Sex Addiction

A most serious illness too easily overlooked or dismissed due to the stigma of shame. Sex and Love Addiction is defined in the SAA(Sex Addiction Anonymous) website as “the essence of all addiction is the addict’s experience of powerlessness over a compulsive behavior, resulting in their lives becoming unmanageable.” Sexual compulsivity or sexual compulsion, the preoccupation with sexualized thinking can consume and overwhelm the addict’s life leading one to deepening dangerous behaviors. There are many faces that Sex Addiction can take. Someone might suffer from pornography addiction and have an overwhelming obsession to viewing pornographic materials, possibly online. Someone might have a compulsion to engage in increasingly unsafe sexual activities. Part of what makes sex and love addiction difficult to identify is the many different ways it can manifest itself.

Treatment is available that helps a client break out of their denial, understand the etiology of their addiction and get involved in the freeing aspect of recovery and enjoying healthy intimacy once again. The Refuge is proud to have Certified Sex Addiction Therapists (CSAT) and a dedicated treatment track for Sex and Love Addiction.