If Harry Potter taught us anything, it’s that no one should live in a closet.
Sexual addiction/compulsivity has nothing whatsoever to do with who or what it is that turns a person on. Instead, it is based on the same three factors as every other form of addiction:
- Ongoing obsession/preoccupation with the drug/behavior of choice
- Loss of control over use
- Directly related negative life consequences
This means that gay, lesbian, and bisexual sex and porn addicts are not compulsively sexual because of their sexual orientation. Rather, they are compulsively sexual as a way to self-soothe stress, emotional discomfort, and the pain of underlying psychological issues like anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, shame, attachment deficits, unresolved childhood and/or severe adult-life trauma, etc. In this respect, gay, lesbian, and bisexual sex and porn addicts are exactly like heterosexual sex and porn addicts.
Task for Today
Look for the similarities between yourself and other recovering addicts, not the differences.