Sex addiction rehab a thriving industry

[Blue_Tires]

When she hung out her shingle as a sex addiction therapist in 1997, Alexandra Katehakis had only a handful of colleagues.

"There were five people in this field and we all knew each other," she said.

These days, Katehakis, a licensed marriage and family therapist, has hundreds of competitors and has grown her Los Angeles solo practice into the Center for Healthy Sex, "a full-blown organization" with a team of counselors, an intensive outpatient program, a range of therapy groups, an expansive website and training for other therapists.

Celebrities have been the greatest evangelists for treatment. "My practice wouldn't exist without them," Katehakis said.

The for-profit field is booming, thanks largely to Tiger Woods and other celebrities whose public visits to rehab have moved sex addiction, a controversial diagnosis not recognized by the medical establishment, into the mainstream and led a growing number of Americans to conclude that they — or in many cases, their spouses — needed treatment.

A testament to the increasing demand for services and the potential money to be made providing them is the entrance into the sex addiction market this week of the private-equity-backed corporation that owns Promises, the high-end Malibu drug rehabilitation center known for its Hollywood clientele. The Cerritos company, Elements Behavioral Health, is buying a Westside treatment center, the Sexual Recovery Institute, as part of an expansion that will eventually include luxe in-patient facilities like Promises for wealthy sex addicts and a national network of two-week outpatient programs for those of lesser means.

The company has not disclosed the purchase price, but Chief Executive David Sack said Elements was making a significant investment on the belief that the Internet, with its easy access to pornography and casual liaisons, had created an epidemic of untreated sex addiction in America and that the rehab stays of Woods, actors Russell Brand and David Duchovny and others had informed a previously ignorant public about the existence of treatment programs.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/la-et-sex-addiction-20101115,0,2505230.story?obref=obnetwork

[edbermac]

1. Sex addiction?

That's one disease I hope I'm never cured of. :evilgrin:

[Skittles]

15. it really isn't funny

when a guy loses his wife and children because he can't stop fucking skanks - if that's not the life he really wants to live, it's a real problem

[bluedigger]

2. So now people are paying NOT to have sex?

Hmmm, how can I get this reflected on my balance sheet?:rofl: :banghead: :rofl:

[cbdo2007]

3. It isn't recognized by the medical establishment because they are categoriziing it incorrectly.

It isn't an addiction, it is an obsessive compulsive behavior. In order for something to be an addiction, for you to go without it actually has to change you chemically to be without it.

"Sex addiction" is most of an obsessive compusive problem because the people who do it, it is more a behavior that they can't stop doing, and are addicted to, rather than them being addicted to the sex themselves.

[tigereye]

5. so will it be in the new DSM then?

Is there any actual research that would support that?

[cbdo2007]

7. I don't know about the new DSM but I think the general consensus

about a porn/sex "addiction" falls under the scope of OCD and that treatments are the same as those used to treat OCD behaviors.

This is from the med.nyu.edu site which describes accurately what this describes. I found through Google and define but couldn't get the actual link to work:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=define:obsessive+compulsive+disorder&defl=en&sa=X&ei=WiPkTNvsN4GOnwfVptzPDg&ved=0CAQQowMoAA

For Obsessive Compulsive Disorder:

"•An anxiety disorder marked by the presence of obsessions and compulsions severe enough to interfere with the activities of daily life."

Most people who joke about "sex addiction" think it just means liking sex, but this is of course downplaying the issue for the purpose of the joke, "ha ha, I must be a sex addict because I love sex and can't get enough."

It's when your obsession with sex/porn actually interferes with the activities of your daily life, that it is a problem. Of course I love having sex with my wife and want to as much as possible, but that is not a sex addiction. If I watch porn for 8 hours a day while she's at work, instead of looking for a job, and by the time she's home I'm burnt out on porn and can't perform with her, that's where it becomes a problem.

Or with Tiger Woods, he was so obsessed with hooking up with random girls, that he sacrificed his own relationship/happiness/money to do that. It wouldn't have been a problem if he was a playboy just hooking up with random girls, the part where it becomes a psychological disorder is when it interferes with the normal activities of his daily life, which was his life with his wife and kids and playing golf.

