Managing Concurrent and Sexual Addictions

The preliminary remedial intervention for tackling sexual addiction would necessitate including an evaluation for other kinds of addictions. Expecting therapy for one addiction to be helpful when another addiction/s co-occur is sheer imprudence. Different types of addiction have a tendency of arising from analogous backgrounds.

• Kin having manifold addictions inclusive of co-dependent behaviours.
• Dearth of effectual parenting and several kinds of traumatic episodes during infancy which could be physically, emotionally or sexually scarring.

Any type of addiction is believed to have the following analytical traits in common.

• Being pre-occupied or mentally obsessed.
• Uncontrollable, irrational, neurotic usage.
• Persistent usage in spite of grave loss incurred due to the addiction.

Specialists have chalked out the following prevalent factors that are commonly shared in all addictions.

• Euphoria.
• Easy accessibility.
• Swift-acting.
• Escalating lenience.
• Diverse societal messages.
• Desolation.

There is always advancing patterns of losses expected in any form of addiction once they start. Although addicts typically state that such behaviour would never occur, it generally does. A part-&-parcel of addictions is incapability of accepting responsibility for the loss incurred.  Particular mental-emotional defence methods surface for reinforcing the dearth of acceptance, like denying it or putting the blame on to someone else or repressing it like it did not occur in the foremost instant.

Observations about several concurrent addictions as they associate to sexual addiction:

• Alcoholic drinks and drugs intake. Drugs have been noted to modify sexual drive, increasing it earlier on in case of drug addiction and restraining it afterwards. It is a common observation in cocaine addicts to sell sexual favours to procure cocaine. With the surmounting costs of drug addiction, the addict is generally incapable of bearing the resulting expenses from his/her regular vocation salary and then feels compelled to steal, do drug-dealing or become prostitutes for supporting their addiction. Several drugs make the person blackout or develop memory loss. In case of coupling drug-abuse and sex then the facts of those sexual experiences might not be recollected later on.
• Food addictions. ‘Sexual anorexia’ is a common adjunct to excess food intake and also noted among anorexics.
• Shopping, Shop-lifting addictions which mostly dole out the garb habit of sex addicts.
• Gambling. Lifestyles of gamblers mostly comprise of hypersexual behaviour wherein each of these impulses nosh the fake sense of self-esteem of addicts.
• Religious addiction wherein obsessive religiousness at times is accompanied by sex addiction. Sex addicts seek religious conviction as a means of lessening guiltiness and disgrace. The onsets of obsessive piousness might indicate the start of a phase of sexual anorexia.
• Co dependency is lucidly illustrated as losing oneself to the other person/s and this mostly heralds other types of addiction and re-surfaces as the addicts get into early recuperation. Being controlled by others is like a drug for a co dependent.

The strategy adopted for therapy is analogous in all types of addiction.

• Therapy sessions under the guidance and supervision of skilled addiction specialist or specialists needed to treat single or concurrent addictions.
• Spiritually-based 12-step recovery program is adopted for treating all addictions. People harbouring several addictions or sex addicts would require attending several sessions of this program.
• Effectual treatment is not possible in case the care-giver or the noteworthy other is himself or herself a victim to co dependency and has addictions. Effectual therapy entails kin therapy.
• Each addiction has its basis in embarrassment or disgrace and acknowledging it during treatment and dealing with it is the key to recovery. Several addictions are an exemplar of several links to shame. Concurrent addictions that are not treated would obstruct tiding over shame.

The objectives of addiction treatments are common in every addiction.

• Accepting present addiction/s.
• Willing to participate and put in efforts to a recovery-directed program for tackling addiction.
• Being free of these addictive obsessions is the final objective in such addiction treatments.