Usual forms of sexual addiction

While at some time in their lives some people who are not sex addicts may engage in one or more of the behaviors listed below, it only becomes sexual addiction when there is an irresistible need to repeat the behaviors and habits are developed around them. This has the probable consequence of causing other problems in their lives.

• Compulsive masturbation
• Compulsive sex with prostitutes
• Anonymous sex with multiple partners, where sex is the only object and no relationship (not even as an acquaintance) is established with the person.
• Multiple affairs outside a committed relationship, or serial relationships.
• Frequent patronizing of topless bars, modeling studios, sexually oriented tanning salons, adult bookstores or sexual massage establishments.
• Habitual exhibitionism
• Habitual voyeurism
• Inappropriate sexual touching
• Sexual abuse of children
• Rape

Sex and Love Addiction

A distinction has been made between sex addiction and what is referred to as 'sex and love addiction'. The latter has to do with an addictive pattern of establishing love relationships with specific people, where the person and the relationship, as well as sex with the person, are all part of the appeal to the addict. While these same elements are normal in a healthy relationship, sex and love addicts can never find fulfillment and permanence in any of the relationships they begin. They keep seeking satisfaction in another relationship but find it empty, demanding or anxiety-producing instead.
Sex and love addicts may have several relationships with different people taking place at the same time, or they may pass serially from one to the next,- leaving each when the initial "high" wears off. Or they may have a major relationship (such as a marriage) complete with home, children and other signs of permanence, but keep returning periodically to secret relationships with new people.
Sex addiction, by contrast, is usually a preoccupation with sexual arousal and sexual release which often has little to do with who the person is and requires no relationship. On the contrary, to the sex addict what counts is the charge he or she gets from the image, whether it's a stranger spotted in a car or on a street corner, stimulating body parts, an erotic picture, or the addicts own fantasy.

Treatment

A man or woman suffering from sexual addiction has the option of seeking professional help by consulting a psychotherapist or committing himself or herself to a specialized treatment center.
Seeking counseling sessions with a psychotherapist has the advantage of being more discrete and will have less impact on their economic capabilities. However, for a person who is committing serious offenses because of his or her sexual addiction it is advisable that they commit themselves to a specialized center since this will remove them from the environment where they can indulge in such harmful behavior.

Kisses,

Jesse~