Sex and Love Addiction
A distinction has been made between sex addiction and what is referred to as sex and love addiction. The latter has to do with an addictive pattern of establishing love relationships with specific people, where the person and the relationship, as well as sex with the person, are all part of the appeal to the addict. While these same elements are normal in a healthy relationship, sex and love addicts can never find fulfillment and permanence in any of the relationships they begin. They keep seeking satisfaction in another relationship but find it empty, demanding or anxiety producing instead.
Sex and love addicts may have several relationships with different people going on at the same time or they may pass serially from one to the next, leaving each when the initial "high" wears off. Or they may have a major relationship, such as a marriage, complete with home, children and other signs of permanence, but keep returning periodically to secret relationships with new people.
Sex addiction, by contrast, usually is a preoccupation with sexual arousal and sexual release which often has little to do with who the person is and requires no relationship. On the contrary, to the sex addict, what counts is the charge he or she gets from the image, whether it's a stranger spotted in a car or on a street corner, or stimulating body parts, an erotic picture, or the addict's own fantasy.
TreatmentA man or woman suffering from sexual addiction has the option of seeking professional help by consulting a psychotherapist or committing himself or herself to a specialized treatment centre.
Seeking counselling sessions with a psychotherapist has the advantage of being more discrete and will have less impact on your economic capabilities. However, for a person who is committing serious offences because of his or her sexual addiction it is advisable that they commit themselves to a specialized centre since this will remove himself or herself from the environment where they can indulge in such harmful behaviour.
If you believe you, your partner, or someone you know may be suffering from sexual addiction, please consult a professional health care provider as soon as possible.