A major peer-reviewed journal just said what sex therapists have known for years: “sex addiction” is pseudoscience.
The Journal of Sexual and Relationship Therapy recently published an official statement. It’s calling out “sex addiction” and “pornography addiction” for what they really are—moral judgments dressed up as medical diagnoses. The statement goes further, noting that these fake diagnoses are being used as covert conversion therapy to harm LGBTQ+ individuals.
The Addiction Model Has Big Problems
I’ve been writing about this for years. As I explained in my post Sex Addiction or Sex Compulsion?, the distinction matters enormously. First, thousands (if not millions) of American men have been deluded into believing they have addictions to sex instead of what they do have: poor impulse control, horniness, loneliness, and other mitigating factors that contradict the farcical notion that the male libido itself is corrupt by nature.
The “addiction” model pathologizes normal sexuality and funnels people into years of ineffective treatment with a 64% relapse rate. Meanwhile, treating sexual behavior as a compulsion—addressing underlying trauma, shame, and mental health issues—yields recovery in 3-6 months for most clients in my practice. In contrast, the massive “sex addiction industry” famously hides its recovery rates (though most clinics insist it takes years), its recidivism rate, and cites statistics without listing the sources! Then they dismiss the DSM as “just a book, not a bible.” Unlike the sex addiction guides???
Sex Addiction Is Propaganda, Not Medicine
The addiction model isn’t just ineffective. It’s propaganda designed to make people feel immoral and abnormal for enjoying sex “too much.” Patrick Carnes’ infamous online test doesn’t distinguish between high libido and compulsion, or between liberal and conservative sexual values. It’s engineered to pathologize masturbation, porn use, and any sexuality that doesn’t fit a narrow moral framework.
Who Benefits the Most from Sex Addiction Treatment?
An entire industry of addiction counselors who keep clients in treatment for years while reinforcing sexual shame! As the journal statement reveals, it’s particularly weaponized against marginalized groups whose very existence threatens conservative sexual norms.
Real Therapy Addresses Root Causes
Evidence-backed therapy treats the underlying causes: sexual repression, low self-esteem, shame spirals, unresolved trauma, and mental health issues. When you address those root causes instead of moralizing about “addiction,” people recover quickly and permanently.
The Professional Community Has Spoken
Therapists, psychiatrists, and sexual health professionals have chosen this moment in time to speak out about this massive fraud in healthcare. I applaud them. Sexual compulsions, high libido, quirks, and sexual OCD are all normal manifestations of desire and have NEVER met the criteria for addiction.
What sex addiction specialists bank on is that people already feel guilty and ashamed about their everyday sexual needs. They believe and teach others to believe there is a “magic bullet” (in the form of sexual self-repression) that will help. It’s more like conversion therapy than a true, evidence-backed plan for healing from poor choices!
photo credit: Pixabay
