Dating Articles
Friday 12 June, 2009Nymphomania and Sexual Addiction
Despite what you may have heard about "Nymphomania", the term is not a valid diagnosis of a condition. The term is used to describe a perceived “above normal” level of sex drive in women. However, there exists no scale to calculate what is “normal”.
Many believe that the word has developed as slang by men to degrade women with a high sex drive. Many men are very self-conscious about their own sex drive, and the thought of a woman having a "better" drive is threatening.
The correct terminology for a perceived excessively high sex drive might include: hyper sexuality, sexual addiction, and sexual compulsivity.
Sexual Addiction
Sexual addiction is rapidly becoming recognized as a major social problem with similarities well known to alcohol and drug addiction or compulsive gambling. The sexually addicted individual becomes addicted to the neuro-chemical changes that take place in the body during sexual behaviour, much as a drug addict becomes hooked on the effects of "shooting" heroin. This is not to say that the expression of one as a sexual being, an intensely pleasurable, life-enhancing experience for the majority of the population, is an inherently addictive reality. Contrary to enjoying sex as a self-affirming source of physical pleasure, the sex addict has learned to rely on sex for comfort from pain, for nurturing or relief from stress; this is comparable to the alcoholic's purposeful use of alcohol.
The beginnings of sexual addiction are usually rooted in adolescence or childhood. For starters, the child often grows up in a chaotic, hostile or neglectful home. Or, the family may have been very normal otherwise, but the child grows up emotionally starved for love because affection is rarely expressed. The child may turn repeatedly to masturbation to escape the parents' violent arguments, for instance, or to make up for an unconscious lack of attention or affection. Masturbation can be a normal and natural part of childhood, but for the lonely, abused or rejected child can become a regular sedative, much like marijuana, to hide the inner pain. Gradually, sex becomes a replacement for other things, a convenient act to turn to in times of any kind of need, from escaping boredom to feeling anxious, to being able to go to sleep at night.
Or, the child may be introduced to sex in inappropriate ways. Instead of the normal sexual experimentation that often takes place out of curiosity between similar aged children during growing up, some children are subjected to pedophilia. Or the person introducing the child to sexual experiences may be another child who is five or more years older (i.e., an older cousin, babysitter, etc.), where the sexual experience doesn't feel mutual. In these experiences there often is a combination of natural curiosity, newfound pleasurable feelings and the feelings of fear or shame. The fear and shame may be increased by threats made by the older person to gain the child's cooperation and to prevent the child from telling anyone about it.
A pattern may be established of seeking out similar experiences throughout the person's life where there is a combination of sexual pleasure and fear or shame. When the child grows up he may be turned on by sex in high-risk situations that unconsciously generate fear or in secretive circumstances that feed on shame.