Category Archives: addiction

normal-sexuality

What Is Normal Sexuality? What Affects Your Sexuality

March 17, 2016

What Affect Our Normal Sexuality?

Normal sexualityAlthough Biology plays a very vital role, the way sexuality is perceived, expressed or acted upon differs with different cultures. As such, what is seen as normal sexuality in one culture may not be normal in another. Basically, sexuality talks about people’s sexual interest and/or attraction to others. It is the potential to have sexual or erotic feelings and experiences one to the other. The subject of sexuality is therefore a complex one since there are many cultures around the world. In other to be able to tackle with this subject, in some way, we will have to zero down to what ‘normal’ is within most cultures.

Scientifically, when something is said to be ‘normal’, it means average. Contrarily, when something is said to be ‘healthy’, it means it is adaptive. What this infers therefore is that what is normal sexuality depends on many things, apart from culture now, just like it is pretty difficult for an individual to answer the question “Am I normal?” The truth is, what defines a healthy sexuality varies to a large degree.

Because of these variables, we often wonder whether our sexual needs, desires or interests are normal. As a matter of fact, married people who use the services of therapists often ask about normality. Therefore to define normal or abnormal sexuality, it is necessary to define “sexuality” and “abnormality” Sexuality includes every component including, and is not limited to,  sexual behaviors, sexual desires, sexual attitudes that one is engaged in, sexual function, preferences and identification. Psychologically, on the other hand, abnormality is seen from 3 perspectives

  1. The Frequency Perspective: Which considers the abnormality of a behavior based on the rarity of occurrence in a general population
  2. The Social Norms Perspective: Which considers the abnormality of a behavior based on what is socially acceptable
  3. The Maladaptive Perspective: This considers the abnormality of a behavior when it causes problems in the life of the person who exhibits such behavior.

Sexuality or a sexual behavior is therefore said to be abnormal when it is not reported frequently from the frequency perspective. The problem with this perspective is that frequency can only be based on what is reported. If a particular sexual behavior is not reported, it doesn’t mean it is not in existence. If people are not willing to disclose, then the frequency will be low. A very large portion of sexuality-based researches are based on self-report. People get asked sensitive questions such as sexuality and they are expected to answer correctly. But more often than not, people distort the truth. For instance, women may be asked about how many sexual partners they keep or they have had so far in their lifetime. In most studies, women round down while men round up. In both cases, the figures are distorted and not exact giving results that are either an over-representation or under-representation of that the truth is. In most studies therefore, based on the frequency perspective, what is normal sexuality refers to sexual feelings towards the opposite sex. This is the most frequently reported.

Looking at the social norms perspective of normal sexuality, one can see clearly that this has to do largely with religion, politics, societal beliefs and ancestry. In most cultures around the world, the term ‘normal’ refers to what is ‘more acceptable’. Rather than seeing ‘normal’ as what is ‘absolutely acceptable’ and abnormal as ‘absolutely unacceptable’, each culture finds a way of identifying a range or spectrum of behaviors that may be more or less acceptable. Also, what is normal culturally tend to change over a period of time. For instance, pre-marital sex may be abnormal in the 1950s but is now acceptable in the 2000s. Normal sexuality from this point of view is pretty dicey as many cultures practice many kinds of sexuality and it is therefore difficult to find a ‘general normal’ from this perspective.

From the Maladaptive point of view, normal sexuality is beheld from the perspective of what is ‘healthy’, not what is ‘average’. This perspective therefore only seeks to know whether a sexual behavior is causing troubles, bringing harm to the individual or to the whole society. While the first two perspectives, the Frequency and the Social Norm perspective are seen as ‘objective’, trying to zero down on what is acceptable, the maladaptive point of view cares less, it only wants to know whether what is seen as normal or abnormal by the first two perspectives interferes with someone’s life. As long as it doesn’t, it is considered normal and when it does, it is considered abnormal sexuality.

Obviously, from the above definitions of ‘What is Normal Sexuality?’, it is clear that the topic of sexuality is very complex. I personally think what can be done to do justice to this topic is to ask questions such as

  1. Is this acceptable to me and my partner?
  2. Is this sexuality manipulative, exploitative, coercive or self-destructive?
  3. Does it cause any kind of harm to my partner or the society as a whole?

WHAT AFFECTS SEXUALITY?

Sexuality is normal in itself. It is biological and it is what develops with an individual right from birth. What affects sexuality is mostly external, rather than natural or internal. For instance, a female might have found out she is never satisfied with intercourse without clitoral stimulation. Because her partner does not seem to be into this, she finds it hard to discuss and as such, she over time resolves that clitoral stimulation may be something unacceptable for her partner. She recedes to a life of sex without satisfaction.

