What is the psychological treatment of sex addiction like?

These are the pillars of psychological treatment in cases of sex addiction.

All the actions we perform throughout our lives, from the most important to the most banal and everyday, exist because humans are emotional beings.

Emotions are what drives us to move to achieve certain goals in the long or short term, either to improve our present situation or to avoid material or psychological damage and loss. In other words, beyond our ability to think rationally, it is the sources of motivation that set us in motion.

However, these motivations are not always beneficial to us. Sometimes they become irrepressible impulses that are part of a harmful psychological disturbance that must be addressed by psychotherapy. Here we will talk about the treatment of one of these disorders based on dependence, sex addiction..

What do we mean by sex addiction?

As its name suggests, sex addiction is a psychological disorder in which the person develops dependence with respect to sexual behaviors, to the point that his or her quality of life is impaired. This feeling of need associated with sex severely limits the autonomy of the person who suffers from it, making him/her stay ahead of the rest of the population.This feeling of need associated with sex severely limits the autonomy of the sufferer, making him or her take precedence over other priorities even in situations where attending to these impulses is harmful.

Thus, it can be understood as an extreme version of hypersexuality, and that occurs without other related causes such as medical and psychiatric disorders. For example, it cannot be said that the increased libido felt by some people under the effects of drugs or those in the manic phase of bipolar disorder have an addiction to sex, because in these cases these symptoms are already explained by the diagnosed disease.

It is important to keep in mind that sex addiction is not a psychological disorder that is referred to as such in the diagnostic manuals used in Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry. It is a concept used in clinical practice a concept used in clinical practice because it is useful to describe what happens to some patients, since it is very similar to what is happening to them.It is a concept used in clinical practice because it is useful to describe what happens to some patients, since it is very similar to what happens to those who develop drug-based addictive disorders. This implies, for example, that these kinds of problems can be seen as the expression of distinct disorders. For example, Excessive Sexual Drive, Excessive Masturbation or Compulsive Sexual Behavior.

How is sex addiction treated?

Psychological treatment of sex addiction can take many forms depending on how it is expressed in each person. can take many forms depending on how it is expressed in each person.It is always a personalized procedure in which the characteristics of the individual and the context in which he/she lives are taken into account. However, as a summary, we can say that psychotherapy applied to this disorder has the following characteristics.

1. Search for compulsive elements

Sometimes, sex addiction is actually a compulsive psychopathology.that is to say that the sexual behavior is a way of urgently relieving a discomfort that overwhelms the person. In these cases, we work on the root of the problem, which is the anguish and feeling of discomfort itself, accustoming the person to face it without having to resort to the sexual act.

2. Training in the management of responsibilities

Helping the person to "connect" with the tasks of everyday life makes it easier for the need for sexual gratification to be extinguished.. In other words, being able to keep the mind focused on short-term goals helps to see beyond sexual routines, because both sources of motivation compete.

To make this possible, it is necessary to create a training program in task performance in chains of actions capable of motivating. Techniques and strategies such as self-instructions and action triggers can be used for this purpose.

3. Training in the management of anxiety and stress.

Many impulse management problems have to do with a lack of ability to identify emotions.. Thus, the need to stop feeling stress may be confused with the need to have sex. To remedy this, various procedures such as the use of emotion diaries are used.

4. Cognitive restructuring

Cognitive restructuring is a process through which the therapist helps the person to get rid of the harmful beliefs that keep in operation (or contribute to the continued existence) of the psychological problem to be treated. For example, beliefs that wear down one's self-esteem, or about the hostility of the world in which one lives, etc.

5. Exposure techniques

This set of procedures seeks to expose the person to situations that awaken his or her desire to engage in sexual behavior, while at the same time giving him or her the tools to resist the sexual behavior. the person is given the tools to resist the impulse until it fades away..

6. Couples therapy

Often, it is also necessary to have sessions with a couple to address the effects that sex addiction has on the bond of love.

Do you want to have professional psychological support in therapy?

Psychological disorders linked to sexuality can become a source of intense discomfort and deterioration of the quality of life, and that is why when faced with this kind of problem, seek psychotherapeutic help as soon as possible.

If you notice that you may be affected by an excessive dependence on sex or any similar alteration, contact us at Psychological Center Cepsim we will be able to attend you in any of our offices in Madrid, and also through the modality of online therapy.

Bibliographical references:

• Catalan, Jose; Singh, Ashok (1995). Hypersexuality revisited. The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, 6(2): pp. 255 - 258.
• Coleman, E. (2003). Compulsive Sexual Behavior: What to Call It, How to Treat It?. SIECUS Report. The Debate: Sexual Addiction and Compulsion, 31(5): pp. 12 - 16.
• Fong, T.W. (2006). Understanding and Managing Compulsive Sexual Behaviors. Psychiatry (Edgmont), 3(11): pp. 51–58.
• Kafka, M. P. (2010). Hypersexual Disorder: A proposed diagnosis for DSM-V. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 39: pp. 377 - 400.
• Karila, L., Wéry, A.; Weinstein, A.; Cottencin, O.; Petit, A.: Reynaud, M.; Billieux, J. (2014). Sexual addiction or hypersexual disorder: different terms for the same problem? A review of the literature.Current Pharmaceutical Design, 20(25): pp. 4012 - 4020.
• Krueger, R. B., & Kaplan, M. S. (2001). The paraphilic and hypersexual disorders. Journal of Psychiatric Practice, 7: pp. 391 - 403.