Sex addiction is a sign often used to indicate an excessive interest in sex, but studies show that it may be more related to the moral or religious environment in which a person lives.
An instinctive human need that leads to sex addiction, so some consider it a real thing, such as addiction to alcohol and drugs, and it can be defined as a compulsive need to engage in sexual activities and acts regardless of the timing and circumstances.
What are the sex addiction levels
Dr. Patrick Karnes published the first known book on the subject and established levels of gender:
1. Level one: includes the following sexual behaviors, compulsive masturbation, pornography search, and consensual same-sex sexual relations.
2. The second level: It includes illegal sexual behaviors, which are considered "nuisance crimes", because they are carried out without consent, and they involve a degree of abuse.
This category includes eavesdropping at the private parts of others, inappropriate phone calls, and shameful hostilities as well.
3. The third level: includes serious and abusive criminal behavior, which leads to severe consequences for the victims, and these include sexual harassment of children, sexual abuse of vulnerable adults, and rape as well.
Symptoms of sex addiction
Usually the addict looks for unusual and illegal relationships, such as multiple partners, in addition to this sex addiction includes a feeling of an urgent need to masturbate or watch and view pornographic materials.
In this case, he basically needs to learn to control and distinguish healthy sexual behaviors from those that are not, and thus it may take months or even years of treatment.
The definition of sexual addiction becomes a disease when it begins to affect the lifestyle and quality of life of the addict, as he may be tempted to change his activities and lifestyle, and may accept to do sexual activities despite their negative consequences, and here are some of them:
- Chronic sexual thoughts and fantasies.
- Frequent relationships with multiple partners and with strangers.
- Lying about sexual activities.
- Preoccupation with sexual practices at the expense of daily life and work productivity.
- Inability to control exercise and sexual activity.
- Risking oneself or others in order to perform a sexual relationship or practice.
- The need for control and dominance during sexual intercourse.
- Feeling remorse and guilt after sex.
- The need to masturbate at a high frequency.
- Pornography is like sex movies.
- Movies, songs and series that promote sex.
Types of sexual addiction
If the individual feels obsession, compulsion, and loss of control over sex and continues to practice this behavior, it is considered addiction.
Here are the 10 types of sexual addiction and their characteristics:
- Fantasy sex - exaggerated sexual fantasies, mainly based on arousal.
- Seduction-based sex - the addict has a high arousal and euphoria, and strangely enough, this feeling fades quickly after the first contact.
- Voyeur sex - It is based on visual arousal. Using visual stimulation and diving into the obsessive world.
- Casual sex - it is based on drawing attention to the body or sexual parts of the body, and mainly sexual arousal that stems from the reaction of the viewer.
- Purchasing sexual favors - this act is related to excitement, when the addict reaches the height of arousal, he pays for sex.
- Sex trade - this is by selling or bartering, where the person who does this provokes and controls others and makes them do anything in exchange for sex.
- Intrusive sex - this occurs as a result of unconsciously breaching boundaries, where sexual arousal by breaching boundaries occurs unconsciously and without consequences.
- Anonymous sex - means that a person has sex with unknown persons, and this type does not require temptation, nor cost and immediate.
- Sexual exchange - here the addict is humiliated or abused as part of sexual arousal, and this type is very popular and tangible.
- Exploitative sex - It is based on the exploitation of the weak, where the patterns of arousal depend on the target weaknesses of the weak.
Treatment for sexual addiction
Sex addiction affects all types of people from all cultural backgrounds, all economic classes and all ages starting from adolescence, because ultimately, sexual addiction is a mechanism or reaction as a result of the severe stress that a human faces in various areas of life, which may be common in all classes.
Here are some tips that may help with addiction treatment:
- Dedication to other activities.
- Sitting for a long time with friends does not allow for frequent sexual fantasies.
- Working.
- Visit a psychiatrist regularly
- Honesty with oneself.
- Talking about it with your wife, brother, friend or relative, ask for support from those you trust.
- Get rid of things that remind you of sex.
- Have a legitimate sexual relationship.
- Avoid the factors that help you with addiction.
- Prayer and getting closer to God.
In addition to the above, with the continuity of the addict being attracted to children, the elderly, men and rape, some statistics indicate that only 8-12% of sex addicts who seek treatment are women.
There is still a need for more statistical information on the issue of sexual addiction, and many do not see that sex addiction is a real pathological condition, because if the addicted person is found from the beginning, a deterrent from the effect on him or the surrounding environment or the police and society will be deterred, as addiction is doing something repeatedly and continuously.
But We need to accept the reality of this disease and search for its developments and symptoms, so that the problem does not escalate further and sexual addiction becomes a ghost that threatens our societies, traditions and customs.