Читать книгу Always Turned On - Jennifer Schneider - Страница 24

Sex addicts are men and women who engage compulsively in one or more sexual behaviors, continue these behaviors despite significant negative consequences, and spend a great deal of time thinking about, planning, and engaging in sexual activity. Over time, sex becomes the primary focus of their lives. A sex offender may have similar symptoms, but sex offenders differ in that they engage in sexual activities that violate the rights of others, break the law, or both.

•Sexual addiction takes place within the context of a solo sexual act or in a relationship with a consenting adult.

•Sexual offending involves nonconsensual forms of sex—sex with those who don’t want it, sex with those who don’t know it’s happening (voyeurism), sex with those who are too young to consent (including viewing pornography featuring minors), sex with those who are mentally incapacitated and therefore can’t consent, and sex by force.

Sex addiction may take away or diminish a person’s health, self-esteem, marriage, or job, and may personally offend many people, but seeking or having a lot of indiscriminate sex is not the same as sexual offending. Although many spouses or partners of sex addicts worry that their children or families might be at risk because there is a sex addict in the house, the reality is that few sex addicts are also sexual offenders. Their sexual choices and activities, while painful, problematic, and destructive to existing relationships, are typically consensual and legal.