Sex Addiction: Symptoms, Treatment - Term Paper Example

? Sexual Addiction Sexual addiction de s a compulsive preoccupation and the pursuit of sexual gratification at a high frequency leading to the development of a pattern of deviant sexual behaviour. Sexual addiction affects approximately 6-8% of people in the United States. Some of its symptoms include masturbation, having multiple partners, visitation of cybersex websites, watching pornography, random sex, exhibitionism, and stalking. The progression of sexual addiction begins with a preoccupation with sexual fantasies, ritualization, compulsion and the development of other complexities. Sex addicts lack the capacity to exert control on the compulsive sexual desires that result from addiction, despite the shame, despair and confusion that defines their condition. Moreover, they expose themselves to multiple health risks. This paper designs a recovery plan that can help adolescent boys overcome sexual addiction. The therapy takes place in a hospital setting and integrates individual, group, and family counselling sessions. The 12-step approach and the cognitive behavioural therapy are used as the therapeutic interventions. The recovery plan conforms to the medical disease model that focuses on diagnosis and then intervention. Introduction Sexual addiction denotes a condition exhibited by individuals who lack the potential to exert control on their sex drives. Although regular sex presents multiple benefits to an individual as researchers have described, sexual addiction may result in uncontrollable sexual urges that compel the individual to indulge in sexual behaviour that surpasses the normal. Some of the sexual behaviours exhibited by individuals with sexual addiction are categorized as deviant. Sexual addiction is a condition that has multiple detrimental effects on the individual, and requires therapy. Its potential consequences may ruin the life of an individual through exposure to sexually transmitted diseases and the inability to maintain healthy relationships. This explains why researchers have focused on discussing several models that are applied in the therapy of sexual addiction. This paper will provide an overview of sexual addiction, a treatment plan and highlight some of the issues that may occur during treatment. Overview Sexual addiction is defined by an obsessive urge to obtain sexual pleasure, and is a non-paraphillicaddiction since the addict does not necessarily need to have a love relationship with the partners. People who have this condition have a compulsive habit of developing sexual fantasies and wanting to seek satisfaction of such fantasies (Garcia &Thibaut, 2010). As highlighted above, sexual addicts are likely to demonstrate a sexual drive that supersedes the normal, and inpatterns of behaviour that contribute to detrimental effects and may even trigger depression. Sex addicts are likely to exhibit a surging need for behaviour that results in sexual pleasure. These addicts lack the capacity to regulate their sexual behaviour, and their excessive compulsion to indulge in sexual behaviour may yield a diverse range of negative feelings such as shame and guilt. Despite the potential of this behaviour altering their normal lives and distorting their thinking to the extent that they cannot concentrate on work or school, sex addicts still desire to gratify their compulsive sexual desires. Most of sex addicts have multiple partners, engage in risky sexual behaviour irrespective of the evident risk of infection with sexually transmitted diseases. Some may choose to indulge in prostitution and develop clandestine and extramarital relationships with the sole of purpose of satisfying their obsessive desire. Moreover, sex addicts exhibit a high frequency of masturbation usually at the rate of 10-20 times a day. Pornography is also a central part of their interest since it contributes to triggering the needed sexual arousal. Other sex addicts may exhibit an excess of dating that involves the development of multiple relationships that present the opportunity of indulging in sexual activity (Magness, 2009). In other cases, sex addicts practice cybersex on pornographic sites or using their mobile devices. Sexual addiction increases the chances for an individual to indulge in spontaneous sex activities with anonymous partners such as the casual ‘one-night stands’. Other signs of sexual addiction may involve exhibitionism, a deviant sexual practice in which the individual exposes his or her sexual organs before the public. The addict may proceed to practice public masturbation. In extreme cases, addicts exhibit a complex pattern of obscene sexual behaviours such as harassment, telephone calls, instant messaging of sexual content, and stalking. Sexual addiction may also compel an individual to indulge in sexual abuse activities such as rape and child molestation. Experts on sex addiction have focused on describing the aetiology of the condition. Many of them attributed certain changes in the brain as potential triggers of the development of the compulsive sexual behaviour. The changes alter the perception of the individual, convincing the individual that illicit sexual activities are appropriate. Adverse childhood experiences that lead to the development of trauma are also potential causes of sexual addiction. Over seventy five percent of boys that report to be suffering from sexual addiction have admitted to having a history of adverse childhood experiences (Giugliano, 2009). Most