Starring in "Californication" star David . David Duchovny's voluntary visit to an addiction center made headlines last week. He wants to get rid of neither drug nor alcohol addiction, but a dependency that affects millions of Americans but is rarely discussed: sex addiction.
Sex can be healthy for a relationship. However, some people become addicted to pornography, extramarital affairs, and other activities.
Sex addiction, also known as "compulsive sexual activity," is similar to gambling and alcoholism: you spend all your time on this activity, even if it destroys your social relationships, and there are other negative consequences.
It means that you keep looking at pornographic pictures, engaging in extramarital affairs, prostituting, or masturbating excessively to the point of getting out of control.
Suggest watching the movie "Female Addicts"
If you feel that this is nothing more than a primitive desire, think twice.
Like other addictive behaviors, Kelly McDaniel says, sex becomes a tool to numb painful feelings, kill time or escape loneliness.
Kelly McDaniel is a practicing professional consultant at San Antonio, Texas, the author of "Women Who Are Dependent on Love, Sex, and Sexual Relationships, Go to Therapy."
McDaniel says, "Most of the people I've talked to have even said they don't actually like sex. ”。
McDaniel and David. Duchuni had no contact, and he was reluctant to speculate about Duchuni's situation.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="23" > who is a sex addict?</h1>
Mayo Clinic estimates that about 3%-6% of adults in the U.S. suffer from sex addiction.
However, the American Psychiatric Association has not yet classified the symptoms in its manual.
A website built by psychologist Patrick Carnes Sexhelp.com offer online tests that can help people determine if there is a relevant problem.
Experts believe that the Internet offers unlimited opportunities for browsing pornography and online sex, leading to a significant increase in sexual addiction cases.
"We're seeing sex addiction rates that have reached epidemic levels, especially online sex." Says psychologist Mark Schwartz.
Mark Schwartz was former director of the Masters and Johnso Institute in St. Louis, Missouri.
"I get more than two calls a week" to ask about sex addiction.
McDaniel said therapists have recently discovered that more women are contracting addiction symptoms associated with internet, so internet has become a gender-neutral dependency.
In the past, she said, female sex addicts were more inclined to have extramarital affairs or go into the flesh and skin business.
Experts admit that it's not that people who have extramarital affairs or who look at pornographic pictures are necessarily sex addicts.
These could have been just pastime.
Dependence is only formed when they have a negative impact on a person's social relationships, take up free time, and cannot be stopped.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="113" > why is it addictive?</h1>
Therapist Doug Weiss, who is the executive director of the Heart to Heart Counseling Center, said about 80 percent of sex addiction cases have a history of sexual abuse or emotional trauma.
Schwartz also points out that a large number of people who develop sexual addiction have been abused, violated or raped.
"If you've ever been abused, you're inclined to distrust people, [and] as a manifestation, you're more likely to turn to something like sex addiction." Schwartz said.
Feeling neglected in childhood — whether it's because parents are divorced or because they both work and can't spend a lot of time with their children — can also lead to sex addiction, Schwartz said.
Mayo says research on the neurological aspects of sex addiction is inconclusive.
Naturally occurring chemicals in the brain, such as dopamine and histamine, do contribute to sexual function, but their relationship to sex addiction is unclear.
McDaniel says the two chemicals are lower in the brains of sexually abused children, which may explain why some abused children raise dopamine and histamine levels through their own bodies — or, through food.
Many teens start with pornographic images and subsequently find that sexual relationships with people are less satisfying, Weiss said.
Pornography gives them a "very strong chemical shock" and changes the way they look at sex, like the classic "ring the bell, feed the dog" conditioned reflex.
Addicts thus become associated with sex with objects and struggle to derive the same level of satisfaction from stable relationships with others, he said.
For many people, especially women, sexual addiction often goes hand in hand with other problems such as eating disorders, drug or alcohol dependence, McDaniel said.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="114" How does > treatment work?</h1>
Good treatment centers discuss why addiction occurs and the associated brain chemistry, McDaniel said.
Advanced rehabilitation facilities combine individual and group therapy, 12-step support, and, if necessary, psychopharmaceuticals such as antidepressants.
Health Library
MayoClinic.com: Compulsive sexual activity
The 12-step programs, which have evolved with Alcoholics Anonymous, are the most widely used treatments, says Sam Alibrando, a therapist and consultant at Pasadena, California.
These methods require a promoter, and people in the group are always available to be reached by others in the group.
By the way, these methods (against sex addiction) don't work as well as in the Alcoholics Anonymous Association because sex is harder to give up, Alibrando said.
Alibrando is the author of "Follow the Yellow Brick Road: How to Change for the Better When Life Gives You Its Worst."
"Treatment is long-term and not easy," McDaniel says, "and I do suggest that patients should find someone who should be trained to understand that sex addiction is a brain disorder without increasing the feeling of shame that comes with the disease." ”
Unlike treating drug or alcohol addiction, the goal of sex addiction treatment is often not to quit, but to learn how to engage in sexual activity in relationships with others, experts say.
Similarly, a person recovering from a binge eating disorder does not stop eating altogether, but learns how to manage the diet. Marriage counseling is often part of (sex addiction) treatment, Weiss said.
For different people, the goal of recovery is different, Alibrando said. He is currently in therapy for a couple in which the wife cannot even tolerate her husband looking at other women.
At the other extreme, he once treated a couple of lovers in which women bought pornographic images for her boyfriend.
"[The range of [sex addiction] can be wide, depending on where people draw the line." ，Alibrando。
Some convalescent addicts join support groups that require participants to have sex only with their partners, and some even forbid masturbation.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="115" what to do after > recovery?</h1>
Weiss, who thinks he was a sex addict before, discovered his problem in his early 20s. At that time, women couldn't make him happy, and he found himself "addicted" to pornographic pictures.
He now runs a resource website for recovery http://sexaddict.com and a three-day intensive workshop to help sex addicts start their recovery period.
Weiss said Duchuni voluntarily decided to seek help, not because of pressure from the media or lawsuits, and he was proud of Duchuni.
Such people who decide on their own to undergo corrections rather than being exposed "will "probably recover better," he said, and "people who voluntarily get better have a better chance of staying in good shape."