An estimated three to five percent of the U.S. adult population is believed to have sexual addiction, with thousands of patients experiencing a loss of family, personal relationships, careers, finances and symptoms such as depression and anxiety each year.

Sexual addiction is hallmarked by obsessive, repetitive sexual behaviors that the patient is unable to control despite the consequences. Like other addictions to substances or alcohol, sexual addiction and compulsive sexual behaviors are progressive in nature and are believed to cause changes at the brain-level, especially in the frontal regions of the brain that are related to pleasure and reward.

While hypersexuality is under consideration for the forthcoming edition of the DSM, experts suggest in research articles that terms like sexual addiction and sexual compulsivity are not yet included because more science-based research is needed, in addition to a set of defined terms related to these disorders.

Further research on the ways patients with sexual addiction can demonstrate both addictive behaviors and obsessive/compulsive behaviors, as well as exhibit behaviors related to impulse control, is called for to help experts further define the complicated nature of sexual addiction and identify specific treatments that will help patients reach lasting recovery.

A study conducted by Boston University School of Public Health found that of nearly 330 girls ages 14 to 20, more than seven percent had participated in a group sex activity. The girls who had viewed pornographic material in the last 30 days had a five times higher likelihood of saying they had participated in group sex, and noted a strong connection between teen viewing of pornography and being pressured to perform acts their partner had seen in the materials.

Similarly, the study also found that the teen girls who had experience with group sex had a higher occurrence of being a victim of sexual abuse as a child, in comparison to other teens who hadn’t participated in group sex. During the study, researchers acquired 328 surveys from teen girls who visited a health clinic, either at their school or in the community. Questions pertained to their sexual activity as a group, including consensual group sex or gang rape situations. The term researchers use, multi-person sex, also includes activities like teen parties based on having sex with multiple people.

Of the participants, the initial group sex activity occurred on average at 15.5 years old. Researchers also point out that more than half who had engaged in multiple-partner sex said they had experienced pressure to do so. Nearly half (45 percent) said the male partner had not used a condom.

Researchers also found a connection between multiple-partner sex and alcohol or drugs. Nearly 33 percent of the participants who had engaged in group sex said they had also used alcohol or drugs before the interaction. Fifty percent believed their alcohol or drug consumption was promoted and encouraged by a partner to the point of being involuntary.

In addition to questions about group sex, researchers asked the participants about other risky behaviors, including smoking, being victimized on a date or occurrence of an STD. They found that the girls who were involved in multiple-partner sex were also involved in these behaviors or reported these experiences more often.

Researchers continue to stress, as published in the study article in Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, that more than half of the sexual encounters in a group situation took place without a condom. It also highlighted that most of the girls said they felt threatened, forced or pressured to take part in multiple-partner sex. They hope more education and information about group sex will help teens avoid the behavior and its lifelong physical and emotional consequences. These include reproductive problems later in life and a higher risk for other dangerous behaviors.

Recent posts are addressing the reality of sexual addiction within marriage. This includes strong feelings of shame, anger, guilt and depression. Most spouses say finding out their partner has a sexual addiction is similar to finding out their partner has had an affair, even if physical sex hasn’t happened outside of the marriage.

For many others, learning about the sexual addiction brings to light a series of sexual relationships with multiple partners and causes the spouse to question the nature of the addiction and whether or not they may have had a role in its development.

Sexual addiction, like addictions to drugs or alcohol, is believed to involve biological factors as well as psychological factors. Brain-imaging studies are increasingly pointing to the similarities between sexual addiction and cocaine addiction, as well as the changes that take place at the brain level during the addiction.

Emotionally, sexual addiction brings both partners strong feelings of shame and guilt, and professional help is needed to work through these successfully. Some experts believe people undergo a reaction of trauma when a partner’s addiction is learned; others believe the grief-based reaction may be strongest. Still other professionals in sexual addiction focus on helping the spouse repair deep wounds to their sense of self-worth that a partner’s sexual addiction brings.

Research indicates marriages are more successful at sexual addiction recovery when both partners participate in professionally guided counseling or therapy, and as the disease becomes more known worldwide, new treatment centers are becoming more available.

Recent articles, such as in Scientific American, are highlighting the misuse of descriptions about the complex addiction, especially articles that show sexually oriented photos or associate sexual addiction with a great deal of pleasure. The reality for the estimated nine million Americans who live with sexual addiction is that the pleasure element is long gone, and has been replaced by shame, depression, anxiety and a feeling of hopelessness.

Increasing research studies are looking closely at the ways the brain reacts to sexual stimuli, especially for people who are addicted, and noting precise changes in the brain’s reward centers – very similar to the changes that occur for people addicted to substances like cocaine. As the addiction progresses, people must seek more intense and extreme sexual experiences to get the same sense of escape or release that drove them to the sexual behaviors in the beginning. Eventually, the person is unable to control their obsessive thoughts or actions toward sex, even when the consequences include loss of family, career, finances, health and more.

