic things into more illegal behaviors. These things may include such things as exhibitionism (exposing ones body), voyeurism (spying on others intimate relations), obscene phone calls, molestation, or even rape (Harkov). When thinking of addicts as people who may engage in illegal activities it is easy to associate them with sex offenders. Not all sex addicts are sex offenders, likewise not all sex offenders are sex addicts. It is thought that about 50% of convic...

... middle of paper ...

... test such as blood tests, mri scans, or PET scans are used to detect mental conditions that can affect sexual behavior. The health care providers diagnose to see if it is actually sexual addiction or if they have a different disorder that appears to be sexual addiction. Other mental disorders or illnesses such as anxiety disorder, PTSD, and schizophrenia can cause sexual obsessions or compulsions. It can also be caused by tumors, seizures, dementia, and Huntington’s disease as long as various physical traumas (herkov).

Works Cited

Herkov, M. (2006). What Is Sexual Addiction?. Psych Central. Retrieved on March 7, 2014, from http://psychcentral.com/lib/what-is-sexual-addiction/000748

"Sexual Addiction Treatment, Signs, Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis - MedicineNet." MedicineNet. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2014. .