"Sex Addiction" - give me a break ...

I am getting a little bit tired of the whole "sex addiction" racket out there.

Sex is not an addiction any more than skating backwards is. It may feel good to have air blowing up your behind (or to have sex) but that does not an addiction make. And if you feel you are addicted, just stop skating backwards!

The problem is that calling it an "addiction" trivializes addictions which are real and substantive. The operative word being "substantive" meaning there is a substance involved (although this may not be the correct usage of the term substantive).

With real addictions be it alcohol, drugs, nicotine or prescription drugs, there is always a substance at work which makes us feel a certain way ("good" or at least "better" than without it). From that emerges an addiction to that "feel good effect" and in that sense, yes, food can be an addiction also but sex cannot.

Of course sex feels good, it is supposed to and without it feeling good there would be a risk of the species becoming extinct. Therefore, it is a natural and fundamental instinct to want to have sex and not so to want to smoke or take Vicodin.

But the individuals claiming "sex addiction" are not having "more of a good feeling" then the rest of us, they just have more opportunities. Maybe I just don't know but the "problem" of sex addiction does not seem to afflict a whole lot of broke, unattractive men. It seems to be a disease of the rich and not entirely physically repugnant men such as Tiger Woods or David Duchovny.

Comments

Always a 'substance' involved.... as in gambling??? What about food addictions. The chemical released in the brain around sex is similar to cocaine. I've talked to a number of cocaine/sex addicts and they say the 'rush' is similar. If your really interested check out the book "Craving for ecstasy"

Don L. Mathews MFT, Director
Impulse Treatment Center
Walnut Creek CA
Deanna said…
My name is deanna, and I'm a radio station changing addict.
Miljenko said…
Well what is the "substance" in gambling?

And I made it clear food I can see as an addiction maybe you did not notice that. And food is a substance. So no argument there.

Good try cheese non-addict but radio station addiction is a no go ...
Vesna Dukic said…
Nemozemo govoriti o ovisnosti o seksu, elementarna ljudska potreba uz hranu je odrzanje vrste, kolicinu potreba za seksom odredjue svakako mozak.
Ako imamo srecu imati razvijen dio mozga gdje su pohranjene informacije iz vremena kad smo bili reptili, tada cemo uzivati u "seksualnoj ovisnosti", a ako pak je razvijeniji ceoni dio tada cemo apstinirati od iste, i vjerojatno cemo meditirati na Tibetu.
Vesna Dukic said…
Dali apstinencija kao druga krajnost stvara probleme?
Da,ako nije osobni odabir!
I, sto reci, covjek ako nema pravo na izbor nije covjek. Po toj teoriji ima nas mnogo koji nismo "ljudi", pitam se sto smo i tko smo?
C.G.Jung tvrdi tko nije seksualno ostvaren zivi u mocvari...
Anonymous said…
You need to educate yourself on this topic.

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