Also, the taboos of masturbation may prevent an individual from discovering sexual pleasure based on hand stimulation and because of this, such individual finds it hard later in life to direct their partners on how to use this method to bring them sexual satisfaction.

For me, most have come to believe that their ‘manliness’ or self-worth is largely based on their ability to please their partners. He therefore puts all focus on performing rather than enjoying sex. When the partner doesn’t seem to be satisfied, such men get depressed or start having sexual anxiety which cause problems such as erection dysfunction, which later causes problems in the relationship.

These and many more external factors affect human sexuality. You are invited to the AwareMedNetwork Conference where issues such as this and more will be discussed exhaustively. Please visit the official website to register.

 

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
hypersexual-disorder

What is hypersexual disorder and its symptoms?

March 16, 2016

Signs that you have hypersexual disorder

Hypersexual DisorderThe National Council on Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity has defined hypersexual disorder alternatively and casually called sexual addiction as “engaging in persistent and escalating patterns of sexual behavior acted out despite increasing negative consequences to self and others. Hypersexual disorder is a psychological disorder, and these individuals who suffer this, should not be looked down upon. There is a dire need of understanding how things for them, only the perverse acts should be hated but not the individuals. As the severity of disorder increases so is their frustration.  About 71 percent of child molesters are sex addicts. For many, their problems are so severe that imprisonment is the only way to ensure society’s safety against them.

There are a number of symptoms hypersexual individual suffer, most of them have to do with a recurrent and insatiable desire to get involved in sexual activities, fantasies, urges and many more. The extent to which an addict shows signs and symptoms is greatly affected by individual’s personality, environment, culture, religious beliefs and the severity of disorder. Most of the times a person remains disconnected to the outer world and remain submerged in planning sexual acts and look at majority of individuals around him/her in a sexual way. Their minds get plagued by the foolish rewards system they have developed over a period of time that gives them a false sense of euphoria and enchantment once they engage in a sexual activity. Secondly they get easily driven by their desire of more and more such encounters as they start considering this euphoria as a basic human need without which their survival isn’t possible.

When a person suffers hypersexual disorder, their majority of time is spent in planning activities and fantasies and perfect sexual scenarios that might never occur. They start looking at everyone with the same eye. This could result in them committing sexual crimes. Not all of the sex addicts get engaged in sexual crimes as they can manage their desired by possessing multiple partners, prostitutes, phone sex an online dating services. But when the disorder takes a toll with high levels of frustration building in an individual, it becomes difficult for the addict to contain these wicked thoughts to themselves.

An addict mostly have very low self-esteem, self-loathing and self-shamming are two very basic symptoms of hypersexual disorder. They consider themselves as un-lovable entities and often have this issue of objectifying their potential sexual partners that creates an atmosphere of distress and disdain. They often become mysterious and lack common sense of boundaries. They can’t differentiate between normal and healthy sexual needs and perverse wicked needs for excessive sex.

These individuals engage in these activities in result of many factors and happenings around them, mostly their sexual fantasies are a perfect way of running away from stressful event of their lives. What they are unable to understand is that their ventures are not going to solve their problem, rather they will intensify them. The quick gain of false euphoria makes it impossible for them to avoid these encounters again and again. They repetitively try to refrain from these activities and stay unsuccessful in controlling their desires. With time and severity of disease, they completely start disregarding the emotional harm cause by these urges to themselves and others as well. They will anything that satisfied them for a while without considering the consequences

The person experiences clinically noteworthy personal distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas of functioning associated with the frequency and intensity of these sexual fantasies, urges, and behavior. These people becomes isolated as they are so absorbed in their own thoughts that they severely feel a lack of connection with the outer world, a sense of no understanding prevails in almost all of sex addicts. Even though they will loathe themselves for their acts but usually they will not accept it to another person, majority of these do not reach out for help, they get so addicted and dependent that it becomes really difficult to even think about the idea of surviving without their own world of perversion.

The people suffering hypersexual disorder also get engaged in other forms of addiction as substance abuse and alcohol; this does not help them in any way rather than making them more miserable. It’s important to note that none of the above mentioned symptoms are due to the direct physiological effects of drugs or medication or manic episodes. They find drugs as a suitable alternative to their sexual euphoria and to find escape from a distressful life they have built for themselves yet again this worsens the situation rather than making it better.

