Symptoms of Sexual Addiction

Discover the symptoms of sexual addiction and behaviors that may imply the person is a sexual addict.

Do you know, or have you heard of, someone who has an unusually intense sex drive or obsession with sex? This is the description of sexual addiction. Sexually compulsive individuals have lost the ability to control their sexual behavior. Sex and the thought of sex tend to dominate the sex addict's thinking, making it difficult to work or engage in healthy personal relationships.

Symptoms of Sexual Addiction

Here are the symptoms of sexual addiction and behaviors that may imply the person is a sexual addict:

• Having multiple sexual partners or extramarital affairs.
• Engaging in sex with many anonymous partners or prostitutes.
• Sex addicts treat sexual partners as objects rather than social intimates that are only used for sex.
• Engaging in excessive masturbation, as often as 10 to 20 times a day.
• Using pornographic materials a lot. Using chat rooms or online pornography or sex chat phone lines excessively.
• Engaging in types of sexual behavior that you would not have considered acceptable before. Examples are masochistic or sadistic sex. Sometimes more extreme forms of sexual behavior are engaged in, for example pedophilia, bestiality, rape.
• Exposure in public.

Generally, a person with a sex addiction gains little satisfaction from sexual activity and forms no emotional bond with his or her sex partners. In addition, the problem of sex addiction often leads to feelings of guilt and shame. A sex addict also feels a lack of control over the behavior, despite negative consequences (financial, health, social, and emotional).

Sexual addiction also is associated with risk-taking. A person with a sex addiction engages in various forms of sexual activity, despite the potential for negative and/or dangerous consequences. In addition to damaging the addict's relationships and interfering with his or her work and social life, a sexual addiction also puts the person at risk for emotional and physical injury.

For some people, sex addiction progresses to involve illegal activities, such as exhibitionism (exposing oneself in public), making obscene phone calls, or molestation. However, it should be noted that sex addicts do not necessarily become sex offenders.

Sources:

• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders (DSM IV)
• Sex Addicts Anonymous
• Society for the Advancement of Sexual Health