Sex and Porn Addiction: Avoiding Unhealthy Treatments

Dr. Robert Weiss, LCSW

Unfortunately, the process of finding a qualified treatment specialist is not always easy for sexual and porn addicts. For beginners, a basic understanding of sexual and porn addiction is not a standard part of most psychotherapist training. Therefore, sexual and porn addicts often encounter unfamiliar with sexual and porn addiction but knowledgeable therapists, with knowledge of various related and coexistent problems, most notably depression and anxiety. These clinicians tend to correctly diagnose and deal with these secondary issues without even talking about the main addiction issues of the addict.

In fact, for therapists who are not receptive to sexual and porn addiction, this is actually easy to mistake the problem for emotional disorders or early life trauma response. This is because mood disorders (depression, anxiety, etc.) are more common than sexual and porn addiction, and therapists are usually well trained in diagnosing and treating these common side effects of sexual and porn addiction. Therefore, things like depression and anxiety are often considered as the main problem for gender or porn addicts.

To avoid this, many sex and porn addicts get involved in sex therapists, believing that people certified as “sex therapists” will certainly understand and be able to address the pain and consequences of compulsive sexual behavior. Unfortunately, this is not usually the case. This is because sex therapists are often trained to be completely “sexually positive,” which means their main goal is to help people better their sexual interests or patterns, rather than trying to reduce those interests and patterns because they are out of control and cause problems.

This validation, supportive non-judgmental treatment is useful when managing many common sexual problems, such as feeling uncomfortable with homosexual attractions or some kind of fetish. However, this will not help sexual and porn addicts. These therapists tend to give advice: “You really should relax and try to be more comfortable with your sexual behavior.” Needless to say, this is the exact opposite of what sex addicts need to hear. Imagine if you will, a therapist tells an alcoholic that he was arrested twice while drunk because he was drunk to relax a little, and then drink without shame. Well, this is something sex therapists often do to sexual and porn addicts.

On the other side, we have therapists who label a person sexually or pornically to combine sexual and pathological behavior with their personal or religious belief system. These therapists basically try to become gender policemen, imposing their personal moral, cultural or religious values ​​on human sexuality. Many such therapists often misuse the sexual/porn addiction tag, using it to “diagnose” homosexual, bisexual, non-attached porn use, casual sex, non-emotional, fetish, fetish, and a wide variety of other sexual desires and behaviors even within the normal and healthy adult ranges that are accompanied by these attitudes and healthy behaviors (if incredible clients).

In fact, sexual and porn addiction has nothing to do with who or who is the identity of that person. Instead, sexual and porn addiction is about taking advantage of the excitement and intensity of sexual fantasy and behavior to be emotionally numb and suffer negative life consequences. Sex and porn addicts engage in addictive patterns in sexual behavior as a means to escape the pain of life stressors, emotional discomfort, and underlying psychological conditions, regardless of the problems this may lead to. So when talking about sexual and porn addiction, whether one is gay, straightforward or bound, or opened by spiked heels, leather or anyone who doesn’t matter.

Needless to say, finding the right therapist must be essential for sexual and porn addicts, because the wrong therapist can do more harm than good. Generally, the best solution for gender/porn addicts is a certified Sex Addiction Therapist (CSAT). If you are looking for a good CSAT in your area, please contact us via this link and we are happy to point you in the right direction. We also offer hospitalization and low-cost online working groups for male and porn addicts. For information on residential treatments, click here. For information on our next online sex addiction task force, click here. For information on our next online porn addiction task force, click here.