Celebrities have brought the subject of sex addiction to the fore, but is it something you can really develop or is it simply a ploy to cover indiscretions? Society is obsessed with sex and infidelity, with headlines of celebrity affairs and sex tapes making the front page every week. These stories seem to have become a breeding ground for irresponsible behaviour, but how much of those in question are really suffering with an addiction, and who is simply jumping on the bandwagon to get away with cheating on their partner? Psychologists claim that sex addiction is nothing more than pop-psychology, as a way to demonise sex and excuse certain behaviours in people. It’s not, according to experts, a medical issue, rather a moral and social one which reflects how negatively we view sex.
Recent claims suggest that people are making a disease out of sexual behaviour in the same way that experts once diagnosed women with nymphomania (when they wanted sex more than men believed they should), and the way that homosexuality was once considered a disease. In doing this, it glorifies behaviour that can be stopped but is simply not as the individuals are unwilling to change. There was a request to make sex addiction a diagnosable condition in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-5), but it didn’t make the grade as professionals didn’t want to supply the situation with a victory against a sex-negative diagnosis.
It has been reported that accused rapist and kidnapper Ariel Castro left a note in his home where he claimed that he had a sex addiction, and as such was unable to control himself. Last year, sports journalist Jesse Fink released a book which was marketed as ‘confessions of a sex addict’, but he even admits himself that the label doesn’t apply to him and that he believes this so-called condition is nonsense. There are two categories for sex addiction – those who consider it to be a real, diagnosable condition, and those who don’t. However, it’s a difficult situation to ignore, with so many people believing wholeheartedly that their behaviour is unmanageable and out of control. A better label for these situations may be compulsive sexual behaviour, though treatment for this is a complex and time-consuming period of sex therapy and counselling.
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