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What would you call someone who has incessant appetite for watching lurid sexual material? Sex addict, perhaps, or would you rather porn addict? So, if one loves driving, would you describe him as being addicted to cars? It turns out that you could be spending your morning, mid-morning, lunch, afternoon, evening and night bombarding your mind with pornographic imagery without necessarily being ‘sick’ in the head.
And because no one can say (with certainty) that you need medical attention, there isn’t an actual remedy. Dr Lukoye Atwoli, a psychiatrist and lecturer at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, says that abnormal sexual behaviour is largely undefined. Despite some mental health practitioners coming up with treatment programmes for ‘sex addiction,’ the level of evidence is currently “insufficient for us to designate a specific illness related to these phenomena,” he observes.
He adds that there is no condition defined in medical circles or in psychiatry as ‘addiction to pornography’ or ‘sex addiction.’ The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), does not mention criteria for such a disorder at the moment.
While it is clear that there are individuals who engage in sexual activities, including watching pornography in a manner that may negatively affect their lives, Dr Atwoli believes there is yet to be sufficient evidence “for us to designate a specific illness related to these phenomena.”
Meanwhile, researchers from the University of Cambridge have published a study which concluded that “endless supply” of pornography on the internet is feeding sex addiction. Published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, the study concludes that ready supply makes it difficult for people with “sexual addictions” to resist their urges.
To come up with their conclusions, the team studied sex addicts vis a vis healthy men. Brain scans revealed that arousal response from sex addicts dwindled progressively when repeatedly shown the same sexual images. The researchers observed that the addict finds the same stimulus less and less rewarding – so sex addicts need to seek new images to get the same high. “We can all relate in some way to searching for novel stimuli online – it could be flitting from one news website to another, or jumping from Facebook to Amazon to YouTube and on,” said the lead author, Dr Valerie Voon.
According to Dr Atwoli though, “compulsive sexual behaviour” is a poorly defined construct, and as a result, not much research can be conducted on it until it is clearly defined. Previous work by Dr Voon has revealed that three brain regions were more active in sex addicts compared with the healthy volunteers. These regions were the same as activated in drug addicts when shown drug stimuli. And while such an addiction is plausible, Dr Atwoli believes more studies will need to be done to surely ascertain the existence of mental sexual conditions. Then we can look forward to appropriate medicine and therapy.
What would you call someone who has incessant appetite for watching lurid sexual material? Sex addict, perhaps, or would you rather porn addict? So, if one loves driving, would you describe him as being addicted to cars? It turns out that you could be spending your morning, mid-morning, lunch, afternoon, evening and night bombarding your mind with pornographic imagery without necessarily being ‘sick’ in the head.
And because no one can say (with certainty) that you need medical attention, there isn’t an actual remedy. Dr Lukoye Atwoli, a psychiatrist and lecturer at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, says that abnormal sexual behaviour is largely undefined. Despite some mental health practitioners coming up with treatment programmes for ‘sex addiction,’ the level of evidence is currently “insufficient for us to designate a specific illness related to these phenomena,” he observes.
He adds that there is no condition defined in medical circles or in psychiatry as ‘addiction to pornography’ or ‘sex addiction.’ The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), does not mention criteria for such a disorder at the moment.
While it is clear that there are individuals who engage in sexual activities, including watching pornography in a manner that may negatively affect their lives, Dr Atwoli believes there is yet to be sufficient evidence “for us to designate a specific illness related to these phenomena.”
Meanwhile, researchers from the University of Cambridge have published a study which concluded that “endless supply” of pornography on the internet is feeding sex addiction. Published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, the study concludes that ready supply makes it difficult for people with “sexual addictions” to resist their urges.
To come up with their conclusions, the team studied sex addicts vis a vis healthy men. Brain scans revealed that arousal response from sex addicts dwindled progressively when repeatedly shown the same sexual images. The researchers observed that the addict finds the same stimulus less and less rewarding – so sex addicts need to seek new images to get the same high. “We can all relate in some way to searching for novel stimuli online – it could be flitting from one news website to another, or jumping from Facebook to Amazon to YouTube and on,” said the lead author, Dr Valerie Voon.
According to Dr Atwoli though, “compulsive sexual behaviour” is a poorly defined construct, and as a result, not much research can be conducted on it until it is clearly defined. Previous work by Dr Voon has revealed that three brain regions were more active in sex addicts compared with the healthy volunteers. These regions were the same as activated in drug addicts when shown drug stimuli. And while such an addiction is plausible, Dr Atwoli believes more studies will need to be done to surely ascertain the existence of mental sexual conditions. Then we can look forward to appropriate medicine and therapy.
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