Sex addiction is more common than previously thought: One in 12 women and one in 10 men are hooked, study shows.
Some 10 percent of men and seven percent of women struggle to control sexual thoughts and urges, a new study reveals.
A healthy sex life has been shown to have benefits for health and happiness, but when sex becomes a compulsion, it can interfere with every day functioning and cause distress to those who must constantly fight urges. Sex addiction is no joke.
Researchers at the University of Minnesota found that the number of Americans struggling with difficult-to-control sexual desires may be increasing.
What’s more, it’s an issue that may affect different groups – particularly sexual and racial minorities – disproportionately, suggesting sexual compulsion may be part of wider health disparities.
According to www.dailymail.co.uk, American attitudes toward sex have undergone something of a transformation in the last several decades.
In the 1970s, the majority of men and and women in the US disapproved of sex before marriage.
Now, most milennials are in favor of sex before marriage, casual sex is on the rise, and far more open to the idea of same sex couples and activities.
And as these perspectives have shifted, access to sexually explicit content has proliferated online.
Coupled with a seemingly relentless stream of sexual misconduct movements fueling the #MeToo movement, some psychiatrists, parents and public health experts have worried that sexual behavior is getting out of control.
But it’s a divisive subject, and despite these concerns, hypersexuality – also referred to as sex addiction – has been turned down by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) each time its addition was been proposed.
Still, it’s remained a concern to University of Minnesota psychiatrist Dr Janna Dickenson, especially in light of the growing number of celebrities and high profile people who have publicly admitted their compulsions.
Traditionally, sex has been seen as a male behavior, while women have been expected to be modest and less interested in sex – particularly in the US, where social values were first founded on Puritanical Christianity.
‘Feminine ideology that marks women as the ‘sexual gatekeepers.’ who are expected to keep sexual urges in check and, thus, would be less likely to develop compulsive sexual behavior,’ said Dr Dickenson.
But that’s finally beginning to change.
‘Given recent cultural shifts toward becoming more permissive of female sexual expression and the proliferation in accessibility to sexual imagery and casual sex through the internet, software applications, and social media, one possible explanation for the smaller gender differences found in our study is that the prevalence of difficulty controlling sexual behaviors among women may be increasing.’
Sex addiction is real. Men and women are now loving sex more.
