re: How many of us have an actual sexual addiction?

quote:

---

Nevertheless, there are professional therapists who dedicate their practices to serving this population and even 12-step programs for "sex addicts." Indeed, despite some professionals' claim that there is little difference between "psychological" and "physical" addiction, the fact remains that tolerance and withdrawal are essential criteria of addiction and neither has been convincingly demonstrated with respect to sexual behavior.

Sex is a natural reward that activates the same brain regions as truly addictive substances - the so called "reward pathway" involving dopaminergic activity among the ventral tegmental area, the nucleus accumbens, and the prefrontal cortex. What's more, food, water, and nurturing also activate this neural pathway. Yet, while some would argue (erroneously) that there are "food addicts," interestingly we don't seem to have an epidemic of "water addiction" or "nurture addicts."

---