Sex addiction has received press in the media in part due to the many celebrities who claim to be sex addicts, and who blame unfaithful behavior on their sex addiction. Tiger Woods, Michael Douglas, and Charlie Sheen have all been in the news for extramarital affairs and sexual addiction. Some people in society, however, have written the condition off as merely an excuse for men and women who cheat on their spouses.
Sex addiction, though, is a real problem. Being a sex addict does not simply mean a desire for an abundance of sex, but rather it means the addict is a person who has serious underlying mental behaviors leading to risky sexual behavior. Stress, anxiety, shame, depression, and self esteem problems can all be factors that contribute to and drive sexual addiction.
People who cannot stop themselves from visiting prostitutes even though they have lost all of their income are examples of sexual addiction causing risky sexual behavior. Similarly, people who watch their marriage crumble around them due to their inability to stop seeing other men or women are examples of people who have a serious addiction that is ruining their lives.
Love addiction is another addictive behavior that may be considered in the same vein as sex addiction. Like sex addicts, sufferers of love addiction often have underlying disorders or emotional problems. These problems, such as abandonment issues, intimacy issues, depression, and others lead to the obsessive pursuit of romantic love. This chronic and compulsive romantic pursuit is detrimental to the addict’s health and well-being.
A trait of love addiction that helps to show the danger and seriousness of the problem is the addict’s compulsive repetition of the same love seeking behaviors even after bad relationships. Even if addicts are suffering physical or emotional abuse, they will stay in a bad relationship because of their dependence upon romantic love. They need romantic love to fix every problem, and they constantly seek out romantic relationships, even to their own detriment.
Both sex addiction and love addiction may be treated with disdain by some who consider them to not be true problems. And while it is true the two have been misrepresented in the past and may be defined incorrectly, there is no denying these emotional and physical addictions are serious. To learn more about sex addiction and love addiction and to explore the rehabilitation options available for addicts, contact Drug Treatment Center Finder.
