Sex and Porn Addiction News

Sex and porn addiction is a symptom of past trauma.

This post talks about the role of trauma as a commonly occuring causal factor of addiction in my work with clients. usually a shock to clients, this idea is also reassuring as addicts come to understand that their out of control behaviours are a product of somehting that happened to them and not something wrong with them.   My clients have been able to make a link between a traumatic event such as parental divorce when they were a child and their addictive behaviours as a result of therapy.  What links the event and the adult behaviours is the well-documented process whereby .. Read More

Sex addiction - What The Hell Is Wrong With You?

Why are you addicted to sex and / or pornography? Perhaps you are worried that there is something wrong with you, that perhaps you are wired wrongly. Well the answer is that you are not genetically wired for it, and you are not mad or weird and it's not the product of a massive sex drive. I can say this with confidence because I know from working with many sex addiction and porn addiction clients that beneath the sexually-focused behaviours there is at least one and often several other significant things going on. What is actually he matter with you is NOT that you are compulsiv.. Read More

Overview of addiction and the recovery journey.

Esteem Therapy Yorkshire is a specialist sex and porn addiction counselling service in West Yorkshire and the majority of our clients are receiving assessment, support and treatment for this.  Sex and porn addiction can include excessively indulging in one or a combination of some of the following: Pornography – on/off-line images and film On-line dating and chatting Exchanging explicit images of self/others Covertly filming others On-line use of sex workers such as web camming Sexual encounters with strangers – physical and by phone/texting Multiple relation.. Read More

Reasons People Get Addicted to Sex and Porn - Part 3 - Lifetraps; How We See Ourselves In The World

Addictive behaviours don't take hold because they are desirable and pleasurable. They serve a purpose and while that purpose exists the behaviours will continue. Addictive behaviours patterns are dysfunctional ways of dealing with something so to promote recovery work we have to identify the function of the dysfuntion. Often the function of these behaviours is to regulate intolerable emotional states as they provide a self-soothing escape and relief. In previous blogs I have explored the role of relationships and trauma experiences in leading to those emotional states (these can also in tu.. Read More

Get Distracted! How the Simple Technique of Distraction Can Aid Recovery From Sex and Porn Addiction (updated 29/9/22)

There is now a podcast that supports this blog at https://youtu.be/3jTqTZqgCXw Ever tried working out two sums at the same time? Or reading a book whilst having a conversation?  Dual-tasking like this is not something we generally do is it? Our brains are largely equipped to handle one cognitive process at a time, excepting where we practice really hard. For example, we can drive a car whilst having a conversation (although the laws on mobile phone use whilst driving is based on the notion that this is risky as many have discovered to their cost). Of course we can physically mu.. Read More