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.
Society, as well as many therapists, continue to label and profit off sexual behaviours as addictions, despite often being adult, legal, and consensual variations of sexual health, self-identity & wellbeing. 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.
But for some men, their sexual urges, thoughts, or behaviours can feel out of control and stop them living their best life possible. This is the actual problem.
I do not work within the sex addiction model, but rather a sex-positive, sexual health approach.
Changing the narrative around the addiction story | Cameron Staley | TEDxIdahoStateUniversity
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