A Clinical Affair

What do David Duchovny, Russell Brand and Michael Douglas have in common?

It might not be quite what you think. As well as being on the celebrity A-list, they have all admitted that they have a problem with sex addiction.

Most recently, it was X-Files star David Duchovny, married to actress Tea Leoni since 1997, who announced that he needed help. And according to reports, the actor has just left rehab after “successfully” completing a course for sex addiction. Duchovny’s revelation has opened up the debate on whether sex addiction really exists. Are so-called sex addicts suffering from an illness or are they just making excuses for being unfaithful?

The debate in the medical world comes from whether the ‘syndrome’ is just a form of human behaviour or an actual medical condition. However, that a person can be addicted to sex in the same way others are addicted to alcohol or drugs. If you think of addictions, it’s a psychological compulsion. And with sex addiction, people have a compulsion to do stuff.

It may be easy to look at famous people - like Duchovny, Douglas or Brand - and think that they have chosen to ‘out’ themselves as sex addicts rather than admit they’ve been caught cheating but sex addiction is a real condition.

In fact, somewhat alarming statistics claim that about one in 20 people suffer from it. Sex addiction is a very real addiction and it can be quite serious. It can take over a life.

A sex addict can start wanting and craving things at all sorts of strange hours. They may know that it’s wrong, but it gives them a type of temporary high. I would classify this type of behaviour as a disease, not just an excuse.

Sex addiction is a disorder, a condition that can be aggravated via forms of media. The internet and media based on sensationalism, do not cause sex addiction, but can definitely exacerbate it. People who do have vulnerabilities may find that those vulnerabilities are intensified because of the modern environment.

Does this mean that everyone who watches television is prone too sexual addiction? Not at all - but what it does mean is that there are those sexually addicted people who will have trouble controlling that behaviour.

Apart from the swarms of celebrities stepping forth into rehab clinics to deal with sex addiction, a common stereotype is that lonely males are more likely to be a sex addict than someone who is married. But this is not necessarily the case. Many of the cases that I see are married men and they have good jobs; it’s not like they are socially isolated in any way.

It appears to be prevalent in the celebrity world because these people’s lives are under the magnifying glass, but we really don’t know what goes on in other people’s lives, do we?

It works like any other addiction, and with similar symptoms - but it’s curable. Just like it’s possible to get over drugs and alcohol. If people want to get over sex addiction, they can.