How compulsive sexual behavior controls those who suffer from the problem

We’ve spent years hearing expressions like “nymphomania,” “sex addiction,” and “hypersexuality.”

These and other expressions define people who suffer from “excessive or exacerbated” sexual desire, or who have no control over their sexual behavior. While these terms served their purpose for a while, they are now outdated.

After many studies, the World Health Organization (WHO) included in 2018 the label “Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder (CBSD)” to name the disease that affects patients who seek their doctors due to a lack of control in their sexual behavior that is not manage to prevent.

How are these people?

Classification criteria include people who:

• They lost control of their behavior.
• They try to give up sexual behaviors, but they can’t.
• They take no pleasure in these experiences.
• They face serious consequences in different areas of life for more than six months.

The WHO indicates that this problem cannot be explained by moral judgment, that is, that the simple fact that something does not seem appropriate or morally acceptable to a person would not explain that there is a clinical pathology, amenable to diagnosis.

“Sex has become an anxiolytic for me. Every time I suffer and I can’t do it anymore, sexuality becomes my refuge,” a 45-year-old patient told me.

It is common to observe how patients use sexual behaviors (such as pornography, prostitution, sexual chats or webcams) to regulate their affective world. When struggling patients cannot manage their emotions, they turn to sex to seek serenity.

More research is still needed, but TCSC affects about 10.3% of men and 7% of women in the general population, according to the Spanish book Compulsive Sexual Conduct: an Integral View – Guide for Professionals (“Compulsive sexual behavior: an integral view – guide for professionals”, in free translation), by psychiatrist Carlos Chiclana Actis and psychologist Alejandro Villena Moya.

About 87% of patients have difficulties with controlling pornography use and 15-20% engage in sexual practices such as prostitution and infidelity.

How are people affected?

People who suffer from these difficulties can be affected in different walks of life.

– Personal life: the way of thinking and understanding sexuality is distorted and there is a loss of self-esteem and confidence in oneself, in addition to feelings of inadequacy, alteration of spiritual well-being, personal discomfort, humiliation or contempt, shame, guilt and lack of respect. development of personal identity.

– Economic life: job loss, excessive or unnecessary spending, blackmail and fraud.

– Interpersonal relationships: breakups, loss of trust from others, changes or difficulties in interpersonal relationships, emotional damage to other people, social isolation, failure to care for a loved one, marital breakdowns, and loss of friendships.

– Medical issues: sexually transmitted diseases, physically unhealthy sexual relationships, cognitive disorders, psychopathologies, sexual dysfunctions and worsening health.

– Other questions: legal problems (complaints and arrests), irresponsible behavior, renunciation of important goals or objectives, expulsion from organizations, associations, etc. and deterioration of the public image.

The most important neurobiological studies have concluded that compulsive sexual behavior disorder exhibits changes in the brain similar to those that cause substance dependence and/or other behaviors.

Brain centers related to reward and dopamine can deteriorate due to this lack of sexual control. In addition, the areas of the brain that regulate self-control, planning, attention and empathy can be altered, as observed in more recent studies.

How to recognize the disorder

Some clues that can help us suspect that a person suffers from this disorder are the following:

• Impulsive traits, inability to delay gratification, or lack of inhibitory control.
• Changes in mood, such as irritability, depressive symptoms, anxiety, or instability.
• Presence of sexually transmitted diseases.
• Technology dependence.
• Low academic or professional performance and frequent absenteeism.
• Consumption of drugs (alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and other substances).
• Difficulty in emotion regulation.
• Strong inclination to seek novelty or new sensations.
• Difficulty with emotional expression.
• Overly sexualized language.
• Relationship stability issues, infidelity, etc.
• Little interest in sexual relations with one’s partner.
• Low or no sexual training or great guilt about your sexual acts.

But there are solutions. The path is long and requires awareness, motivation, strength, support, patience, affection, help and dedication, but there is a way out.

In recent years, several effective treatments have emerged to help these people, including individual therapy (of various streams, most notably the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy), group therapy, and, in some cases, drug therapy. These treatments help regulate behavior, control impulses, relearn healthy sexuality and live a freer life.

And there are also courses that can help guide you on the appropriate approach to this condition, still largely unknown among many health professionals.

Alejandro Villena Moya is a researcher on the consequences of pornography consumption at the International University of La Rioja, Spain.

This article was originally published on the academic news site The Conversation and republished under a Creative Commons license. Read the original Spanish version here.

This text was originally published here