They excessively get involved in masturbation, pornography, sexual Behavior with Consenting or non-consenting individuals, cybersex, telephone Sex and strip Clubs. It is considered normal for people engaging in these activities once in a while but excess of everything is bad and that’s the only underlying reason for sex addiction. These individuals would go to any lengths or escalating frequency of sexual activity to achieve the desired effect, such as more frequent visits to prostitutes or more sex partners.

It is a cry for help if you or any of your loved ones possess these above mentioned symptoms of hypersexual disorder, it’s understandable and painful to see your loved ones suffer but these individuals do no seek help, it’s a good way to get them to a conference where they can learn a lot about sexual and other kinds of addiction and their available treatment options without feeling any kind of shame. Our aim to organize Integrated Addiction Conference is to help people understand multiple aspects of addiction through extensive lectures and researches done by the scientist from all over the world. If you are looking forward to understand addiction in more detail or you have something valuable to share with the community, now is the chance to get registered with us on the link below and get innumerous benefits along with this conference. The link to registration is http://www.awaremednetwork.com/integrativeaddictionconference/.

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
Trump works the crowd after a rally at the Westin Hilton Head Island Resort and Spa in Hilton Head Island

Trump’s Brother Died of Addiction

March 15, 2016

Trump’s Brother Died of Addiction

Trump's brother died of addictionAddiction is something of a big deal. It always starts with a try, a ‘shot’, a sip, or just a little bit and then just like fire, it grows bigger and becomes something uncontrollable by the ones affected. Donald Trump’s brother was one of such individuals. His name is Fred, popularly called Freddy. Donald J. Trump, currently running for President of the United States of America said the death of his brother had taught him that bad choices could drag down people who are destined to rise and that such event had taught him to stay away from alcohol and cigarettes. Trump’s brother died of addiction and so are many that don’t get to make the news daily.

Addiction is something of a big deal and should not be swept under the carpet. It should be tackled heads on as soon as possible because it tends to get harder to deal with after successive failures of trying to quit. People who have been addicted to substance misuse will agree that several times they have tried to quit but every time they seem to fail and it gets harder to summon up courage to attempt quitting all over again.

We have heard many stories, Trump’s brother is just one of them, of how addiction has destroyed promising lives in our society. There have been reports of the extent an addict will go to and the crazy things they wouldn’t mind doing just to lay their hands on drugs, crack and alcohol, all these serving as tales to caution those who are treading the same path.

Questions don’t cease coming about what causes addiction and how it works. Can deny addiction mean one is addicted? Is addiction caused by exposure to certain drugs or substances alone? The questions are endless when it comes to drug and alcohol use prevention measures. In order to get an individual to stop the substance abuse, there are certain pitfalls which are often overstated and this can also generate feelings of distrust.

How Addiction Works

People get addicted or hooked to a substance or certain activity for the same reason they tried the substance or activity in the first place  – there is a good feeling attached to it. While so many people have tried drugs, drinks and foods and were never addicted to it, it is worthy of note that all humans are prone to addiction in some way. Different things just tend to affect different people differently. Given the right amount and exposure, everyone could be an addict. Before addiction can happen, a substance user must have crossed a threshold and strayed into dependence on the substance.

Research has thrown light on what actually takes place in the brain after an individual transits and crosses this threshold. It is more like a ‘brain disease’. According to Dr. Scott Glassman, “addiction is simply the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of displeasure”. An individual gets exposed to a substance and likes the feeling it brings. Maybe this substance reduces pains or make the individual feel numb or forget every worry. After a certain period of continuous exposure, the brain tolerates and gets used to this substance. The resultant effect is that more of such a substance will be needed to bring that initial ‘good feeling’ the individual had. Progressive increase in doses increases the level of addiction till there is a craving that is constantly beyond control. Then the threshold is crossed and the individual can do nothing meaningful without exposure to this substance or activity.

 

Don’t Criticize Addicted People, They Need Help

Donald Trump’s brother died of addiction because he didn’t get the right help. Freddie could have made it if he wasn’t just criticized and talked down upon to “do something good with his life!” Definitely, every addicted person wants to be free. No one loves chains! It may look like they don’t want to because they keep going back to the things that held them addicted but the truth is, the substance is like “life” or breath to an addicted person; they need it to stay alive. That’s how the brain now sees the substance. Their judgment of what is right or wrong has been compromised. That is why they need help. They need help of family and friends. They do not need criticisms and long sermons on how they are living a life that is destined for destruction. What they need is love and someone who can stand by them till they are completely rehabilitated.

