Talk:Sexual addiction

Manifestation - masturbation

According to proponents of the sexual addiction concept, the addict's obsessive / compulsive tendencies can also be seen by the frequency with which they use masturbation for stimulation. Quite often they will perform this activity to the point of injury or to where it interferes significantly with ordinary life. For some addicts, it can even reach a point where the masturbatory activities replace their desire for sexual interactions with others. When a sexual addict does feel comfortable enough to involve other people, quite often they seek out strangers for anonymous sex or look for 'new love' through infidelity. Prostitutes are also employed because of their anonymity and non-judgmental willingness to engage in the sometimes unconventional sexual requests of sex addicts. The varying nature of a sexual addict's activities are in sharp contrast to individuals who commonly prefer more narrowly focused sexual activities such as those engaging in fetishism. But this is not to say that sex addicts cannot be found pursuing fetishes.

This section doesn't follow from the rest of the information in the article, and doesn't sound encyclopedic; further, it's also uncited. I'm taking it out until someone can put in a cited source and write it in a professional tone.

My Goodness

Sex Addiction is much different from Hypersexuality. In fact, a person in treatment for sexual addiction may not exhibit an unusually voracious sexual appetite. Like a food addiction, which does not always exhibit as hyperphagia, it is the way the behaviors affect the individual's quality of life, how it affects others around him/her, and if there is difficulty in stopping the behavior in spite of attempts to do so. A good abstract on the problem of the DSM IV's failure to include sexual compulsive behavior is outlined here: "Differential Diagnosis of Addictive Sexual Disorders Using the DSM-IV"

Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity 1996, Volume 3, pp 7-21, 1996.

by Richard Irons, M. D. and Jennifer P. Schneider, M.D., Ph.D.

ABSTRACT The current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) describes certain sexual disorders which are characterized by, or include among their features, excessive and/or unusual sexual urges or behaviors. Common disorders in the differential diagnosis include paraphilias, impulse disorder not otherwise specified (NOS), sexual disorder NOS, bipolar affective disorder, cyclothymic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and adjustment disorder. Infrequent disorders in the differential diagnosis consist of substance-induced anxiety disorder, substance-induced mood disorder, dissociative disorder, delusional disorder (erotomania), obsessive-compulsive disorder, gender identity disorder, and delirium, dementia, or other cognitive disorder. Addictive sexual disorders which do not fit into standard DSM-IV categories can best be diagnosed using an adaptation of the DSM-IV criteria for substance dependence.

I am too tired tonight to elaborate any more on this subject, but if I told my clients that they suffered from "hypersexuality", they'd laugh themselves silly.

Agree - the section about compulsive masturbation doesn't make sense, given the rest of the description of the disorder. It also reads as something childish and apocryphal. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.42.17.202 (talk) 07:16, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

Merge Sexual addiction with Pornography addiction?

See discussion

Non 12-step therapy

"Research about recovery from sexual addiction has indicated that 12-step meetings are important for success. Those who do not attend 12-step meetings have a much more difficult time recovering, if they do at all."

It,s only an author's personal opinion. Notice that Carnes' resarches includet only 12-steps meetings members, so they were all convinced, that if they don't attend meetings they will fail. Carnes didn't consider those, who choosed other therapy methods (eg cognitive-behavioral therapy), or those who overcame addiction on their own.

Cleanup

I tagged this article for cleanup on 22 Jan 2007 due to phrases such as:

So to be clear, sexual addiction is addiction of a sexual nature. In which the sexual method of arousal, stimulation, etc. becomes a compulsion with withdrawal syndromes if it is taken away for too long a period of time.

These sentences, and several others in the article, are clearly grammatically incorrect and non-encyclopedic.

Still NPOV troubled.

Though this article has come a long way toward NPOV, there's still room to improve. Much of it reads as real, validated diagnosis (as mentioned in the Quick Review / NPOV above) and does not sufficiently indicate the controversiality of the controversial statements. It probably just needs one good edit to fix this up and then it'll be ready to lose the tag. I will hopefully start adding improvements myself soon. Things to fix (feel free to add to the list):

• Introduction: "numerous critics and evidence on both sides of the debate". What debate? It hardly seems like a two sided argument. Whatever it is, the core disagreements should be briefly explained in the introduction.
• Diagnosis: Is it DSM now? (above talk post says yes) Can't find it in DSM IV.
• Manifestation: There's a lot here that seems controversial. Really, an expert review would be the best solution here. In an article flooded with references yet scarce of citations it'll take a complete rewrite to figure out what's accurate or not.
• Treatment: This twelve step plan stuff can't be neutral. However, it should still be mentioned without all the weasel words and boons.
• More to come...

Ichibani 06:35, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

I returned the NPOV tag, because the above problems are still there and frankly I don't see an easy way to fix them. Ichibani 17:23, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

At present, the NPOV tag should still be up. I also noticed that there is no mention of medication in the treatment section, but I've run across a few sources concluding that medication can be an effective treatment for sexual addiction. Chupper 23:35, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

Intro has more alcoholism then sex

Hi, i just came in here and the first paragraph i thought was horrible. It only had the first sentence dedicated to explaining sexual addiction, 2 sentences explaining alcoholism, and the rest comparing them. Shouldn't the focus primarly be on sexual addiction? It felt like views were being shoved down my throat --206.116.159.199 (talk) 00:36, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

You can change it. :) -- Craigtalbert (talk) 01:58, 26 November 2007 (UTC)