According to Patrick Carnes, I’m a Sex Addict

I just scored 14 on the SAST Core Scale.

That kind of sticks me right into the bell curve of addicts.

And since the test has been used since 1983, I suppose there isn’t much denial to it…

The following dimensions of an addictive disorder appeared in my answers:

· Preoccupation: obsessive thinking about sexual behavior, opportunities, and fantasies
· Loss of control: inability to stop behavior despite commitments to self and others and despite problems caused by
behavior
· Relationship disturbance: sexual behavior has created significant relationship problems
· Affect disturbance: significant depression, despair, or anxiety over sexual behavior

There is no sex addiction

What some may describe as sex addiction does not stand up when applied to the proper definition of the word, says Glenn Wilson of the Institution of Psychiatry.

“The original idea of addiction was that you had a chemical hijacking of the circuits of the brain built to give you pleasure as reward for doing things of a survival value, such as eating or having sex.”

After continued use, cocaine or cigarettes are capable of acquiring survival value for the individual concerned, he says.

“But to turn round and argue that one is addicted to chocolate or sex, which are activities you would expect to be rewarded in survival terms, strikes me as hijacking the concept of addiction.

“It’s a way that people signal to the world that they think they have a problem and need to break it.”

But they are no different from anyone else, he says, because we all have sexual drives which can get us into trouble without inhibition or control.

Hey, another excuse for the behaviour then.

Does sex addiction exist?

Brand, also self-confessed sex addict

Lord Laidlaw of Rothiemay has admitted to receiving treatment for
“sex addiction” at a private clinic, likening it to alcohol dependency.
But is it really?

It’s a term that first came to widespread attention when actor
Michael Douglas was admitted to rehab in 1990 and it was reported -
inaccurately, he later claimed – to be a sex addict.

And earlier this year, relationship counselling service Relate said
there had been a huge increase in the number of cases concerning sexual
compulsive behaviour.

Now Lord Laidlaw, 65, says he has been fighting the “disease” for the whole of his adult life.

So are so-called sex addicts suffering from an illness or just making excuses for being unfaithful?

Read this BBC article to learn more.