The Myth of Sex Addiction
Sex Addiction is a fiction perpetrated by rehabilitation centers and therapists who want to increase their bottom line.
“People like Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey and Tiger Woods use the term ‘sex addict’ to get themselves off the hook,” says Dr. Chris Donaghue, a certified sex therapist, international lecturer and co-host of the Lovelinepodcast. “They’re saying, ‘I have an illness. Give me some empathy. I can’t be held accountable.’ But that’s not the case. They both repeatedly chose to not have any boundaries or impulse control and assault people sexually. That isn’t a disorder. That’s pathological narcissism.”
"Not only is calling someone a sex addict a convenient way to write off being a sexual predator and lacking empathy, but it’s also an attempt at trying to rehab a career. Sex addiction is not real."
It’s heartbreaking, as a therapist, to see multitudes of patients walk into my office thinking they’re sex addicts, often led by the hand of an angry partner, sometimes having just run away from years of pricey sex-addiction treatment that’s based on nothing more than the sex phobia and the miseducation of its founders and practitioners.
“Sex addiction isn’t real and the treatment centers that practice it are actually practicing unethically,” Donaghue tells me. “It’s not a diagnosis that’s accepted by the American Psychological Association, nor can you bill it for insurance because the [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders] rejected it. So the people treating sex addiction are working on a model created by the treatment centers themselves. And they’re making a lot of money. So that’s bullshit right there.”