19.03.2024

Is there a sex addiction actually

Sexual addiction is not currently a clinical diagnosis, meaning that there is no official data on how many people appealed for help to a specialist with the relevant symptoms.

Quote by Mark TWAIN that easy to quit Smoking because he had done this a hundred times, is often quoted in the context of discussions about the psychological dependency. Most often we think of them in connection with substances such as drugs, alcohol and nicotine, and the harm that can to get.

But when it comes to sex addiction, some experts still not ready to accept the fact that it exists at all.

On the other hand, data on “compulsive sexual behavior”, perhaps very soon will be included in the International classification of diseases who. Here we can recall gambling, which had also belonged to the category of “compulsive behavior”, but in 2013 he received the diagnostic status of the subject. A little earlier the same thing happened with the eating disorders. Therapists believe that sexual addiction may follow a similar route.

The arguments “for”

A study in 2014 suggests that when such people think about sex or watch videos on relevant topics, in their brain there is something very similar to what happens in the brains of addicts when they are shown several drugs, many to choose just one. “This is the first study designed to study people potentially suffering from sex addiction. But I don’t think that right now we can turn the problem into the category of addictions,” says Dr. Valerie Woon (Valerie Voon) from the University of Cambridge (University of Cambridge).

The experts add that in the case of sex addiction is the significance and what we mean by the word “addiction”. “If you bet only on the physiological dependence in the sense that abstaining from sex can cause physical harm, then sex cannot be an addiction,” says Frederic Toots (Frederick Toates), Emeritus Professor of the Open University.

Coats adds that there are at least two key features that allow to classify something as an addiction: the desire for reward or pleasure and the presence of conflict around this behavior.

Search reward – is what distinguishes dependency from obsessive-compulsive behavior, while in between, couldn’t agree more, there are striking similarities.

So, people with addiction are looking for short-term gain, even if it may be outweighed by long term losses. Conversely, people with OCD often do things that don’t get any pleasure.

Arguments “against”

But if we all seek pleasure, what separates the ordinary from the desire threat? Psychologist Harriet Garrod (Garrod Harriet) believes that the behavior becomes an addiction when it reaches a level of intensity that can be dangerous to the individual or to others.

Clinical psychologist Abigail San (Abigael San) added that sexual behavior can be addictive, but for people suffering from loss of control, the sex is secondary to the main issues, be it depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress syndrome, because they use it as one of the coping mechanisms.

Sexologist David Lay (David Ley) agrees with his colleague, saying that the behavior is usually classified as sex addiction really is a symptom of anxiety disorders. “Equating sex or Masturbation to alcohol and drugs ridiculously. People who are dependent on alcohol can die from lifting, what exactly will happen in the case of sex,” concluded Lay. He adds that the concept of sexual addiction mostly based on moral values. “You’ll become a sex addict if you have more sex or it is at times harder than the person who puts you the diagnosis”, – the expert concludes.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *