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Unlike the physical effects of mood-altering substances like alcohol and drugs, sex addiction is a process-based addiction where sex and all things sex-related become the mood-altering variable. Like any other form of addiction, sex addiction comes with its own set of risk factors, one of which is stress.
Stress can act as a trigger for the behaviors that most characterize as sex addiction. Over time, this interaction takes on a life of its own forming a stress-sex addiction cycle that slowly but surely diminishes a person’s quality of life. Once this cycle takes hold, the need for addiction treatment may become glaringly apparent.
The Link Between Stress and Addiction
People with sex addiction generally experience an unhealthy amount of stress, leading them to use sexual behavior as a coping mechanism.
Addiction is rooted in the brain’s reward system, an area involved with learning, reward processing and adapting or coping with change. The brain uses neurotransmitter chemicals to regulate its various centers, including the center that houses this reward system.
The system functions normally when your levels of dopamine, the neurotransmitter that regulates pain/pleasure perceptions, are stable. The effects of addictive substances on dopamine output directly account for their addictive potential. Incidentally, stress also disrupts dopamine level outputs. This upsets reward system function in ways similar to addictive substances.
The Stress-Sex Addiction Cycle
The brain reward system can cause you to develop and maintain addiction-based behaviors. In effect, the feelings of euphoria and contentment experienced during sex become a means for coping with daily life stressors when sex addiction is at work.
Someone struggling with sex addiction has a compulsive need to engage in sexual activity whenever possible. Not surprisingly, this type of behavior can create a world of stress all its own considering the potential for damaged relationships and negative consequences. In turn, the conflicts and stressors that result from this behavior feed into the stress-sex addiction since sex has become the reward system’s primary method for coping with difficult situations.
Mental Health Effects
As with any form of addiction, the brain’s chemical system enters into a state of increasing imbalance the longer sex addiction goes untreated. After a certain point, chemical imbalances in the brain become a breeding ground for other forms of psychological dysfunction, such as depression and anxiety-based disorders.
Treatment Considerations
Stress has increasingly become a regular part of almost everyone’s daily life so someone struggling with sex addiction faces an ongoing battle trying to control his or her urges alone. Under these conditions, a person’s quality could decline significantly as the consequences of this behavior start to snowball out of control. Seeking addiction treatment at an accredited facility is the first and most important step you can take toward healing your mind and body from the inside out.
Browse our directory of local treatment centers in your area to get started.