Just as an alcoholic continues overdrinking even when it does her harm, a sex and love addict seeks out emotional and physical fulfillment from others, even when it hurts her. Some addicts say they primarily have a sex addiction, while others lean toward the love addiction side of things. Either way, explains Linda Hudson, LSW, co-author of Making Advances: A Comprehensive Guide for Treating Female Sex and Love Addictsa sex and love addiction describes a pattern of relationship behavior that is compulsive, out of control, and continues despite the consequences. Despite the name, sex and love addiction is the opposite of sexy—it is a deeply anguished and often isolating affliction. After all, it appears frequently in rom-coms and pop songs, she says. It was just becoming unbearable. Addiction is a brain disease, and the illness is in control. In particular, she says, addressing sexual trauma from childhood or teenage years may help sex addicts gain perspective on their behavior.
Conceivably this will help women recognize which excessive behaviors can be signs of an actual addiction. Women always allow been overlooked or underrepresented in studies of alcohol, drug, gambling or femininity addiction. It has been 73 years since the founding of AA after that 60 or so years since the American Medical Association recognized alcoholism at the same time as a disease. Yet it was not until the late s that big findings regarding very powerful gender differences in the development of alcoholism surfaced in research studies for other diseases, such as heart disease or AIDS. Patrick Carnes discovered that, in all-purpose, male sex addicts tend to objectify their partners.