# New evidence that "sex addiction" is a myth



## Theseus (Feb 22, 2013)

Thought about putting this in the sex in marriage forum, but the topic of sex addiction seems to come up more often here. 

The first serious study of sex as an addiction doesn't find any commonalities with other kinds of addictions. This is something I've been saying for a long time:

Is Sex Addiction Real or Just an Excuse? (Slate.com)


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## Woodchuck (Nov 1, 2012)

Theseus said:


> Thought about putting this in the sex in marriage forum, but the topic of sex addiction seems to come up more often here.
> 
> The first serious study of sex as an addiction doesn't find any commonalities with other kinds of addictions. This is something I've been saying for a long time:
> 
> Is Sex Addiction Real or Just an Excuse? (Slate.com)


I have always contended the same about porn, but in a world where some say sugar is an addictive drug....

Arguing with them is like wrestling a pig....You can't pin them down, you always wind up dirty, and the pig kinda likes it.....

the woodchuck


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## Thorburn (Nov 23, 2011)

Welcome to my world. I have stated oftentimes that sexual addiction is a nice way to package a set of behaviors in terms that us clinicians understand and a way for us clinicians to make a set of behaviors that are easy to explain. But when you get down to it, it is almost like nailing jello to the wall. There is a serious camp of religous and secular folks who have made a lot of money is selling sexual addictions. Google it and you will see very high priced centers, one is local to me, to free. But there is a lot of money to be made. Additionally in my conservative Christian world many pastors buy into the addictions camp because there are more women then men in church who take pornography as a serious issue. These women who make up a large portion of the church would leave if the pastor said, "oh it is no big deal". Even in the new DSM-5 there was an effort to get sexual addiction added. The DSM-5 came out earlier this year. Sexual addiction was not granted mental health status. Realisitically, part of the reason had to do with the other side (insurance companies) not wanting to pay for this expensive treatment. 

The fight is not over and will not be over for a long time. There is evidence of changes in the brain chemistry when a person looks at porn like addiction to herion, etc. 

So now we have evidence for the one side, it will be interesting to see how the other side responds.

I am still open to whatever way this goes but currently I don't see it as a bonified clinical issue in the sense of adding it to the DSM. Until it can be defined better, be clinically verifiable and tested, it will continue to be debated.

That is my two cents worth.


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## Hope1964 (Sep 26, 2011)

Whether you want to call it an addiction or not, if the label means that people are going to get themselves help for it, it doesn't really matter does it?

What I think people need to realize is that, if you're using 'addiction' to anything as an 'excuse', you're NOT in recovery and you're NOT doing what you need to do to smarten yourself up.

SAA meetings have helped my husband immensely to stay on the straight and narrow path. Me going home tonight and telling him that his sex addiction is a myth would be taking several GIANT steps backwards for him.

Oh, and SAA is free


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## Maneo (Dec 4, 2012)

It is one study and the researchers themselves say the results are an indicator but not conclusive. It challenges the conventional wisdom but also calls for more research to more completely understand.


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## Suspecting (Jan 8, 2013)

Theseus said:


> Thought about putting this in the sex in marriage forum, but the topic of sex addiction seems to come up more often here.
> 
> The first serious study of sex as an addiction doesn't find any commonalities with other kinds of addictions. This is something I've been saying for a long time:
> 
> Is Sex Addiction Real or Just an Excuse? (Slate.com)


_"A new study published in last week’s journal of Socioaffective Neuroscience and Psychology *suggests that maybe* it doesn’t"_

Suggests and maybe, you can't really call that evidence. They are still only theorizing so it's not a proven fact.


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## Lost at sea (Mar 16, 2013)

Well, if an article on a website says its not real then it must all be a lie
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## thatbpguy (Dec 24, 2012)

It’s an interesting debate. WebMD and several sites with respected professionals (psychologists, neurologists… ) state otherwise- that it is an addiction, as is betraying addictive behavior. They call it "hypersexual disorder".

And there are respected people on the other side of the fence. 

But not every person who betrays or is into porn is necessarily a “sex addict”. Sometimes there are underlying causes such as mental or emotional illness and the sex (or gambling, drinking, drugs…) is how they play out the underlying problems. The problem is trying to determine if the addiction is a true one or only due to some underlying problem .


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## Enginerd (May 24, 2011)

Every 16 year old boy is a sex addict! 

