The human body is amazing, and the human mind is even more fascinating. We can develop feelings of love, hate, envy, fear, and we can also develop various addiction: sugar addiction, smoking addiction, drug addiction and sex addiction just to name a few. Addiction is a special state of body and mind when an individual does things despite negative consequences the activity may have. One of the addictions that have a special place amongst others is a sexual addiction, also known as sex addiction and therefore the sooner we establish the correct sexual addiction diagnosis the better for all relationships.
Sexual Addiction Diagnosis And Treatment: What is sexual addiction?
Sexual addiction is used to describe the behavior of people who are not able to control their sexual thoughts, urges, and behavior. Some of the models that pathological sexual behavior incorporates are erotomania, nymphomania, hypersexuality, satyriasis, Don Juanism and paraphilia-related disorders. If you are a professional looking to upgrade their knowledge about various addictions and treatments, you have to register for http://integrativeaddictionconference.com . This conference will give you all the knowledge you might be lacking, no matter if you are a scientist who’s focus is on addictions, hospital clinicians and practitioner, therapist, addiction prevention practitioner and advocator or a student seeking career orientation. Check out what this conference has to offer at http://integrativeaddictionconference.com/who-should-attend-the-i-am-i/ .
Can you diagnose sexual addiction?
Sex addiction is not formally diagnosable, but there are many changes in behavior that can indicate that a person has a problem with sex addiction. Being unable to think about other things but sex, having sexual thoughts during the whole day at work, at home, in transportation, lacking motivation for anything else but pleasing your sexual urges and decrease in productivity are some of the symptoms that can be alarming and are an indicator you should ask for help.
Addiction means that actions an individual does have negative consequences on their life and usual daily activities; therefore, if a person has trouble focusing on other segments of their life, or they are unable to control their thoughts and sexual acts, they have developed a sex addiction. Therefore, there are many symptoms you can notice that can indicate one suffers from sexual addiction.
Symptoms can be divided into two groups: emotional and physical symptoms.
- Psychological (emotional) symptoms of sex addiction
Usually, who suffer the most are those who are emotionally attached to a person suffering from addiction: family, spouses, girlfriends/boyfriends or friends. An individual who is addicted in most cases doesn’t recognize the problem they have while people in their surrounding have to deal with consequences, and eventually they build emotional boundaries between them. On the other side, sex addicts have problems on their own: most of the sex addicts have the fear of being abandoned and left alone. Because of this fear, sex addicts tend to stay in disastrous relationships, just to avoid being alone. When a sex addict is on their own, they feel empty and incomplete, and they tend to sexualize feelings of guilt, loneliness or fear. Sex addiction leaves emotional scars for life unless the person is willing to accept the fact and start working on dealing with their problem on time.
- Physical symptoms of sex addiction
Unlike emotional symptoms and consequences, there are just a few physical symptoms of sexual addiction. There is, however, the feeling of immobilization due to emotional or sexual obsessions.
If a person is addicted to pornography, they may have problems performing in real life; they can suffer from erectile dysfunction, or they can lack sexual desire for their partner. Some studies show that too much pornography builds a surreal image of perfect woman/man and that this fact has much to do with poor performance in reality. Their expectations are much higher, and they lose interest in “real bodies” with flaws.
Departmental Management of the USDA claims that 45% of women and 38% of men who suffer from sexual addictions have a venereal disease. Another consequence is unwanted pregnancy; statistics say that 70% of women suffering from sex addictions have experienced at least once in their life an unwanted pregnancy.
Physical consequences such as STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) or sexual dysfunction are one of the potential consequences of sex addiction; other emotional and non-physical adverse effects include problems in social life (at work, in personal relationships, in the family) and lack of motivation and focus at work.
Addictions are severe mental problems that can lead to anxiety, depression, substance abuse, obsessive-compulsive type symptoms, etc.
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Some of the therapies are:
- Individual therapy with a certified mental health professional. 30-60 minute-therapy is focused on sexually compulsive behaviors and any other following disorders. You will talk it out and see the real cause of your addiction; maybe it has to do with genes, childhood, depression or emotional disorders.
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy-This therapy puts your behavior, thoughts and emotions in the center. It is a therapy focused on changing negative thoughts to positive and also uses dialogue to find the roots of the problem.
- The psychodynamic therapy-The focus of this therapy is unconscious memories and conflicts that affect human behavior. Psychodynamic therapy reaches into your deepest childhood memories and explores your current habits that could be a reason you developed sex addiction.
- Dialectical – Behavioral Therapy-This four-component therapy is designed to teach you four skills. It has skill training group, DBT phone coaching, consultation team and individual treatment. They teach you mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, emotion regulation and distress tolerance.
- Group therapy-Using the power of the group in finding quick sexual addiction diagnosis is being embraced by many this days. This therapy will help a person suffering from sex addiction replace detrimental behavior and negative thoughts with positive ones and pro-social behavior. The power of group helps an individual realize they are not the only ones suffering from this addiction. This helps them stick to the plan of the therapy, and it gives them strength to go on. By sharing experiences, members of the group learn from others’ experience, and they get the bigger picture about their problem.
- Counseling-Couple’s counseling and marriage counseling are meant not only for the person suffering from sex addiction but for their partner as well this is also one way of establishing sexual addiction diagnosis. It focuses on problems sex addiction has brought and helps the couple improve communication skills, strengthens their trust and improves healthy sexual functioning.
- Inpatient therapy-A person undergoing this treatment resides at the recovery facility, isolated from the outside so he/she can focus on their healing process without temptations and distractions of everyday life. Inpatient therapy can take some time because the patient has to be sure he/she won’t give up once they leave the facility. It is a challenging psychical task but one which facilitates the sexual addiction diagnosis in good time.
Sexual addiction diagnosis is very vital as it facilitates successful sex addiction treatment. Although it can have severe consequences for individual’s life and to people surrounding him/her, sex addiction can be controlled and healed with the right treatment. The most important are to contact professional help if there are signs of sex addictions, so the person could start the treatment as soon as possible. Visit the conference website ( http://integrativeaddictionconference.com ) and expand your knowledge; hear the world’s leading addiction professionals and learn about treatments and diagnosis of sex addiction.