[tigereye]

14. I'm just not sure all the folks who purport to treat it are thinking that way -

could well be wrong. Not my area of expertise, though.

[Yavin4]

19. But That Can Be True of Any Activity

Any activity can become a compulsion. Playing video games, watching TV, posting on DU.

I just think that in our Christian-based culture, sex is still seen as something negative that must be controlled.

[seabeyond]

20. you mena our sex obsessed culture, cause i am not seeing restraint, or thought

or controlled....

it doesnt have to be negative and controlled, or obsessive. seems to be the only two choices offered in our culture today.

[cbdo2007]

21. Yes and any activity that is a compulsion to the point that it interferes with

your ability to function normally in society, then it is a problem.

You act like just because any activity can be a compulsion, that that means it isn't a bad thing. It is the exact same as someone who plays video games so much that they have broken off relationships because of it, can't keep a job because of it, and still lives at home with their parents at 40 years old because they just like playing video games all day - you think this isn't a problem?

That's the difference between a normal activity and a compulsion, whether it's with sex, porn, eating, shopping, playing video games, etc. None of those things are bad things unless your compulsion to them is causing major damage in your life.

[tigereye]

4. kinda wacky - when colleagues said they were doing groups for this I said

:wtf: What exactly does that mean? It's not even recognized officially. Oh well.

[unpossibles]

6. I do have to say the meetings are great places to pick up dates....

what?!?

I kid, I kid!

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

8. You may be kidding

but I'd bet it's a common outcome of the group sessions.

Kindred spirits and all that.

:hi:

[Bennyboy]

9. Sex therapy, I think all couples need to do it...

The one area where people don't talk openly about. at least in my case, sex was a big problem for me in relationships. (But no so much in casual non long term situations I have been involved in). In my last relationship we never meshed and I thought I could deal with it or eventually we would get to a point where we worked something out. But it never happened, and then it never happened. I had no idea how to approach the issue and I am sure she was equally frustrated.

I am sure that if we (or I) had gone to some type of therapy just for that, we might have made a go of it.

[kimmerspixelated]

12. Therapy for couples is one thing..

Addiction or the obsessive compulsion thing, that's a serious problem that has plagued a lot of marriages, and it is all(mostly) due to internet porn.


It is entirely too easy for a man to visit sites day in and day out, w/out a need to deal with a relationship.

[Bennyboy]

13. Yes, you are right there...

It is too easy. And when your woman stops looking like all the "hot blonde sluts" it really makes id difficult in a relationship. A good friend of mine is getting divorced over this very thing. And I can't say that my divorce didn't have a lot to do with this problem.

[kimmerspixelated]

23. A very modern problem.

Our fathers and mothers never had this kind of thing to deal with.

[Bennyboy]

24. No porn you used to have to hunt for.

It wasn't around you 24 seven all day everyday.

[kimmerspixelated]

28. Exactly my point.

BTW, I love the Dead, and Jerry Garcia.

[RadiationTherapy]

18. A person. It is all too easy for a PERSON to visit sites day in and day out.

[kimmerspixelated]

22. Yes, not nec. men.

[Rabrrrrrr]

26. I think you'll find that obsessive sex long, long, long predates the Internet.

it's a human thing, not an Internet thing.

[kimmerspixelated]

29. Yeah, but convenience makes a big diff.

[Dr. Strange]

10. Better headline: Sex addiction rehab a throbbing industry

You're welcome.

[Orrex]

16. "My God!" he ejaculated. "What a brilliant idea!"

[Rabrrrrrr]

27. "How did you come up with that?" "I don't know - all of a sudden, it just hit me in the face!"

[Taverner]

11. The only way sex could be 'addictive' would be if one was addicted to the endorphins

That is, the natural opiates your body produces during sex.

Granted, so small of an amount and for so short of a time, it's close to impossible to get addicted to that.

[RandomThoughts]

17. Could be a good place to meet an easy hookup.

:shrug:

Such groups might exist for some other reason though.

:shrug:

Never thought about it.

[rug]

25. The stimulus program is working.

[Forkboy]

30. It's an addiction that's hard to beat.