I AM A SEX ADDICT-You Are Hearing Those Words More & More Today

September 11, 2008

An ADDICTION that is seldom talked about is SEX ADDICTION…

Just last week, “Californication” star David Duchovny voluntarily entered rehab for SEX ADDICTION. An addiction that affects MILLIONS of Americans every year. Are you one of them?

While sex can be healthy for an adult relationship, some people develop an addiction to porn, affairs, and other sexual behavior, that becomes unhealthy and unrealistic.

Sex addiction, also called compulsive sexual behavior, is just like any other compulsion whither it be gambling, drugs, cleaning or alcoholism. It is when you devoting your free time to a behavior that you simply cannot stop, even at the risk of damaging a good relationship or prompting other negative consequences.

Compulsive sexual behavior could mean extensively using pornography, having affairs, having other lifestyles, voyeurism, sleeping with prostitutes, or masturbating excessively…all of these to the point where such behaviors get out of control.

As with many addicts, sex addicts use sex as a way to numb out painful feelings, kill time or simply to stop feeling lonely. Cases vary upon the individual. And eventually, some addicts come to a point where they do not even like sex anymore, but find they are unable to stop.

Sex addiction more widely spread then you would think, It is estimated to affect 3 to 6 percent of adults in the United States, alone.

The Internet, which has provided endless opportunities for porn, casual liaisons and cybersex, has fueled a surge in sex addiction. This is no small matter, this is in epidemic proportions. Clinics and mental health professionals are getting more and more cases.

And here is the kicker, Baby Boomers…recently women are being seen with sex addiction because of the wide availability of the Internet and porn, where it once was a male dominated addiction, women are becoming addicts of porn.

Of course, all people who have affairs or use pornography for stimuli, are not necessarily sex addicts. But these past times can form an addiction and then generate negative consequences. And the next thing you know, it is taking over ones free time and for some their life…Making it very hard or next to impossible to quit.

About 80 percent of sex addiction cases have sexual abuse or emotional trauma in their backgrounds. That is a very large percent and a very sad one for the abused. Larger numbers of people are coming forward as sex addicts that have been abused, assaulted or raped. People who have abuse in their past are less likely to trust someone…making it more likely to turn to something like sex addiction as a manifestation. It is truly a vicious cycle.

Research into the neuroscience of sex addiction has not been conclusive. Clinics like the Mayo Clinic is still studying behavior and occurring chemicals in the brain such as dopamine and serotonin which do contribute to sexual functioning. But those are still not clear, nor, how they are related to sex addiction.

Statistics show that for many people, especially women, sex addiction occurs in tandem with another disorders or problem such as an eating disorder, drug or alcohol addiction.

Mayo Clinic did find that these two chemicals, dopamine and serotonin are lower in the brains of children who have suffered at the hands of abuse, which may explain why some of them use their own bodies or, in some cases food, to increase dopamine and serotonin levels.

Studies are showing that teenagers develop their sexuality with pornography, and then find that relational sex isn’t as satisfying. Porn gives teenagers a very strong release, which then alters their ways of thinking about sex. The best way to explain this is the “ring the bell, feed the monkey” stimulus~response mechanism.

Addicts learn to become sexually attached to objects, and have trouble getting the same kind of satisfaction from sex in a PERSONAL relationship.

Is the Internet making up less human? How many people do you know that have cybersex or only Internet relationships? Are we losing human contact?

~The Baby Boomer Queen~

Sources: Mayo Clinic and Wikipedia

Share This Story With Your Friends (choose below)... These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.