of sex addicts grow up in dysfunctional families that do not provide the required emotional support, a factor that increases the risk factor developing sexual addiction. People who suffer sexual abuse during childhood exhibit a higher susceptibility to developing sexual addiction. The exposure to the media content that promotes illicit sex also contributes to the development if this type of addiction. Other risk factors that have been described as potential preconditions to sexual addiction include depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, and anxiety. People diagnosed with these conditions are more likely to develop sexual addiction because of the isolation, mood swing, and compulsion defining these disorders. Sexual addiction develops in a predictable sequence of events. The initial phase involves a preoccupation with sexual fantasies that may prompt the person to take action in a bid to make fantasies a reality (Magness, 2009). Ritualization follows, which denotes the stereotyping and repetition of a sexual activity that the person exhibits a liking for. After ritualization, compulsion results, that is evidenced by a continued engagement in sexual activity even when the individual is well aware of the potential detrimental effects. Despair defines the fourth step in the progression of sexual addiction, and occurs when the person has made attempts of quitting the deviant sexual behaviour, but with little success. The final stage involves other complexities that may result from sexual addiction. Similar to other addictions that have been categorized, sexual addiction is usually accompanied by physical dependence, withdrawal symptoms, and the tolerance attributes. Physical dependence denotes the chemical alterations that sexual activity triggers in the brain. Without such activity, the individual exhibits withdrawal symptom characterized by a sudden decrease in the frequency of sexual activity caused by reversing depression or stimulation of processes altered by sexual activity. Tolerance in this case implies that the addict will require to indulge in sexual activity of higher intensity in order to experience the initial thrill.Experts have highlighted some of the possible interventions for sexual addiction. Drugs with proven efficiency can help in the minimizing the level of compulsion in sexual addiction. Statistics reveal that about 6-8% of the American population suffer from sexual addiction, with more than 8% exhibiting regular visits to cybersex websites, 75% addicted to pornography with many of them accesses pornography sites at a tender age. These statistics reveal the surging economic burden on the government in addressing issues of addiction. Evidently, sexual addiction can affect people of any ethnicity, although some causal agents of sexual addiction are rampant in the African American population (Levine, 2010). Recovery Plan Logistics With the increasing prevalence of sexual addiction among adolescent boys, there is need to design an effective recovery plan that can serve as a guide in the therapeutic intervention.Adolescent boys are prone to sexual addiction because of the exposure to the risk factors that lead to the development of such a sexual compulsion as described above. Since the target population entails adolescent boys that need therapy to overcome sexual addiction, and exhibit varying backgrounds and religions, a hospitable is the most suitable setting for the sessions. Although age is a similar demographic factor, the boys have a diverse history of sexual addiction, and this implies that individual counselling is likely to prove effective.However, group counselling will follow in the latter sessions of the therapeutic intervention. The intervention will conform to the medical disease model that seeks to apply a problem-solving strategy in a bid to address a malfunction, defect, or medical condition exhibited by a patient. This model focuses on diagnosis of the patient’s condition through a different set of tests in order to confirm. After diagnosis, the model then focuses on the use of evidence based intervention strategies to address the challenges as therapy (Carnes, 2010). In the case of the adolescent boys with sexual addiction, application of this model will involve the use of different assessment strategies to diagnose sexual addiction. Diagnosis considers the medical history of the boys and an assessment of all the symptoms presented by the boys. Moreover, assessment will take into consideration the causes and risk factors contributing to sexual addiction. After assessment, the a12-step program will be used as the guide to the therapeutic intervention. The family of each adolescent boy will be available during some of the sessions. Treatment plan The treatment plan that will be used in addressing sexual addiction in the adolescent boys is the 12-step approach program whose potential in effectively addressing addiction has been described by different experts in this field (Katehakis, A. (2009). As highlighted above, the interventions will begin with individual counselling. The objective of the initial phase of the therapy will be to carry out a thorough assessment of all the symptoms associated with sexual addiction. The first session should focus on helping the adolescent boys understand the definition of sexual addiction and its symptoms. This is of critical significance because the clients participate in the assessment process. Therefore, understanding the symptoms helps them to identify the