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Sex addiction has more exposure today than ever before with celebrities like Russell Brand speaking openly about the condition; but what causes sex addiction and what does the problem entail?
ICD-10 classifies "Excessive sexual drive" as a diagnosis (code F52.7), subdividing it into satyriasis (for males) and nymphomania (for females).
Symptoms of Sex Addiction:
Management:
Further reading:
Sex addiction has more exposure today than ever before with celebrities like Russell Brand speaking openly about the condition; but what causes sex addiction and what does the problem entail?
Sex addiction is a term used to explain hypersexuality :
- sexual urges
- behaviors
- thoughts
Hypersexuality is typically associated with lowered sexual inhibitions, and alcohol and some drugs can affect a person's social and sexual inhibitions.
Sexual addiction is hypothesized to be (but is not always) associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), narcissistic personality disorder, and manic-depression. There are those who suffer from more than one condition simultaneously (co-occurring disorder).
According to American Society of Addiction Medicine:
Sexual addiction is hypothesized to be (but is not always) associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), narcissistic personality disorder, and manic-depression. There are those who suffer from more than one condition simultaneously (co-occurring disorder).
- "Addiction is a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry."
- "We all have the brain reward circuitry that makes food and sex rewarding. In fact, this is a survival mechanism. In a healthy brain, these rewards have feedback mechanisms for satiety or 'enough.' In someone with addiction, the circuitry becomes dysfunctional such that the message to the individual becomes ‘more’, which leads to the pathological pursuit of rewards and/or relief through the use of substances and behaviors. So, anyone who has addiction is vulnerable to food and sex addiction.''
ICD-10 classifies "Excessive sexual drive" as a diagnosis (code F52.7), subdividing it into satyriasis (for males) and nymphomania (for females).
Symptoms of Sex Addiction:
- Recurrent failure (pattern) to resist impulses to engage in acts of sex.
- Frequently engaging in those behaviors to a greater extent or over a longer period of time than intended.
- Persistent desire or unsuccessful efforts to stop, reduce, or control those behaviors.
- Inordinate amount of time spent in obtaining sex, being sexual, or recovering from sexual experience.
- Preoccupation with the behavior or preparatory activities.
- Frequently engaging in sexual behavior when expected to fulfill occupational, academic, domestic, or social obligations.
- Continuation of the behavior despite knowledge of having a persistent or recurrent social, academic, financial, psychological, or physical problem that is caused or exacerbated by the behavior.
- Need to increase the intensity, frequency, number, or risk of behaviors to achieve the desired effect, or diminished effect with continued behaviors at the same level of intensity, frequency, number, or risk.
- Giving up or limiting social, occupational, or recreational activities because of the behavior.
- Resorting to distress, anxiety, restlessness, or violence if unable to engage in the behavior at times relating to SRD (Sexual Rage Disorder).
- Schneider identified three indicators of sexual addiction: compulsivity, continuation despite consequences, and obsession.
- Compulsivity: This is the loss of the ability to choose freely whether to stop or continue a behavior.
- Continuation despite consequences: When addicts take their addiction too far, it can cause negative effects in their lives. They may start withdrawing from family life to pursue sexual activity. This withdrawal may cause them to neglect their children or cause their partners to leave them. Addicts risk money, marriage, family and career in order to satisfy their sexual desires. Despite all of these consequences, they continue indulging in excessive sexual activity.
- Obsession: This is when people cannot help themselves from thinking a particular thought. Sex addicts spend whole days consumed by sexual thoughts. They develop elaborate fantasies, find new ways of obtaining sex and mentally revisit past experiences. Because their minds are so preoccupied by these thoughts, other areas of their lives that they could be thinking about are neglected.
Management:
- Due to their effect of reducing libido, SSRIs have been used in research studies and off-label to treat symptoms of overly frequent sexual urges, but their effects are not always robust.
- There are self-help groups like Sex Addicts Anonymous, Sexaholics Anonymous, Sexual Compulsives Anonymous, Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous etc. which lead to similar "twelve step" treatment programme. There are various online support forums for these groups as well as meetings in many cities and towns all over the world.
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