Sex Addiction Treatment

Understanding Sex Addiction

The term sex addiction is used to describe an individual who suffers from compulsive sexual thoughts, acts and behaviours. The person suffering from sex addiction will use sex much like a drug to escape painful feelings or deal with difficult problems. Despite the negative impacts on relationships, work and personal safety, the individual is often unable to stop despite a strong desire to do so. Recognising the need for professional sex addiction treatment becomes crucial in breaking this cycle.

“So how do we heal from an affair? Desire runs deep. Betrayal runs deep. But it can be healed. And some affairs are death nails for relationships that were already dying on the vine. But others will jolt us into new possibilities.

The fact is, the majority of couples who have experienced affairs stay together. But some of them will merely survive, and others will actually be able to turn a crisis into an opportunity. They’ll be able to turn this into a generative experience. And I’m actually thinking even more so for the deceived partner, who will often say, “You think I didn’t want more? But I’m not the one who did it.” But now that the affair is exposed, they, too, get to claim more, and they no longer have to uphold the status quo that may not have been working for them that well, either.”

Esther Perel  Rethinking Infidelity

For most adults, healthy sexuality is an integrated life experience. Sex with partners, or as part of exploring new relationships, is usually a pleasurable act of choice. For the sex addict, however, sexual behaviour can be most often defined by words such as driven, compulsive, shameful or hidden. Unlike healthy sex that is integrated into relationships, sexual addicts use sex as a means to cope, to manage boredom, anxiety or other strong emotions – or as a way to simply feel wanted and worthwhile. Sex addiction is a process or behavioural addiction that tends to occur periodically and in repetitive cycles of sexual obsession, fantasising, preparing, acting out, stopping, persistent cravings, trying to cut down, and then relapse.

Sex Addiction Therapy: Signs You Need Treatment

If you are suffering from two or more of the following you may have a sexual addiction and need to seek professional sex addiction treatment:

• Regularly engaging in sex with more partners than intended
• Sexual activities have escalated and feel out of control
• Increased tolerance to the amount of sex and the levels of sexual intensity; needing more to gain the desired effect
• Responsibilities surrounding work, family, friends and school are negatively impacted due to sexual behaviours, fantasies and acts
• Physical and emotional symptoms of withdrawal when sexual behaviours are ceased
• Inability to stop compulsive sexual behaviours and thoughts despite repeated attempts to do so
• Excessive amounts of time spent in sex-related activities such as cruising for new partners online or in person, excessively watching porn, or frequenting online chat rooms
• Chronic masturbation
• Feelings of shame, guilt, emptiness, self-loathing or remorse after engaging in sexual activities
• Lying to others to conceal behaviours surrounding sex
• Engaging in risky, aggressive, intense or illegal sexual practices
• Constant sexualisation of others, flirting or seductive mannerisms
• Intrusive sexual fantasies or thoughts interfering with normal everyday functioning

Take the first step towards recovery with a professional sex addiction treatment program at Byron Private

The Byron Private team acknowledges the difficulty individuals experience when using sex as a way of coping with life or unwanted emotions. We work alongside you and support you emotionally and psychologically to develop strategies to support yourself. Byron Private’s comprehensive assessment allows the clinical team to develop a holistic sex therapy plan furnished with the appropriate resources that best meets your individual needs. Sex addiction rehab may feel daunting when you first begin considering the possibility of seeking treatment. But rest assured that the therapeutic community environment will hold you in a safe and confidential bubble where you can learn healthy and fulfilling ways of connecting with others beyond your current unwanted obsessions and destructive behaviours.