How to Get Help

There are several kinds of help for different levels and kinds of addiction. Addiction treatments range from detoxification to medication to combat withdrawal symptoms, to group therapy for varying lengths of time. There is no on-size-fits-all treatment for addiction. Consultations has to be made with experts in this area and the proper kind of help administered.

 

 

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
female beauty

Female Sexuality Throughout History And Women Sexual Evolution

March 13, 2016

Female Sexuality Throughout History And Women Sexual Evolution

female sexualityFemale sexuality and female sexual desire has received a decent influx of interest in recent times. There is the curiosity around women sexual evolution which is really a big deal to men. Female sexuality includes processes and behaviors such as sexual behavior, sexual identity which also includes the psychological, physiological, social, cultural, political and spiritual aspects of it. Female sexuality can generally be seen as how females behave sexually. In looking at female sexuality throughout history and women sexual evolution, it has become obvious that there have been large changes in what is seen as the normal or acceptable or the usual as against what we currently see in women today.

For instance, women are seen to be more meticulous and conservative about who they have sex with in the past. They consider the cost and implications. They look out for certain qualities and traits, things that they find attractive and interesting and probably qualities they would love to be passed down to their offspring. Basically, from this point of view, female sexuality would be based on setting up a family. From time in memorial, men has been the ones that are careless when it has to do with sexuality. For men, it is largely about the experience, the pleasure more than the consequences of having sex.

However today, the whole table seems to be turning and men are freaking out. Female sexuality throughout history is not the same as we have now. Women are evolving. They are finding it easier to have sex with just any man who looks right, without considering the consequences. Nowadays, it’s about the pleasure first, before anything. So if a man can do her right, then he can’t get a pass. Friedrich Nietzsche said “Ultimately, it is the desire, not the desired, that we love” which makes it clear that women have now evolved.

In few studies that have been carried out, it has been made clear that the physical and mental responses of heterosexual women to visual presented sexual stimuli is higher. This shows that women’s bodies are specially designed for high interest in sex. However, because men have been the ones who control the sexuality arena, or so it seems, more often than not, women may deliberately shut down their own physical arousal in order to be absent from sexual intercourse. This is as far as it goes within a family setting. However today, women are stepping out to look for the desire and arousal everywhere else.

In recent studies, it appears women have lost interest in sex with their long term partners, their husbands and boyfriends. They are now much more interested in other men or males who can drive the passions they have. They seem to be pretty much interested in one night stands, with no strings attached. This used to be what men do! Men are now very worried when choosing their partners. Since most men attribute authority and ‘manliness’ to the ability to satisfy the desires of their partner, they worry a lot as to who their partner has been with and how well the person was able to sexually arouse her. If a male gets unlucky and marries one of the active females, then chances are that he will be competing with many males that have been in her life. This newfound sexual freedom for women therefore brings a lot of anxiety for males. Technically, for men, women are not supposed to evolve this way.

Males have always shown hallmarks of indiscriminate past – the drive to mate and with whom they mate doesn’t count. They just mate. Since females have had long histories of choice of whom they mate with, they certainly have developed mechanisms they use to measure and evaluate the quality of partners and as such adjust the levels of their desire accordingly. Now where this gets funny is, at some point in their relationship, this partner that used to bring desire ceases to and there is another need for another partner who can bring the required sexual stimulation for them to become sexually interested again.

At a point, if critically looked upon, it looks as if sexual monogamy is not really authentic any longer and marriage should be forgotten but that will be untrue because humans will always require that long-term partnerships. The fact that women have evolved sexually and are now sexually active as much as men doesn’t mean it is good. There just has to be a balance sought in between these things. An understanding of human sexual evolution and how women have always been very sexual will help us approach the thought of women sexual evolution very well.

You are invited to the Aware Med Network Conference where this and many more topics will be discussed deeply.

 

 

 

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
substance-use

Evidence Based Treatment Practices for Substance Use Disorders

March 12, 2016

Evidence Based Treatment Practices for Substance Use Disorders

substance abuseSelecting the appropriate addiction treatment option is very crucial. The individual suffering from substance use may only have one shot at recovery as there are no guarantees that they will ever gather-up the motivation to try quitting substance use again. Unfortunately however, there have been many reported cases where people have attempted quitting but have ended up with a treatment that wasn’t the best for them. In order to ensure that better choices are made when choosing the best treatment to give someone with substance disorders, adequate information is very important. The data gathered about the individual and the treatment option has to be reliable and dependable. By selecting an evidence-based treatment option for substance use disorders, the individual is set in the best position where it is much likely for them to enter a path that leads to recovery.

