In most cases, sex goes beyond the physical engagement of the activity to the emotional and psychological aspects. The act of engaging in sex is considered healthy when it does not affect an individual’s normal functionality. However, in a scenario where a person becomes obsessed with sex, like a drug addict to substances such as cocaine and bhang, it becomes an addiction.
According to Legg (2018), sex addiction is the uncontrollable desire to perform sexual acts to attain a kind of fixation like an alcoholic obtains from taking drinks. Some people who are addicted to sex end up engaging even in obscene activities like rape.
Most sex addicts find it difficult to establish long relationships with a partner due to their sexual disorders. Most crimes resulting from sexual obsession get punished through life imprisonment, which does harm to the alleged criminal. Sex addiction is an illness that requires proper diagnosis and treatment rather than punishment of behavior.
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This paper will cover the prevalence, causes, effects, and treatment of sex addiction behavior in a person.
Prevalence of Sex Addiction
Sex addiction is indiscriminative of age, gender, race, nationality and ethnicity. Any person who is sexually extremely active may become also a sex addict. According to research on sexual addictions among adults, some three to five per cent of the total American population may be sex addicts (Pickering, 2021).
There is an indefinite statistic on the prevalence of sex addiction in the U.S (2021). Equating the number of sex offenders in the country to sex addicts will provide inaccurate data of sexually addicted people. Besides, most people with a sexual addiction problem find it difficult to seek help due to the stigma attached to the condition (Pickering, 2021).
Sex addiction gets inclined to one gender in the American population. According to Pickering (2021) From an estimated data of 12-30 million Americas living with the sex psychological disorder, men are likely to be victims as opposed to their female counterparts. A male addict is likely to have 32 partners instead of a female who has 22 (Pickering, 2021).
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This paper will cover the prevalence, causes, effects, and treatment of sex
Data on pornography view can provide an accurate estimate of the American population affected by sexual addiction. Through statistics, the prevalence of sex addiction among all adults will get discovered and dealt with healthily.
Causes of Sex Addiction
Sex addiction may be caused by various factors such as poor childhood upbringing and an unstable psychological state. Poor childhood upbringing may contribute to undesirable sexual behaviour in adulthood. Research shows that people who experience an addiction to sex have childhood problems that they are coping with through shame, isolation, and hopelessness in their adulthood (Pickering, 2021).
Sexual, physical and psychological abuse form childhood traumas that may manifest in sexual addiction later in life. The psychological component of a person, shaped by childhood experiences, can lead to addiction to sexual activities (The Dawn, 2021). The development of psychological disorders due to sex increases an urge to engage in the activity.
Sex addiction may lead to mental disorder development, such as anxiety, depression, and personality disorder, increasing the urge to engage in more sexual activities (The Dawn, 2021). Psychological instability developed over a certain period, predisposes a person to sexual addictive behaviour.
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Sexual addiction gets related to biological factors within an individual. The hormones of an individual can contribute to compulsive sexual behaviour. An imbalance of natural brain chemicals like serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine can result in sexual addictive behaviour in an individual.
A high level of certain natural brain chemicals may lead to addiction.
Such a factor is medically controllable through the administration of drugs that help in regulating hormone levels. Increased exposure to sexual content and behaviour may lead to changes in the brain. Sexual addiction, over time, affects brain’s neural circuits, e.g. in the dopamine pathways in the brain’s natural pleasure centre (Mayo Clinic, 2021).
Sex addiction is like a drug overuse that gets intense with time, necessitating a high form of quenching the desire. At such a level, a person realizes his or her addiction to indulges in obscene sexual acts. Health conditions that affect the brain, such as epilepsy and dementia, may damage parts of the brain that promote sexual activity in an individual (Mayo Clinic, 2021).
Individuals with epilepsy and dementia may unintentionally exhibit sexual addiction, which leads to performing acts that they cannot do in their normal state of mind. Medication such as those used in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease can also lead to the exhibition of sexual addiction in a person’s behaviour (Mayo Clinic, 2021).
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A physician needs to inform a patient with a Parkinson’s disease of the side effects that result from the condition’s medication. Biological causes of the compulsive sexual condition can easily get treated when identified at their early stage.
Symptoms
People with compulsive sexual behaviour exhibit certain characteristics that extinguish them from normal people. Spending a lot of time pursuing sexual contentment is a sign of sex addiction (AAC, 2021). A person who frequently takes time from their working hours and indulges in sexual activities through the internet, pornographic calls, and magazines get regarded as a sex addict.
