The 5 Biggest Problems Individuals Face With Sex Addiction

Sex addiction can be a devastating disease as it affects every aspect of a person’s life. The effects of sex addiction disrupt the social, emotional, physical, legal and financial lives of addicts.

1. How Sex Addiction Affects Individuals Socially

Sex addiction isolates the addict from everyone around him because addiction becomes the main focus of life, giving rise to many social problems. Naturally, if the person is in a social relationship, then the relationship will be turbulent. Feelings of isolation, abandonment, inadequacy, guilt, shame and anger will all be present at one point or another throughout the addiction and recovery process. Other relationships will also be disrupted, including relationships with family, friends, and coworkers. The addict will isolate himself from everyone else, the focus on compulsive and obsessive sexual behavior increases and the individual isolates and goes deeper into the relationship with the behavior. Changing those habitual patterns takes time and it will also take a lot of effort and time to help restore those neglected and sometimes damaged relationships. However, social life is very important for any healthy human being and addicts will need a strong social support system to help their recovery.2. How Sex Addiction Affects A Person Emotionally Sex addicts have a wide variety of disturbing emotions. Anxiety, anger, frustration, stress, shame, guilt, and fear of discovery are all common emotions addicts experience during the entire process, from addiction to recovery.For recovery to be successful, addicts must be able to deal with their emotional problems effectively. Shame and guilt are among the most common emotions with sex addicts as they struggle with addictions that go against their moral and spiritual beliefs. Even though they want to be “normal,” their true beliefs tell the opposite, this causes intense shame and guilt and keeps the addict in a spiral of addiction.

In addition, boredom, exhaustion, and hopelessness can overwhelm addicts who experience a prolonged struggle with their addiction. In extreme cases, this emotional struggle can lead to suicide.

3. How Sex Addiction Affects A Person

Addicts who engage in risky sexual behavior can expose themselves to a number of physical problems related to sexually transmitted infections and diseases. Injuries to the genitals, cervical cancer, HIV/AIDS, herpes, genital warts and other sexually transmitted diseases are common among sex addicts. In some cases, the addict’s desires can even harm them, resulting in physical injury or even death. Many of these people spend so much time in unwanted sexual behavior, they don’t sleep enough, don’t exercise or eat right. This in itself, is very detrimental to the body.

When an addict puts themselves in a risky sexual situation, their ability to brake is lost. They become so determined to fix it that they will go places they never thought they would, sleep with people they never dreamed of and take risks that carry extreme danger. Often the lust for sex increases to the point where the urge and the high experience become so strong and then after the danger, the addict falls hard and is sometimes physically abused or hurt.

4. How Sex Addiction Affects A Person Legally

This addiction can result in people breaking the law. Addicts often engage in sexual harassment, obscene phone calls, exhibitionism, voyeurism, prostitution, rape, incest and child abuse. It has become more and more common with the emergence of chat rooms, instant messages and social media for sex addicts to prey on. members of the opposite sex, same sex and often minors. As the disease progresses, some addicts break the law and have a need to engage in illegal activities. As the need to act sexually increases, addicts commit crimes they would not normally consider. The results can have serious legal consequences.

5. How Sex Addiction Affects Individuals Financially

People who struggle with sex addiction often put their lives on hold. They will come late to work, call sick due to work, neglect responsibilities, miss deadlines and act irrationally at work. They become very tired from living a life of acting sexually, they have trouble focusing on anything else and often live life like zombies.

This behavior can often lead to job loss. Worse, many addicts will spend huge sums of money on pornography, adult phone service, prostitutes and other expensive sexual activities. The combination of job loss and overspending to fuel a sex addiction can lead to serious financial problems. Not only is the financial loss measurable in dollars spent on addiction, one has to consider the hours spent acting sexually and for many, the opportunity cost of what can be achieved while they are acting.

As you can see, a person suffering from these compulsions will have many problems to deal with apart from the addiction itself. The number and scale of problems an addict faces can be overwhelming and the need for a strong support system is critical during and after the recovery process.