Sex Addiction

Are sex addiction and love addiction the same thing? No! sex addicts are addicted to the sexual experience. The goal is orgasm. Emotional intimacy is not important. Many professionals believe that the preoccupation with sex is an attempt to avoid emotional intimacy by connecting with someone sexually. Love addiction, on the other hand, comes in many forms, all them different from sex addiction. Some love addicts carry a torch for unavailable people. Some love addicts obsess when they fall in love. Some love addicts get addicted to the euphoric effects of romance. Others cannot let go of a toxic relationship even if they are unhappy, depressed, lonely, neglected or in danger. Some love addicts are codependent and others are narcissistic. Some love addicts use sex to manage feelings; others are sexually anorexic. The common denominator is this: unlike sex addicts, love addicts crave an emotional connection and will avoid at any cost separation anxiety and loneliness.

While I treat sex addicts because the recovery is the same as that for love addiction, I am not the foremost authority and I have not written about sex addiction. The best resource for sex addiction is Patrick Carnes.dict