Definition of Evidence Based Treatment Practices for Substance Use Disorders

Whenever people do online searches for possible treatment options for substance use, they will find many possible treatment options which may be overwhelming. Aggravating the issue is the fact that many of these treatment practices are pure scams or a little more than scams. Some of these results promise the individuals instant results simply by drinking some herbs, swallowing some pill or by wearing some special necklace. Evidence based treatments are therefore put in place to ensure that the individual trying to quit addiction is placed next to the best options or resources that could help them in their journey to freedom.

Evidence Levels to Guide the EBT Practices

All types of evidence cannot be treated equally by professionals; some will get more attention than the others. Data obtained from subjective or anecdotal approaches are considered to be of lesser value as against data obtained from objective scientific approaches or researches. Now this is not to mean that subjective or anecdotal evidence is not of important use because they are but there are challenges with information proceeding from such sources. Such problems as human biases and errors are common with such methods. There are different evidence levels that can be assigned to Substance use Disorder treatments and they include:

Level 1: Indicates evidence that proceeds from true experimental designs and that includes trials performed in the clinic that include some kind of randomization.

Level 2: Indicates evidence that proceeds from quasi-experimental designs that includes no kind of randomization

Level 3: Talks about evidence emanating from professional consensus. For instance, a professional community may believe that a particular treatment works better than the other.

Level 4: Speaks of evidence that proceeds from qualitative literature reviews and publications that of good authority

Level 5: Indicates anecdotal information involving personal experiences and accounts.

From the above, evidence proceeding from Level 1 is of the utmost importance and value while evidence at Level 5 has the least value.

 

Issues with Anecdotal Evidence

Normally in life, humans tend to learn easily from other people’s personal stories and experiences. It is really simple, people tend to connect real time when someone is talking about what they are going through presently. The belief is there that the person is telling the truth and as such their personal experiences can be related to. It makes it easier to learn from the errors and mistakes such people had in order to avoid the pains they went through and wasted time. However, it is also very natural for humans to think anecdotally that thinking scientifically and there are problems with such thinking such as:

  • Human have been absolutely wired to locate connections between things even when these connections may not actually be there
  • The ways people find interpretation to things they have been through and what has happened to them is extremely affected by personal biases. What this means that even when the same event happen to similar kinds of people, their interpretation of the event might be absolutely different.
  • Humans sometimes have hidden motives and their interpretation of their evidence may be to support these hidden motives.
  • People, more often than not, tend to select experiences and information that best suits what they already believe as their reality.
  • In many ways, the human sense can be compromised and this means events can be inaccurately interpreted and this can be a big problem for those whose only reliance is on eye witness testimonies.
  • Humans possess a subconscious confirmation bias which means that they are much more likely to pay attention to things that relates to what they already believe as their reality and miss things that prove their belief otherwise.

For the above reasons, anecdotal evidences when treating Substance use disorders are taken with a pinch of salt.

substance use

Examples of Evidence Based Treatment Practices for Substance Use Disorders

Below are some of the best evidence based treatment practices for substance use disorders:

  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): This is a psychotherapeutic approach to the treatment of substance use disorders. Many studies have shown and proven the efficacy of this approach when dealing with addictions.
  • The Matrix Model: This is also one of the effective Evidence based treatments used in treating the misuse of stimulants. This employs education and encouragement practices to help the individual recover.
  • The Community Reinforcement Approach: This approach seeks to provide supports for the addicted individual within a common community of addicted people who are trying to recover. This is usually combined with a reward scheme that rewards people who can abstain for a certain period of time.
  • Drugs such as topiramate, acamprosate and disulfiram have been confirmed very useful pharmaceutical agents that are evidence backed when treating substance use disorders. Disulfiram, for instance, make people feel sick when they drink alcohol.
  • The 12 Step Facilitation Therapy is a kind of EBT that encourages addicted individuals to participate in a 12 step program.
  • Motivational Enhancement Therapy: This used a counselling approach which is aimed primarily at increasing the individual’s motivation to quit substance misuse. This involves motivating the individual to see themselves in a positive light and see themselves as being able to quit addiction.

It is very imperative for clinicians and health professionals to employ evidence based practices in treatment of substance use disorders as this helps to greatly improve the chances of the addicted individual’s recovery and prevents the possibility of them retracting and sinking deeper into addiction.

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin

  • Recent Posts

  • Blog Categories