Healing the Core of Addiction Sex Addiction Treatment Centers

Treating Sex Addiction Successfully

While human sexuality is crucial to our species’ continued existence, it also provides many adults immense joy, intimacy, and inspiration. However, sex addiction can detract from the intimacy of sexuality. This is where effective sex addiction treatment centers, such as our offerings at Exclusive Hawaii, step in to offer help.

Sex addiction is a condition characterized by thoughts or fantasies that occupy excessive time and resources. People who suffer from sex addiction tend to neglect their responsibilities to their families, friends, and coworkers in favor of their sexual needs. Some spend considerable money seeking satisfaction from costly outlets like pornography, prostitution, strip clubs, online sex forums, or telephone sex lines.

The right forms of treatment for sexual addiction can stop the destructive cycle of this condition in its tracks and give people a second chance at a fulfilling life. At Exclusive Hawaii Rehab, we offer a wide range of treatment programs for sexually based addictions, from pornography to compulsive infidelity.

Keep reading to find our more about what measures best help those struggling with sexual preoccupations and addictions, and how to get effective help today!

What Is Sex Addiction?

Also known as hypersexual disorder or compulsive sexual behavior,  sex addiction is a condition that causes people to be abnormally preoccupied with sexual behaviors and thoughts. They could get so engrossed with sexual thoughts that it interferes with their day-to-day life. People with a sex addiction continuously engage in sexual activities despite the apparent risks involved.

It’s crucial to note that a high libido doesn’t indicate a sex addiction. Sex addiction negatively affects an individual’s regular life and relationships. Someone with this disorder will go to great lengths to satisfy their sexual desires.

Some examples of sexual behaviors such people may show include:

• Spending too much time watching pornography (pornography addiction)
• Masturbating excessively
• Paying for sex
• Constantly going to strip clubs
• Infidelity

People with sex addiction often mistakenly believe they can control their condition. However, the addiction will not disappear if it is not appropriately treated.

What are the Signs of Sex Addiction?

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the gold standard for defining and classifying mental health disorders, do not consider sex addiction a mental health condition. Therefore, it may be challenging to recognize the symptoms of sex addiction.

Sexual addiction has a wide range of possible physical and emotional manifestations. The following symptoms may indicate a sex addiction, though a medical professional should be consulted for an official diagnosis:

Spending Excessive Time Thinking About or Engaging in Sexual Behaviors

While actively seeking out sexual partners isn’t always a sign of a problem, devoting an excessive amount of time and effort to sexual activity is. Activities in this category can include seeking sex, having sex, being sexual, or healing from sexual experiences.

Those struggling with sex addiction may experience intrusive fantasies regarding sexual acts. These sexual fantasies or chronic thoughts may become obsessive or get in the way of daily life.

Feelings of Shame, Disgust, and Depression

When the need for sex becomes an addiction, it’s very common for a person to experience a range of emotions, including those not directly related to sex, such as guilt, anxiety, regret, or depression.

Having sexual impulses and having trouble resisting them might cause a person to feel ashamed. In severe cases, this can even lead to clinical depression or suicidal thoughts.

People who suffer from sexual compulsion are also at increased risk for developing mood and anxiety disorders or social anxiety.

Lack of Interest in Other Activities

Sexual addiction can cause a person to become preoccupied with sexual thoughts and behaviors to the point where the individual faces difficulty partaking in other activities.

They may retreat socially and start falling behind in school, employment, or personal duties. In addition, they may value sexual activity more than other forms of recreation or pastimes. This could lead to strained relationships with loved ones.

Excessive Masturbation

Masturbation can be a healthy way to explore sexuality and express your sexual drive. However, masturbating excessively may be a sign of sex addiction. People with sexual addiction may experience or engage in compulsive masturbation, masturbation at inappropriate times, or masturbation that results in physical pain.

Participating in Risky Behaviors

When a person is addicted to sexual activity, they may engage in sexual activities that are inappropriate and even dangerous. Exhibitionism, having sex in public, unprotected intercourse, and engaging in the services of prostitutes are all examples of such risky activities.

These can put a person at risk of contracting STDs. Sexually compulsive people are more likely to contract STDs like HIV.

Unfaithfulness, Cheating and Committing Sexually-Related Crimes

To satisfy their sexual urges, someone with a sex addiction may cheat on their spouse or engage in extramarital affairs. They may frequently seek out one-night stands and cheat on their partners several times.

Criminal behavior such as stalking, rape, and child molestation may emerge in extreme circumstances of sexual addiction. Some sexual offenders are also sex addicts, but there’s no proof that sex addiction causes people to engage in criminal behavior.

Diagnosing Sex Addiction

Since it is not always clear when sexual conduct becomes problematic, the psychiatric community is still debating how best to describe compulsive sexual behavior.

The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), is widely used as a reference for making diagnoses in the field of mental health. While the DSM-5 does not explicitly identify sex addiction as a mental health problem, it may be diagnosed as a subset of other conditions, such as impulse control disorder or behavioral addiction.