Sexual addiction, like other addictions, affects people from all walks of life and all ages. This is even truer today as millions of websites with sexual content are available online, including at public places, in the workplace and anywhere a smartphone can go. What begins for some as a seemingly “harmless” escape quickly turns into a behavior they can’t control and are ashamed to discuss.

Like drug and alcohol addictions, recovery from sexual addiction is possible, but it requires the help of professionals who are trained in treatment methods for this complicated and serious condition.

As a person’s life situation gets tougher, experts like psychologist Colin O’Driscoll say that people rely on their addictions as a survival tool and a mechanism for coping. For some, this means an increase in drug use or alcohol or new behaviors like compulsive gambling. For others, higher stress means escalated use of Internet sex sites, sexual services and cybersex, even to the point of addiction.

Psychologists and addiction treatment professionals are seeing a rise in addictive behaviors like sexual addictions as stressful economic situations lead people to look for new ways to release negative emotions. Feelings of stress can be avoided or "numbed out" with activities like Internet pornography viewing or sexual encounters with multiple partners, but when the activity has ended, a worse sense of shame and guilt takes it place – and the pattern starts over again.

Due to the progressive and destructive nature of sexual addiction, people quickly find themselves feeling helpless and unable to stop their thoughts and actions, even when the consequences mean loss of career, finances and family relationships. For many people with sexual addiction, a feeling of normalcy cannot be attained without a sexual encounter.

As the recent article suggests, more people may be willing to talk about their pornography or sexual addiction than in previous years because sexuality has become part of what many consider "typical" computer behavior for millions of people across the globe. The success rates toward recovery are even higher when the person seeks professional help in the beginning stages of this powerful addiction.

Sexual addiction is a serious condition, and is included in several areas of new research about the brain’s role and other biological factors related to addiction. As stress levels remain high worldwide, experts hope this research will help pinpoint more precise treatment plans for millions who are living with sexual addiction.

Doctors and urologists believe the intense access to online pornography is contributing to higher levels of sexual dysfunction among a younger male population, many of whom began viewing the material in their early teen years. As described in recent articles, the condition has a name: "pornography-induced sexual dysfunction." It can include a loss of interest or desire in sex and an inability to maintain arousal, which researchers believe is linked to the constant stream of dopamine that young men experience when viewing online pornography.

Over time, a desensitizing effect occurs in which the men can no longer feel pleasure associated with sexual activity and the brain no longer produces correct levels of dopamine during sexual activity, leading to erectile dysfunction. Additional symptoms of a pornography addiction are mood swings, depression, preoccupation with the computer and becoming socially withdrawn to spend more time on the computer. Loss of sleep, poor performance at work or school and a desire to deny or avoid the addiction can also be present.

Similar to drug or alcohol addictions, professional help is needed to start the recovery process. If left untreated, pornography addiction is progressive and continues to become more consuming and destructive. Most healthy young males will regain healthy sexual function once the pornography addiction has been professionally treated.

In a recent post from the Examiner, former sexual addict and author George Collins said the Penn State situation is a call to action that requires the nation to address the consequences of sexual molestation of children.

Not only does the sexual molestation of a child bring severe levels of shame, depression and damage to self-esteem that lasts a lifetime, sexual abuse is a factor in many cases of sexual addictions for adults. Adults who have been victims of sexual abuse as children may attempt to “act out” their feelings of rage, shame and guilt by having sexual relationships with multiple partners or engaging in excessive online pornography. They may also become heavily involved in “anonymous” sexual behaviors online, such as cybersex, as they use the sexual behaviors to cope with the devastating negative feelings brought on by the abuse.

Contrary to stereotyped beliefs, people with sexual compulsions or sexual addictions may not be engaging in the activity for pleasure, but because of an inability to form close personal relationships with others. Because child abuse causes severe harm to a child’s self-esteem, it could lay a foundation for long-lasting intimacy problems. Problems trusting and getting emotionally close to others can be manifested in a sexual compulsion or addiction.

Millions of Americans are believed to have a sexual addiction, and research is exploring causes for the complex illness, including biological factors, a history of abuse and connections to the brain’s reward system.

One aspect of sexual addiction that is garnering more research is its resemblance to other types of addiction, such as substance addictions, and the way sexual addiction affects the brain and its reward systems. An upcoming 2012 national addiction conference is giving this concept more of the spotlight, putting sexual addiction alongside gambling addictions, compulsive hoarding or food addictions. All relate to dopamine levels, and all could become addictive, says new research.

