Can sex be ADDICTIVE?
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There are diverse opinions on this issue, but lets start with a short true life story Lisa gave about her personal experience with sexual addiction.
"My sexual addiction experience started when i was twelve years of age, after discovering a box of porn magazines under the guest room bed. The graphic images excited me in such a way that my Saturday morning cartoons never did. I was aroused, i wanted to be like these women.
The next year, i got my first boyfriend, and he usually came over to the house and we got intimate. The mindset that sex equaled love was engraved into my mind at that tender age, and that as long as i was willing to give it, I was never going to be alone.
And I never wanted to be alone. This was the beginning to my sexual addiction journey"
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A common relationship between sex and drugs people dont know
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There is no argument around the fact that drugs can be addictive. It is a generally accepted fact. But when it comes to sex being an addiction, people have diverse opinions. But what people have not realized is that apart from money, there is something else common between drugs and sex, and that is DOPAMINE.
Let me give you a short scientific description of what dopamine is, and how it relates to drugs and sex.
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Dopamine is one of the chemical signals that pass information from one neuron to the next in the central nervous system of which the BRAIN is a major part. When most people talk about dopamine, especially when they are talking with respect to addiction and lust, they are talking about the dopamine pathway known as mesolimbic pathway, which starts with cells in the ventral tegmental area, buried deep in the middle of the brain, which send their projections out to places like the nucleus accumbens.
Increase in dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens, occurs in response to sex, drugs etc. All abused drugs from alcohol to cocaine increase dopamine in this area in one way or the other, and many people like to describe a spike in dopamine as "motivation" or "pleasure"
So if we have established that dopamine has a huge role to play in drug addiction, and dopamine is also secreted when the mind is stimulated sexually, then we can come to a conclusion that sex can be an addiction too.
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The way out of sexual addiction
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An addiction is usually difficult to treat because a person with addiction will usually rationalize and justify their behaviors and thought patterns, and most of the time deny there is even a problem.
So, the following steps are required to get yourself free from an addiction
1 - Accepting that sex could be an addiction, and also knowing that it all start with the mind. It is a cycle where you start experiencing a fantasy in your mind, it then becomes a ritual, and then you carry out the ritual as often as possible, and then when you are done, you then start to experience a feeling of shame and guilt. And the process starts again.
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2 - Support of family and friends : This is the most crucial treatment for a person recovering from sexual addiction. Due to the perculiar nature of sexual addiction, it is usually difficult for others to understand and tolerate, especially when it has already led to damages in relationships. So its family and friends that will be in the best position to help such people.
3 - Self-help organizations : Such as sex addict anonymous, sexaholics anonymous, and sex and love addict anonymous. All these offer a 12 course program to help individuals in managing this condition. Their contact information can be obtained online by using google to search for them.
4 - Residential treatment programs : These programs involves the patient living on site at the treatment facility, for a brief period of time, so that they can be attended to by trained specialized therapists.
I really hope this article helped someone today, because helping people is what truly gives me satisfaction and fulfillment. Please upvote, follow, and resteem, you dont know who this article may be helping. Thanks a lot.
Image source : Google images
I do agree, that sex can be addictive. God knows I was once under its spell, way back in my younger days... :P In my case, though, my sex addiction was solved when I one day realized after the act that it was no longer exciting or stimulating. I realized that something had shifted inside me and I no longer craved casual no strings attached sex.
I suddenly saw sex as this divine act of spiritual vulnerability and unity between two people who love each other enough to let everything down in each other's presence. Ever since then I don't really hook up anymore and I certainly don't have sex as much as I used to haha. Perhaps it's just a matter of perspective, and how one feels about sex.
Well said @rodeo670, I was under this spell too and so were and are a lot of youths today. Am happy you don't have sex as much as you used to, that's really plenty steps in the right direction. Thanks for your comment I appreciate.
I agree completely! I think that this culture we have today of rampant sexuality where everyone is just trying to get a bone in is hurting our relationships as a whole. Especially when people who intend to be together or are looking into that possibility for a relationship end up having sex on the first date. It has this weird subconscious effect on their minds, where they end up not being vulnerable and intimate with each other because in their mind they've already shed all the physical walls and they equate that to intimacy and vulnerability. Sex on the first date is one of the most telling signs of a relationship most likely doomed to fail, in my opinion.
I totally agree with you. For me, I actually stand with abstainance, that's sex only after marriage. I personally feel it's the best for a relationship, so that sex no longer becomes only for pleasure, but a means for both parties to bond with each other. Then the sex will mean a lot to them.
Exactly! I'm 100% behind the sex after marriage thing. Partially because I'm LDS lol but also partially because I've seen and experienced myself firsthand how empty it becomes if you don't do it with the right person and you aren't on that same level of understanding about what sex is supposed to mean and how significant that real connection of two souls who truly love each other that much.
Ooh that's really good, am glad you are on the side of abstainance. Exactly, it becomes an empty sex when you are not with the right person. I don't really know the meaning of LDS. Actually the reason why I am for abstainance is because it is the reasonable thing to do, and also, my faith as a Christian teaches abstainance.
Ahhhh haha...LDS = The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I'm Christian as well :P
Hey very nice and informative article ... Just an off beat question are there benefits of resteeming a post.
Thanks for your comment. Well there are no financial benefits of resteeming to the resteemer, he just passes the post to more audience
Oh thanks a lot. I would be glad if you follow me back
Okay I'll do that
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