Sexual activities taken to an extreme with significant and severe repercussions are what some mental health professionals mean when discussing obsessive sexual behaviors. Though additional research is needed to define and categorize the requirements, it seems that diagnosis and treatment by certified sex addiction therapists will be the most effective.

Programs at Sex Addiction Treatment Centers

Psychotherapy, medication, and support groups are common forms of treatment for sexual addiction. The primary purpose of therapy is to help you control your impulses and cut back on unhealthy habits without stopping your sexual activities altogether.

Someone suffering from compulsive sexual behaviors also needs help for other co-occurring disorders. It is common for those who engage in compulsive sexual conduct to suffer from substance addiction issues or other mental health issues such as anxiety or depression.

An inpatient program in a residential treatment center may be the best starting point for those severely affected, with multiple addictions, or who pose a threat to themselves or others. Treatment, whether inpatient or outpatient, can be very strenuous at first. Most people benefit from occasional, continuous therapy over the years to avoid relapses.

Psychotherapy in Sex Addiction Treatment

Talk therapy, or psychotherapy, can teach you skills to deal with sexual compulsions. Some examples of psychotherapy include:

• Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): CBT aims to replace unhealthy and harmful thought patterns and behaviors with more helpful ones. You develop skills that lessen the secrecy of such actions and make it harder to get sexually explicit material.
• Acceptance and commitment therapy: This form of cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on learning to accept one’s ideas and emotions while developing techniques to make decisions that align with one’s beliefs.
• Psychodynamic psychotherapy: This form of therapy aims to help patients become more self-aware by bringing to light their subconscious patterns of thinking and behavior, fostering a new understanding of their motivations, and facilitating healthier conflict resolution.

These modalities can be administered in individual, couple, or family therapy sessions.

Sex Addiction Therapy Medications

Certain medications may be helpful in addition to psychotherapy because they affect brain chemicals connected to obsessive thoughts and behaviors, lessen the chemical rewards these behaviors provide when they are acted upon or lower sexual drives.

Whether or not you take medication for your mental health issues will depend on your specific condition.

Drugs used to treat sex addiction are frequently administered for unrelated issues. They include:

1. Mood stabilizers: Other than treating bipolar disorder, some of these drugs may also reduce the sensation of an overwhelming need to engage in sexual activity.
2. Antidepressants: Some antidepressants that treat depression, anxiety, or obsessive-compulsive disorder may also help reduce compulsive sexual behavior.
3. Anti-androgens: These medications reduce the biological effects of sex hormones or androgens in men. Anti-androgens are commonly used to treat males whose dangerously compulsive sexual activity is a problem for themselves and others.
4. Naltrexone: Naltrexone or Vivitrol is commonly used to treat alcohol and opiate addiction by inhibiting activity in the brain’s reward circuits. It has the potential to aid those struggling with sexual or gambling addictions.

Support Groups for Sex Addicts

People who engage in compulsive sexual conduct may benefit from self-help and support groups to cope with the difficulties that arise due to their condition. The 12-step approach used by Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) serves as a template for many support groups.

Groups like Sex Addicts Anonymous (SAA) can help you:

• Learn about your disorder
• Find support and understanding of your condition
• Identify additional treatment options, coping behaviors, and resources
• Help with relapse prevention

Support groups may be internet-based, have local in-person meetings, or both. If you’re interested in a self-help group, look for one with a good reputation that makes you feel comfortable. These groups don’t suit everyone’s taste. Our team can help link you with an appropriate support group for aftercare services.

Get Help With Our Sex Addiction Treatment Center

If your sexual urges and behaviors are causing you anguish, taking over your life, and producing problems in your intimate relationships, career, and family life, you need help.

The stigma and guilt associated with seeking help for sex addiction are significant barriers for many individuals. Our confidential and compassionate healthcare staff at Exclusive Hawaii Rehab will judge you based on your sexual preferences. We are here to help.

If you’re open and honest with your loved ones, your spouse, your doctors, and most of all, yourself, you’ll have the best chance of a successful conclusion. Our addiction professionals can help you reclaim your life from addiction through cutting-edge and holistic treatment options.

Call us today at (808) 725-2065 for professional medical advice on our sex addiction treatment program.

Sex Addiction Treatment FAQs

Here are some of the frequently asked questions about sex addiction treatment:

Is sex addiction the same as other addictions?

Yes. What connects sex addiction to other forms of addiction is the “addicted feeling.” People living with sex addiction feel the same intensity of cravings that those suffering from substance abuse disorders, such as drug or alcohol addiction, feel when they cannot satisfy their sexual needs.

Addiction is a powerful desire or temptation you can’t resist giving in to. Despite the unfavorable outcomes, you repeatedly engage in the offending behavior.

How common is sex addiction in the United States?

Approximately 10% of the U.S. population appears to suffer from hypersexuality. Men are more likely to be affected than women. The typical onset age for sex addiction is 18, but most people fail to seek treatment until they reach 37.

Most people suffering from sex addiction have a history of other mental health illnesses like:

• Mood disorders
• Anxiety disorders
• Personality disorders
• Addictive disorders
• Impulse control disorders
• Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

Call now at (808) 725-2065 to verify your insurance.