Popular addiction

Comes in many forms

We all know about the big ones

Drugs, alcohol, sex

Sex?

Yes for many sex or the idea of it can be very addictive

Go into any newsagents

Look at the number of porno sites on the Internet

Magazines selling their wares by plastering their covers with sexually suggestive copy and pictures

Old as man it might be

However with modern communications sex is in and on everything

Not only is sex causing many people vicarious pleasure it is causing a lot of pain

Pain because being the predominant cultural value in many societies it guides and molds public perceptions of so many things

From our ideas about body size and shape

Women being worried when they do not look like the anorexic models portrayed in so much of the media

To what we should think about

But it's not about the sex at all;

Rather, it's the mood-altering state induced by sexually related behaviour that temporarily numbs the pain of past trauma, which has often lead to the addiction
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Addictive substances or behaviours affect the brain chemically, inducing a buzz or a high, and eventually the brain begins to demand more and more,''
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But, ironically, this behaviour only serves to reinforce the guilt, shame and self-loathing rooted in the original trauma.

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So the destructive cycle continues, sometimes indefinitely.
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A very high percentage of addicts were sexually or emotionally abused when they were young
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Sexual addiction shares similar behaviours with illnesses like bipolar disorder and obsessive-

compulsive disorder, which can cause sexual obsessions and, in some cases, an acting out of obsessions,
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Any way we look at it sexual addiction is a life altering problem

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As is sexual inadequacy

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As is sexual longing

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A list of areas where sex influences behaviour is long, far too long

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Make sure that you are not drawn into sexual behaviour which will negatively affect your life

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Choose to place sex where it forms a balanced part of your life and not an obsession

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Sex used and abused is not for nothing one of man's oldest problem areas

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See sex for what it has become and proceed with prudence