The inability to set a limit or boundaries to sexual urges is a sign of sex addiction (AAC, 2021). People who feel an urge to engage in sexual activity with a person at any place are likely to be sex addicts. The inability to control a sexual urge explains sexual crimes such as rapes.
Experiencing repercussions such as divorce, loss of a job, financial difficulties, and legal suits due to sexual behaviour are symptoms of a sex addiction (AAC, 2021). Sex addiction can weaken a mutual intimate relationship between spouses. Accessing sexual content through the internet’s sex sites or brothels can lead to a person’s financial problems and even bankruptcy.
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The inability to restrain from sexual behaviour with a negative outcome like sexually transmitted infections signifies an addiction to sex (Mayo Clinic, 2021). The identification of addictive behaviour towards sex takes time to attain the acceptance level of the condition.
Effects of Sex Addiction on a Relationship
Sex addiction can lead to strained relationships in marriage. Partners of sex addicts often exhibit reactive and emotional behaviour (Axelrod, 2016). A partner to a sex addict may feel an inadequacy to suffice the sexual needs of his or her mate.
The effect may be adversely leading to an inferiority complex in the person not exhibiting sexual addictions. Partners who are yet to accept their sex addictive habits may make their relationships unbearable leading to separation and even divorce. A couple with one person having a sexual addiction is likely to have mistrust issues that extend to even the children (AAC, 2021).
After disclosing sexual addiction and its potentially bad consequences, the parent with sex addiction may lose custody of children and incur a huge relationship loss due to family separation. Intimate relationships can get undermined when both or one partner has an addiction to sex (AAC, 2021).
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The pursuit of sexual impulses requires privacy that is difficult to attain where people live as a couple. The pursuit of sexual impulses requires privacy that is difficult to attain where people live as a couple. The secret pursuit of sexual fulfillment in the form of an audio or visual in a partner’s presence may breach mutual trust in a relationship.
Often relationships that lack trust are at significant risk of collapsing through a separation or divorce. Compulsive sex behavior is detrimental to a person’s relationship due to the heightened mistrust level that accompanies the action.
Cure to Sex Addiction
Most sex addicts who seek help overcome the condition through medication or therapy. Approximately 5 per cent of sex addicts recover from the condition (Pickering, 2021). Sex addiction that is medically caused can get cured through the administration of medications and surgical procedures to reverse the side effect of a prior operation.
Cognitive-behavioural therapy is the main cure for compulsive sexual behaviour that develops in a person over time (Pickering, 2021). Patients undergoing therapy can do so as in-patients or out-patients in facilities administering cognitive therapy sessions.
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Residential treatment of sex addiction is likely to be effective due to the minimized triggers and distractions (AAC, 2021). The treatment of sex addiction can lead to other mental triggers such as depression and anxiety. Therefore, effective recovery from a sex addiction requires early treatment from a mental disorder and personal discipline towards attaining behavior change.
Conclusion
Sex addiction is distractive to a person and society at large. A person who is actively involved in sex activity underperforms at their workplace or professional area of specialization. Gifted and talented people lose their license of practice due to their destructive actions propelled by an addiction to sex.
The current internet dominant area makes it difficult to fight against sex addiction due to the easy predisposition of sexual content on electronic gadgets. Society plays a key role in enhancing the dominance of sexual activity through its neglection on the matter.
The media should get bold to spread awareness on sexual addiction since it acts as an incubator for mental disorders like anxiety and depression. Sex addiction can indirectly lead to an individual’s death by causing mental instability that highly attributes to suicide cases. Divorce rates in America can decrease with an increase in awareness programs on sex addiction.
Motivating You to mindshifting in many ways,
Your Coach Kati Niemi
Clinical Hypnotherapist, NLP Trainer, M.Sc.
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References
AAC. (2021). Sex addiction treatment. Retrieved from https://americanaddictioncenters.org/sex-addiction
Axelrod, J. (2016). FAQS for partners of sex addicts. Retrieved from https://psychcentral.com/lib/faqs-for-partners-of-sex-addicts#1
Mayo Clinic. (2021). Compulsive sexual behavior. Retrieve from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/compulsive-sexual-behavior/symptoms-causes/syc-20360434
Pickering, A. (2021). Sex addiction facts and statistics. Retrieved from https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/process-addiction/sex-addiction/related/sexual-addiction-statistics/
