Is Sex Addiction Real?

The medical profession have sunk copious amount of funds researching and debating about the existence of this kind of condition. While many medical experts in the United States seem to have concluded definitively that it is a valid condition that required considered treatment and sympathy from sufferers. It is fair to say that the jury is slightly out in the United Kingdom. Recently, there was a wave of male celebrities who confessed to be victims of sex addiction.

The likes of American actor, Michael Douglas; musician, Eric Benet (husband to actress Halle Berry) who seem to sleep with any and everything that wore a skirt, claimed to have been suffering from this ailment. Then there was this famous British comedian, Russell Brand, actor Hugh Grant (who risked his reputation as a golfer to spend a few hours with a prostitute) and the genius golfer(who lost his marriage and fell from grace after being exposed to have slept with untold numbers of women of questionable reputation). The biggest of all the sex scandals is the one involving the former president of United States Bill Clinton, who almost lost his presidency when trying to feed his insatiable lust.

At the time, it was particularly interesting to note that all these men have beautiful wives and partners and also have a lot to lose. So there was a lot of speculation as to what actually their motivation is. The question was raised in the light of the risks they were willing and ready to take, whether it was a compulsion they were unable to control in the same way drug addicts and alcoholics struggled.

According to the medical profession there has been an attempt to categorize or classify this male-dominated malaise
Addiction such as gambling, drug, and alcohol abuse and the like are commonly agreed to be psychological compulsions. With these conditions, the compulsion n to engage in these activities is so strong that regardless of the damaging impact on self and family, and despite the harms that sits long after the physical symptoms of withdrawal has abated, it is not enough to be a deterrent. Even when the quality of life of the person is diminished as a result of this activity, they are still unable to desist. The proponents of sex addiction argue it falls in the same category as other addiction based on the concept that the sex addict responds the same manner as a drug or an alcoholic addict.
Sex addiction does not necessarily come in the form of actual addiction. Other activities such as addiction to pornography is also considered a form of sex pornography and has been recorded to have destroyed a lot of relationships and marriages – a debased immoral activity mostly engaged by men.

I do personally believe sex addiction is a complicated concept because there are so many variation to the concept, depending on who is involved, who is affected by it and who is at the receiving end of it. For example, if someone has a high libido who does not match their partner’s they might be accuse of having sex addiction, which may or may not be true. On the other hand, if a man get all the conjugal satisfaction from his wife and still sniffing around other women with any opportunity he has, can this be called sex addiction or greed?

Many celebrities who went to rehab for this ‘ailment’ remarkably claimed that the act itself is not particularly satisfying and the hunt or chasing after women is more satisfying than the act itself.

I do wonder how men who are involved in regular and continuous affairs would classify themselves. Maybe there are women who will also be classified as having sex addiction, the question is how much pleasure is derived from this activity itself and at what cost is it to one’s physical health, the quality of one’s life and the pain to one’s family? Also, would you be able to stop this behaviour if you knew it was hurting you and those around you. Or is it just seen as a fun?

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