symptoms that they present accurately. The therapist should then focus on establishing the client’s unique pattern of symptoms of sexual addiction. It is also critical for to determine the history of the client, and analyse the factors that contributed to the development of sexual addiction. The next session should involve the use of the psychological assessment instruments. The boys need help to understand how these tools are used. Moreover, it is critical to help the client understand the different steps in the 12-step program, with emphasis on the individual’s need for cooperation and responsibility throughout the procedure. Moreover, the therapist should establish how sexual addiction has altered the lives of the adolescent boys (Chivers, 2005). It is critical to identify all the complexities that have resulted from sexual addiction. For clients who present other risk factors such as anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder, it is important for the therapist to undertake a psychological assessment of these conditions to ascertain their presence. Other sessions will include family counselling, whereby the parents of the adolescent boys or older siblings can understand all the facts about sexual addiction and offer the required support towards recovery (Senormanci, 2012). Evidently, sexual addiction has detrimental effects on both the clients and the family because of the risks involved. The addict requires support from the family, and this explains why the therapists should highlight the strengths of the family in helping the addict. Family sessions help the members understand the condition, and may help in determining some factors that contributed to its development. The12-step program can also be augmented with the cognitive behavioural therapy used by multiple experts as a powerful intervention for psychological disorders (Moeller, 2012). This form of therapy seeks to identify the roots of the problem that begins with an individual’s perception of different experiences, and the attitude adopted towards such experiences. Cognitivebehavioural therapy is an effective tool in helping the adolescent analyse the cognitive processes that led to the development of sexual addiction, and then offering direction on how to overcome such destructive cognitive processes. This form of therapy is appropriate for adolescent boys with a history of adverse childhood experiences. Group counselling of adolescent boys with sexual addiction is also an effective intervention strategy. Although individual therapy is critically effective in the initial phase, counselling clients as a group presents an array of benefits. The realization that the clients are embarking on a similar journey towards recovery is a source of motivation. The clients can help encourage each other, while indulging in other constructive activities (Turner, 2009). Experts have described support groups for sexual addicts as effective intervention strategies. Issues in Treatment Evidently, sexual addiction is highly detrimental to the individual, and results in guilt, shame, and despair. Therefore, the therapist faces a challenge of ensuring that the sessions do not serve to increase the client’s shame. Unlike other addictions such as substance abuse, recovery from sexual addiction does not involve complete abstinence, but helps the boys learn to regulate their sexual urges. In any case, it is natural for boys their age to have sexual urges. The focus of therapy should target to deal with the compulsion in sexual addiction and offer direction on building relationships. There are multiple stereotypes surrounding sex, and this may often pose a challenge in therapy. Moreover, sexual addiction deals with issues of morality and ethics, and this may pose additional challenges. Implementation of the recovery plan designed above may prove difficult if the client does not cooperate. References Carnes, P. (2010). Contrary to love: Helping the sexual addict. Center City, Minn: Hazelden Foundation. Chivers, L. (2005).Clinical management of sex addiction. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 34(4), 476-478. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10508-005-4358-1 Garcia, F., &Thibaut, F. (2010).Sexual addictions.The American Journal Of Drug And Alcohol Abuse, 36(5), 254-260. doi:10.3109/00952990.2010.503823 Giugliano, J. (2009). Sexual Addiction: Diagnostic Problems.International Journal Of Mental Health & Addiction, 7(2), 283-294. doi:10.1007/s11469-009-9195-3 Katehakis, A. (2009). Affective neuroscience and the treatment of sexual addiction.Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity, 16(1), 1-31. Levine, S. (2010). What is sexual addiction?.Journal Of Sex & Marital Therapy, 36(3), 261-275. doi:10.1080/00926231003719681 Magness, M. S. (2009).Hope & freedom for sexual addicts and their partners. Carefree, Arizona: Gentle Path Press. Moeller, F. G. (2012). Sex, stress, and drug cues in addiction. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 169(4), 351-353. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1020530278?accountid=458 Senormanci, U. (2012). Internet addiction: Pharmacological and cognitive behavioral therapy of online gaming, sex, gambling and shopping.KlinikPsikofarmakolojiBulteni, 22(1), 1. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1429826205?accountid=458 Turner, M. (2009).Uncovering and Treating Sex Addiction in Couples Therapy.Journal Of Family Psychotherapy, 20(2/3), 283-302. doi:10.1080/08975350902970279 Read More