The darker side to sex
According to dictionary.com an addiction can be defined as “the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, such as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma”.
These days everyone claims to be addicted to something whether it be chocolate, cigarettes or buying too many pairs of shoes.
But when we use the term in such a blasé manner you lose the realisation that for some people addiction, in whatever form, can have a detrimental effect on their lives.
Twenty years ago having a sex addiction wasn’t something that ever entered society's thoughts.
Anybody who did have a lot of ‘between the sheets’ action was likely to be labelled a pervert or a slag and written off as some sort of deviant, but now that celebrities have opened up to the mainstream media we are beginning to recognise a problem which has for a long time been kept under wraps.
Being addicted to sex is not like any other form of addiction such as a dependence on drugs because you can’t always see the physical effects it is having on a person.
Psychological effects
The effects of sex addiction are deeper rooted in a person's psychological being.
The behaviours associated with having a sex addiction can seem completely normal ranging from masturbation to the use of pornography.
Unfortunately though, the addict has no control over their actions, self-satisfaction becomes compulsive, sex is not wanted but needed and some addicts have even been known to place multiple personal ads in order to attract potential bedfellows.
One of the first people to bring this relatively new phenomenon to our attention was the never-shy-about-his-feelings comedian Russell Brand.
In 2007 Brand came out - metaphorically speaking - and admitted to having been treated in an American centre for an addiction to sex that threatened to ruin not only his career but also his life.
In his critically acclaimed and somewhat graphic autobiography My Booky Wook, Brand said that his need for sexual gratification was not only about creating a status for himself, but also a way of finding a release from everyday life.
“Sex provides for me - a breathing space, when you're outside of yourself and your own head. Especially in the actual moment of climax”.
The comic, who won the Sun newspaper's “Shagger of the year” award three years running and caused the accolade to be renamed the “Russell Brand Shagger of the year award”, showed a different side to what many had just presumed was a man with a ridiculously high libido.
Since then, other celebrities have been either outted as sex addicts or have come forward to admit their obsession with non-stop nooky.
The most recent of which is golfer Tiger Woods.
In late 2009 a number of women claimed to have had affairs with the once presumed happily-married sportsman, resulting in his fall from grace and the breakdown of his marriage.
So, in January 2010 after much speculation about the validity of these claims, it was reported that Woods, had checked into a £40,000 per-stay clinic for sex addiction.
The difference between Woods and Brand is clear; one was a happy-go-lucky single young man, the other a husband and father, and this has lead many experts and media gossips alike to question whether sex addiction is in fact real or an excuse for people to cheat without the backlash.
As the need for sex is linked with a lack of fulfillment in the addicts' personal life, we are then encouraged to feel sorry for someone for having the need to seek this elsewhere, even when it can lead to the destruction of their family.
Treatment
Treatment for sex addiction is carried out in group therapy.
Much like an Alcoholics Anonymous programme addicts are encouraged to share with others their feelings about their relationship with sex and their relationships with those around them.
They are taught about maintaining a healthy attitude towards sex and can be given marital or relationship counseling depending on their situation.
However, in the medical world it seems the jury is out on whether or not sex addicts truly exist.
When speaking to the Chicago Tribune last month, Dr Alan Grieco, an Orlando-based psychologist said: "I am cautious and a little leery of the term sex addiction. In my opinion, monogamy does not come naturally to most men. We can do it, but it's a struggle."
“If an attractive woman throws herself at a guy and he thinks he can get away with it, he will - married or not - have sex.”
Around 80 per cent of sex addicts are men, which adds to the notion that this is more an in-built issue rather than a new discovery.
Perhaps the fact that some men have always had a high sex drive, or use sex to maintain their status in society is not so much a medical problem as just a fact of human nature.
Others argue that the problem is not recognised because of the courage and the difficulty that it can take to admit to having this sort of addiction.
Ginger Manley, a nursing professor and certified sex therapist at Vanderbilt University told the Chicago Tribune: "It takes enormous courage to walk into a meeting of complete strangers and say, 'Hello, my name is John Doe, and I'm a sex addict', it's not as hard for drug and alcohol addiction."
Shame
"Sex addiction is about the most shameful of all the addictions because there have been so many people who have been through it," Manley added.
Regardless of the speculation what is important to understand is people who believe themselves to have an addiction, believe it for a reason.
This is usually because something is missing from their lives.
Although the term sex addiction may not be recognised by medical professionals as an actual problem, it has been recognised by society.
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