Problem sexual behaviours
Re-thinking sex & porn addiction
An holistic, sexual health approach to problem sexual behaviours
What we call something matters because its name determines how we treat it. The term sex & porn addiction is controversial. You may be surprised to hear it is not an actual diagnoses. International disease classification systems used in healthcare exclude sex & porn as addictions due to lack of scientific evidence.
Compulsive Sexual Behaviour Disorder (CSBD) is included in the World Health Organisation International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as an impulse disorder (not an addiction), but CSBD is not an interchangeable term with sex & porn addiction. https://icd.who.int/browse/2024-01/mms/en#1630268048 .
Despite this, society, as well as many therapists, continue to label and profit from the sex-negative, addiction model, even when behaviours are adult, legal, and consensual. Evidence suggests that for some men, self-identifying as a sex or porn addict likely increases pain and suffering over time.
Problem sexual behaviours might include problematic pornography consumption, drug-linked sexual behaviours (chemsex, party-drugs), moral or ethical conflicts over the types of sex (fantasy, BDSM, kink, paying for sex), breaking of relationship boundaries (affairs, infidelity), or resulting legal and financial problems.
If your sexual urges, thoughts, or behaviours feel out of control and stop you living your best life possible, then I invite you to get in touch and learn more about how we could work together.