I never bought into it as an addiction. Calling it an addiction allowed it to be used as an excuse to save marriages or the public images of celebutards. It basically provides a medical excuse for bad behavior that can be clinically treated and therefore monitized for a profit. What a croc!


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## doubletrouble (Apr 23, 2013)

Yeah and nowadays obesity is a disease. Meh...


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## Hope1964 (Sep 26, 2011)

Are you people even reading the other replies?


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## old_soldier (Jul 17, 2012)

I have always believed that this whole "sex addiction" was a bunch of horse puckies. It's a convenient excuse for a lack of self discipline and a sense of self entitlement. In short an excuse for bad behaviour!


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## Hope1964 (Sep 26, 2011)

Apparently not.


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## Enginerd (May 24, 2011)

Hope1964 said:


> Are you people even reading the other replies?


Yep.


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## Acabado (May 13, 2012)

Enginerd said:


> Every 16 year old boy is a sex addict!
> 
> I never bought into it as an addiction. Calling it an addiction allowed it to be used as an excuse to save marriages or the public images of celebutards. It basically provides a medical excuse for bad behavior that can be clinically treated and therefore monitized for a profit. What a croc!


Good Lord. Sex addiction, whether is real or not (which it is) is way older than this thing about celebs saving face! And there are plenty of single people going to CSAT offices and 12 step programs.

I'd like to hear if some researchers are selling at newspapers that gambling addiction, or hoarding or any other compulsive unhealty, life altering behavior is a myth, therefore doesn't exist except as a moral disease nad a bunch of excuses. As if neurologic evidence it's THE "proof" when the compusion is evident and the need to help people too.

Another thought is... many pointed out it's all about fake therapists making money. It happens that DSM status is heavily influenced by money ( insurance, etc), so it proves nothing.


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## Enginerd (May 24, 2011)

Acabado said:


> Good Lord. Sex addiction, whether is real or not (which it is) is way older than this thing about celebs saving face! And there are plenty of single people going to CSAT offices and 12 step programs.
> 
> I'd like to hear if some researchers are selling at newspapers that gambling addiction, or hoarding or any other compulsive unhealty, life altering behavior is a myth, therefore doesn't exist except as a moral disease nad a bunch of excuses. As if neurologic evidence it's THE "proof" when the compusion is evident and the need to help people too.
> 
> Another thought is... many pointed out it's all about fake therapists making money. It happens that DSM status is heavily influenced by money ( insurance, etc), so it proves nothing.



Calling it an addiction is incorrect. Like you said it's about compulsive behaviors and the pathologies that drive them. I agree with that. If someone stops having sex they don't have physical withdrawals that require medication. That is addiction. They might get crabby ,but no one is going to the hospital. Psychology is a VERY soft science and addiction is basically a buzz word now with wide interpretation.


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## ThePheonix (Jan 3, 2013)

"_The study (which, amazingly, is the first of its kind) measured how the brains of people who struggle with sexually compulsive behavior respond to sexual images. If sex can be addictive in the clinical sense, scientists theorized, then the neural response of sex addicts to pornography should mimic the neural responses of drug or alcohol addicts to their drugs of choice._"

I'm not a scientist and therefore cannot debate the results of a "scientific" test. (although I do question the sampling size and methods).
When in my teens, I never considered myself sexually addicted but I (we) did enjoy peeking at an issue of Playboy (for the good articles ) Once I reached my late twenties, my appetite for porn decreased significantly so I've not been into porn for almost 40 years.
I've made no secret that I was a hound through my early thirties to mid forties, and did a little escorting. I cleaned up my act about 20 years ago and been on the wagon since. 
I am still not interested in perusing porn and the experiment would come up flat with me. Nevertheless, to this day I virtually cannot walk by a woman without pondering what she would be like in the sack and how I could please her. It has been an uncontrollable response. 
I've heard alcoholics talk about the desire when being around alcohol and former smokers saying the craving never really leaves. I have these same tendencies. I sure as hell wouldn't expect my wife to understand if I fell off the wagon.


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## Acabado (May 13, 2012)

Enginerd said:


> Calling it an addiction is incorrect. Like you said it's about compulsive behaviors and the pathologies that drive them. I agree with that. If someone stops having sex they don't have physical withdrawals that require medication. That is addiction. They might get crabby ,but no one is going to the hospital. Psychology is a VERY soft science and addiction is basically a buzz word now with wide interpretation.


