Sex Addiction Affects All Social Classes
People with sex addiction are not on the big screen, boasting Hollywood zip codes or high-paid personal assistants. They’re regular people, with families, careers and goals that are all at risk due to the progressive and destructive nature of the addiction. Recent articles, continue to urge more understanding about the true nature of the addiction.
People with sexual addiction may seem to live "normal" lives, but their thoughts are obsessive and uncontrolled about sex. Even in the midst of successful careers and managing an active home life, they may be unable to stop themselves from seeking sex with multiple partners, viewing online pornography or paying for sexual services. The sexual acts typically represent an escape or a release from negative emotions, rather than being focused on sexual pleasure.
On the contrary, many people report feeling intensely guilty or shameful after engaging in a sexual behavior – yet the addiction progresses beyond their control, and many seek more intense and more extreme sexual materials or encounters.
Many times, the sexual addiction progresses in secret because the addict has learned how to conceal his or her behaviors, often times for fear of the shame of the behaviors being discovered. Like addictions to alcohol or drugs, experts believe people with sexual addiction may have changes within the brain’s reward system that require professional help to get to recovery.
Underlying many sexual addictions are also lifelong and painful problems with building close personal relationships with others, which can be manifested in sexual behaviors.
Experts and researchers continue to strive toward more information and more solutions for the millions of U.S. adults who suffer from sexual addiction, and urge people to understand that there’s no set "look" for a person with a sexual addiction. The addiction, like many others, affects people from all walks of life, genders and social classes.
With professional help from trained experts, many people with sexual addictions learn to divert their cravings toward alternate behaviors and return to their quality of life.