Diagnosis: Sex addiction?

Is it possible to become addicted to sex, and is it a dependency just like any other?

For university students, this might seem a no-brainer, but research papers published in the last five years show there is still much debate on the subject among researchers and clinical practitioners. In fact, sex addiction is not listed in the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders, which is widely used by therapists. Review papers in medical publications instead call it compulsive, or excessive, sexual behaviour.

Between three and five per cent of the population is said to be affected. A great proportion of them experienced emotional, physical, or sexual abuse during childhood. There are three male addicts for every female sex addict-and their habits differ greatly.

While male addicts are often addicted to pornography, and may engage in unconventional sexual behaviours-sadism, masochism, fetishism, etc-females generally stick to conventional sex. They often keep multiple partners, or engage in compulsive cruising-constantly seeking out sex partners. Practitioners often uncover the underlying condition when patients come in with complications resulting from their behaviour. About 40 per cent are said to contract sexually transmitted diseases, according to a 1991 survey of 1,000 admitted sex addicts. But data on the subject is still insufficient-a lot of it dates from the 90s and before. And there is still not a theory to explain what drives those at risk to “act out,” or descend into a vicious, and pernicious, cycle (see diagram above).

One possibility, floated by Dr. Raymond Bergner, of Illinois State University in 2002 in the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, is that sex addicts act out a preferred sexual scenario in an attempt to overcome an early experience of degradation. By acting out, the addict seeks to overcome this degradation-and builds up his or her expectations accordingly. When these attempts are not met, the addict sinks into deeper despair, and feels compelled to act out again.

Though successful treatment commonly involves three to five years of medication and therapy, Bergner argued the key to success is tackling the root causes of the sufferer’s degradation instead.

-Mike Ghenu

Sources: Minnesota Medicine; Lippincott’s Primary Care Practice; Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy