Although sex is a natural part of being human, an obsession with having sex too much can become “sex addiction”. So, is your sexual preference considered this disorder? How often or how intense must sexual desire be to be called sex addiction? Let’s find the answer together!
What qualifies as… “sex addiction”?
Sex addiction, or in English called Sex addiction, can be found in all genders. It is called a disorder because it is not just a normal high sexual desire. For doctors to diagnose this disorder, the sexual desire must be at a level where a person is obsessed with sex, masturbation, or watching sexually stimulating images and videos all day long. It affects daily life and work, with increasing frequency and severity over a long period. Normally, after satisfying their sexual desire, most people do it about 1-2 times and then feel content. But in this disorder, the patient has sexual desire all day long to the point it affects work or normal life.
What causes sex addiction?
This sex addiction often occurs in at-risk groups of people who experience suffering, life failures, depression, or those who cannot find happiness in other aspects of life or cannot find relaxation to relieve their suffering from their surroundings. For example, watching movies, listening to music, playing sports (which varies from person to person).
But they use sex or masturbation to relieve stress and forget the bad things that happen. When done repeatedly over time, the brain starts to learn that having sex or masturbating relieves stress and suffering. After frequent stimulation over time, it becomes more severe and uncontrollable.
Easy access to pornographic videos online is also a factor that makes this disorder more likely. However, it may also be caused by other factors such as hormonal imbalances that lead to sex addiction.
Sex addiction… can be treated!
The main treatment approach is to find the psychological cause and treat it with psychotherapy. For example, when suffering occurs, managing the suffering by talking it out, like training to express and handle emotions properly. Sometimes hospitalization is necessary because sex addiction is similar to gambling addiction, drug addiction, or gaming addiction. Patients need to be separated from environments that trigger sexual emotions. Once removed from those environments, the desire will gradually decrease. Treatment takes a long time, usually months, and some antidepressant medications can help in treatment.
