Sex addiction is a psychological disease

According to relevant survey data, about 3%-6% of adults in the United States suffer from sex addiction. Moreover, sex addiction has reached epidemic proportions, especially addiction to cybersex. Why are there more and more cases of sex addiction? Experts explain that the rise of the Internet has provided a large amount of pornographic content, leading to the prevalence of cybersex, which in turn has led to a significant increase in addiction cases. In addition, studies have found that the number of cases of women becoming addicted to Internet pornography is increasing.

Experts acknowledge that not everyone who has an extramarital affair or watches pornography is necessarily a sex addict. These could have been just entertainment. Dependency develops only when they negatively impact a person's social relationships, take up time, and become unstoppable.

Why is it addictive?

About 80% of sex addiction cases have a history of sexual abuse or emotional trauma, and experts point out that a large number of people who develop sex addiction have been abused, violated or raped. "If you've been abused, you tend to be distrustful of other people, and as a manifestation of that, you're more likely to turn to something like sexual addiction."

Experts say that feeling neglected as a child, whether because of a divorce or because both parents work and are unable to spend much time with their children, can also lead to sex addiction.

Research on the neurological aspects of sex addiction is inconclusive. Naturally occurring brain chemicals such as dopamine and histamine do contribute to sexual function, but their relationship to sex addiction is unclear. Both chemicals are found at lower levels in the brains of sexually abused children, which may explain why some abused children increase their levels of dopamine and histamine, either through their own bodies or through food.

Many teenagers' sexual development begins with pornography, and they subsequently find that sexual relationships with people are not so satisfying. Pornography gives them a "very strong chemical shock", and other ways of thinking about sex are nothing more than a kind of "ring the bell, feed the dog" conditioned reflex mechanism. Addicts thus come to associate sex with substances and have difficulty deriving the same level of satisfaction from stable relationships with others.

For many people, especially women, sex addiction often goes hand in hand with other problems such as eating disorders, drug or alcohol dependence, experts say.

Unlike treating drug or alcohol addiction, the goal of sex addiction treatment is usually not abstinence but learning how to be sexually active in relationships with others, experts say. Similarly, a person recovering from a binge eating disorder does not stop eating completely but learns how to manage eating.

Sex addiction can seriously harm our mental health and it is an unhealthy sexual behavior. It is recommended that everyone learn to adjust themselves, maintain a state of mental health, and learn some relevant psychological knowledge to help themselves regulate themselves.