Like that of other addictions, patients with compulsive sexual behavior tend to use their addiction to escape from physical or emotional pain. They use sex as a coping mechanism for their stressors in life. The consequence of this is that their behavior tends to make more problems in their lives, causing them to enter a dangerous cycle of stress, coping, and additional stress.
Diagnosis of Compulsive Sexual Behavior
The diagnosis of compulsive sexual behavior is divided into paraphilic and nonparaphilic.
Paraphilic sexual behavior
To sum up their differences, paraphilic sexual behavior refers to patients with significant impairment due to their sexual addiction that involves exhibitionism, voyeurism, sexual masochism, sexual sadism, transvestic fetishism, fetishism, and frotteurism.
Remember, in order to classify this as sex addiction, the behavior must be distressing and cause significant impairment to one’s life, which is why pedophilia and fetishism is not typically associated with sex addiction.
Nonparaphilic sexual behavior
Nonparaphilic sexual behavior, on the other hand, refers to sexual activities which are more conventional. These may include compulsive masturbation, paying for prostitutes, excessive pornography viewing, extramarital affairs, and attending strip clubs.
Sex Addiction Therapy
There are various types of treatments available for sex addiction. The most common and widely available sex addiction therapy are Sexual Addicts Anonymous, Sexaholics Anonymous, and Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous. In the Philippines, however, it may be difficult to find support groups like mentioned above, especially one modeled after the 12-step theory and practice that is often used in the United States.