Causes of Sexual Addiction
The aspects that make sexual addiction just as dangerous and serious as chemically dependent addictions involve the causes of the addiction. These causes often have little to do with the form in which the addiction is manifested but more to do with coping with daily life and the self. Sometimes, a sex addict’s past involves an inhibited childhood where growth and development were thwarted. Instances of child abuse or neglect are frequent and the resulting adult sees themselves as lessened or damaged as a result. It might have also been that their parents were sex addicts as well and never sought any form of treatment. Also, the stresses and failures of everyday life lead to feelings of anxiety can perpetuate the problem by offering the fantasy world of sex.
In fact, some research shows that there are six types of sex addicts and one addict can suffer from several different types of addictions. They include the spiritual, the psychological, the trauma-based, sexually anorexic, mood disordered, or the biological sex addict. Being the most common, biological sex addiction is also the most easily treatable. It is caused by reinforced neurological pathways in the brain that have, over time and repetition, trained the body to become aroused by certain stimuli. Psychological sex addicts are often those coming out of childhood abuse, no matter emotional, sexual, or physical. These types seek to medicate their wounds with sex. The trauma type addicts usually come from the same kind of homes but seek control of their past abuses by recreating the abuse and deriving pleasure from it. Sexual anorexics tend to forbid all types of sexuality because of their fears or guilt about it. Mood-disordered addicts have an imbalance in their brain chemistry and need to be medicated to function properly.