Sex Addiction and Porn Addiction: Not the Same

Fact: A person living with sex addiction can have sex with numerous people and never view online pornography. Similarly, a person with porn addiction can spend hours viewing sexual material online and never have real-world sex with another person.

Recent articles such as in Psychology Today are calling attention to the confusion between sex addiction and addiction to pornography. The conflicting definitions surrounding the two terms may also prevent people from seeking professional treatment for either addiction, or may divert attention away from the serious consequences involved. Is it pornography addiction or sex addiction? Some key points:

1. Many people with pornography addiction actually develop sexual performance problems, such as inability to maintain arousal, a problem occurring more frequently with younger men who view excessive pornography. Some report repeatedly being unable to perform sexually in real-world settings.
2. In contrast, people with sex addiction may have sex with numerous partners, purchase paid sex services or engage in sex in inappropriate or risky places as they become unable to control their cravings for the behavior.
3. Pornography can be viewed by teens or young adults of any age, anytime, and may become a sexual addiction later when the person is old enough to seek out a sexual relationship outside of the computer. In contrast, people with sex addiction may obsess over the next opportunity they will have to actually engage in sexual behavior with someone else, instead of just logging on anonymously to an Internet pornography site.
4. Pornography availability across smartphones and online sources may mean that people with the addiction can feed into specific fetishes or distinct, bizarre behaviors, thus creating more “niche” addictive behaviors related to pornography. Sex addiction, in contrast, may involve an uncontrollable urge for sex with another person as a primary focus, rather than a specific type of imagery or video content that is searchable online.

Both pornography addiction and sex addiction are serious, progressive and destructive and believed to involve changes at the brain’s pleasure centers. Reaching recovery requires the help of experienced professionals trained in the differences between both sex addiction and pornography addiction, and the ways different treatment options can help.