While the inclusion of sexual addiction and related terms like hypersexuality in the forthcoming Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is also spurring debate and conversation, the American Society of Addiction Medicine is releasing a more broad-scope definition for addiction. The revised definition includes addiction as a chronic disorder of the brain – much more than a problem related to a person’s behavior or choices. This is significantly different from previous definitions of addiction, and could open doors for sexual addiction to become more highly researched as a progressive illness requiring professional treatment.

Types of Love Addicts

Have you struggled in your romantic relationships for as long as you can remember? Are you always searching for – but never finding – that one right person?

You may fit one of the many molds of love addiction. See if you recognize yourself in any of the following descriptions set forth by Love Addicts Anonymous:

Obsessed Love Addicts
These individuals refuse to let go of a relationship even if their partners are abusive, addicted, selfish, controlling, afraid to commit, or sexually or emotionally unavailable.

Codependent Love Addicts
This widely recognized group shows all the standard signs of codependency. They are addicted to their partners and will do anything to get “love” and keep their partner from leaving, including caretaking, enabling, rescuing, and accepting neglect or abuse.

Relationship Addicts
Relationship addicts have moved on emotionally but continue to stay in the relationship, often to the detriment of their own health. They can be in physical or emotional danger and continue to hold on for fear of being alone, hurting their partner or for fear of the unknown. They justify staying, assuming what they have is better than nothing at all.

Narcissistic Love Addicts
Whereas some love addicts obsessively hold on to their partners even at their own expense, narcissistic love addicts are primarily concerned with their own happiness. They control their partners by withholding love or sex, or seducing or dominating them, and rarely seem interested in the relationship – that is, until their partner tries to leave. When threatened with abandonment, the narcissistic love addict will go to any lengths, including using violence, to hold on to their partner. Narcissists often match up with codependents, sometimes leading to a cycle of abuse.

Ambivalent Love Addicts
Also known as emotional anorexics, these individuals are fine with letting relationships go, but they struggle to move on. They are desperate for love, but an overwhelming fear of intimacy prevents them from having a healthy, fulfilling relationship. There are a number of subtypes of ambivalent love addicts:

• Torch Bearers – Lured by fantasy and illusion, these individuals obsess (and sometimes pursue) partners who are unavailable.
• Saboteurs – Prompted by a fear of intimacy, these individuals destroy relationships when they get too serious or something (like sex or commitment) triggers their fears.
• Seductive Withholders – These individuals display a repetitive pattern of availability for sex and companionship alternating with unavailability, which makes them withhold affection, sex or love when they feel anxious or frightened.
• Romance Addicts – These individuals get a rush from the drama of romance. They bond sexually or on a superficial level with a number of partners (sometimes simultaneously) but quickly move on to avoid commitment and genuine intimacy.

Treatment for Love Addiction

Although each type of love addict is distinct, there are commonalities shared by all. Low self-esteem runs deep in love addicts. And though some will have obvious struggles with self-worth, others may mask their insecurities with lack of caring or involvement or bragging about their own excellence.

It is also possible to have a combination of addictions. For example, someone can be a love and relationship addict, a love and sex addict, or an alcoholic love addict. To complicate matters, many love addicts end up in relationships with other love addicts. And the same individual who falls on one end of the love addiction spectrum may temporarily display characteristics from the other end of the spectrum if it serves their emotional needs.

Treatment for love addiction can address all of these concerns, bolstering self-esteem where needed and helping people work through their fears of intimacy and being alone. If you recognize yourself in any of these descriptions, know that you are not doomed to “bad” relationships for the rest of your life. With help, you can develop deep interpersonal bonds without sabotaging your own happiness or anyone else’s.

While the person with sexual addiction at first uses the behaviors – such as obsessive online pornography viewing or sex with multiple partners – as a way to escape negative feelings, the addiction may progress to a level where feelings of rage are acted out sexually. The addiction also means the person will likely experience a loss of control and an increase in sexually impulsive behaviors, which can sometimes translate into acts of sexual violence.

Additionally, the behaviors people with sexual addictions engage in may become more impulse-driven and less concealed over time, leading them to cross the line into what is considered a sexual offense – such as masturbation in public. Because a person with a sexual addiction will experience a need for a much higher frequency of sexual behavior than others, they may also have a higher likelihood of engaging in sexual activity that falls outside of legal boundaries.

A significant difference between sexual addiction behaviors and sexual crimes can be found in the motivation behind the behavior. Many people with sexual addictions may not actually seek pleasure, but instead look to the behavior as an escape or a way to cope with problems like low self-worth. In contrast, a person who commits a sexually violent crime may have anger or malice as a motivator.

Further research into the linkages between sexual addiction and sexual crimes is ongoing, with new research studies focused on the ways Internet pornography may cause changes in perceptions toward sex and women.