Sex Addicts Anonymous (SSA)

1370 Words3 Pages

CHAPTER TWO: WHAT IS SEXUAL ADDICTION?

This chapter explores aberrant sexual behaviors that share common characteristics and consequences.

The following are representative examples of the definition of sexual addiction. The Society for the Advancement of Sexual Health (2014) defined sexual addiction as a “persistent and escalating pattern or patterns of sexual behaviors acted out despite increasingly negative consequences to self or others” (screen 2).

Ferree (2010) defined sexual addiction as an “intimacy disorder.” Sex is the most intimate of connections between a man and woman but childhood experiences may serve to sever relational intimacy and substitute a false intimacy based on the primacy of getting their sexual needs met (p.72).

Sex Addicts Anonymous (SSA, 2014) defined sex addition by presenting characteristics.

• Powerlessness over addictive sexual behavior.

• Results in …show more content…

Obsession means to be “intensely and abnormally preoccupied with something. The object of obsession is all consuming” (Ferree, 2010, p. 48). The obsession of a sexually addicted person is to experience multiple acting out opportunities. As such, the addict focuses attention on addictive behavior to the detriment of other healthy activities. Left unchecked, an addict dedicates much time to the behaviors that give significant pleasure or temporarily shields him or her from social or mental health deficiencies (Ferree, 2010, pp. 48, 144).

An addict is obsessed with achieving greater sexual satisfaction each time s/he repeats the four phases of the sex addiction cycle (See Exercise Six). Randy’s story. After my wife goes to bed for the night, I spend hours viewing explicit and tantalizing images. I search for the perfect image that matches my unique mental concept of perfection. However, my continual searches never meet with success. Each successive image, while stimulating, never satisfies

Open Document