{"id":24745,"date":"2021-03-21T17:43:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-21T17:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=24745"},"modified":"2021-03-22T12:40:55","modified_gmt":"2021-03-22T12:40:55","slug":"sex-addiction-isnt-a-justification-for-killing-or-really-an-addiction-it-reflects-a-persons-own-moral-misgivings-about-sex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/sex-addiction-isnt-a-justification-for-killing-or-really-an-addiction-it-reflects-a-persons-own-moral-misgivings-about-sex\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Sex addiction’ isn’t a justification for killing, or really an addiction \u2013 it reflects a person’s own moral misgivings about sex"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Joshua B. Grubbs<\/a>, Bowling Green State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 21-year-old white man is alleged to have entered three different spas in the greater Atlanta area on March 16 and shot dead eight people, six of whom were Asian women. The following day, Cherokee County sheriff\u2019s officials announced what the suspect blamed as a possible motive for the killings: sex addiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The alleged shooter has been described as a devoutly conservative evangelical Christian<\/a> who had, according to numerous reports, been struggling to control<\/a> his sexual behaviors. Law enforcement officials<\/a> said the suspect claimed to have been dealing with a sex addiction and ultimately killed as a way to \u201celiminate\u201d the \u201ctemptation\u201d he felt these women posed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am a researcher who specializes in behavioral addictions<\/a>, specifically sexual addictions<\/a>. A lot of my research has focused on how religion interacts with sexual behaviors and feelings of addiction. Over the past decade, my research has found that religion and sexual addiction are deeply intertwined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clinicians don\u2019t diagnose \u2018sex addiction\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Right now, there is no diagnosis of \u201csex addiction\u201d in any diagnostic manual<\/a> that psychologists consult when working with patients. It\u2019s not a recognized disorder in the mental health community. This may come as a surprise to some, as many people do believe that sex can be addictive<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without terming the problem an addiction, mental health practitioners do, of course, recognize that out-of-control sexual behaviors can be a real problem for individuals. Recently, the World Health Organization announced<\/a> that the latest edition of its \u201cInternational Classification of Diseases<\/a>\u201d will include a new diagnosis of compulsive sexual behavior disorder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"neon<\/a>
Whatever the label, compulsive sexual behavior can be a problem. Dutchy\/E+ via Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This new diagnosis is officially an impulse control disorder<\/a> rather than an addiction, but it does cover people with excessive or compulsive sexual behaviors that most members of the public would consider addiction. Any number of behaviors could qualify for this diagnosis, ranging from excessive pornography use and masturbation to cruising for casual sex to soliciting sex workers. The key feature of the diagnosis is not the specific sexual behavior itself, but how out of control it has become in a person\u2019s life and how much difficulty or impairment it causes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compulsive sexual behavior disorder is the only diagnosis in over 55,000 total diagnoses in the WHO manual to include a special caveat. At the very end of the disorder\u2019s description, there\u2019s a note<\/a> cautioning that \u201cdistress that is entirely related to moral judgments and disapproval about sexual impulses, urges, or behaviors is not enough to meet this requirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, feeling distressed about behaving in sexual ways that you find morally wrong is not sufficient for a diagnosis of this new disorder. That\u2019s a very important caveat because, based on my research, it\u2019s moral distress about sex behaviors that commonly triggers people to believe they have a sex addiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What feeds a self-diagnosis of \u2018sex addiction\u2019?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the U.S. in particular, many studies have clearly shown that more religious people, people from more strict religious backgrounds and people who morally disapprove of their own sexual behaviors are much more likely to interpret those behaviors as an addiction<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s surprising is there\u2019s also a lot of evidence that these same people are actually less likely to do things like watch pornography or have sex outside of marital relationships. My colleagues and I have found that more religiously devout people simultaneously report less use of pornography while also reporting greater addiction to pornography<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems that conservative moral beliefs about sexuality, particularly those associated with conservative religiosity, lead some people to interpret behaviors like even occasionally watching porn as signs of an addiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My colleagues and I call this disconnect between beliefs and behavior \u201cmoral incongruence.\u201d It turns out to be a powerful predictor of whether someone thinks they have a sex addiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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