When your average Joe/Josephene Shmo gets busted for multiple extramarital dalliances, he/she is considered a rogue or a bitch or a whatever. But if shiny-toothed celebrity gets caught out, they are blameless, on account of their crippling sex addiction.
I understand that hypersexuality is a defined behavioral condition. But there is no physiological dependence, so does this really classify as an addiction in clinical terms?
Oh, and as above (but less sexy) for gambling addiction.
Addiction isn’t just physiological; it can be psychological as well. The rush of orgasm is a powerful thing and for someone whose life is otherwise uninspiring at best and a mass of painful emotional turbulence at worst, those few seconds can make all the pain go away for a little while. Then, of course, the pain comes back… and it becomes harder to keep the rush going. The burgeoning addict looks for different, stronger (and darker) avenues until it the drive of that pursuit overshadows everything else; life without that pursuit becomes meaningless in the sense that the addict can’t picture it.
In short, just because celebrities (or their agents) use it as an excuse for being a horndog doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
Mental Health worker checking in.
I have people present with the claim of, “I am a sex addict.” My usual response is how often do you masturbate?
The most common answer is that the person never has to because so many people are available for sex.
The next question is, “Have you ever been fired from a job?”
If the answer is no, I will note that.
“What do your friends think about you having all this sex?”
If the response is anything other than I don’t really have any friends, I note that.
“What do you do in your free time?”
Unless the response is whack off or pick up sex partners, it is unremarkable.
The thing is that many people, usually males, claim to be sex addicts and don’t understand what an addiction is. There are many different definitions of addiction, but I know what I use works for me. You have an addiction if it affects your OIL
O-Occupation-If you can hold a job, may not be an addiction
I-Interpersonal-If you can keep friends, may not be an addiction
L-Leisure time-If you engage in hobbies other than your addiction, may not be an addiction.
I am not saying that this is the hard and fast rule for addiction, but it has a good beat and I can dance to it.
SSG Schwartz
Here is a long ass articleif you want to read about it.
SSG Schwartz summed it up perfectly. If you want to stop, can’t, and it’s ruining your life, then you have an addiction.
Does there also, then, exist a condition that is somewhat short of addiction, that is recognized as a problem? If you want to stop, can’t, but it mostly isn’t ruining your life because you have so far been able to control socially unacceptable impulses? If you have no friends but have never been fired? I believe I know someone like that.
Didn’t read the long-ass article, by the way.
Roddy
From the long-ass article:
The article also makes a distinction between behavior-based sex addiction and nymphomania, which the article states is more chemically based, i.e. seeking endorphin rush.
This is what I was loking for. Interesting stuff. Thanks for your comments.
I don’t think classification depends on how much you ruin your life. Lets just say that if you don’t like what it’s doing with your life, but you still can’t stop, then it is an addiction. It doesn’t matter if it’s your professional or personal life.