Sexting and Porn Addiction

Sexting and Pornography Addiction is a specific sub-type of Internet addiction that requires counseling and inpatient treatment. Estimates suggest online porn addiction and sexting are the number one subtype of Internet addiction. Pocket porn has become a significant problem among men with the profileration of mobile devices and sexting is a significant problem about women. People who suffer from low self-esteem, a distorted body image, untreated sexual dysfunction, or a prior sexual addiction are more at risk to develop sexting and pornography addiction problems.

Costs of Sexting and Porn Addiction

The costs of online sex and porn addiction can range from emotional and physical health problems to legal, relationship, family, and career consequences. For example, American politician Anthony Weiner, former member of the United States House of Representatives from New York City, was involved in two sexual scandals related to sexting, or sending explicit sexual material by cell phone. The first, sometimes dubbed Weinergate, led to his resignation as a congressman in 2011.

Porn and Sex Addiction are not defined by the type of sexual act, or by the choice of the sexual partner, but more by the persons’ inability or unwillingness to stop their sexual acting-out despite negative consequences such as infidelity, combined with a history of addictive sexual behavior patterns.

A New and Distinct Disorder

With remarkable speed, however, people who have never had a problem with porn addiction are becoming addicted to online sex. Over 60% of our clients are individuals who normally wouldn’t go to a strip club or rent an adult video but suffer from problems related to online sex addiction. Click here to take our online sex addiction test.

Behind the anonymity of cyberspace, online users can conceal their age, marital status, gender, race, vocation, or appearance. Sex Addicts use this anonymity to experiment and secretly begin to explore things online that they would never do in real life.

As users dabble with sex from the privacy of their home, office, or mobile phone, they perceive that their online activities as personal and untraceable and they use the anonymity of the Internet to explore hidden or repressed sexual fantasies. As their behavior escalates, the addiction grows and users begin to feel preoccupied with using the Internet for sexual purposes. Addicts go to a great extent to conceal their online behavior and often feel guilt or shame because of the secret hurt they are causing to their real life partners.

Treating Sexting and Online Porn Addiction

Treating Sexting and Online Porn Addiction requires special care, as complete abstinence from the Internet isn’t possible in today’s technological world.  Dr. Young provides in specialized counseling for immediate, caring, and confidential advice to deal with your addiction. She also counsels couples and partners of addicts. Her book, Tangled in the Web: Understanding Cybersex from Fantasy to Addiction offers specialized recovery strategies and for immediate help, you can download Dr. Young’s e-booklet, Getting Web Sober: Help for Cybersex Addicts and Their Families, which provides a step-by-step recovery system for addicts and their partners.