Sex Addiction

SEXUAL ADDICTION Name: Institution: Date: SEXUAL ADDICTION Introduction Most thoughts and concepts of sex held today were devised in the medieval times especially by the ancient Church. The church formulated stern laws and opinions on every feature of sex. Fornication and adultery were sins liable to be punished by death. Despite the severity of this issue by the church, there came a time that it condoned prostitution terming it as unavoidable and at the same time, the priests were allowed to marry and have children. Since the middle ages, sex has therefore become an interesting subject. Great authors have written long polemics on sexuality, which seem to have an aura of enjoyment in them (Magness, 2011). Sex addiction is said to have began in the 1980s because of the medieval age intellectual anxiety and has as well remained receptive to those tensions. Sex addiction symptoms and its impacts Sexual addiction has diverse forms such as; habitual voyeurism, masturbation, regular sex with prostitutes, multiple affairs outside marriage or a committed relationship, inappropriate sexual touching, habitual abuse of children which is considered most harmful to the addict. Therefore, sex addiction has become a fitting phrase to help describe sex that is not approved in society i.e. adultery and fornication. The notion that an individual could be hooked on sex is quite troubling to most people today. Most people are able to admit of their bad habits but shy away to admit that they are addicted to something, this fear is from the stereotype by the society towards addicts. Research shows that in a population, about 8 percent men and 3 percent women are sex addicts. It has also been noted that about 60 percent of sexual addicts are victims of abuse during their childhood (Coombs, 2009). This practice can therefore be defined as a disorder and a condition in which a form of sexual activity is engaged in an outline that usually is characterized by two main attributes; the persistent inability or failure to have power over sexual behavior, and the continuance of the sexual behavior regardless of noteworthy detrimental consequences involved. As a result, sexual addiction is termed as a disorder in which an outline of sexual behavior have an effect on a person’s life in a manner that agrees with the meaning of addiction and meets the analytic criterion for an addictive disorder. This disorder is a progressive intimacy condition that is also set apart by obsessive sexual feelings and actions. Just like other addictions, it has a depressing blow on the addict as well as his/her family members. As the disorder progresses, its negative impact on the addict and his family increases as the disorder progresses (Hiller, Wood, & Bolton, 2006). The two main key features of an addict are; the individual is not consistently able to manage his sexual behavior and that the sexual behavior has major destructive consequences but the addict continues even with these consequences. Regardless the quantity or quality of sex they engage in some people stay hungry for more sex. It is as if they are sexually unquenchable. Mostly, their voracious sexual hunger is related to entrenched psychological issues. It is not that the addicts enjoy sex more than other people, in the real sense; they are forced to act out sexually in order to fill their minds. The sexual insatiable nature in adulthood could be influenced by contaminated early childhood associations. Insatiable sexual hunger cannot be described as a desire but as a hopeless need, an obligation that is experienced as a hankering. This need is usually pursued like a drug this makes sex addicts slaves to sex (Van, 2013). However, they pursue sex hoping to dismiss feelings of insufficiency, anxiety, anger, depression and other unbearable feelings that they might be experiencing. Similar to a drug an alcoholic or a drug addict, the sex addict will uncompromisingly seek pleasure from an outside source to dismiss the inside hurt. In the brains of a sex addict, there is a pleasure reward system, which holds the dopamine receptors. This system is activated during gambling, alcohol and even sex. In the case of sex addicts who despair after the act, their dopamine receptors are then left asking for more sex, this insatiable hunger for more sex is a psychological and biological set up. Sex therefore acts a drug for the dopamine receptors in the in the pleasure reward system. Most addicts however avoid public doings that could lead to arousal; they alternatively spend time indoors watching and reading pornography as they masturbate. Diagnosis There is no certified diagnosis for this disorder yet as researchers define the symptoms for the condition based on observation and literature. Some of the observations made on these addicts include engaging in sex with multiple partners, persistent craving sex, spending a lot of time on sex related sites on the internet, neglecting responsibilities such as...