So let's call it differently. Let's be strict and limit the meaning but at least let's admit the recovery don't fit. Why don't pay a minute to the recovery process? Why can't we link the two things?
If "real" addicts were magicaly recovered only by detoxing (ending of physical withdrawals) people wouldn't relapse so often.
Recovery, which takes years and at the end is a life long task, and detoxing, which takes days, months... depending, are different animals.


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## Suspecting (Jan 8, 2013)

Enginerd said:


> Calling it an addiction is incorrect. Like you said it's about compulsive behaviors and the pathologies that drive them. I agree with that. If someone stops having sex they don't have physical withdrawals that require medication. That is addiction. They might get crabby ,but no one is going to the hospital. Psychology is a VERY soft science and addiction is basically a buzz word now with wide interpretation.


It's called behavioral addiction. Exercise addiction, shopping addiction, eating addiction, gambling addiction, computer addiction, internet addiction, (video) gaming addiction, porn addiction, sex addiction... there are quite many of these. There may be biological and psychological factors contributing to these addictions.


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## badbane (Jun 9, 2012)

i have a few remarks about this though. one they only had 52 people that is hardly close to one fraction of the number of people who have sexual addiction. I also doubt that anyone with a sexual addiction would be in that mode of addiction if they are showing hot girl, hot girl, dude got his F(*)& head cut off and his brains are lying on the ground. That to me makes no sense. IT isn't like someone with a porn addiction is going to browse some porn and get all excited then stare and some dude cut into three pieces. That's stupid that to me would just point out the people who are sociopaths. There are a lot of smart people that think of dumb things and I think this study is one of them. just like the studies of cigarettes didn't include studies of lung function and concluded that cigarettes made you live longer.
An thats the problem with a lot of scientist they are really smart sometimes too smart to use common logic.


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## Enginerd (May 24, 2011)

Acabado said:


> So let's call it differently. Let's be strict and limit the meaning but at least let's admit the recovery don't fit. Why don't pay a minute to the recovery process? Why can't we link the two things?
> If "real" addicts were magicaly recovered only by detoxing (ending of physical withdrawals) people wouldn't relapse so often.
> Recovery, which takes years and at the end is a life long task, and detoxing, which takes days, months... depending, are different animals.



Recovery from "sex addiction" is about finding your self control and in my opinion that's about fixing a deep rooted character flaw. Some cannot be fixed. Once you label it an addiction it becomes an excuse for someone to claim they had no control and allows them to stop blaming themselves. It also allows their relatives to construct a path to forgiveness. Seems pretty obvious to me.


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## ThePheonix (Jan 3, 2013)

There's a big difference between having a real woman in my arms and looking a porn. Its similar to seeing the aftermath of Mount St. Helens and actually being there.


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## Acabado (May 13, 2012)

Enginerd said:


> Recovery from "sex addiction" is about finding your self control and in my opinion that's about fixing a deep rooted character flaw. Some cannot be fixed. Once you label it an addiction it becomes an excuse for someone to claim they had no control and allows them to stop blaming themselves. It also allows their relatives to construct a path to forgiveness. Seems pretty obvious to me.


I have no idea what your experience with addictions you have but - as recovering alcoholic and drug addict - let me "fix" this piece above.


Enginerd said:


> Recovery from *" addictions"* is about finding your self control and in my opinion that's about fixing a deep rooted (*?*) flaw. Some cannot be fixed. Once you label it an addiction it (*in your mind and in the mind of many non recovering addicts*) becomes an excuse for someone to claim they had no control and allows them to stop blaming themselves. It also allows their relatives to construct a path to forgiveness. Seems pretty obvious to me.


Why do you limit this to sex addicts? Don't you realize addicts of any kind usualy have deep rooted issues? Don't you realize all addicts blames the world and claims to be helpless? Don't you realize addict's relatives use to give them excuses too (hence the need to fight codependence, al anon, love must be tough, boundaires... and alike)?

Honestly if I had to guess I'd say you have no experince with addictions of any kinds as every single word you wrote here about those "fake" sex addicts aplies also to them (and to me).


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## Machiavelli (Feb 25, 2012)

Theseus said:


> Thought about putting this in the sex in marriage forum, but the topic of sex addiction seems to come up more often here.
> 
> The first serious study of sex as an addiction doesn't find any commonalities with other kinds of addictions. This is something I've been saying for a long time:
> 
> Is Sex Addiction Real or Just an Excuse? (Slate.com)


I think it's the same as air addiction, the sleep addiction, the shelter addiction, and the water addiction.


