Sexual Addiction and Pornography Addiction Counseling
ARE YOU READY TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE AND FIND FREEDOM FROM ADDICTIVE RISKY SEXUAL BEHAVIORS AND RELATIONSHIPS THAT ARE MEANINGLESS?
HERE’S WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT Dr. Jane A. Braun, Ph.D., Certified Sexual Addiction Therapist (CSAT):
You will be greeted with an attitude of unconditional positive regard, compassion, and understanding. You will not be shamed for any of your behaviors. Interests or actions that you report will not be labeled as abnormal. Only when any sexual behaviors begin to damage relationships you want to keep, jobs, your finances, or your physical health, will recommendations be suggested for change. Dr. Braun will work collaboratively with you and not attempt to force you to make changes that you find to be uncomfortable. A Recovery Tool Kit of practical tools will be developed in counseling so that you will leave therapy with a tremendous number of resources that will help you maintain life-long health and happiness.
Dr. Braun is not only a Certified Sexual Addiction Therapist (CSAT) but she is also a Clinical Psychologist with extensive training in the field of Neuropsychology. This training has equipped her to be able to combine her understanding of both neurological illnesses and behavioral health problems that cause addiction to provide powerful bondage breaking techniques for resolving core addiction, depression, anxiety, and trauma issues.
ARE YOU WONDERING IF YOU HAVE A SEX ADDICTION OR IF YOU HAVE JUST BEEN VERY ACTIVE SEXUALLY?
While an actual diagnosis for sexual addiction should only be made by a qualified mental health professional, there are several behaviors that can indicate the presence of sexual addiction. People, who notice several of these behaviors in their own lives, or in the lives of others they care about, should seek the advice of a trained professional:
1. Acting out: a series of compulsive sexual behaviors.
2. An inability to stop sexual behaviors despite having experienced severe consequences from these acts.
3. Self-destructive behavior that is pursued relentlessly
4. Having a continuous desire or effort to decrease sexual behavior
5. Use of sexual fantasy or obsession with sexual behavior as a primary way of coping with negative emotions or stress.
6. Increasing the amount or risk involved in sexual behaviors due to the current amount or risk no longer being satisfying
7. Dramatic mood changes that are related to sexual acting out behavior.
8. Tremendous amounts of time spent planning, engaging in, and recovering from sexual activity
9. Neglect of important interpersonal, work-related, or recreational activities due to diverting one’s attention to sex.
10. Spending money to obtain sexual experiences and later regretting the loss of this money
Some of the most common sexually addictive behaviors include pornography addiction, addiction to chat rooms, chronic infidelity, compulsively visiting strip clubs, compulsively hiring prostitutes or working as a prostitute, compulsively looking for sexual hook-ups, and compulsive masturbation.
Sex addiction is a compulsive behavior that completely controls the addict’s life. Sex addicts make sex a priority and act as if it is the most important thing in their lives. Sex addicts are willing to sacrifice what they cherish most in order to continue their compulsive behaviors. As most of their attention becomes focused on relationships which have sexual potential, other relationships and activities such as family, friends, work, hobbies, and values suffer or fade away from neglect. Because sex addicts avoid intimacy, short-term relationships become predominant in their lives.
Sex Addiction is an Intimacy Disorder
Compulsive sexual behavior is really an intimacy disorder because a key factor in the development of this disorder is the issue of having difficulty forming and keeping long-term emotionally intimate relationships.
In sex addiction, sex like food, gambling, alcohol, or drugs provides the “high” and addicts become dependent on this emotional high and chase the high by repetitive involvement in sexual behavior to feel normal. They substitute healthy relationships for unhealthy ones. They prefer to act out with people who are emotionally unavailable because being in a situation in which they are feeling pressured to emotionally connect often makes them feel uncomfortable or fearful.
The Addiction Cycle:
The addiction cycle starts as a sex addict will typically first notice profound feelings of unworthiness, despair, and stress. Their problems most likely started when they turned to viewing pornography or engaging in other sexual behaviors in order to soothe these profound negative feelings. They soon learned that this self-medication was only a temporary solution to the problem which caused them to turn back toward these sexual behaviors again for another fix. As their involvement in the sexual behaviors began to escalate, they realized that life was getting out of control and that they were at risk of a partner, spouse, or boss discovering their behavior. They may have also recognized that the behavior began to escalate because their involvement in the sexual behavior began to involve riskier behaviors over time. However, when they tried to stop themselves from these sexual behaviors, they now felt powerless to stop. Feelings of guilt, shame, and remorse have flooded them as they have found themselves powerless to quit. They may have also experienced at this point some devastating consequences such as a spouse, partner, child, or employer discovering what they have been doing and threatening to leave them or terminate their employment.
Could ADHD be making it difficult for me to recover?
An assessment for the presence of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) will be conducted if deemed essential since ADHD is a very common co-occurring disorder with addiction.
Why would an assessment for ADHD be considered when I am asking for help with addiction?
If ADHD is present and is not treated through either behavioral strategies or medication, symptoms of sexual addiction will most likely continue. Research has shown that individuals are more likely to abuse alcohol, drugs, and to pursue highly stimulating addictions such a video gaming addictions or sexual addictions because under stimulation is a common experience for adults with ADHD.
This can cause an individual to feel bored, tired, unmotivated, or irritated much of the time. ADHD causes people to be impulsive and to engage in high-risk behavior before the person considers the consequences of what they are doing.
While some people with ADHD can benefit from behavioral treatments for ADHD alone, some people are best treated with psychostimulant medications which act on neurotransmitters in the brain that influence motivation, learning and reward. This can make it easier for a person to concentrate, feel motivated to complete tasks, and feel a sense of reward and accomplishment when they remain on task.
Dr. Braun completed a doctoral program in Clinical Psychology with a specialization in Neuropsychology and also attended an American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology approved postdoctoral residency program in Clinical Neuropsychology and is very qualified to evaluate whether or not clients have co-occurring ADHD symptoms that need to be treated to increase their chances of having long-term sobriety from addictive behaviors.
The GOAL OF TREATMENT for sex addiction is to help you develop self-esteem, define boundaries, identify and invalidate excuses for relapsing, develop skills for regulating emotions that have contributed to relapsing, develop alternative coping strategies, live a life of self-control over unwanted behaviors, and restore trust and intimacy with a partner or spouse.
The FIRST STEP in solving the problem is to admit you actually have a problem you cannot solve by yourself. Without treating the addiction, you will eventually experience marital, physical, professional, and financial consequences. Most addicted people grieve the loss of the addictive high, fear rejection from other significant people in their lives if these other people were to discover the truth, and believe that no one will ever discover what they are doing. However, continuing to engage in addictive behavior with the belief that you won’t get caught is like playing a game of Russian roulette. If you spin the cylinder in the gun enough times, you will eventually get the chamber with the bullet. It is simply a matter of statistical odds. The more frequently you play with fire, you will eventually get burned.
Whatever compulsive sexual behavior you are struggling with, make the choice of getting help from a doctor that has the training to help you and is both a Clinical Psychologist and a Certified Sexual Addiction Therapist (CSAT). Other therapists who do not have this training will most likely not solve your problems.
For more information or to set up an initial phone consultation with Dr. Jane Braun, call (708) DR-BRAUN or (708) 372-7286
RESOURCES for Assessing compulsive sexual behavior, fantasy addiction and intimacy avoidance:
1. Contact a Certified Sex Addition Therapist (CSAT) for help:
2. Visit www.GentlePath.com to browse the online resource page for books and tapes to give you greater understanding of sexual addiction.
3. View other Sexual Addiction Resources on the Sex Addiction Resource Page of this website.