Sex and love addiction

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Sex and love addiction is a condition that, like many other addictive conditions, leads to the subject's repetition of specific thought or behavior patterns against the previously established intentions of the subject. Works such as Dr. Stanton Peele's Love and Addiction^[1] and Dr. Patrick Carnes' Out of the Shadows: Understanding Sexual Addiction^[2] first introduced love addiction and sex addiction, respectively, to the therapeutic community and the general public. Later works, such as Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous^[3] illuminated the tight link between the sexual and the emotional dimensions of compulsive and addictive activites and thoughts appearing. The therapeutic community is intimately aware of the evidential support for this link.

For instance, if a subject who has been unable to break free from a relationship wrought with abuse and pain, is able with support to separate, it is common for the subject to pursue sexual encounters or engage in compulsive sexual activity, indicating that the love addiction that appeared to hold the subject in danger or discomfort was closely tied with sexual desire. Similarly, if a subject is able to refrain from compulsive sexual activity, it is common for intense emotional longing to occur, marked by an intense need to love and be loved. Thus for many people, neither the term sex addiction nor the term love addiction provide a full description of the condition experienced, whereas the term sex and love addiction adequately describes the collection of related addictive thought and behavior patterns and points to the need for comprehensive treatment of the condition to experience a full recovery.