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## Enginerd (May 24, 2011)

Acabado said:


> I have no idea what your experience with addictions you have but - as recovering alcoholic and drug addict - let me "fix" this piece above.Why do you limit this to sex addicts? Don't you realize addicts of any kind usualy have deep rooted issues? Don't you realize all addicts blames the world and claims to be helpless? Don't you realize addict's relatives use to give them excuses too (hence the need to fight codependence, al anon, love must be tough, boundaires... and alike)?
> 
> Honestly if I had to guess I'd say you have no experince with addictions of any kinds as every single word you wrote here about those "fake" sex addicts aplies also to them (and to me).



You couldn't be more wrong about my experience with drug addicts. I was born into drug culture in SO CAL and have probably seen more drugs than your little mind can imagine. During my childhood I lived with 1% biker crowd who dealt drugs in large quantities. My mother was a heroine addict and ultimately died of a meth overdose at 71. My father died of alcoholism at 46. Both of them were weak people who ruined lives because they preferred to be high. They choose drugs over their responsibilities. They were selfish. End of story.

Sex is a basic human function which many will repeat on a daily basis because its natural just like taking a ****. If you choose to **** where you shouldn't then you've got a self control problem. If you have a drug problem that's 100% on you. I could care less about the reasons why you choose drugs because I guarantee I have a thousand better reasons. You don't know jack.


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## badbane (Jun 9, 2012)

ThePheonix said:


> There's a big difference between having a real woman in my arms and looking a porn. Its similar to seeing the aftermath of Mount St. Helens and actually being there.


yes but sex addiction isn't just sex. It is porn, masturbation, and all of the sexual stimuli. It causes you to constantly seek new and more exciting forms of imagery that you can't get in real life. So you find that your partner is not willing to provide you with real life expiramentation and you become bored and withdrawn. You may even start seeking out people who will fulfill your fantasies. REal women aren't as attractive as the silicon enhanced fake women they see in the images. You start sneeking it at work. When you are out on a date you focus on your sexual appetites and not the woman. it is real anytime you dose your head with dopamine you are reinforcing behavior. Regardless of whether or not you use food, drugs, sex, causing yourself pain, all of it leads to self destructive behaviors and social and emotional breakdown.


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## JustGrinding (Oct 26, 2012)

Maneo said:


> It is one study and the researchers themselves say the results are an indicator but not conclusive. It challenges the conventional wisdom but *also calls for more research to more completely understand*.


With the obligatory funding from the public troughs, no doubt . . .

Somehow, the general trending toward having to understand and save people from their bad behavior just doesn't seem as effective as the old-fashioned notion of punishing it, or letting it run its natural course.


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## MarriedToTheOne (Apr 22, 2015)

Exploding the MYTH of Porn Addiction:

Exploding the Myth of ‘Porn Addiction’ | Psych Central News

No such thing as porn 'addiction,' researchers say -- ScienceDaily

http://www.lolitalion.com/why-sex-a...fear-of-sex-a-conversation-with-dr-david-ley/

Is Pornography Addictive?

Why there's no such thing as sex addiction - Telegraph

Don’t believe the sex addiction hype - Salon.com

Pornography and addiction--three harmful myths - counselor

The Myth of "Porn Addiction" - hypnotherapy-in-exeter.co.uk

Dopamine Madness Approaches Critical Mass: The Addiction Myth May Crumble! - The Clean Slate Addiction Site

Christian Myths: Lust - The Christian Left Blog


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## Forest (Mar 29, 2014)

Yeah, yeah, addiction this, disease that.

Is addiction a polite term for weakness now? People tolerate addictions, and spurn weakness.

You screw around, you're a sex addict.
You overeat, you got a disease.
You shoot up, your a substance abuser. 

Hey baby, I want to rob a casino. I'm just a cash addict, I need treatment.

edit: OK, I see we been zombie'd.


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## MarriedToTheOne (Apr 22, 2015)

I think that the bigger point is not that people tolerate it because it is "now" labeled an addiction, but that (from what I got from those research links) it has been labeled an addiction (i.e., addictive behavior) for decades so that people could treat those people more severely, label them as mentally unfit, and in need of special psychological or religious treatment.


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