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Sexual Addiction treatment and recovery

In understanding sexual addiction a very important step is properly defining the illness. Sexual addiction is a disorder that affects someone’s behavior by creating an unusually strong sex appetite and developing sexual obsession. Sexual addicts have their thoughts filled with sex-related issues and could develop an attraction towards exhibitionism, voyeurism, molestation, prostitution, compulsive masturbation or cybersex.

Sexual addicts tend to engage in constant self-stimulation, multiple affairs outside marital life, multiple one-night stands with anonymous partners, compulsive use of pornography, computer of phone sex as well as unsafe sex or prostitution. Also public displays of sexuality, voyeurism or stalking and sexual harassment could make a person a sex addict. In treating sex addiction, individual counseling, support groups or marital and family therapy pay an essential role. Medications are also prescribed in some cases because most of the time a sex addict can’t control his behavior although he feels a great amount of satisfaction from his actions.

Sexual addiction treatment has to be prescribed taking in account the fact that the patient lives in denial and can’t rationalize his actions. Sexual addiction recovery can be effective once the individual accepts and admits that he or she has a problem. Usually this happens once a major crises or a regretful event happens in an addict’s life and affects him financially or emotionally. The main focus of a sexual addiction treatment should be controlling the addictive behavior and helping the patient regain a healthy sexuality. Receiving information about safe sexuality, individual therapy and counseling are the best ways in treating sexual compulsivity. Another effective program that is available is the 12 step recovery group. Medications are used because specialists think that sexual addiction is a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder. By taking Prozac or Anafranil, a patient could feel that the compulsive nature of his addiction may decrease.

The process of sexual addiction recovery can be slow and ineffective at first, but once the addict understands that abstaining from any form of sexual obsession could help him return to a healthy sex life, he will start making progress in sexual addiction counseling. Recovery doesn’t follow a straight path, but a predictable one. At first, the addict must realize his or her problem and be willing to change their addictive behavior. The patient must understand the role addiction played in his life and learn how to value himself as a person, rather than as a sexual object. The key is to achieve a new sense of their personality and their mission in life. An individual suffering from sexual addiction will feel treated like an outcast by society. Sexual addiction has been acknowledged as a major social issue once specialists started comparing it to drug addiction or alcohol addiction. Still, most people find it unsettling to meet a person that has an obsession towards sex. This fear is part of not understanding sexual addiction and the refusal to stop treating addicts like stereotypes.