Sexual Addiction Information Many people in the world enjoy pornography, many people have had one or more affairs in their lives, but that does not make them sex addicts. Sexual addiction is diagnosed only in extreme cases in which there is clearly a compulsion to cheat on the person they love repeatedly, failing to be faithful even when it is intended by the patient. In terms of scientific definitions, sexual addiction has still not been recognized as an addiction per se, the closest examples of similar conditions are treated like sexual disorders. However, in practice, therapist approach this condition as they would with a real addiction. Patrick Carnes, identified 10 clear signs of sexual addiction. They are, with no particular order, Persistent pursuit of high-risk or self-destructive behavior, out of control sexual behavior, the inability to stop even when adverse consequences have arisen, severe consequences due to sexual behavior, drastic mood changes regarding sexual activity, sexual fantasy and obsession as the main coping strategy, ongoing effort to limit sexual behavior, increasing sexual activity and time spent around sexual efforts and recovery and neglecting everyday activities in the social, occupational and recreational areas of the person's life. Patients often see themselves as bad people who nobody will ever love due to their condition, the strongly feel that sex is their number one priority. Patients then, start a process in which they try to cope with the pain by dissociating from it, creating a separation of the emotions and the conscious mind of the individual. Sex is then used as a means to get rid of all the pain that the person has felt in his life, and trance-like states are usually sought. Sexual compulsivity is the next stage in which the patients starts acting out, followed closely by a despair stage in which feelings of guilt and remorse arise so that the patient decides never to do it again, until he goes back at the beginning of the cycle and he falls one more time. In order to take a look into the origins of sexual addiction, we will analyze how it all begins. Some experts do believe that there is a genetic component that may cause people to have a special predisposition to addictions including sexual addiction. Amongst the most common psychological functions and needs that have been identified are libidinal and sexual needs, need for power and control, narcissistic needs, reenactment of childhood deficits or trauma, a means to cope with issues of sexual identity/orientation, avoidance of disturbing feelings, compensation for feelings of low self-esteem, desire for human affection or connection. Treatment wise, there are several factors that have to be taken into account such as whether or not the patient also presents attention deficit disorder, anxiety, depression, other addictions, etc. A key element here is to be aware that your couple will also be required to attend some sessions as part of your treatment. Besides psychotherapy, a 12 step program for sexual addiction is highly recommended as a complement. For the therapy to fully benefit its recipients, they should be willing to accept that they have a problem, they should be aware of the consequences of continuing with this behavior, they should be ready to make a change, learn from other people's experiences, etc. There are also some groups that specialize in the 12 step programs that we mentioned before such as Sexaholics Anonymous (SA) who see sex addiction as being controlled by lust and how to be able to gain control over it, Sex Love Addicts Anonymous (SLAA) and Sex Addicts Anonymous (SAA). All these groups are gratuitous, but they do accept donations as their main source of income in order to continue helping people.