We provide pornography addiction treatment as well as cybersex addiction treatment.
On-line pornography, chat rooms, hookups, affairs, partner swapping, exhibitionism and voyeurism are some of the many sexual activities that can be experienced through the internet. The availability, accessibility and affordability of these on-line services, combined with the virtual anonymity they provide the user, has resulted in cybersex becoming known as the “crack cocaine” of sex addiction.
Consider the following statistics:
- Internet sex is the most common on-line behavior
- 40 million Americans visit porn sites at least once a month
- 1/4 of all internet searches are for pornography
- 1/3 of all downloads are for pornography
- 70% of men report increased use of pornography since the advent of the internet
- 40% of cybersex addicts are women
Many people initially engage in cybersex recreationally, to explore what’s out there and to satisfy curiosity. For some 20 million Americans, however, entering into the cybersex world becomes a compulsive pattern, viewing images and engaging in activities that they had always wondered about but had no easy way to experience. For these people escalation in both the amount and the variety of images viewed becomes rapid, accelerating already addictive behaviors or creating new sexual behaviors that become quickly fixated in the brain.
The technology of the internet allows for access to an almost unlimited quantity and diversity of images and situations which, over time, can induce a trance-like state in the user. In many instances this results in a decrease of social interaction outside the cybersex world as the real is gradually replaced with the digital. Addicts start to lose interest in making healthy human connections and begin taking on-line risks they wouldn’t have dreamed of taking before, jeopardizing emotional and physical health, important existing relationships, career, and sometimes creating financial and legal crises.
Prolonged heightened stimulation through internet sexual activities can alter the neurochemistry of the brain whereby sexual arousal is so intensified that a new sexual “set point” is created. Conventional sex becomes less interesting as fantasy and obsessive desires are more and more indulged. The need to find new or more risky behaviors becomes compelling. Distorted sexuality becomes incorporated as the new norm.
Any of the following criteria can indicate the presence of cybersex addiction:
- preoccupation
- use of internet more frequently and for longer periods of time than intended
- unsuccessful efforts to stop
- irritability and restlessness when limiting use
- using cybersex to escape problems or to relieve stress
- compulsive need to achieve more intense highs
- lying to family, therapists, others to conceal use
- jeopardizing relationships and job or career
- financial consequences
Cybersex addiction, like many other addictions, is a treatable condition. With the right help the compulsive, self-destructive sexual behaviors can be addressed and eventually eliminated. The addict will get support in adjusting to a new life style where sexual acting out is no longer needed as a “medication” for the stress and challenges of daily life. Damage done to self and others while actively addicted will be confronted in a healthy way with a real possibility of repair. Psychotherapy can then fully focus on the trauma or other core psychological and emotional issues that may be at the root of the addictive behavior.