Sex Addiction

News Article
Sex Addiction - Doc sees one new case every 2 to 3 months
Monday, 15 l 03 l 2010 ; Source: The Straits Times
By: Judith tan
Two in 10 sufferers here are women, say IMH and private psychiatrists CHAMPION golfer Tiger Woods' treatment for sex addiction has trained the spotlight on the disorder. But for people grappling with the problem, it is more than just a spicy subject of discussion in the office pantry, pub or restaurant. Sex addicts here are treated as outpatients, and put through sessions of psychotherapy so that they develop coping strategies for dealing with their urges, said Dr Adrian Wang, a consultant psychiatrist in private practice. Overseas, residential treatment programmes, such as the one Woods is in, are more common. Another psychiatrist, Associate Professor Munidasa Winslow, who specialises in treating people with addictions, said he sees about 10 sex-addiction patients a month, of whom two are women. The numbers offered by Dr Wang are similar: He estimates he has four to five times more male patients than female ones, and a new case every two to three months. Prof Winslow gets one to two new patients a month. At the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), the number of people seeking treatment for addictions of various types shot up more than five times, from 200 to more than 1,000, between 2002 and the last financial year. But the IMH, which runs the 1 1/2-year-old outpatient National Addictions Management Service, declined to give a breakdown of the different addictions. Dr Winslow said that when it comes to sex addiction in women, the problem tends to be tied to relationships or love, rather than pure sex. Most women being treated for the problem tend to have had a history of childhood sexual abuse, he said. But Dr Wang said the stigma of being treated for a mental problem puts sufferers off coming forward to seek treatment. On average, addicts of sex or other vices struggle for four to eight years before seeking help. Ignorance may be another reason the problem is under-treated. Psychiatrists notice they get new patients each time the subject surfaces in the media. Some patients seek out doctors on their own, and others are brought in by loved ones. Dr Winslow said he is now working with Dr Robert Weiss, the clinical director of the Sexual Recovery Institute in Los Angeles, to gather ideas on how the treatment of addictions in Singapore can be strengthened. Next month, he will start support groups for his patients' spouses or significant others, a group which traditional treatment programmes tend to neglect.
Confessions of a sex addict
BY DAY, the 26-year-old petite, fresh-faced woman with long, wavy hair is a secretary who would blend right into a crowd of office workers. But Fiona, which is not her real name, has a secret: She has been treated for sex addiction in the last 10 months, undergoing one-on-one counselling with a doctor at a private psychiatric clinic. For three to four years up until her treatment started last year, she was anything but the average office worker. Every other night, she would prowl night spots, "looking for a hook-up with good-looking guys who were willing". She had no shortage of takers. She said: "I was hooked on the high I got during sex. Some times in the morning I would wake up in a strange bed. That was when guilt and shame would come pouring in." She first had an inkling that something was wrong with her when she read a magazine article on sex addiction at a hair salon. "It has been 10 months since I sought help and I've managed to 'stay clean'. "I think I am better. I am now able to control my urges better by turning my attention to other things like exercise," she said. She cannot talk about this problem to anyone in her circle: "My friends and colleagues don't know I have this affliction. Not even my family knows." Fiona reckons she became addicted to the high from sex from cyber porn. She was introduced to it by her stepbrother, then 15 and a year older than she was. She added, resignedly: "We also experimented between ourselves. Young and curious, I guess." Considering that she did not always insist that the men she was with wear a condom, she said she thinks she is "lucky" not to have caught any sexually transmitted disease. She is not yet out of the woods. Each time she is stressed or has a falling-out with those close to her, the urges do come back. "It is tough not to return to my old ways," she said. But, she said, I try."