What is sexual addiction?

Sexual addiction is a condition in which an individual cannot manage their sexual behavior. Persistent sexual thoughts affect their ability to work, maintain relationships, and fulfil their daily activities.

Other terms for sexual addiction are sexual dependency, hypersexuality, and compulsive sexual behavior. It is also known as nymphomania in females and satyriasis in men.

While sexual addiction shares some features with substance addiction, the person is addicted to an activity, not a substance. Treatment may help, but without treatment, it may get worse.

An estimated 12 to 30 million people in the United States (U.S.) experience sexual addiction. It affects both men and women.

Fast facts on sexual addiction

Sexual addiction prevents people from managing their sexual behavior. Why it happens is unclear.

It can have a severe impact on a person's life, but key bodies, such as the American Psychological Association (APA), have not yet established it as a diagnosable condition.

Typical behaviors include compulsive masturbation, persistent use of pornography, exhibitionism, voyeurism, extreme acts of lewd sex, and the failure to resist sexual impulses.

Treatment centers and self-help groups can help with sexual addiction.

What is sexual addiction?

The American Society of Addiction Medicine describes addiction as "a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory, and related circuitry."

A person with sexual addiction is obsessed with sex or has an abnormally intense sex drive. Their thoughts are dominated by sexual activity, to the point where this affects other activities and interactions. If these urges become uncontrollable, the person can have difficulty functioning in social situations.

In some cases, a person with a healthy and enjoyable sex life may develop an obsession. They may find themselves stimulated by acts and fantasies that most people do not consider acceptable.

In some cases, the person may have a paraphilic disorder, such as pedophilia. This is a diagnosable disorder.

A paraphilic disorder involves sexual arousal caused by stimuli that most people do not find acceptable, for example pedophilia. It involves distress and dysfunction.

Sexual addiction has not been fully established as a medical condition, although it can adversely affect families, relationships, and lives. One difficulty with identifying sexual addiction is that people have different levels of sex drive, or libido. One person may consider their partner a "sex addict" only because they have a higher sex drive.

More research is needed to determine whether or not sexual addiction exists as a disorder.

Symptoms

Some attempts to define the characteristics of sexual addiction have been based on literature about chemical dependency. Sexual addiction may share the same rewards systems and circuits in the brain as substance addiction.

However, people with sexual addiction may be addicted to different types of sexual behavior. This makes the condition harder to define. It also suggests that the disorder stems not from the individual acts, but rather an obsession with carrying them out.

Sexual addiction also appears to involve making rules to feel in control of the condition, and then breaking them to make new rules.

Activities associated with sexual addiction may include:

• compulsive masturbation
• multiple affairs, sexual partners, and one-night stands
• persistent use of pornography
• practicing unsafe sex
• cybersex
• visiting prostitutes or practicing prostitution
• exhibitionism
• voyeurism

Behaviors and attitudes may include:

• an inability to contain sexual urges and respect the boundaries of others involved in the sexual act
• detachment, in which the sexual activity does not emotionally satisfy the individual
• obsession with attracting others, being in love, and starting new romances, often leading to a string of relationships
• feelings of guilt and shame
• an awareness that the urges are uncontrollable, in spite of financial, medical, or social consequences
• a pattern of recurrent failure to resist impulses to engage in extreme acts of lewd sex
• engagement in sexual behaviors for longer than intended, and to a greater extent
• several attempts to stop, reduce, or control behavior
• excessive time and energy spent obtaining sex, being sexual, or recovering from a sexual experience
• giving up social, work-related, or recreational activities because of a sexual addiction
• sexual rage disorder, where an individual becomes distressed, anxious, restless, and possibly violent if unable to engage in the addiction

Studies have demonstrated a strong link between alleged sexual addiction and risk-taking. Sexual addiction may cause a person to persist in taking risks even if there may be health consequences, such as sexually transmitted infection (STI), physical injury, or emotional consequences.

Complications

Untreated, compulsive sexual behavior can leave the individual with intense feelings of guilt and low self-esteem. Some patients may develop severe anxiety and depression.

Other complications may include:

• family relationship problems and breakups
• financial problems
• STIs
• legal consequences, if the sexual act is illegal or publically disruptive, such as in exhibitionism

Causes

The causes of sexual addiction remain unclear.

Addiction takes root in the reward center of the brain. It may occur when certain parts of the brain mistake pleasure responses for survival mechanisms.

The midbrain is the section of the brain that handles the body's reward system and survival instincts. As sexual activity creates a rush of dopamine, the "feel-good" chemical in the brain, this triggers the feeling of pleasure. The midbrain then mistakes this feeling of pleasure as being central to survival.

One possibility is that, in people with sexual addiction, the frontal cortex, or the brain's center of logic and morality, is impaired by the midbrain.

Studies on rats have linked lesions of a section of the brain called the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) with compulsive sexual behavior. This may shed some light the causes of hypersexuality in humans.

Some studies have found a higher frequency of addictive sexual behavior in people from dysfunctional families. A person with sexual addiction is more likely to have been abused than other people.

A significant number of people recovering from sexual addiction have reported some type of addiction among family members. It can occur alongside another addiction.

Sourcce: Medical News Today