Can a Behavior (Like Sex) Really Be an Addiction?

Sex and porn addiction are just as real and just as devastating as every other addiction.

Today, most people readily understand the concept of substance addiction. If they are not addicted to a substance themselves (to cigarettes, alcohol, prescription medications, illicit drugs, etc.), they probably know someone who is. At the very least, they’ve seen relatively accurate portrayals of alcoholism and drug addiction on television and in the movies. Behavioral addictions, however, are usually more difficult to fathom. Nevertheless, people can and do become addicted to highly pleasurable, self-soothing, dissociative behaviors just as often and just as easily as they become addicted to highly pleasurable, self-soothing, dissociative substances—and with similarly problematic results.

Task for Today
Compare your sexual behavior to a drug. What similarities do you see?