Sex Addiction: Is it Real?

Sex Addiction: Is it Real?

As I wake up I turn on Maury for an unhealthy dose of drama. As usual Maury is running lie detector tests for people who suspect their spouses of cheating. One guy blames his promiscuity on being a Sex addict:
Wife: “Well if you are a sex addict how come you don’t have sex with me”?
Husband: “…Well I don’t have time anymore I am a working man…”

The crowd boos loudly

Sex addict? Yea right but we barely believe the guys on these shows anyway (BTW: He failed his lie detector test) So is this guy giving real sex addicts a bad name or is it just a cop out? What is a sex addict anyway?

According to Michael Herkov, Ph.D (PsychCentral.com) There are numerous ways to define Sex Addiction and its symptoms:
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.” The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders, Volume Four describes sex addiction, under the category “Sexual Disorders Not Otherwise Specified,” as “distress about a pattern of repeated sexual relationships involving a succession of lovers who are experienced by the individual only as things to be used.” According to the manual, sex addiction also involves “compulsive searching for multiple partners, compulsive fixation on an unattainable partner, compulsive masturbation, compulsive love relationships and compulsive sexuality in a relationship.”
Herkov distinctively points out that sexual addiction works like any other addiction where increased activity leads to desensitivity. Due to desensitivity, it takes more and more of the activity to illicit the desired amount of pleasure. -If that made sense…I barely made it out of my Psych 210 class (Learning)- However, Herkov also points out that the difference between sex and other activities or substances such as drugs and alcohol is that sex is classified as an essential activity to human life. Despite popular belief human survival does not depend on blunts, Bacardi and Blackjack, but we do need sex to reproduce.

Some professionals are just not buying that sex is like any other addiction. Craig Fabrikant, a clinical psychologist at the Hackensack University Medical Center told CNN that he doubts the addition even exists. "I think it's more of a habit than an addiction," he says. "I would classify it as OCD -- more of an obsession or compulsion than an addiction."

When it comes down to it most of the professionals are depending on activity in the brain to give the answer. If sex addiction causes the same brain changes as other addictions then it’s authenticity will be hard to argue against. Sex addiction is not listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) simply because there have not been adequate research and records on the condition. Sex addiction not being listed in the DSM will create more work for therapists seeking treatments and more work for victims seeking compensation from health insurance.

So is it real? I guess the answer is in the eye of the beholder (or the therapists). One thing we all know for sure is that this condition has a tendency to always hurt others physically and emotionally:
Roughly 55 percent of convicted sex offenders can be considered sex addicts.
About 71 percent of child molesters are sex addicts. For many, their problems are so severe that imprisonment is the only way to ensure society’s safety against them.
Victims are never able to stay faithful in a relationship; therefore they put their partners at risk for sexual transmitted infections
Victims are no longer in control of their lives, meaning consequences do not exist in their world. One sex addicted admitted to CNN that his condition began at age 16 and would seek pleasure starting at 4a.m. from pornography, prostitutes, and women he would have only known for 3 days.

We can argue for years about whether or not this addiction is “legit” or not but while we are arguing let’s not forget that this addiction also affects people surrounding the victim. Wives, husbands, children, friends and even employers who depend on these victims are affected. How many more STDs need to be transmitted or marriages have to be broken for this addiction to get more attention?
This addiction has a long way to go before it is accepted enough to be on health insurance! Only more statistics, research studies and more people stepping forward to share their experiences on this addiction will speed up the process. It would also help to put aside judgments and assumptions. Let’s give it 5-10 years.