Facts About Sex Addiction

by Annie Scudder 4

Even before Tiger Woods gave his celebrity endorsement to sex addiction, we debated whether it's an easy excuse or a mental health issue. Now Time magazine is taking on the topic in the latest issue. We already took a look inside sex rehab clinics to find out what to expect when you're reforming, but here are five facts from the article you might not have been aware of already.

1. Sex addiction is relatively new: According to the article, "only in the past 25 years have we come to regard excesses in necessary cravings — hunger for food, lust for sex — as possible disease states."
2. It's not official: The APA is just deciding whether to add it to the DSM and thus make it official. The definition currently under consideration by the APA states that "you have an illness if you spend so much time pursuing intercourse or masturbation as to interfere with your job or other important activities."
3. An orgasm a day is considered troublesome: The article explains, "seven orgasms a week (either alone or with someone) is still considered by many experts to be a threshold for possible disorder."
4. It's lucrative: If the APA decides to recognize sex addiction, it would mean a huge windfall for the mental health industry. Time explains: "Some wives who know their husbands are porn enthusiasts would force them into treatment. This is already happening. In the year since Woods made sex addiction famous, rehab facilities accustomed to dealing with alcoholics and drug addicts have found themselves swamped with requests for sex-addiction treatment."
5. Some treatment resembles religion: The author recounts a session he attended: "People read aloud from manuals cum bibles — like AA's Big Book, Sexaholics Anonymous has its White Book — that are filled with harrowing personal stories and vague generalities. (From the White Book: 'sexual sobriety includes progressive victory over lust.') About halfway through each meeting, a donation-collection plate is passed around, just like in church."

Anything surprise you?