From The Telegraph UK: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/relationships/8995815/Why-theres-no-such-thing-as-sex-addiction.html
A much talked about new film tackles the very modern illness of sex addiction. But one leading psychologist has been attacked for suggesting that it isn’t an illness at all – it’s a weakness
By Dr David J Ley
08 Jan 2012
A few years ago, a 33-year-old man called Tom came to see me for therapy. Sandy-haired and nervous, he worked as an accountant and came to the appointment with his attractive young wife, Sarah. Tom looked like a man in trouble. Sarah had caught him coming out of a sex shop and, after being caught, Tom had admitted he’d been going there once a week to have sex with other men in the video booths.
Tom blamed himself for his poor choice, saying he had “got horny and didn’t think”. But Tom’s wife disagreed: “That’s addiction, right?” she said to me. “He’s addicted to this, to going to these creepy places and having sex.” Sex addiction is the psychological disorder du jour. When powerful men — from the golfer Tiger Woods to the actors Charlie Sheen and Michael Douglas – are caught sleeping with women who are not their wives, their standard response is to hold up their hands in rueful acknowledgement, check into a therapy centre and announce they’re embarking on a course of treatment for sex addiction.
In Woods’s case, this reportedly involved a period of celibacy, behavioural therapy, trauma work, “relapse prevention counselling” and one-to-one sessions on shame reduction and “setting sexual boundaries”.
And these things don’t come cheap. A month’s treatment at some residential centres can cost more than $37,000 (£23,600). In California, a church called New Life Ministries charges $1,400 (£900) for its three-day “Every Man’s Battle” workshops (for men who believe pornography and lust have taken over their lives) and runs a website that sells books, compact discs and DVDs for men, women and adolescents who have “failed in their battle for sexual purity”.
Continue reading at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/relationships/8995815/Why-theres-no-such-thing-as-sex-addiction.html
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